The Rest Is Entertainment - Strictly's Secret Weapon

Episode Date: October 15, 2025

Is Dave Arch the most stressed man in British telly? Should the Rock be sweating about his latest flop? Could you cut a 'blind' version of The Traitors? Richard Osman and Marina Hyde answer your questions, covering the nation's favourite telly and more. 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 & Adam Thornton 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

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might be in a new town altogether. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Terms and conditions apply. Learn more at amex.ca. slash Y Amex. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, powered by Peloton IQ,

built for breakthroughs with personalized workout plans, real-time insights, and endless ways to move. Lift with confidence, while Peloton IQ counts reps, corrects form, and tracks your progress. Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus at OnePeloton.ca. Hello and welcome to this episode of The Resters Entertainment with me, Oh, hang on. Go on. I have a question.

No, okay. Is that how we introduced this episode? Hello. Can I please? Hello and welcome to this episode of the Resters Entertainment Questions and Answers Edition. I'm Marina. And I'm Richard.

Hello, Marina. Hello, Richard. How are you? Yeah, very well. Very well. Enjoyed the, I don't know if they're going to keep in. that version of the intro, but very much enjoyed it.

Quite something. It's hard, isn't it? Saying the same thing every week. We've done nearly 200. Yeah. But maybe like 100, nearly the questions and answers. So that's, it's, you know. Oh yeah, we're catching up.

Yeah. Have you got a question for me? Yes. You know what? I have several. I've got two questions which are sort of on the same subject. We talked about The Rock and his movie, The Smashing Machine.

And Nerris Morgan asked, the opening weekend for The Smashing Machine, gross just $6 million, that's very bad. Who should be the most concerned about their future in Hollywood? The Rock A-24 or Benny Safdi, the director. And John Sharp says to celebrate the premiere of The Smashing Machine and Dway's Shawfire Oscar win, what are your top three films starring wrestlers?

I love both these questions. Okay, first of all, just to deal with the thing first, six million, this is sort of a movie about a man dealing with his, you know, demons and drug addiction, right? And it's an indie movie. Yeah, six million is. fine for this type of movie. Unfortunately, it cost $50 million, which is problematic to say nothing of the marketing. That doesn't include the marketing. And it shouldn't have cost

that much money. Why did it cost $50 million? Just because of the director and the star? It's not, but it's not purely, they had a lot of locations that obviously the talent is significant. I can't remember what the rock got. Rock got maybe got four or five million for this and Emily Blunt will have got a lot. And Benny Safdi wrote and directed. And sometimes when someone is a writer and a director and in charge of everything, it rather slows down the process. So anyway, whatever, it shouldn't have cost that much. It costs what it cost. And then they did have this issue with, you know, in American presidential campaigning, they call it the October surprise, something that kind of comes out late and changes the race. When Taylor Swift said, I'm putting my movie into

my sort of album launch party into things that same weekend. That was not great. But actually, there will be a post-mortem on this, definitely for 824. I think what we found out here is. here is that they thought the MMA fans would come out and there are a lot of them but they haven't and they might mix martial arts mixed martial arts maybe they should have known that because the iron claw which was actually even better received critically they didn't get anywhere near the awards conversation which is what they want we'll see what happens with sydney's playing a fighter in something called christie um that's not afraid to it but that's going to come out and we'll see what that does she's put on a certain amount of pounds for this

role so yeah okay so in terms of who does who's doing who should be be most worried. The Rock, don't worry, keep going. I mean, he's not going to love it what's happened here. And you can see he doesn't love it. But in a way, it actually ties into, it actually works for him in some ways, which is, I'm not always just about big blockbuses that knock it out of the park. I'm also about art. And one thing that a flop says is art. You know, one thing that he keeps telling us that he's sort of transformed into one of the people. That's a transformation too far from him. He's going to be a lot happier next year when he's got like the next year mangy and he's going to be a lot happier with that and he can go back and this can be all

