The Rest Is Entertainment - Simon Cowell vs The Taliban

Episode Date: October 1, 2025

Did Simon Cowell do more for democracy in Afghanistan than the Biden administration? Do Strictly professionals know who they'll be paired up with? Who is Thomas Pynchon? Richard Osman and Marina Hyde answer your questions from the world of television, literature and film. 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 The Rest Is Entertainment is proudly presented by Sky. Sky is home to award-winning shows such as The White Lotus, Gangs of London and The Last of Us. Requires relevant Sky TV and third party subscription(s). Broadband recommended min speed: 30 mbps. 18+. UK, CI, IoM only. To find out more and for full terms and conditions please visit Sky.com For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com Video Editor: Max Archer Senior Producer: Joey McCarthy Social Producer: Bex Tyrell Exec Producer: Neil Fearn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by our good friends at Sky. Now, whether it's Scorsese and De Niro, Brits and a queue, or Glenn Powell and a slow-motion entrance into frame, some things are just better together. And Sky and Netflix do just that. Two heavyweight storytellers side by side on the Sky Essential TV package for just £15 a month, all in one place and on one bill. Call it the full ensemble. Sky Originals bringing gangs of London and the Day of the Jackal. Netflix delivering global obsessions like Squid Game and Wednesday. Sky Atlantic, Discovery Plus and more than 90 other channels to that list, and you've got the kind

of line-up that bends the week around it, turning ordinary evenings into events. Sky and Netflix together for £15 a month. Premium shows, endless choice and a lineup that feels complete, all in one place. Visit sky.com to start requires relevant SkyTV and third-party subscriptions. Sky Essential TV includes a selection of Sky channels, 18 plus UK Channel Islands, and Ireland of Man only. small business is a journey, from startup to growing and managing your business. That's why they have a dedicated small business advice hub on their website to provide tips and insights on business banking to entrepreneurs, no matter the stage of business you're in. Visit td.com slash small

business advice to find out more or to match with a TD small business banking account manager. Hello and welcome to this episode of the Resters Entertainment questions and answers edition. I'm Marina hi. And I'm Richard Osman. Hello Marina. Hello Richard. How are you? I'm very, very well.

Thank you. So many people got in touch after our bodyguard chat last week, the Taylor Swift thing. We asked for casting ideas. It's fair to say that people did have ideas. Oh, people had a lot of ideas. My favourite one, obviously, that someone suggested, was Nitro. Of course he could do it for you. He had the most votes of anybody.

Yeah. Nitro. Nitro. Absolutely. I mean, Harry, that's his real name, as we all know and now know from Strictly. When he carried me on his shoulder in the Royal Albert Hall for the entire length of the gladiators theme tune, I realized that he could protect me in any way. In any way. You were very much the Tader Swift of that piece.

I believe it was the principal in the technical parlance of it. Oh, yeah. is of security protection. Well, you're still here. Yeah. So he did a good job. Loz of other, Tom Hardy, has been suggested. Damson Idris from F1 and less of other things as well.

No? He's shorter than Lewis. Too slight. I mean, she's going to tower over him, with or that, the glittery boots. How tall is Taylor Swift? I can never judge how tall people are because everybody in the world looks five for seven to me. It doesn't matter. I don't think that's a bad shout.

Yeah. Out in the boots taller. I don't know. I actually don't know the answer to that question. Okay. David Coren Sweat. I mean, why haven't they

renamed him, but no, no. I like this I would like because I would watch Channing Tatum. Oh yeah, Channing Tatum could do it for you.

Yeah, don't you think. No question with that. No question. Channing Tatum and Taylor Swift as well, that's a good combo. She needs someone that she can, because she's not an experienced actor,

he needs someone who's very, who's very generous. Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah. Yes, he'd be good. Patinson, don't be stupid. Oh, okay, yeah. Right, who else people suggested?

