The Rest Is Entertainment - The Biggest Ever Comebacks

Episode Date: November 27, 2025

What are the biggest ever comebacks in entertainment history? From the golden age of Hollywood to musical resurrections, Richard and Marina chart the best ever comeback stories. Is your door in the draw? Sign up by midnight 30th November at https://postcodelottery.co.uk. People’s Postcode Lottery manages lotteries on behalf of good causes, 18 plus, conditions apply, play responsibly, not available in Northern Ireland. 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: Sean Thorne Assistant Producer: Imee Marriott Senior Producer: Joey McCarthy Social Producer: Bex Tyrrell Exec Producer: Neil Fearn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by People's Postcode Lottery. You know how we love a grand finale, the standing ovation, the envelope revealed, the sense that something extraordinary might just happen. Well, that same feeling could be waiting behind your own front door, People's Postcode Lottery, staging its biggest ever prize pot. A share of 38.2 million pounds is ready to be won in their December drawers. And if you fancy joining the cast, sign up before midnight on the 30th of November, because the next great story might not be on screen, it could be on your street.

And even if you're not taking a bow, something good still happening behind the scenes. A minimum of 30% from every ticket goes to good causes across Great Britain and beyond. People's Postcode Lottery players have already raised over £1.5 billion for charities and good causes. Is your door in the drawer? Sign up before midnight 30th November at postcodeottery.com. People's Postcode Lottery manages lotteries on behalf of good causes. 18 plus, conditions apply, play responsibly, not available in Northern Ireland. Hello and welcome to this episode of The Resters Entertainment with me, Marina Hyde.

And me, Richard Osmond. Hello, Marina. Hello, Richard. How are you? I'm all right. Now, we're not doing a Q&A this week. We've been set quite a fun challenge, which is the biggest ever comebacks. I think you're going to do TV and film. I'm going to do music. I'm going to do books and I'm going to do comedy. Can we just get on to the fact of, okay, if you're talking about a comeback, what is a comeback? Yeah.

In my view, you have to have fallen out of the public. public taste for one reason or another. I mean, I guess it could be scandal or it could just be a matter of everybody's moved on from you. Indifference. Yeah. The greatest enemy in job is. And then somehow you come back. There's a couple of what I've put in mind, which I probably will then say, oh no, actually I think they just used to be cult heroes and then they became mainstream. I just simply through mine, I think because I wasn't aware that you were going to be the person defining all the terms. I think it'll be okay. But we will, we will absolutely keep in it. You're welcome to argue with me. I think you know that by now. Oh, do you know what? That's not a bad idea. I should start doing that. Okay, what should we start with? Biggest ever movie comebacks? Yeah. Biggest ever actor comebacks?

Okay, well, I'll talk about... You're not going to love this. I'm going to talk about actors, but then I want to talk about a genre as well. And I know, but... Why am I not going to love that? Well, maybe you will, because you'll see that it doesn't quite fit in either category, but okay. Oh my God, that would, yeah, that I don't like. In terms of biggest ever, I would say, I know lots of people think it was John Travolta,

because Travolta was a sort of, you know, big star and he had Greece and stuff. Saturday at fever and all of those sort of things. And then suddenly he has this like abysmal 80s and he's a nothing. He's a zero. He was the first name that came to mind. I mean, those were at least hits. Yeah. I mean, there's some other really, you know, nothing happens at all.

And he's almost on TV movies. And then Quentin Tarantino kind of rescues him from taboo and puts him in Pulp Fiction, which has a number of taboos in it. And then he becomes sort of cool again. So I get it. It would probably be in my top three. That was going to be, yeah, he, I would say, rather than that, he was going to be in my top three. I'm not doing a top three for movies because I know you're in charge of that.

Nicholas Cage, I feel like Nicholas Cage, you know, because he's become quite ironist and he's become a person who's, like, ironic about being Nicholas Cage now. I went back and I was thinking of the early stuff. I mean, if you're telling me he doesn't get the joke of Nicholas Cage, which I've always felt was his USP as an actor, he does even in like Raising Arizona. He certainly does in Moonstrach. And that's going back to the 80. And I'm not sure he had a super fallow period, did he? No, I don't think he really did. Mickey Rourke and Brendan Fraser, I'm sort of bracketing together

because they both did that thing where they have completely fallen away from the public mood. And then Brendan Fraser gets extremely fat and wears a fat suit for a role for the whale. And Mickey Rourke, for the wrestler, gets like stapled and stuff with the staple gun. But it didn't last. So they do have this amazing comeback. And everyone's like, oh, they're on the award circuit. They're nominated in some cases win various awards. But then you're not like, oh, what's Brendan Fraser doing now?

