The Rest Is Entertainment - Richard’s Top 3 Music Videos Of All Time

Episode Date: September 23, 2026

Does Sydney Sweeney have the best breasts in Hollywood? How do you hire an undercover actor? What are the best music videos of all time? Richard Osman and Marina Hyde answer your questions on the w...orld of TV, music and entertainment. The Rest is Entertainment is brought to you by Octopus Energy, Britain's most awarded energy supplier. Lloyds. 250 years on and still backing the nation's aspirations. 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: Adam Thornton Assistant Producer: Imee Marriott Senior Producer: Joey McCarthy Exec Producer: Ami Bennett Social Producer: Emma Jackson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 The Rest is Entertainment is presented by Octopus Energy. Now, traditionally, the entertainment gatekeepers had to find you before an audience ever could. It's been the biggest change, really, I would say, in entertainment in the last five years or so. Just that generation, he grew up making their own content on YouTube, on TikTok, and things like that, suddenly finding themselves right at the heart of a culture. And they say no one had to commission it from them. Well, we talked before about Kane Parsons for backrooms. He just made his incredible sort of YouTube series of shorts.
Starting point is 00:00:29 And within a month, they've gone so. big that people were kind of battering down his door to direct a big movie version of it, and A24 eventually won, and he created the backrooms, which brought a huge audience online for that first weekend that was just a phenomenon. So, by the time the traditional gatekeepers arrive, you may have already proved there's an audience for what you've made. You haven't inherited a route in. You have built one yourself.
Starting point is 00:00:53 An octopus came into energy with customers as the starting point. It saw they weren't being well served and built things differently from there. with each account looked after by the same small team of around 10 Octopus Energy Specialists. Mr. President, my company told me of the explosion on our rig. On October 2nd. Causing massive water displacement and triggering a tsunami. They all heap to blame on me. Tom Cruise is.
Starting point is 00:01:17 Digger got us into this mess. And digger's going to dig us out. From the director of Birdman and the revenant. What would happen if I stop doing? You starve. You freeze to death. That's what? With great power.
Starting point is 00:01:29 comes great deniability. I'm not the earth nanny. Digger, see the trailer online. Only the years October 2nd. Hello and welcome to this episode of the Resters Entertainment, Questions and Answers Edition. I'm Marina. And I'm Richard Osmond. Hello, everyone.
Starting point is 00:01:50 Hi, Marina. Hello, Richard. How are you? I'm very well, looking forward to your views on Sydney-Sweeney in this episode. We've promised them. Like none? Yeah, I didn't think we would. Imagine how many views I've got.
Starting point is 00:01:58 We've also got, we sometimes have big industry names answering questions for us. We've got a big industry name asking a question. this time round, so we will get to that as well. Shall we dive straight in? Let's dive in. Wow, this is a question that genuinely of all the top threes would have been the hardest for me to answer. So I'm so glad to be giving it to you, Richard. Tom says, what are your top three music videos of all time? It's a great root one question. Sometimes the root one questions are the best, right?
Starting point is 00:02:25 I would find, I love music videos so much. I think I would find this so hard. Okay, well, listen, you can chip in as we go along. And I'm slightly doing a top three, but I'm slightly them. So in third place, I think I've got to go with one of the all-time classics. There's certain videos that, you know, the Bohemian Rhapsody and Thritter and stuff like that that are absolute classics. And I had to choose between two of them in the end. One of them, Shnade O'Connor, nothing compares to you, just the kind of slow sort of push into the face, the tier. Which, you know, is an incredibly beautiful video and probably not super expensive.
Starting point is 00:03:02 I bet it's more expensive than you think that video. I bet they'll go, no, it's actually one. 1.5 million and this is the reason. But it's a really beautiful, clever video that makes the song better and that's the key, right? It's something where whatever the song is, you associate it with that video as well and it improves the song.
Starting point is 00:03:17 It's so courageous that she, first of all, that look was sort of extraordinary and shocking to have a show of Ted, completely. But also to effectively, almost all of it be her acting directly into camera. There are the bits where she's walking through the garden or wherever she is,
Starting point is 00:03:34 the great one, the long black thing, I can't remember. Maybe that was the cost. They hardened an entire Italian hilltop. But to trust an artist to just emote like that into the camera. Yeah. And it was so compelling. And you're trusting the song.