Daniel Craig, I mean, that he's, let me, I can assure you now he's not going to say yes. But there would be something slightly hilarious about it, but no. Yeah, I like Jodie Comer, I think is a great idea as bodyguard. Wow. Well, that is a whole different motion picture. But don't you think? I'd watch that. So would anyone?

Yeah, Jody Comer and Taylor Swift. Okay. Well, that is jumped off the reservation and I love it. So yes, yes to that. It's a hard yes. Ryan Gosling, don't be stupid. Henry Cavill. Oh, no.

I mean, no one can make him happen for me. I don't know why. It's just never going to happen with Henry Cavill. They keep trying. God, people are obsessed. I'm comfortable with it. He's associated with the Snyderverse. Yeah, that's why.

You're comfortable with it. Yeah, no, he's nothing to me. Jack Loudon. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I think there's nothing Jack Loudon can't do. There's nothing he can't do. I'm enjoying him in slow horses.

I think he's the beating heart of slow horses. Yeah, we love Jack Loudon and everything. Maybe he'll be James Bond. We don't know. I would love it if Jack Loudon. I'll love it. I'll tell you what, if we go there and get a result, I would love that. He's got to go to Barbara Bockelly and get something.

Oh, no, she's not. It's not her anymore. He's got to go to Amazon and get something. James Norton, it's not for him. Aaron Taylor Johnson. Aaron Taylor Johnson, he could do it, but won't. Yeah. My favourite suggestion, I think, the bodyguard, but Muppets.

Taylor Swift is the only human. Miss Piggy is the jealous sister. I would love Taylor to work with the Muppets. By the way, we're doing a bonus episode on tomorrow. members, which... Best Muppet to be a bodyguard? Which, who's the best one?

Yeah, Fuzzy Bear, I think. No, animal, just complete unpredictable. That's interesting. Yeah, but you don't want your bodyguard to be completely unpredictable. Maybe you do. Well, yes, hey,

actually, when you think about it, maybe you do. Maybe you do. I was on Saturday Kitchen last week plugging the book and the guys from pizza pilgrims, other pizza restaurants are available, but they look like kipsters,

but were really nice, the pizza pilgrims. Well, fancy that? No, but when I looked, when you first see them you think okay this could go either way and they were so lovely but one of them i forget i think tom used to work in television so he used to be a runner and he said and when i was a runner i started with one other runner at the same time and i'm thinking that poor other runner is just thinking oh my god

the guy i started with is now running pizza pilgrims and making a fortune but the runner he started was sam wrench the guy who's directing the bodyguard who directed the taylor swift eras movie and many many other constant things besides so imagine that on your first day two runners One of them is running pizza pilgrims. The other one did Taylor Swift's Eres tour. My God, what was the company? Did you find out? No, I should have done, shouldn't I?

But whoever looked at those CVs must be some kind of a genius. Yeah, well done. Anyway. Right, please. We have questions. Yeah. What? I know, right?

I have a question for you, Marina, from Craig Walker. Craig says, on a recent trip to Italy, right, Craig, someone's doing well. My wife and I were holed up in our hotel room on a rainy day on Lake Garda. Beautiful. Lovely. Beautiful. Beautiful. television you can't go outside because it's raining great oh my god that's the dream it's my favorite

thing on holiday not not having to go out um to pass the time we had the italian version of the food network playing on the tv yeah on one of the shows the rest is entertainment theme music played over the preparation for one of the recipes i had assumed the theme music being creative specifically for the podcast who makes stock music and how lucrative is it is there anything put in place to stop two successful shows potentially using the same music at the same time Well, when I spoke to the powers that be a goalhanger, they were like, it's really sweet that he thought that we might have commissioned our own music for each individual podcast.