It's like, yeah, no, I think he did the comeback and then he's gone. What is Brenda Fraser doing now? I don't know. Kaye-Hai Kwan, who was short round in Indiana. That's a really good one. I know, that's a lovely story because he eventually sort of basically leaves Hollywood because he thinks there are just no roles for Asian actors. And then suddenly like crazy rich Asians happen.

And he thinks, oh, hang on. I mean, I guess there is a vibe out there. And it's in fact, Jeff Cohen, who's one of his Goonies co-star, says, you've got really pushes him for everything everywhere all at once and he comes back into Hollywood and he wins an Oscar yes that's a great comeback yeah I didn't think about that at all that's great I think I'm having him as my three oh he's number three okay I've had we don't have to do top threes of all them but I would number two I know everyone thinks Robert Danny Jr because obviously he had this great career and then he kind of threw it

all away if he's not your number one I'm already you're going to be so annoyed by my number one is but it means well I don't want you to be because she's amazing and a complete monster but yeah but so Robert Downey Jr he has this kind of complete he falls apart with drugs and anyway he comes back and

he has to be drug tested every day anyway as we know it goes on to become the greatest ever run of massive hits in Hollywood history so he's my number two number one going back into Hollywood's past is Joan Crawford now let me tell you the story of

Joan Crawford was a star at MGM. MGM was the prestige studio. It was beautiful. Everyone, it was the most glamorous. When she was at her peak, there were like three megastars. It was her, Greta Garbo and Norma Shearer. She's huge. But then... That's which is now the line-up of the rest is football. Yeah. Is that right? Exactly. Exactly. God, I wonder which one she'd be. Not Gary. She becomes absolutely huge.

But then she then starts, her film, stop making money. And she's the, she is the person described as box office poise. So she becomes that thing. She finally sort of basically is allowed to leave because they don't even want her anymore. Because stars back then were contracted then. It was really important. You couldn't do anything else. You had to work for a studio and that was it. She's not getting any good parts.

She goes to Warner Brothers, which are a much more scrappy studio, not in the top tier, but she, through absolute force of will. She is an incredible force of nature, like I said, a complete monster. But she stars in Mildred Pierce and she gets the best actress, Oscar. is amazing. But then it all falls away again. And over the whole of the, you know, most of the 50s, she is completely, she can't get arrested. And then she comes back in 1962. She's done a double comeback. Yeah. That's why I'm putting her in with whatever happened to baby Jane, with her and Betty Davis. And from then on, she passes into the, and she becomes an sort of iconic scream queen because she goes into sort of horror and thriller and things like that. And also, women got written off in such an extreme way in that, in that era, more even than now. By, by, by, by, by, by. long way and through sheer force of will and you know force of nature can be a euphemism and certainly was in Joan Crawford's

case she pushes her way all the way back so I think for me she is the ultimate comeback machine in movies right but I've got to say one more thing because this thing a genre the Western the Western was the biggest thing ever in America movies as we know for how long and then the great thing they always say about Heaven's Gate Michael Jimino's like legendary flop is that

it kind of murdered three things it murdered the idea of the new Hollywood all these directors being given kind of infinite powers it murdered a studio United Artists which actually is collapsed by it and it murdered the Western genre like no one's going to make a Western after that

not entirely true because you do get certain ones and you get things like I don't know Unforgiven or Young Guns or like the hateful hate and things come back but you never really think this genre has kind of had its day and yet what are all Taylor Sheridan shows if not Westerns there

and it's a really big sense of itself part of its sense of itself, that bit of America, the kind of Western ideas. So you've got Yellowstone, which is obviously explicitly, basically a Western. But even shows like, you know, Landman, it's a kind of frontier land shows. It's a place where normal rules don't reapply. Even like Tulsa King, where it's set in a city, it's really very much a new sheriff's in town. And so I think that that idea, that like, Westerns were dead, Westerns have never been big.