Starting point is 00:03:48 Yeah. Because the song is so compelling. So I went for that, either that or take on me by AHA. I knew you were going to say that. It's so good. I watched it again the other day actually. You know, with the deadline, obviously. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:04:02 With that sort of amazing animation, it just didn't feel like anything. you'd seen before. There's an amazing rip-off of it on Family Guy, which is really worth checking out. And that as a song, both of those songs, you could release either of those songs tomorrow with exactly the same production. But the team dream of it,
Starting point is 00:04:19 of people sort of coming out of the pages of your magazine. You know, there was something that was so perfect about the kind of artist they were trying to show you that they were. Yeah, exactly. And people do keep re-release and take on me, don't they, as it was, and blinding lights. I mean, all that, you know, there's something about
Starting point is 00:04:35 So I think I'm going to go for AHA, even though I think the artistry is greater in the Shinoda-D-Connor. I think there's something about the aha thing that the movement of it, the originality of it. I don't know. So I'm going to go for that, although they're both brilliant. Number two, I'm going to, I just think people who are ahead of their time in videos. Because what, I mean, is someone gives you two million to, you know, shoot Duran Duran on a yacht in the Bahamas. I mean, that's a video. Look, it's technically difficult, but it's not, you know, you're not inventing the wheel.
Starting point is 00:05:03 So I'm going to go with, because at the time, it felt, oh my God, this is like crazy what these guys have done. And now all of our Instagrams is this sort of thing all the time. And that's here we go by OKGo. Yes. Which is when they're doing the thing on the treadmills. Yeah, yeah. And now, like, people have spent, you know. Anyone can do this now.
Starting point is 00:05:23 It's so, yeah, I know. My Instagram is all like trick shots that have taken like kind of four weeks to do or people sit parkour and stuff. But that was them going, okay, we got zero money. We've got a really catchy song. This is going to be really, really difficult because none of us is any sort of a gymnast. But it absolutely went crazy. It went viral. But now we see 20 of those a day all day.
Starting point is 00:05:43 But they were, that was, there were people who did it before it. They were the first people to really, really break that as a thing. And again, and the song is super catchy. But just the kind of foresight to do that, I think, makes that number two in my book. And number one, I had to go back to, you have to go. back to when you are, I think, falling in love with pop music. And also it's almost sort of a kind of a golden age of videos when... So I'm thinking kind of early 80s.
Starting point is 00:06:11 So in late 70s, early 80s, videos hadn't been around that long. No. It had just become a sort of a playground for certain bands. And videos from that era, that one I mentioned, for different reasons, up the junction by squeeze, you must go and look at it. It's literally the five of them in a kitchen with someone making them a cup of tea. You've got Jules with a big cigar and his mouth, Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Diff. It looks so young.
Starting point is 00:06:38 It breaks your heart. Yeah. This incredible song, set in the right place. And it's just a really beautiful slice of life. So I love that. It's not my number one. I love also, for a completely different reason, Walk of Life by Diastrates. Oh.
Starting point is 00:06:51 So Diastrates at that point are sort of, they're cracking America. But, you know, MTV was a huge deal for Diastriest. And Walk of Life is the video where it's a little bit of, concert footage, but in between loads of sports bloopers from American sports. And this again is before, many, many years before, your entire timeline is sports bloopers. So watching that as... Decades before. I'm like, this is in, I cannot believe what I'm seeing here. Yeah. This is, it's like the montage they would do at the end of the snooker every year to the sting, but for American sports. So it was amazing for us because we hadn't seen these things and kind of, you know,
Starting point is 00:07:31 American football players can't weeding in the air and, you know, ridiculous mascots and stuff that felt insane. But also for America, it was amazing. So it didn't feel like they were selling out to America, but it was absolutely aimed at the American Heartlands. It's a great song. So I think that, again, to use a video, that's spending your money well, concert footage, plus they've had to buy some clips, but it absolutely lands in the American Heartland. So it does something for the song. It services the song. But the video I'm going to go for, and they always made great videos and just I think the first time I fell in love with what a music video could be, if I say a saxophonist on a crane, you know it's going to be baggy trousers by madness.