But like all the other goalhanger podcasts, the music we have is library music. And I'm going to come on at the end to why we like that particular bit because they'd give us a big choice of ones. There's nothing in place to stop two shows using the same music. And quite often people at goalhanger hear

the various theme tunes being used elsewhere. They've been in episodes of Bargain Hunt, Gillette adverts but the best you can hope for really they think is that nobody notice I think the best you can hope for is that you do notice and think wow what was that playing over the making the ricotta pasta or whatever it was

funnily enough it's always sunny in Philadelphia that uses library theme music and as you know I mean I can't remember how many series they're up to but it's a huge number 17 or something I think that's and that's called Temptation Sensation and it's by a German composer called Heinz Kiesling and that That's gone in millions of things.

It's been in SpongeBob Squarepants. It's been in RuPaul's Drag. Well, that's the thing. If you use library music, then you do not own it. The composer still owns it so the composer can use it wherever they want, which is the lovely thing about, if you are a composer, doing library music is, firstly, you can knock out 30 or 40 different things. If you've got like a week when you're not doing anything,

you can do all this stuff. It exists in various libraries. You can sell that over and over and over again. You get some of the money. The library gets some of the money. but it can be it's one of those things that just kind of keeps ticking over and keeps making you money it takes a while to tick over that people who do this will say because you have the way it's done it's it you have to go through publishers then you have to apply when it's been used and it's that

they think it takes about three years for it to slightly come on stream but when it does come on stream you're on stream anyway the music for the rest of the entertainment i remember we were when we first started doing it they sent us lots of different ones that we could choose from. And I really like this one. I don't know what, possibly a false memory of I Dream of Jeannie, Team Chint, but it reminded me of those kind of supernatural sitcoms. Can we play it now, by the way, just so people, I know people hear it at the start and the end of each one,

but let's remind ourselves of it. The reason I chose, well, I was like, I really wanted it to be that one, was because I thought it was slightly humorously ridiculous. It reminded me of those sort of supernatural sitcoms of the 60s, American sitcoms like Bewitched I dream of genie

As you know Richard My dream is Could I come down A sweeping staircase In floor length Carrying a Martini to it In the answer This one absolutely the answer is yes

Being carried by Nitro Yeah being carried by Nitro Yeah And me carrying the martini Who's being more heroic I have to ask you And I just also thought It was quite light entertainment

Because I felt like When we were starting this I thought You know We're not trying to be Prime Minister here Not there's anything wrong with that There was a sort of

knowingness and a twinkle to it that I thought was fun now that music is called it's called living style that's by tim garland who is uh an extraordinary guy he's won a grammy tim garland just worked with chick career is work with bill brewford he's worked with ronnie scott so i remember when we were showing the list of things there's some big names yeah who make library music and do very one one hopes very nicely out of it as well but yeah that was a that's tim garland living style but we yeah we immediately thought it was so john Yeah. The point this theme music is used for an Australian shampoo commercial as well. Is it?

Yeah, so I often get messages from Australia saying, hey, hold on a minute. Why is your theme tune being used? Big shampoo owes you a check. And that's by Mark Silvian and that I think was a commission. I don't think that is library music. But either way, he's getting double bubble, which is the nice thing about doing library music is you can get double bubble. Also, it'll also be a really good name for a year. It's really worth going on any of these music library catalogs because, the names are my favorite bit. They all have to give these things names.

And like horses, they soon run out. Or nail varnishes. Yeah. Nail varnish colours of my favourite naming. But thank you to Tim Garland, because that's such a great piece of music. And he's done stuff for, you know, the Northern Symphonia and BBC Orchestra

and all sorts of people. So he can, this is very much below his pay grade. Yeah. He can do absolutely... But we love it, Tim. So thank you. But thank you, Tim, for the pleasure you bring us. Right, Richard.

question for you from Stuart Davis who says it felt at the time that winning X Factor during those peak years might actually have been a hindrance as from my understanding you were whisked away to America to record an album with Psycho that's Simon Cowell's record label and away from the spotlight while the runners up were not so burdened and could release music much quicker was this a false memory or is there some data to back it up yeah Stuart when I saw your question I thought oh yes because I sort of that feels right to me as well that idea that actually winning is not the best thing you can do. So thank you for letting me go into the annals and do a bit of statistical research. And I have an actual answer for you. I just looked at

X Factor contestants. She's had number one singles and number one albums. It's 43 in all. X Factor contestants who at various points have had a number one single or number one album. The lowest anyone's finished and still got to number one is sixth. And Ella Henderson finished six. And Ella Henderson's had a huge hit single, which had a number one album as well. Ella Henderson, but she's the only one. No one has ever finished lower than sixth and had a number one. Fifth, there's only one number one single, but it's an absolute cracker. That's Chico.