be a bad memory until he decides to do it again, which he will, which he will do. But having said that, think about that fourth best actor spot because you've got probably locked on, you've got Leonardo DiCaprio, Timothy Chalameh, which is the other Saffty Brothers movie we haven't seen yet, Marche Supreme, Michael B Jordan for sinners and you've got George Clooney for Jay Kelly, which again people haven't seen yet. But that is going to be a real fight for that fifth spot. If you think he's giving up now, no way, okay. and if he gets nominated even

that's a whole different thing. So he doesn't have anything to worry about. If you were the Oscars, by the way, you might think about nominating the Rock because, you know, you want, you know, you want ratings, right? You want people to, yeah. Well, again, they didn't come out to see the movie

so why should they see the Oscar ceremony of the Rockin? I suppose so. There's certain things weird. If it's him or, you know, J.K. Simmons, you need to think who would you go for? So Benny Safdi, he got the best director at Venice. I do think we should talk about film festivals and what are they actually for.

at a certain point. Remember this got a sort of 17 minute standing ovation in the rock ride, blah, blah. This is probably their most expensive movie and they may say to each other, why have we done this, we're probably going to stay out the fight game for a bit. Because we've had a couple that haven't got if he doesn't get nominated or whatever it is. Benny Shafti, as I say, got best director, I think, at Venice. So I would have thought he would be thinking. But he, so the most worried,

what, Benny Safdi, of those three, but nobody's very worried, okay. No one likes a flop. No one likes a flop. But these are three people who can probably take them off. This wouldn't be a flop if they hadn't spent so much money on it. This would be a fine movie. But given they did it is a flop. Darren Aronowski, the wrestler, which Mickey Rort was in, took a lot longer to get to that sort of money.

And, you know, he nearly got Best Actor for that. So whatever. Which brings me on to the next bit of the question. Best three movies starring wrestlers. I've adapted this question to say movies wrestlers are in because they're not that many movies that are actually starring lessons. Yes, yeah, yeah. Okay. In ascending order. No.

Yes. Ascending, which, so I'm putting the three first. Yeah, but that would be descending order. In numbers, yeah, but ascending going up to the top, the pinnacle of the list. Okay, is that not commonly recognised? Yeah, maybe. All right. Well, let's be... Starting at number three. Number three, Mickey Rourke and the wrestler, which they did have real wrestlers in it from WW.

Because Darren Aronowski wanted to make it. And also much lower circuit wrestling because he wanted to make it real. I love that movie. I thought it was brilliant. Number two, I have Rocky 3 where Hulk Hogan plays Thunderlit. Do you remember what, like,

this is like, you know, the premise of it, I'm not going to spoil it. You're going for that instead of Mr. Mom? Yeah. Okay. Yes, I am. Because Rocky 3 is brilliant.

It's got a fantastic training montage, not the best training montage, which is obviously the one from Rocky 4, the Cold War one with Jargo and whatever. But at the start when Rocky's kind of like, you know, he's got, he's just become a celebrity. he fights thunderlips and

Stallone said that Hulk Hogan almost killed him because he was so strong and he like really threw him you know and obviously you know I'm going to break some news Stallone is quite tiny in real life and Hulk Hogan wasn't everyone's tiny in real life yes well not the next guy but funnily enough

at number one my movie's starring I know what it's going to be I know what it's going to be you do it's going to be a guy who look right down on you he's 7 foot 4 it is Andre the Giant as Fezic in the Princess Bride, who's wonderful. I'll tell you what, that, you know what, it's just so wonderful.

I didn't love the way the list started, the ascending, the sending thing. I love the way the list finished. Yeah. Now, Andre the Giant was a proper wrestler. He'd been a wrestler in Europe and in France, and then he came to the WWF. And he had sort of big feuds within the WWF with Hulk Hogan, Jake the Snake Roberts. I can't remember who the other ones were with. But he was a champion in 88.