Starting point is 00:08:12 Just baggy trousers itself when you're a kid is the most extraordinary song you've ever heard. You go, I'm so sorry they're talking about this. Sorry, the teachers are in the pub. Sorry, sorry, as my entire reality just changed? What is happening here with this song that is also extraordinarily, well written. And then you look at the video and they're so, you're like, no wonder they call madness, mum. Look, you know, Lee, look. Would you have liked to be in that gang? I don't, no, I'd been too scared. I wouldn't want to be hanging off a crane. You got, but I don't think you're
Starting point is 00:08:46 supposed to play a saxophone hanging off the end of a crane, Lee Thompson. I think that's actually madness. And just, you know, what a band they were. What a video that was. And just like the song that just, you know, absolutely just exploded. The video does as well. And that's what a video should do. It should show you a band. It should make the song feel bigger and better than it already is. And it should, it should improve your experience of it. So I think that's got to be my number one video of all time. And I will pause to say that both madness and squeeze are still making great music. Isn't that lovely? That is lovely. Oh my God. I would have found that absolutely impossible to do. Hard, right? I still spend a huge amount of time watching music videos and going back and
Starting point is 00:09:27 watching them. I found it difficult to do as well. If anyone listening to this has a top three, send stuff in because one of those ones where I know this stuff that I absolutely would have forgotten, and also some really obscure ones that deserve to have been much bigger. So none of the obvious ones, none of the Slade Chambers and stuff like that, but videos that you think, oh, this
Starting point is 00:09:43 was absolutely unfairly overlooked, or a video that meant something to you at a certain time and perhaps we'll do our listener top three at some point as well. A load of guys sending in the George Michael Frieden video. If it is a George Michael Friedian video, just put that in the subject line because then we'll just put all them in one place. Actually, the last Christmas video is a banger.
Starting point is 00:10:03 Oh, the last Christmas video is epic. Yeah, that's a good one. Shall we move on? The question is from Camilla Sutcliffe, she says. Any thoughts on the recent advert Sydney Sweeney posted for US gambling company Novig? I'm seeing lots of backlash online for female athletes and I'm interested in your view on why Sweeney chose to do it. Plus, should we not be putting our focus on the overwhelmingly male board at Novig?
Starting point is 00:10:24 Right. I'll just deal with the last bit first I look in my view and lots of people enjoy gambling it also wrecks lives but I don't care about the board at the gambling company
Starting point is 00:10:36 they had like they had 20,000 followers on Instagram this company I mean what a booking what a booking that's like a Nigella type booking if you haven't seen this advert Sydney Sweeney is naked and she's got like two American footballs
Starting point is 00:10:50 in front of her tits whatever yeah yeah whatever I mean she knows great I've got to say. And yet again, she's incurred a huge amount of backlash. I mean, this is what it's, it's one of the things she does. She is, you know, she acts as well. But I don't, I really don't care about this. I find it really extraordinary. I think it's nothing to do with female sport. I'm bemused that, look, full respect to all the female athletes for their achievements, but I don't think it's anything to do with female sports. She's just like holding a load of sports
Starting point is 00:11:19 equipment from mostly male dominated sports against her to promote against her to promote, against, gambling website. I do not associate it with excellence in track and field. I just don't, okay? I just associate it with people thinking, wow, I'd like to have sex with her and I maybe will go on this gambling website. Mutity for money is what you're associated with. I mean, really, the great thing about women's sport at the moment is that it's had a mega glow up. Everyone, it's so popular. It's huge. It's doing better than it's ever been doing. I wouldn't have even more than mentioning this advert. And the idea that it matters one way or the other to women's sport if she does this, I'm sorry, I just don't buy that. And which is none of which is to
Starting point is 00:12:01 denigrate the achievements of all these great women athletes, but it just doesn't seem to me, it just seems to me like a category mistake. It's not even, it's like comparing nothing with nothing. You know, I mean, in some ways it shows the strength of women's sport because there are enough female athletes now with a big enough constituency online that they can clap back at it and, you know, it just, and promotes what it is they do. I mean, of course, you know, if it was, if this advert was, you know, and this is what an athlete looks like in 2026. And it's not.