They are the biggest shows on TV. The Western Sensibility. Yeah. but Vart Taylor Sheridan, I think that that I would say that they're all, I mean, I think Landman is a western so I would say that genre that really seem dead is not dead at all. Okay.

Shall we move on to comeback singles? Oh yes. Which I think it's interesting. Album and stuff, I think it's boring, but like a comeback single that rescues an act from kind of, from despair because that's what can happen with music. You just release an absolute banger and everyone goes, everything else is forgiven and forgotten.

It's the great thing about music is, You can just do in three minutes. You can absolutely transform your career. I'll do top three as well. My top two I've absolutely got in order. My third one is slightly tricky. I've gone with UK ones really because I find that much more interesting. And the three I've gone for, I remember early 90s,

Blur had turned up and had done, there's no other way, and had sort of like a baggy dance top 10 hit. And suddenly there were all these guitar bands. And Blur were absolutely in the... the dumper. They'd had two or three singles that went to kind of number 34 or something like that. And they looked like they were going to be the also-rans of the Brit Pop movement. There's all these other bands starting up at the same time. And you think, oh, those chances from Chelmsford who did that sort of indie dance tune, they're disappearing. Then I went to see

them at the town and country club. Don't go looking for it. It's not there. In Kentish Town. And they played girls and boys. And you were like, wow. What is the gap between that and there's no other way? I mean, not long. But it seems like forever because they had so disappeared. Yeah. But, you know, they had, as all bands do at the start of their career, you know, look at Radiohead with anyone can play guitar.

You know, you think, what do we need to do? How do we have a hit? How do we become successful? They do that very quickly. And then a smart band like Radiohead or Blur goes, no, actually, who are we? What is it that we do? So they go away, they wrote the suite of songs that became Park Life.

girls and boys comes out gets to number five a year later is Blur versus Oasis and Blur are one of the two biggest bands in the country but anyone who goes back and remembers that time Blur were absolutely they've been written off and they came back because well firstly they had that song Girls and Boys

which absolutely were introducing to people and then the Park Life album blew everybody away but so I was thought of thinking about them for number three then I was also thinking about Duran Duran who really had absolutely disappeared from the scene. And you know, Duran Duran Fans still love them, but they were seen as a, you know, a band from the 80s and they were seen as pretty boys and all that type of stuff. They then decide, you know what? Forget studios, forget expensive producers. We are going to go and sit in someone's living room and record some songs. And they came back with, I think it's the greatest comeback single of all time, ordinary world. And even to this day, weirdly with all their hits, it's always tops the poles of Duran Duran Duran Fans's favorite songs. Because it's about being in the wilderness and sort of, you know, or just have.

and having to just make your peace with not being... And it's also just brilliant. Yeah, it's a brilliant song. And talking of people who are seen as boy bands, my other contender for the number three spot was Patience by Take That. Because, again, you know, Robbie had gone. You know, the career short, surely their career is over. They come back with patience.

They follow up with Shine. So you're like, that's the way to come back. And they're still with us now because of that, because they went away. They wrote a load of amazing songs. Yeah. So back they come. So take any way.

one of those as your number three. Number two, this is six months after, I'm going to talk about share. I really wanted you because you said you were going to talk about British people and I was like, what? Well, British hits hit singles, I think. Of course, I'm going to talk about Cher.

Six months after, she has a number 23 hit in the UK charts with a cover version of I Got You Babe, which is Share with Beavis and Butthead. Oh my God. Rob Dickens at her record label is looking around for songs for her 22nd studio album. And there's a song that's been kicking around for a while called Believe. And lots of

people liked the chorus. They offered it to St. Etienne. And St. Etienne said, no, everyone who's offered it said, I like the chorus. I don't really like the verses. That's fun. I didn't know they offered it at St. Etienne. I can slightly imagine her doing it. Yeah. In her own very distinctive way. They do a good version. I think it'd probably be quite hard to do a bad version of Believe the final version. So Rob Dickens then sends it out to some other songwriters. And they write completely new verses and it goes to share and hears it share like everyone says oh i love the i love the chorus that's pretty good she said like you know i like i like the first verse but the second verse she's still this woman is still whining so she goes let me rewrite the second verse here she writes

it's a much more positive thing doesn't get a writer's credit by the way even to this day she said oh it's the biggest regret in my career i should have just said so she rewrites that they go into a studio and do it again it's you know shares share but she she hasn't sort of had a had a had a huge hit for a very, very long time. She has actually, though, had one previous comeback. Absolutely, absolutely. Because there was a long period away between the whole Sonny and share business and her being up on the USS Missouri in a song singing if I could turn back time.