Now, he was 7 foot 4, so as I say, he was a passion. you on your head and floored you with an elbow drop. Wrestling teaches you you really have to be good at timing and his comic timing

in that movie is fantastic everybody loved him he was hugely popular that is number one that movie for me and also I mean I absolutely love the Princess Bride

in so many lists in so many you could have asked me in so many different lists in that movie we would do number one but absolutely bona fide a wrestler

in a significant role in the movie and wrestling has really given him something which is the comic timing is very very good I saw a quote from him where he said, children either run towards me or run away from me, Andre the Giant said.

He was so wonderful. He was Samuel Beckett's chauffeur, briefly. Yes. Yeah. He's had a very interesting career. He was an amazing person and really interesting. This is a very good question because I watched this episode. Lydia Miller says, my sister Amelia and I appeared on Dragon's Den last night.

This was last week. Pitching our business, Stephen and Deborah invested. Amelia and I were in the den for over two hours being questioned by the dragon so my question is what actually goes on in the editing room

are producers creating a narrative first and then fitting the footage around it kind of like they're writing a scripted episode did they storyboard character arcs and get those approved before editing

please shed some light for me your show is the bomb oh thank you guys hello Lydia and in media I watched it as well it's I mean you can see why people invested in them they were very very good

what they've got is a platform to help people particularly women I mean, get back into work after a long period out of the workforce. It's called Ivy. And they wanted 75K for a 3% stake in the business. The pitch was incredibly charming and personable. They were very, very good.

One of the all-time great starts for a pitch. They sort of started personalising. They go, I want you to imagine somebody called Carol. So Carol has a career in marketing. She's done incredibly well. She decided to take some time out. She has three children. and then finds

she can't get back into the world of work and then they go and two of those children are here now I think what Carol was your mum oh my God

Carol woman was that was your mum What I was immediately thinking was they're going to love you because you've given them an organic reveal that you've brought in you're like TV people already Lydia and Amelia

because you've brought your pitch contains a reveal within about you know 42 seconds. So you have literally saved the editors probably half a day there of going, how do we get across that it's them that it happened to their mum? Have we got an interview with them where they say the reason we're doing this is because of our mum? Or can we get Peter to say, what was the inspiration behind this? Which they would have to do otherwise.

Because Lydia was quite right. They're building a story. So the thing that's happened in the den is true, which is they bought in this business plan and the reactions of the dragons were what they were and the investment they got is what it is. But that story has to be told to viewers in a way that firstly, we want them to get an investment. So either we love their business plan or we love their story. So you have to get that across. And secondly, understanding how that investment comes about and also putting some jeopardy into the idea that maybe they won't get. I slightly love the question because saying we were in there for over two hours and I reckon their thing was like 16 to 17 minutes

guys only you can tell us what really happened in there and then you can maybe sort of retrofit what they did afterwards but I thought it was perfect because two very personable charming people who are very very on it come in and ask for not a huge amount of money you're not going to get 17 minutes out of that unless you can create as all TV fiction writers will tell you TV eats plot and really you know to get 17 minutes out of something.

It's actually 20 minutes. Was it? Yeah, each one is like you go 16 minutes, 16 minutes, five minutes, which is the, or sometimes two and a half, two and a half, which is a couple of food that came in. And then this final one, which was 20, just over 20 minutes. As you say, that is actually, that's the length of a sitcom. So you might have been in there for two hours, but actually getting 20 minutes out of two hours is, I mean, that's more than you would expect to get out of two hours.

You'd expect to get maybe five minutes out of two hours. So to get 20 minutes is going at some. So both of us went back and watched it. You've got your great reveal at the beginning. Brilliant. They would have loved you for that. For anyone who wants to, you know, bring along something like that because that really was. And also, they're not even, you know, the vision mixer is cutting to the dragons.