Starting point is 00:12:29 This is just, here's some guys ruining their life by gambling too much, and here's Sydney-Sweeney. I mean, that's all it is. But it's, you know, it's female sport. I think social media, listen, it's bad for lots of things. It's been good for a number of things. And one of the things it's very good for us female sport, because it allows a niche audience to,
Starting point is 00:12:48 to kind of promote voices, which then turns something into a non-n niche audience. Sport has been unbelievably good at that. Athletics have been incredibly good at it. Male and female athletes have built audiences online, it's brought people into that sport in a way that nothing else ever has.
Starting point is 00:13:04 And the one nice thing about seeing the backlash against Sydney, Sweeney, nice thing, is you see these incredible voices and these incredible characters who you know that you can then, unlike someone just commenting on something, you can go and watch them run 100 meters, you know, in 11.2 seconds, which nobody else can do. I think that's a great thing.
Starting point is 00:13:26 I love that. But the sort of perma backlash against her, I love her. I love that she's out there in the culture. There's something, she's taken so much heat. People say, oh, she does too many brands. She does, you know, she should be ashamed of promoting so much. It's like, why should women feel shame for just, like, promoting brands? I mean, who cares?
Starting point is 00:13:44 The stuff where she's, you know, it's quite obviously semi-irony. you know, the soap that was sold with traces of her bathwater in it. People are always wanting to tear her down. And I ended up writing about this in my column last week. And I can assure you that for her entire 30s, she's 29 now, I think she can do what she likes. Her entire 30s and 40s is going to be people interviewing her, trying to get her to feel retrospective shame about stuff she's done in her 20s.
Starting point is 00:14:11 And I am not here for it. It's pathetic. It's like none of this is that bad. It really doesn't matter. She looks like she's having a good time. I absolutely respect people who can get out there and act like they don't give a toss, no matter how much backlash they take.
Starting point is 00:14:24 And she's taken a huge amount. And yeah, she's got paid really well for it. But there's something about her that I find quite inspiring because I have a slight inner voice that if you're taking lots of heat for this or that, you just think, you know what? Screw you. I'm going to do whatever I want all the time.
Starting point is 00:14:43 And she has got a sort of energy that does whatever she wants all the time. And if you don't like it, that's great, because in my view, not everyone in the culture should be the same and should be doing things that are formally approved of by all the various kind of so-called arbiters of taste or this or that. I love that she's out there. I can't wait to see what appalling things she does next.
Starting point is 00:15:06 And I've got a huge amount of time for her. I would defend Sydney to the help for all this stuff. None of it is even bad. But what's your actual opinion? Yeah. Sorry, I'm on my fence. again, aren't I?
Starting point is 00:15:16 Take a guess as to whether I have an inner voice that says, screw you everyone. Oh, no, I can't help it. It's a reaction to control. No, it's great.
Starting point is 00:15:24 Listen, that's why I love doing a podcast with you. Listen, it's, I have a lot of sympathy with your view. I feel like it's one of those debates where I sort of, I'm sort of on everyone's side. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:15:37 You know, it seems to be amplifying a lot of people. And it's, yeah. And if what we want in this world is for, to get to a future where gambling companies do not use any form of female sexuality in their adverts, that's going to be a long road to walk. That's not the best thing they do.
Starting point is 00:15:55 I mean, literally, I think it's the best thing. Her Tits are the best thing about gambling companies. Sorry, the end, and maybe the best ones in Hollywood. But that's the end, okay? If you really are very stressed about things and you need to get angry about something here, you might wish to take a look at, you know, the effects of all these things. I mean, they've only just legalized this. I think we still have to call them sport prediction.