Listen, she's had many comebacks share, but I'm talking about just a... She always will. And she always will. She's probably having one as we speak. So she goes into the studio. They record this song. The producers do that. vocal effect, which is, they said was a vocoder, but it wasn't. It was actually

auto tune, but they didn't want to admit that autotune existed at that point. So they were still saying, oh, no, this, oh, that's a that's a vocoder. But autotune actually has a share effect button now. So she goes in, she records that song. It is one of the 20 top selling singles of all time, absolutely relaunches share everywhere. She doesn't have to do a follow-up to her cover versions with Beavis and Butthead. Sold 11. million records believe by Cher and all for a song that St. Etienne turned down and that they had to completely rewrite the whole thing. But that's why, you know, that's the thing about music. Again, just that little piece of a bottled lightning. Number one. I was going to say,

what's number one then? Number one is a guy who was about to be dropped by his record label, A guy whom there was a huge amount of hype over and a huge amount of, okay, this is going to be our next huge worldwide star. His record company put a huge amount of money behind him. Started off with a cover version of a George Michael song, Freedom. It's Robbie Williams we're talking about. He then releases three tracks off his first album. So he released, Oh Before I Die, Lazy Days and South of the Border. none of these are huge hits

and south of the border that's number 14 which back in those days might as well be number 108 the record company is thinking oh my God

have we backed the wrong horse here when take that split up should we back Gary and everyone's thinking this is the end for Robbie there's absolutely

you know and also people are not sad about it because you know does his Robbie's arrogance works when he's successful when he was unsuccessful

it looks like arrogance when he's successful It's rather be embarrassing. Yeah, exactly. There's nothing worse than unsuccessful charisma. Yeah. And which is where he was going into charisma deficit at that point. So the record company are thinking, oh my God, what do we do here?

This was our big, big swing. We were thinking, this is a guy who, if everything goes right, if absolutely everything goes right, this guy could sell 50 million records. Because they want him to be, it's so explicit the choice of that George Michael song, which is just like, hey, he used to be in a boy band, right? Do you remember, like Wham? And then he becomes the most credible recording artist.

Do you remember? Like George Michael. And so fourth singles off albums are generally not the best singles. You know, if you're Michael Jackson, you can get away with it. But if this is a failing album and you're releasing your fourth single is not great. So they release a single. It only gets to number four, but it's Angels. It never made any sense to me to that because I just still don't understand why you can't see that that's a massive track.

I'm sorry, I would have not released the others beforehand. My view, and I do not have insider knowledge of it, is Robbie probably chose. He probably had the power to choose which songs that he wanted to release. And he probably felt that was a bit M-O-R, a little bit. He wanted to go, no, I'm cool. Probably Freedom, he's thinking, he's aware, that's a George Michael track. And he's thinking, come on. You know, I want to be my own artist.

So he's releasing songs that he thinks are cool. So he's doing, oh, before I die, lazy days and south of the border. South of the border is a good song. So he's probably thinking I don't really want to release that big ballad. And if they release that big ballad, And they're like, now you work for us. Yeah, never went to number one. But immediately the album goes to number one.

I've been out for 27 weeks at that point and had not troubled the top of the charts. Suddenly it does trouble the top of the charts. And they do not sell 50 million records for this guy. They sell over 80 million records off the back of Angels being a hit. And if it hadn't been a hit, absolutely, he would have been dropped. So I think that is the biggest ever comeback single. Okay.

Agree, disagree? I think you're a... No, I think... I don't know. Because Cher, I think Cher would have made it. I think Cher definitely would have come back at some point with something. Oh, she's a survivor, Richard. Yeah, exactly.

That's why I just, I thought Robbie just edged her. No, I think you're right. I think you're right. I defer. Should we do some efforts? Then we'll get on to TV, books. I've got a little coda on comedy as well. Oh, yes, please.