It's Chico time. So he finished fifth, had a number one single. I looked at his follow-ups, his third follow-up, which didn't crack the top 40, was called curvy Coca-Cola bottle body. And I had a little listen to it, and it is exactly what you would expect. to do you else came fifth but has not bothered the number one chart Ryland see it's not all just about sending records no you see that's the thing so finishing fifth we have Chico and Ryan it often used to feel like you were

competing for the chance to get dropped by Simon Cowell in one year's time exactly that and listen it was a that's a that's a that's a special that's a special thing isn't it fourth place we have two number one singles when we get to third second and first by the way that's where the big hitters come in but sixth fifth and fourth got Edda Henderson Chico and Riden and fourth place two number one singles, Diana Vickers. Oh, yeah. Had a number one.

And Cher Lloyd, Swagger, Jagger. Oh, yeah. Was both of which just sounds like you absolutely adore from your, oh, yeah. Well, no, I mean bless them, but. Yeah. Now, people who finish third, okay, this is where one direction come into the mix. And I've had to really just take one direction by themselves. I can't go into all the solo stuff because then essentially it's, you know, is it better

to be Harry Stiles or anyone else? and it's better to be Harry Stiles than anyone else. But people who finish third, four number one singles, five number one albums. Four of those number one singles and four of those number one albums were from one direction. Okay, so the fact that they finished third means it scores fairly well. The one album that was number one by third place finisher that wasn't one direction, Journey South. Oh, yeah. Remember Journey South?

I'd have completely forgotten then. Two brothers from the northeast. I loved it, because I used to love the journey south and same differences in the early days of X Factor. I always, I always went for the band. Same difference, God, that's come out of a moment. Yeah, two shoes. Yeah. That was my stuff.

So second place, so at the moment, that's, we've got four and five there, so nine number ones, really. If you came third, if you come second, we have 18 number ones. Christy. Eighteen number ones. Nine singles, nine albums. the nine singles all JLS and Olly Mears so JLS and Olly Mears finishing second

really really is wrapped up finishing second so nine singles the nine albums so JLS and Oli Mers have had number one albums I'll tell you who else has had number one albums G4 Oh yeah Remember that? The four guys who sang sort of I've not thought about these people since

you know a year after they departed Well get ready Ray Quinn Oh God had a number one album and Jermaine Douglas also had a number one album by the way there's only ever been one number one

from anyone who's ever on the voice and that was Becky Hill and I think she finished about ninth so weird yeah so 18 we have there now winners so I'm not even going to count the sort of one off number ones you know like the Leon Jackson's

and Ben Haynows who had an automatic number one so even leaving that out Winning is the best thing you can do. We've got 23 number ones. We've got 13 number one singles. Leona Lewis, James Arthur, people like that. By the way, there's more than 13 number one signals, but I'm not counting the, you know, that's my goals of this world.

Bleeding Love, massive worldwide hit for Leona Lewis. Unstoppable, massive worldwide number one hit for James Arthur. Ten number one albums, Little Mix, of course. Leona Lewis, James Arthur, number one albums. Steve Brookstein. had a number one album. Shane Ward had a number one album, and Sam Bailey had a number one album as well.

So you've got 18 number ones if you finish second. You've got nine if you finish third, but if you finish first, we have 23 number ones, and that's not even including the cheating number ones of those. So what you're saying is false memory. False memory, yeah. But I had the same false memory as Stuart.