They're pretty much not having to put an editor. There'll be little bits they've clipped out here and there. But you have done such a huge amount of work for them that otherwise they would have had to do. That is something that they would have had to do, which is why do I care? so you've told us absolutely why we care this is your mum okay got it we are absolutely on board I mean listen the pitch might still be terrible but we are on board we want you to succeed then they said well we're actually still in the active testing you guys said we're still in the active testing phase we've only been going a month then listen to the music because then

the music suggests peril like okay oh okay then you're seeing the cutaways to everyone going oh I see okay maybe this isn't as good as it sound if you watch American reality TV if you or something that's kind of made in America, even if it's shown here, something like Hell's Kitchen now, it is deafening the music. British reality TV producers don't really like music. They have a bit like this,

and it's very subtle in Dragons Day. In America, like, no, you can't have a single sentence without this incredibly kind of portentous music being layered on top of it as though. And also, by the way, the second that, you know, someone, when they said, how long have you been in this, only a month, you would then cut to a master interview of Amelia or Lydia

shot afterwards going and that was the point they asked about timing and we had to say oh my God it's only been a month I'm looking at them like Amelia's look at them as well we're thinking oh my God

we've blown it here and then you cut back to the thing just in case you can't work out from their faces which they don't do over here yeah thank God they don't do it because you have to be your own you know have to gloss your own appearance

then suddenly there was an intervention from Joe Wicks and it was like oh I see that's nice he really likes he was the sort of gas dragon He's a guest dragon, yeah. And then it was like, oh, hang on a second. You could see everyone, he said, I loved you. And also, I like people who, I love quitters because they both left their jobs to do it.

And that was a nice line. And so you saw the other smiling. And then you're thinking, oh, hang on. And then there's some hopeful music. So you're like, hang on, have they got this in the bag? So again, I mean, Lydia's absolutely right. There is a narrative that has to be written here. And with all reality shows, the thing you have to remember is the editor knows the ending.

So the editor knows where we're headed. The editor knows that we are going to be pleased at the end because they know the beginning, which is, oh, we like these two and we like this story. We know the end, which is they are going to get money. So in between those two things, I have to think of a series of things. Firstly, there are five different dragons, all of whom have slightly different takes on what this is, and all of whom have to be edited in. You can't sort of, you know, just because Tuka decides he wants to be out.

You can't just go, oh, let's forget Tuka. It doesn't matter. Let's just say old Tuka was out. So you have to edit all of those things in. to tell that story. You also, as you say, I know what's going to happen, which is they're going to make the money, I have to inject some jeopardy into it that suggests they might not get the money because as a view I had to, you know, so that has to be in there. And then it happens that the offer they get is quite a complicated one, because everyone pretty much wants a piece of it,

apart from the, you know, I think Peter and Tuka both go out early, but everyone else wants a piece of it. And then they have a negotiation as to what different pieces of it they want. And this will be where the two hours is there would have been lots and lots of extra discussions about all sorts of things. And the editor has to go, what does the viewer actually need to know here? What are the final terms? I know what the final terms are, which are, you're going to get this percentage, you're going to get this percentage. You're adding a little bit extra, Stephen, for this. So I know that. I know what wasn't involved in the final conclusion. So anything that doesn't get involved in the final conclusion, I can lose.

All these other kind of minor little points, I can lose all of that because I'm heading towards one particular place, which is Stephen puts some money in, Deborah puts some money in, Stephen offers something extra a little else. Sarah slightly gets gazumped. Those are the only things. That's the story I need to tell because that's the conclusion. And with that, edit, you saw, okay, so if Stephen gets to be the, it becomes slightly Stephen. Stephen's story. So Stephen at first looks very skeptical. Oh, it's, you're only going for mine. Then he says, well, hang on. Scaling a social network is like chewing glass. Again, if you're in the edit, you love that because it's very, very evocative. You two did a

response to it, which was like, well, we can chew glass. We can chew glass, which is the perfect response. And then you're like, okay, great. So you understood how that would work as part of, I mean, he understood. And later on, by the way, when he is then thinking when other people are in, he's kind of going, listen, I can chew glass for you. I can do that. Or He wants to choose so much glass by the end. I've already chewed it. Yeah. They actually left too much of the phrase chewing glass in because it was so evocative. But anyway, there was nice sort of cutaways for all of that. And then at the very end, the cheeky counters to it, they always like if people have a little bit of fighting the comp flab at the end. Yeah, you have the