Starting point is 00:16:15 markets in the States. They're doing it state by state in America. So, but they're at, you know, they've got this new toy and they don't know really quite what to do with it. But yeah, I think there are many, many other places to direct your eye if you really need to. They're not her yet again. Yeah. As Ray Winston would say, have a bang on that. Should we go for a break? And don't forget, we have a celebrity questioner coming up. Very good. This episode is brought to you by Lloyds. Now, show business loves a club. I love all these sort of unofficial groupings of people. There's two brat packs that I'm a big fan of. There are two brats because there's the movie brat pack, all of the Judd Nelson and, you know, Rob Lowe and Charlie Sheen and all
Starting point is 00:17:02 those guys. Everyone in the Breakfast Club. Yeah. And then there's also the brat pack of those kind of turn of the 90s novelists, Brett Easton Ellis, Jay McInerner Tart. And that's the thing, creatively, it's actually very, very useful to hang out with other people who are incredibly talented because you drive each other on to do things. Because a lot of the British novelists in the 80s, Martin Amos, Julian Barnes, Ian McEwen, they all used to sort of go and have lunch and go and have dinner. And you could just tell you, you know, they would talk about stuff and they would make each other's work much better. And that's the benefit of being in a group, being in a club. It becomes more than the sum of its parts. Clubs really do have benefits like Club Lloyds,
Starting point is 00:17:36 an elevated everyday bank account with exclusive benefits plus a lifestyle perk like cinema tickets. And you get no fees on debit card spending and withdrawals abroad. An exclusive mortgage rate discount, interest on your balance. To join a club worth being in, search club. Love Lloyd's. You must be a UK resident, aged 18 or over to apply. This account has a £5 monthly fee, refunded each month you pay in £2,000 or more. On that flight, with 350 passengers. We assess Prime Minister with high confidence it was Russian. Holding the Russians accountable is World War III.
Starting point is 00:18:13 They took down a British passenger jet containing 350 people. Man in the Kremlin is playing, Alex. You've got to ask yourself, do you want to play or not? The Prime Minister, you've done nothing! We would need to understand the policy context. All the relevant context will be structured as a framework today. Kill the President of Russia. Yes. Who is going to be able to pull this off?
Starting point is 00:18:41 Sergeant Tom McDuff! Devised as a technically rigorous, geopolitical action thriller. We have two times friendly key-I... Where Britain plays its strongest hand. He's the best. Against its strongest foe. August phone. Bear Hunt. Available now in full wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Michael and Hannah from Gollhangers. The Rest is Science. This episode is brought to you by
Starting point is 00:19:04 Cancer Research UK. Think of some things that glow. Okay, fireflies, glow sticks, the northern lights. They're very cool. But what if we could replicate that glow inside our bodies and what if doing so could help us save lives? Because Cancer Research UK scientists, They're investigating whether a special fluorescent dye that sticks to prostate cancer cells could tackle an ongoing challenge in the operating room, removing every single trace of cancer. Because when cancer cells are glowing and easy to spot, surgeons can precisely remove them, leaving healthy cells untouched, meaning there's less chance of the cancer returning and fewer nasty side effects. Cancer Research UK's vision is a world where everybody lives longer, better lives free from. the fear of cancer, with breakthroughs like this leading to kinder, more effective treatments. For more information about Cancer Research UK, their research and breakthroughs and how you can
Starting point is 00:20:00 support them, visit cancerachurchuk.org slash rest is science. Welcome back everybody. Marina Jess has a question for you. She is not our celebrities. She might be. No. It might be Jessica Ennis-Hill. It might be. We don't know. I just want to, just in case, given the nature of her, it could be. It could be Jessica Simpson. Yeah. Jess says I'm watching the channel for investigation into reform and I'm absolutely fascinated by the American actor they hired deposes the wealthy donor. Where would an investigative team find an actor for something like that? Do they go through a normal casting agency?
Starting point is 00:20:37 Oh, this is really interesting. Yes. If you didn't see this investigation, by the way, watch it. It's done by verbatim and it's sort of an association with Channel 4 News. There is a sort of young guy who is undercover and then he has a supposedly wealthy American dad who is brought into the story and they're trying to get Nigel Farage to essentially allow or give his blessing to allegedly illegal forms of donation. Anyway, you can watch it all and it's all available on Channel 4 News site.