But I think essentially it's, if you finish top, it's very, very good news. Apart from that, if you are JLS, Oli Merse, or One Direction is very good news. But finishing... Who haven't struggled. Who have not struggled.

But finishing top is what you want to do on the X Factor. It turns out. Shall we go to an advert? I think you need to rest after that. That was quite a lot. I enjoyed it. And after these adverts, we're going to be talking, of course,

about Thomas Pynchon and Strictly come dancing. Yeah. That's very us. Guess which one of us is talking about which? I've got some things to say about Strictly as well. Oh, I've got some things to say about Thomas Pinchin. See you after the break. This episode is brought to you by Sky,

where you can watch unmissable shows, including the final farewell of the award-winning Sky original comedy, Brassick. Seven series later, the gang from Hawley are bowing out, still chasing schemes with full conviction. Brassick charges through its biggest challenge yet, like a group that never learned the meaning of last orders. It's chaos with a curtain call. Joe Gilgan, Michelle Keegan, Dominic West,

big names you might expect on three entirely different billboards, yet all improbably colliding in a northern town with more calamities than bus routes. This time it's old enemies resurfacing, long-lost family reappearing and trouble following them at every turn. But rather than an ending, it feels like a send-off true-to-form, messy, riotous and impossible mistake by anyone else. They're leaving the stage the way icons should, with a proper bang, a finale stitched together with mischief, misfits,

and just enough mayhem to feel like Hawley to the end. Watch the final farewell of Brassick Now on Sky with new episodes weekly, requires relevant Sky TV subscription. Welcome back, everyone. Letitia Edwards has a question for you, Marina. She says, my husband is obsessed with Thomas Pynchon, the author, and can't wait for his next book to be released in October. But how does he keep his anonymity?

And she's talking about Thomas Pynchon there, not her husband. It's really fascinating, isn't it? Can you tell us who Thomas Pynchon is, by the way, because he keeps his anonymity so well. Thomas Pynchon is one of the great American authors, who's, I guess, this biggest book is Gravity's Rainbow, but he's rather like J.D. Salinger or various others, but those two of them are, I guess, the most famous. And he's also the author of Vineland, which is brilliant. And actually, one battle after another, the new Paul Thomas Anderson film with Leonardo DiCaprio that's just come out, is based on that.

And he's also, he's one of the great gods of American literature. I mean, a critical, absolute darling, one of the kind of greatest. it's writers of a generation. They're always referred to as recluses because they didn't have, in the case of Salingh who's dead, didn't have any public profile. They're not doing Saturday Kitchen. They're not doing Saturday Kitchen, but, you know, would love to watch it. It's really interesting.

We do actually know things about Thomas Pension, and, you know, he lives in Manhattan. He's married to a literary agent. He said to be very kind of sociable in company, but so there's not, I wouldn't say it's a conspiracy, but there's a consensus that people don't want to. to sort of out him and say who he is or take photos of him or whatever. But as a result, incredible sort of folklore has attached itself to him over the years.

People used to say he was the Unabomber and things like that. I mean, no, but really, you know, and there've been all sorts of conspiracies, but people used to try and go to where Jodie Sandler lived. There's a photo of him. And you can't tell whether he's about to hit the camera or whether he's almost like shielding his face,

like almost like something from the birds, almost like a still from the birds. There's photos like that where it's so obvious that people don't want to be photographed. For me, it's like outing someone now. It's like we know that that's something that no one would do. You know, Thomas Pynchon, I once had a message sent via someone to me

about something that he thought about something about my writing. It was sort of it. And I was like... Was it strongly anti? Absolutely hated it. Yeah, yeah. Like a really... Oh, my God.