going to the wall, which is very, very useful in the edit because that's the point where the two of you are able to, you know, I think they say to each other, we said, look, 6% is the most we can possibly go to. So again, we kind of get something there. They come back. and counter, I think it was Lydia counters Stevens and they deal with it in very smart, very tough way, but essentially it is, I know you're in there

for two hours, but 20 minutes is a lot of television. The editor knows what happens in the end and has to make that satisfying for a viewer, has to make it understandable for the viewer and has to make it triumphant for the viewer. Absolutely. I think the fact she's asking this

question is significant though because she maybe it felt far more formless. in the moment and this order has been imposed on it in retrospect I wonder if that's why Lydia asked that question but only you can tell us

like how long you spent at the wall how long I mean I'm fascinated by it all and also just as a tiny little coder to this you know that they heard that they'd got the spot on it when they were on their way back from Glastonbury and they basically had to sort of divert oh no

yeah I know they had 12 hours in a hotel room to just like refine the pit so it's a real like they had to rush and do that and, you know, they put it all together in a kind of last minute, and it was a real... It was a trium. It came off. Yeah, it was really good.

And all of it's nice. And you get the posting afterwards. They all said, look, these two are just super investable. And they are. And so Stephen puts him 50 grand and has got them, like, working in his office. And that was like, and also I can add that you can work in my office and have this office space. And you're thinking, oh, my God. He can't say, oh, my God.

He can't say, oh, my God. He can't he? He can sell, can he? But you're thinking, Stephen's thinking, great, I've got two unbelievably talented people and they're literally on the floor below me. So I can just, you know, Stephen's getting something out of that as well. You know, but it was great storytelling. But what a lovely question to get from somebody who's been in the middle of that process.

But I hope that you also felt you were properly represented. And if you don't, then you should have done because you came across brilliantly. Yeah, you really did. Yeah. And thank you for saying that the podcast is the bomb. Thank you. All right. Shall we now go to a break?

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Andy Stafford has a question. This is a think piece, this question. I'd be interested in your view. I don't know what I think about it, so I'm happy to discuss. Andy Stafford says, do you think there is any mileage in producing a version slash cut of the traitors where the audience are also unaware of the identity of the traitors? Okay, the second I heard this question, I thought, oh, like, would Romeo and Juliet be better if you didn't know they were going to die?

Sorry, what? It's in like probably the eighth line of the prologue, Richard, so I'm not doing a spoiler. I was looking at my program. I had my Malteseers. Okay, right. Well, if you watch it again... They say in the prologue that they're going to die in Raymond and Juliet? Yes.

That's crazy. What's he thinking? Oh my God. I don't know. You know what? It was a hit. Well, yes, I suppose I'm. And I suppose quite often you watch things.

Placer or hits business and this one is a hit. I never absolutely sure when I watch a TV program and they have like a big thing. And then it goes three months earlier. I'm like, oh, I don't know. Yeah, that's annoying. I agree. But you know what? It often works.

Well, that's dramatic irony. If you, if we know. And that's dramatic irony. And that the traitors is an absolute prime example of dramatic irony is that you know more, the audience knows more and it really adds tension, it adds comedy. Let's go back. The mole, which is a show, a similar-ish show, okay, they didn't tell people, which is another format, they didn't tell people, there were clues hidden in the episodes, and the editing, both visual and verbal clues, all editions kept it that way, wherever they had the mall. People who were

involved in that said it made it hard because so much is then on the edit. And you have to create suspicion with the edit. And also, Stephen Lambert himself, the head of Studio Lambert, who makes the traitors, has said he thought that that was maybe a drawback to that one. And actually, he thinks it's great that you know more and that you don't, you're not watching a show where you feel like you're being lied to in the edit. And you're given all the information. He acknowledges that when it was the original format, which was in Holland, it was a hard sell. for the people who originally came up with it. Because they were like, and sorry, you give it all away

by just saying who the traitors are right from the start. And they were like, no, no, no, that will be like the real, that would be the good bit. Yeah. The roundtable is the dramatic heart of the show. They've obviously made the tasks much better and they've done that, Princeby, by making them hilariously Gothic and camp, which I love.