Starting point is 00:21:13 It's really difficult to do this job. First of all, obviously not any actor can do it because you have to do, I'm just going to have to speak in general terms about this. You need a huge number of briefings. There are also certain things that journalists are allowed to do that ordinary actors are not that are protected in law. So when they're doing it's there are certain ethics and stuff like that that they have to abide by.
Starting point is 00:21:38 They can't just improv. Non-journalists can't do certain things. And that can complicate editorial control, evidence handling, consent, even insurance, all sorts of things like that. You need to avoid entrapment. When you're doing an investigation like this, just to speak in the sort of basic terms, you have to avoid entrapment. The actor is going to have to hit the essential lines.
Starting point is 00:22:01 And I think, having watched it again in light of this question, there are about two essential lines that that actor has to hit and they will not be able to be deviated from. They will have worked that out in the long. So the lawyers would have put it together. Because if you get one word wrong, then you're essentially not getting the person to admit to the right. And I'm not saying, you know, this is all alleged and the police are now investigating. So we'll part of that aspect. But you're talking about the line between you suggesting something.
Starting point is 00:22:29 Yeah. And the person you're talking to is suggesting that thing. The thing that you're suggesting that they might then agree to, not necessarily farage, anyone in one of these investigations, you have to state, you hit that line like it's the most important line in the whole show. So you might have a politically or even sometimes legally trained act to do it. but often they have done this before and you will find, you know, you see their faces blanked out when the investigation happens. And that's because some of them have worked in other, you know, I specialize in investigations. It's not like it's David Docovney. No.
Starting point is 00:23:04 Because you would recognize it. You're getting a big, yeah. Well, I think they probably had to spend the money on the donations. I'm joking. But, you know, you're getting someone who can do it because it is a super weird booking to take. Yeah. But the most important part of it. It's quite an exciting book into take.
Starting point is 00:23:19 It's really exciting, but the most important part of it is, of course, ironically, the bit that you don't see is all the stuff that went before is creating the convivial atmosphere. And they're really booked for their ability to do that. To get, you know, there's miles and miles on all these things of footage that you don't see because you really just want the kind of the lines that have been hit. It's like the allergy type thing where AliG, you know, the reason that people are suckered in is because there's half an hour of stuff beforehand, which is normal. It's not being like that, yeah. And it's the chatting that wins their heart. So all of the chatting and working, they spend a long time improvising before thinking,
Starting point is 00:23:56 what's the best way to, you know, to whoever you're trying to sting, what's the best way to appeal to Sven Goren Erickson or, you know, Sam Maldives or Nigel Farage? You know, what's the best way to this man's heart? And that's the bit that is really skilled. Because if you don't create that atmosphere, then you're never going to be in a position
Starting point is 00:24:15 where you can hit your line. It's how you will engage in a way that is still authentic, but be aware and never forget those kind of two crucial lines. Because if you don't get those, you have nothing. So it is a really weird booking, and that's why some people have done several of these investigations. That's so cool. And it's a lot of preparation and workshopping beforehand. And just hitting those two, yeah, yeah, don't get your lines. But just being the person that the person wants to open up to.
Starting point is 00:24:43 And that it's really quite hard. Yeah, I would always open with, oh, sorry I'm late. It's been at a steam fair. That's where I'd go. Yeah, I can't see you managing to pick up work in this area. I don't think. I feel like there's something distinctive about you. Anyway, anyway, but, you know, don't rule it out.
Starting point is 00:25:01 Don't rule it out. I'm available to anyone who's doing these investigations. And so to our video question from a celebrity. We're not answering a question, but asking one. And it's Richard Curtis, who's got a new audio sitcom coming. which is called Greatest Living Writer and Julia Donaldson Yeah
Starting point is 00:25:20 Could you please discuss Julia Donaldson's book sales Oh my I can't ask They were so enormous 227,000 It's the biggest It's the only time there's been a bigger weekly sale Was the Prince Harry autobiography It's insane
Starting point is 00:25:34 It's both insane and wonderful And I was in you know The bookshops are just Just rubbing their hands in Glee Because so many people went and bought it in Indies stuff like that. It's great. What a lovely thing to have in the middle of our culture. But let's not draw focus. Let's not talk about Julia Donaldson. Yes, sorry. But anyway, he's got a question for us.