A bit drive-by, but via proxie. You were like, Thomas, I get enough of this at home. Yeah. But, and I said, oh, my goodness. And then I heard much more about... how he lives and I thought it was very interesting. So it's a sort of, it's like an open secret thing. But I definitely think you couldn't be that way if you came of age now as a writer in the age of the social media. You know, all writers, I speak to so many young writers. And

what publishers have said to them even is, yeah, but do you have a sort of social media presence? Can I say something about that? Because it's, I read it a lot. Do you think it's a nonsense? I think I think publishers definitely say it. Yeah. I think publishers are definitely saying, oh no you really need to put yourself out there you need to connect with people you do not it is and publishing needs to get its head out of its backside on this one because it doesn't work for for anybody it just doesn't work maybe it worked five years ago 10 years ago it doesn't work what works is going around the country going signing books you know book clubs stuff like that meeting real people in real life it's you don't have to sell that many books that social media is all that

useful. What you need to do is get out there, meet people, show people your work. That's the thing you need to do. And if a publisher says to you, you need to have more of a profile, one of two things. Either that's their excuse because they didn't like the book. That's absolutely fine. Everyone needs one. Or you say to them from me, if it's helpful, you are 10, this is 10 years ago thinking, you have to stop thinking this way and you have to start building writers careers in different ways. You have to stop relying on them to do the work that you are getting paid to do. You know, that's what publishers are supposed to do. Publishers are supposed to break you in different ways and find, and the amount of times they would just say, oh, could you do this, could

you do this? You think, no, you do it. Could you do it? Sorry, I just wrote a book. Yeah, because otherwise I'll just self-publish. I couldn't agree more, and there's many other things. But it's become an absolute truism now. And if a publisher is saying it to you, there's sort of a point, which is you have to put yourself out there. For sure, you have to make contacts. But that is not via Instagram or X or any of those things. You know, that's a, that's a, that's a 10 years ago thought of how you're supposed to do these things. And I think you could be Thomas Pynchon these days.

But the one thing you do have to do is just make sure that you are connecting with readers in some way. But if you're young and people know you're young, I'm not sure you could be Thomas Pynchon. And I tell you why, because I do think that the whole idea, so much of the modern and the young internet now, I mean, it's, it is what it is, is about sleuthing and it's about sort of trying to put one thing together with another and work out the answer. Everything's an Easter egg. But Alina Ferente would be a very good example of one of the biggest authors in the world

who goes under a pseudonym and, you know, there's lots of people have views as to who they are. But, you know, I think it's doable. You know, Banksy gets away with it. Well, I don't think Banksy does and I think Banksy has been out of lots of time. But there's a reason for that because I think certain type of people think this is criminal damage. and I'm just going to, you know, try and out the person. And they also think there's a sort of dissonance between what they perceive to be his sort of middle classery and what he's doing, which they perceive to be some sort of street level.

I like Banksy. But you can see why newspapers would, you know, have set out to kind of capture him. But that's the lovely thing. But I actually... Newspapers have told us who Banksie is many times, and it's indicative of the fact that no one reads the newspapers. No, no one still knows the answer. It's still a secret.

People are still written to us saying, who, is he? Yeah, exactly. People still say to me who is the banker on deal or no deal. You think, I mean, he's been outed like 12 times. I mean, we said his name. Do you have the website, google.com? So many times. So that's the fun thing is, you know, you're still an enigma to almost everybody. Except I do think that there's something that social media has done is just turned everyone into a knock and people are all, because yes, it is. It's so suitable and it's so useful for the tech companies to have completely downgraded privacy as anything remotely idealistic. And the result is what we have now, where, you know, all sorts of things

have suffered as a result of this, not least IQ or whatever, but it's people are trying, people are constantly trying to catch people out or to expose, you know, someone who's not who they say they are. And everyone is a sort of horrible kind of keyboard narc. And that's something that they've ushered in. So I actually think it would be quite hard. If you were writing a zeitgeisty novel of the type that Thomas Pinchman was writing when he was in, you know, when he sort of exploded onto the scene, I'm sorry, I think that people would now, if you manage, maybe those books don't exist anymore. Maybe they're not books anymore. Maybe they're short form videos. Who knows? But people would try and track down who you were because that's what they do.