But you want to watch the round table. Now, without our knowledge of who the traitors were, that experience would be significantly diminished. Why would you diminish it by not letting us know? By the way, Andy is right. there is a part of that roundtable that would be improved and there's one part of that roundtable

which is we would see the person get up and say if they're a traitor or not a traitor and in traditional game shows that's a big, big, big moment but what you gain on the swings they do definitely lose on the roundabouts because even when you have that reveal you know that you are going to see the people

seeing that reveal as well. It's essentially like watching a football match and to watch a football match you do have to hear from both sides. You do need to know what tactically is happening. And the show is much improved by hearing the traitors talk about what's just happened and what their tactic is and how they feel like, you know, I can't believe that Alan said all done, you know, out loud to me.

Just all of those little things. So instinctively it feels like you shouldn't know because guessing games are very, very important. But this is not a guessing game. This is a strategic game show. And to watch a strategic game show, you need to hear the strategy of both sides. So think about what it gives you dramatic. You know, as we've always said, you know, the traitor is a strong position because it allows you to control the game. Often think about these things as though they were fictions and it really helps you understand what's happening.

Because people trying to control events, often good people trying to control events or good people doing bad things. You know, at one level it can be Walter White in Breaking Bad and events have a way of going beyond your control or it can be Alan Carr having a meltdown over the lily pollen murder. It's like, you know, sometimes good people have to do bad things and knowing that that's what's happening really gives you something. And drama is often a quest and it's so... And when I'm talking about drama, yes, I'm talking about fiction,

but I'm also talking about what they're trying to create here. It's definitely a quest in this. and it helps you in drama to know what will happen if the hero or anti-hero because it's kind of an anti-hero show what will happen if what they want and what will happen if they don't achieve their goal drama comes in the conflict

and all the stuff about drama comes things that basically prevent or divert the hero from reaching their goal and they may attain it in the end or they may not but it helps to know that they're trying to reach that goal and it helps to know who the hero is or isn't it helps to know yes absolutely and it helps to see how they're becoming diverted

and it helps to know know what will happen if they don't get that. Yeah. And we know all of those things. One of the key driving points of the entire format and the entire show is seeing the powerlessness of the faithful. Yeah. And just seeing them desperately try and find something and seeing how hard that is for them. And if you did not know who the traitors were, that would also be you. Yeah. As a viewer, you kind of think, I sort of don't have enough information to be

going on here. And I'm not going to find out that information until episode 12 or, you know, something like that is just you lose so much by not knowing you lose so much of the joy of the gameplay and this traitors is only one thing and it is gameplay that's all that's happening here there's nothing else happening but gameplay and if you are only seeing half the gameplay you're not seeing the game so it feels like we would like you know feels like it would be a fun intellectual exercise to be able to watch a whole series not knowing who the traitors were and it would be a fun intellectual exercise for sure but it would only be a fun intellectual exercise having watched it knowing who the traitors were in other series and i have to say just as a tiny little code at all of that

your question which suggests that you know you could just produce a cut the other way oh my god it's like okay the level of intricacy and it's no mean thing to make it takes months to make to cut the traitors it would be an entirely different program it would take you months because to create a cut and it is a brilliantly edited show is the work of months. And so to say, could you just knock me off one while we don't know? It's like, yeah, have you got six months? Yeah.

This is a lovely question from Stephanie Shrub. On Strictly this week, Ellie and Vito danced to a version of Elton John's Your Song, which had been specially rearranged to be in three, four time, to fit their waltz. I'd like to know how far in advance the songs are selected, and if the original track needs more than a simple edit, what do the couples rehearse to? My God, genuinely, the whole, so Dave Arch, who runs the, the best, band on Strictly and it's like a genius he's a conductor he's got like a million credits as well so he's like he's sometimes people go oh Dave Arch he's the Strictly guy he's a lot more than that