Starting point is 00:25:56 Hello, Richard Curtis here. Hi, Marina and Tother Richard. I'm really interested in impact producing and the idea that TV could do more to actually have an effect in the real world, having moved people emotionally, could they move people to So my question to you is what TV program has had the most impact on you and made you feel most that you would like to, as it were, participate in solving or being interested or finding out more about the thing it's about. Good question. It's really interesting. Impact TV. I mean, we saw it recently with Mr. Bates versus the post office.
Starting point is 00:26:43 That was such impact TV because it didn't have, I mean, it had a wonderful effect. to me because I was very happy it had happened, but I'd been writing about it for some time before, and it wasn't a fashionable subject, and people were writing it a long time before me. Toxic town as well would be another example. Yes. I have to say that for me, there are certain news, you know, lots of people remember the Ethiopian Famine Report. There was a really incredibly striking report from Romanian orphanages after the fall of Chichescu, which made a huge impact on me and affected things I did afterwards.
Starting point is 00:27:17 But for me, I still think that news reports are, and a well-done news report remains for me the absolute thing that can create most impact. And certain reporters going in somewhere and finding something and seeing something you haven't seen, risking their lives maybe, or just shining a light on something you haven't seen before. It may not be fashionable because it's not drama or whatever, but it remains for me still the best way. and particularly in a social media era where people want the real, it remains for me still the best way of getting something extraordinary out there and galvanising people into doing things. Yeah, I think in the spirit of what, which is asking, because he's done all sorts of things like this,
Starting point is 00:28:01 and he often uses his platform to espouse various causes or to highlight them, which I think is a very good thing to do. I think there's something in the DNA of British television that goes all the way back to Cathy Come Home, which was sort of led to shelter and all sorts of things that play for today about homelessness. And TV is often just endlessly tried to replicate that. And probably Mr. Baysspersers the post office was the first thing to be as successful in that regard. I think this idea of impact programming, I slightly think that, you know, the big thing we have in television, certainly in drama,
Starting point is 00:28:37 but I would say in entertainment as well, the show don't tell, which is don't lecture us. Don't make a program about something, please, because we don't want to see that. Whereas Mr. Bates versus the post office got away with it because Mr. Bates was first in that title. You know, and it's, oh, it's about a sub-postmaster in a lovely, you know, little place. And so it wasn't like, we're about to lecture you about something here. It's, oh, look, it's Toby Jones. There's some nice countryside as well. But he's a complicated person, Alan Bates, and a sort of difficult person to play.
Starting point is 00:29:07 And the story was essentially about that awful thing blinking beneath him. the counter, which was the computer terminal. Yeah. It was an absolute masterclass in how to make it. It was like jaws in an English village. Yeah. Yeah. So I, but I do think it's difficult. I think the moment people sense that they're watching impact programming, they switch off.
Starting point is 00:29:28 So I think that's very difficult. I think my view of these things has always been, in terms of current affairs stories, that interests me far less than in terms of just showing empathetic human beings. That I think is the thing that really has impact. I think if you watch a program like Race Across the World, and what is Race Across the World? Listen, I get it's not Kathy Garm Home, right? But what it is is a big entertainment show,
Starting point is 00:29:53 big entertainment proposition, fun rules, incredible scenery, but by episode three, episode four, they're making you cry three or four times because they tell you stories about grief, about loss, about teenagers losing their fathers, the one on the last series of the guy whose wife had died, and he was on this, the race with his sister-in-law, and they didn't get on. You could tell that they were completely different people, and by the end, they got on.
Starting point is 00:30:18 It was very, very beautiful. It just showed that two completely different people get on with each other. And I think that's a revolutionary act at the moment. It's so sort of crass to say it's a show about the emotional journeys, but I'm afraid to say. And even on something like first dates or something like that, it is about loneliness. Yeah. Like so many of the stories are about loneliness. And that's a, to me, that's the thing that I would.