Maybe. But honestly, if there's one takeaway, it's, if you're an author and a publisher says to you, you need a social media presence, please tell them that you don't. Yes, I absolutely concur with that. To the entertainment behemoth that is Strictly, Lottie Blacklock has written in to say... Good name. Yeah, very good. Me and my partner watched the Strictly launch show, and one of the professionals said,

I knew it as their celebrity walked through the door. Do they know who will be on the show before this reveal? I can't help but think some professionals may not know who the celebrity is if they just walked through the door, Or are they all frantically googling who Tom Skinner is during water breaks? Thank you, Lottie. Yes, they do know because there is always a meet-up before the partnerships are chosen. All of the celebrities and all of the professional dancers will have a day together or a morning-together afternoon

where they meet, various couples are tried out, you see who dances with who. And it's just to give the... They meet in the groups, though, rather than they know who they're... In big groups, yeah. They have no idea here. who, which celebrity they're going to get and the celebrities have no idea which professional they're going to get. You might dance with four or five

of the professionals. You might dance with four or five of the celebrities. It's really, it's for cameras, it's for chemistry. It's just to get everyone to understand this is one big, strictly family. So when you do get the reveals, they are genuine, but the celeb knows,

I mean, the celebrity already knows that it's going to be one of sort of 12 or 14 dancers, but also the dancer knows it's going to be one of the people that they have already met unless it's a late replacement. And so, yes, when someone comes through the door, they know they all, a couple of people I talk to who have been on Strictly in between the bit where they've met all of the dancers and the bit where they find their dancer, they genuinely have strong views as to who

they would like. I mean, anyone who watches Strictly knows that there are height things and various things. There's the quite small pool of people that you could be put with. So you usually know within three or four people who it might be. But the, yeah, the excitement when you get the person you really want is real. Of course there's going to be moments where people are like, oh, especially with the professional dancers, they go, oh, I'm going to be, I'm going to go home in week three. Okay. I absolutely, I absolutely, you can veto with Ellie and things like that.

You can tell the ones where you think, okay, they think they're going to be here for a long time. Jojo and Alex Kingston and stuff like that. But it's, again, we're strictly this year because they had those too late put-outs, didn't they? Which, you know, Danny Dyer pulling out. And you do think, really gutting for them, yeah. Really gutting. And you think, oh, perhaps it'd be underpowered. But then you watch the first episode and you go, okay, I'm, count me in.

This is going to be so great. And our friend of the podcast, Nitro, we love. Karen Carney was amazing. And that's the lovely thing about it is after even just one week, you go, oh, no. So previously when you go, Louis Cope, well, I don't know who Louis Cope is. and then you watch him, we go, okay. It really doesn't matter. Now I know who he is.

And yeah, and it's, I am hashtag team Nitro and team Karen, but I am, listen, might all change. But yeah, they do all meet provide. We had a question, funny enough, about Love Island done, which is a similar thing. When, you know, there's rumours going around that two of the contestants actually previously met during a dry run. And again, yes, on Love Island, they will always do a dry run of that show, just for cameras, just for new little formats and things. and they will always people that with. It'll be, so they'll have eight contestants they love on Love Island. There'll be a few they're not sure about.

And so they'll put them in the dry run. And they go, oh, actually, we saw her on the dry run. She's amazing. We saw him on the dry run. He's amazing. And so, yes, two of those people might then, you know, make the cut. And they have met each other. You know, those things definitively happen.

There's also a question about phone voting on Strictly because they're not doing, the BBC said they're not offering phone voting anymore. High St. Leslie, that is a great name. Highest synth, Leslie? Okay. Said, what's the reason for this and will other programs follow suit? Yes, it's all going online. All the big voting shows, basically sports first personality of the year, Eurovision, that sort of stuff.