but Strictly is is a thing that he's obviously known for in the in the public eye it is one of those things you think oh I hope that's kind of simple I hope that's fun for Dave and his incredible band and his incredible singers it genuinely sounds like one of the toughest jobs in show business so you'll you will be getting essentially what the songs will be on the Sunday, so Dave will have that on the Sunday, so we'll know roughly what the songs are, and his band will know what the songs are, and some songs they'll know, some songs they won't,

they will also know what dances, those songs are going to be for, so they'll have an idea of, you know, timings and this, the other, it is then a sort of back and forth across the whole week, Dave Arch has spoken about this extensively, it's a back and forth across the whole week of exactly what the

dancers want, exactly what Dave thinks works in time, you know, in terms of what you can, edit out of a song, how you can shunt a song together. So they will be, essentially, the start of the week, they are definitely not rehearsing to the final track. It is a back and forth. And it's only on the Friday, I think,

that they have the first rehearsal where it's Dave's final version of the track and the dancers dancing to that song as well. So it's one of those things where it is just a dance between the two sides of these things. But because Dave is so brilliant and because his musicians are so brilliant because his singers are so brilliant, Dave can be more flexible than the dancers can be. Essentially, what the dancers want has primacy in terms of here's the choreography, here's the thing I need it to be, here's the length I need it to be, I need to not have that middle eight, I need the...

Need it to be in different time. It's so complicated. I don't know how they do it. I need the chorus to repeat. Especially at this stage when you've got this many happening. I just... You've got that many happening. Exactly. You know, and listen, most of you've got this incredible band who can play. everything and anything but they also, they're going to be doing this live and they don't have a huge amount of rehearsals and anything

you get wrong is immediately apparent to the dancers and there's an immediate issue to the dancers. Dave Arch even says even, you know, I've been in this 20 years and I still have sleepless nights. He says especially like on the Friday night I literally will have a sleep this night because I'm aware of all the things

that can go wrong. But it is a testament to the skill of musicians who played everything forever and it is a testament to the producers to be fair who are between the two the choreographers and the band and just making sure that everyone is kept in the loop at all times but if there is any sort of dispute then the musicians will have to come over towards the dancers apart from me you know if there's something that physically cannot be done but everything will be done to make sure the dancers have the things that they need because they're the ones who

are practicing all week but Dave has to be incredibly flexibly flexible in what he does and how he does it and I genuinely when you see it and you hear it and it's it feels seamless

absolutely phenomenal I literally it will give me asleep this night if I even try and think how they do it Dave was asleep this night

and he knows how it's done but it makes you think because he looks so jolly at the beginning of the episode and the band you know

belting out these amazing songs and you know and just the again with strictly so many people look at the top of their games

there and Dave Arch and his band what they do And the incredible gang of singers, he has as well. It's really, really, really difficult what they do. And you would never notice. You would never, ever spot how hard they are all working all the time.

And the things they've had to do and the compromises they've had to make half an hour before sometimes. You know, it's tiny little tweaks going right up to the last minute. But it's genuinely, you have to take your hat off to everyone involved. It's so phenomenal. The production on it is so phenomenal. The sets, the costumes, everything about it is the sort of apogee of what you'd want to be working on. He wrote the theme tune to GMTV, Dave Arch. Paul Farah got in touch, the guy who wrote the Chase theme. Yeah, he was like every, he's one of the great kind of TV composers. Yes, and said he'd really enjoyed all the whole chat about it and said, but yeah, no control.

So it's as well as being the theme for the chase, it's also the theme for the nightly news in the Philippines and Romania. So the Chase theme tune is, so I like that. Yeah, if you're on a Romanian hotel room and suddenly you're going, oh, the Chase, oh, no, it's the news. Oh, and Paul Farrow also, so he helped us out with some stuff on the theme tunes, and he said something about their Faulty Towers theme tune. And now he's in John Cleese's new book, which is all about 40 Towers, but talking about the theme tune. So that's nice. Lovely. Yeah.

Right. I think that about wraps us up for today. I very much enjoyed that. and we'll be back with a bonus about a reality TV impresario monster, hilarious figure, Mike Darnel. And other than that, we'll see you next Tuesday. See you next Tuesday. 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

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