Starting point is 00:30:40 rather talk about that that's, to me, that's the thing that I would most like to talk about is, would be loneliness, would be grief, would be things like that. And I think these entertainment shows do that in an incredible way. By the way, so do loads on those dramas. But I think there's something very special about this sort of entertainment stuff that, that I think tells that story, sort your life out is a really, I mean, again, essentially, it's, it's, whenever people talk about four months ago, oh, it's just this, you go, okay, but let's, let's see how they make it and sort your life out, just tells you something about marriage is breaking down, about lives sort of falling apart in their kind of second act,
Starting point is 00:31:15 about how a family or a relationship can calcify, all of those things, about how lives can get out of control. And, you know, I think that's very, very beautiful. And people watching that, I think at the end of that, they have found something out. They've learned something. They've understood a different narrative about how the world is. So I would go with shows like that. I would go with beautifully made, big entertainment shows. And those are the three that I would particularly pick out. We did a show a few years ago. This is sort of a sidebar,
Starting point is 00:31:44 but I think it's interesting, called Two Tribes. Oh, yeah. It was a quiz show, and it was really, really, really good fun. In the end, we started doing House of Games instead,
Starting point is 00:31:52 because it was on in that slots. And essentially, what it would be is you would always have two teams against each other, right? So, Team A and Team B, but those teams would always change. So in round one, it would be, do you believe in ghosts?
Starting point is 00:32:05 So you'd have the team of people who believe in ghosts against the team of people don't believe in ghosts. you know, are you a thrill seeker, whatever it is. But what it meant was you had all these people, all of them were different, and you put them on a team and, you know, we're team A, we're team B. You would then ask you a different question and they discover that they were on a different team with different people.
Starting point is 00:32:25 And I'd always wanted to do a primetime version of that and make it a little bit more about our views about the world just to show that. That's such a good idea. Yeah, but I always thought that about that. And of course, you know, we were making a quiz show and it had rules and stuff. gave away a prize. But it was about you're allowed to disagree with people because you might agree with them about something else later on and that we have constantly changing allegiances with people in the world.
Starting point is 00:32:49 And I've always, whenever people think TV is dumbed down and stuff, loads of shows that come from things like that, little observations. I mean, it would end. It would end, I'm sure it would be counterproductive in the end. But it was a fun show. It would end in a war, but. Yeah, exactly. And that was not my show, by the way. that was Glenn Hegel who I've spoken about before.
Starting point is 00:33:09 That was his format. But that's how I like to make impact television. It's just to show that, just to show stories about people, about human beings. That's why I like novels. You know, you just see stories about human beings. And so,
Starting point is 00:33:23 yeah, I'm less interested in the drama side of things, which Richard is so absolutely amazingly brilliant at, and more interested in that, that format-y, storytelling side of things. I think that's us done. Thank you, Richard Curtis. Thank you, Richard Curtis. I'm going to be thinking about that one.
Starting point is 00:33:36 We interview him at some point? Yes, please, can you come on our podcast, Richard Curtis? That would be fun. So the bonus episode this week is your wonderful exploration of Big Brother, first of three episodes with Kate Lauder, Big Brother alumni, and my good pal and former colleague, Tim Hinks, who used to run Endemol, who is a little bit too good at podcasting for my liking. That is a lot of fun.
Starting point is 00:33:58 Please join us. If not, we'll see you next Tuesday. See you next Tuesday. Hi, everybody. It's Dominic Sambrook here from The Rest Is history and we are here to tell you about a thrilling new series on the blood-soaked climax of the French Revolution, the reign of terror. So the French Revolution is one of the most significant episodes in the whole of world history. It essentially lays the foundations for
Starting point is 00:34:41 contemporary politics as we know it, but it is also unbelievably dramatic. We'll be discussing the murder of the firebrand Jean-Paul Marais in his bathtub. We will be going to the guillotine with the Marie Antoinette. And in our final episode, we will be telling the story of the extraordinary and grotesque downfall of one of the chief architects of the terror. One of the most evil men in history, some would say, Maximilin Crobespierre. So if you want to hear this epic series, search for the rest is history wherever you get your podcasts.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.