It's all going online. It is outdated. You get a tiny number of phone votes. We'll talk about the hayday in a second. And it's a huge hassle. It's a huge hassle. But also BT used to run these services and they're not going to do it any longer. Yeah.

And the old sort of PTSD and phone work, that has. phone network that's being phased out and going to sort of digital voice so everything is it there's so few people who now phone but in the heyday of it all it made so much money oh my god just so much unbelievable amounts of money well they could fund millionaire off the phone votes yeah that's that's what you need to know about that and other shows were having the same amount of millions and millions per series of x factor all of those things crazy money um and it you know it became completely addictive the idea that people were engaged was meant, you know, because they were phoning in and spending money to do it.

Simon Cowell's big idea was to have a show, this is before we had a referendum. He said, I think people would love to, we'd do a referendum every week, and we're going to have a red telephone, no more was a referendum ever again now, but a red telephone in the middle of the stage, and, you know, Downing Street can call in if they want, because the people will be speaking every single week, but actually... Doesn't lack confidence, does he, Simon Cowell? There was a hilarious interview where he said, Oh, the great thing is seeing it take off around the world.

You know, we've kind of, he said they've got it in Afghanistan. We've given democracy back to the world, which I found absolutely hilarious. Thank you. But hang on a second, because Afghan star, I think it was called. That ran for about 17 series. It was amazing. And there's some great documentaries about it. And then the Taliban canceled music.

So it no long, it doesn't exist anymore. but I think by a certain amount of series a woman was the first woman to win it and it was a huge thing so he actually did well I don't know he did a lot more than than Joe Biden let's put it that way let's put it Simon Carl did more Frankkandstar than Joe Biden

let's put it that way but yes but phone voting was such a mega deal but it's not any longer and by the way all of ITVs things are online or in the app or whatever it is now I mean it was hugely monetizable and now is not anymore You still, I mean, you know, that was the era. Weirdly, we were watching an old episode of CDUK the other day because I can't remember.

Well, I think because I'd just been working with Kat Dealey on something and Ingrid is a huge fan of CDUK. So we're just on YouTube, we just watched it. And again, just in the ad breaks, just those, the phoning questions, the very, very easy phoning questions. And I mean, the money those things would make is absolutely crazy. And now, yeah, it's just not a thing anymore. No, and people will say to you, oh, but what you're disenfranchising certain people who are, it's like, no, you're not, okay? There's a level of digital switchover, which I will tolerate the discussion, but that is not it. And they'd get vanishingly few votes by phone now.

So, yes, that's why you can't do it any longer. But you can still vote in the modern ways. Thank you so much, everyone, for those wonderful questions. Tomorrow for our members, we have an episode about the Muppets, the Muppet origin story, which is, which is, It took a long time for the Muppets to become successful, lots of stories before. Oh, there's an absolute puppet graft. There really is. If you want to be a member, you get ad-free listening, all that kind of stuff.

It is the rest of entertainment.com. But for everybody else, we'll see you next Tuesday. See you next Tuesday. This episode was brought to you by Sky. Skyglass is the new television from Sky, the kind that makes your old Teddy feel like a dress rehearsal. This is the big screen premiere right there in your living room. Because it's not just about pixels and settings,

it's about the experience. Skyglass has auto-adjust, which cleverly adapts to whatever you're watching. And the built-in Dolby sound makes dialogue sharper, footsteps nearer, storms louder. Take the secret world of sound on Skynature. Frogs croak like brass sections, bats click like castanets, and even the hush between feels designed for surround sound.

It's less like nature recorded, more like nature remixed. And then there's David Attenborough, his voice warmer than central heating, turning baby Caymans and prowling hyenas into Shakespearean characters. That's when you realise Skyglass doesn't just show TV. It was built to collaborate with it, the unsung producer behind every great scene. Visit sky.com requires relevant SkyTV subscriptions. Broadband recommended minimum speed, 30 megabits per second. plus UK Channel Islands and Isle of Man only.