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People's Postcode Lottery manages lotteries on behalf of good causes. 18 plus, conditions apply, play responsibly. Not available in Northern Ireland. Welcome back, everybody, Marina Television. Biggest ever comeback. Biggest ever comebacks. Okay, I thought a lot about this and this person I'm sort of

going to just use as an example of what happened to quite a few people, but she was particular. So at number three I would say Paula Abdul in American Idol She was... I was not expecting you to say the words Paula Abdel. No, but there's something about

she obviously had a, it's weird because she obviously had a big music career but she had completely fallen away and the way Simon Cowell selected the judges for those shows. The way he saw something about her, and let's be honest, it was that she was slightly nuts, she was, but to sort of pull her back out of nowhere and give her that job, and no one really knew what these judging shows were at all. And she, it became, obviously it became so

completely massive. It was the number one show by far in America. And Paula Abdul, who had just been on the scrap heat, really, was suddenly bringing her particular brand of cray craye, And because also you're taking her from one genre and putting her another and saying anyone could do these things now, anyone. And it was a time where you're just thinking, oh, TV's totally different now and reality TV and all the things we know about what makes a sort of good presenter. All of those things were slightly going out of the window and we were seeing a different thing. So I'd say that was big. Now, you'll probably find this ridiculous. But sharing number two.

Yeah. Sharing number two? Sharing position. Yeah, I don't know. Well, then number three is number four. Well, okay. Fine. So Paula Adder is number four?

Okay, Paul Ardala's number four. Oh my God, you're doing the top four? Yeah. Okay, great. Sorry, is this the biggest ever list? Listen to me. It is. Is that what you say now?

Is that what you say? Larry Hagman as J.R. Oh, great. In Dallas and Joan Collins as Alexis Colby and didn't see. Really good. Because those things, okay, Larry Hagman had had like, I dream of Jeannie, which was that, you know, one of those kind of, but it wasn't that, it was not that big rating. but he was quite well-known. Like a big, that was a sitcom in the States.

Late 60s, supernatural things, a bit like bewitched or any, you know, a Married a Martian or anything like that. But he has a pretty, you know, non-existent 1970s until he is cast as J.R. Ewing in something that no one's sure is going to work at all. And it's just, you know, and it obviously becomes absolutely massive. And he is the biggest thing in it. And the whole plot line about who shot him. It's very hard to explain to people who weren't there just how big.

those soap operas were. And who shot J.R. was the most enormous thing. If you thought who voted for J.MALA was a big one, then who shot J.R. It doesn't even come close. Okay. The next one is Joan Collins because she started, I mean, she started as a, you know, with the Rank Film Organization, she started as a sort of starlit. And then even the 60s, really, much of a desert.

The 70s, there's this kind of idea that there are these new genres kind of struggling to be born, the bonk busters. and things like that. So she's in the stud and the bitch, and they're huge. But then she goes absolutely stratospheric as Alexis Colby in Dynasty. And she becomes such a huge international tall. It is actually bigger. The plot line of who shot J.R. is enormous.

But she is the biggest star. And she really, I mean, that's a comeback, an extraordinary comeback. When you think of her being like a starlit in the 50s, it really is absolutely enormous. Yeah. And it's interesting in some of these comebacks where there was always that seed of what they are to become in these a massive comeback. So Joan Collins had all of that stuff in her. She had not had that amazing lightning rod to bring it all out in front of a new public. And, you know, when suddenly the right person gets the right role or releases the right song at the right time, then everything

just blossoms. You're so right. It's like magic and a boss. It's just something about it. But now, as you can see, I've thought of my actual number one on the hoof. Oh, wow. This is my actual number one has to be. I'm sorry, my actual number one has to be who had fiddled around and had done various television documentaries and was kind of a media star but then it all falls apart but then he comes back as the host of a US reality show that becomes the biggest reality show which is called The Apprentice and I'm sorry if you don't think that because of okay that is surely the biggest I realized while I was talking about Paula Abdel oh my god I know someone who's a bit bigger than Paula Abdel now not much right so that that has to

surely the biggest ever come back because nobody knew or cared like kind of like an 80s personality and a big thing in the 80s and then it all falls apart and then to come back in the 2000s and be the biggest reality star of that era I think actually bigger than Cal

although Cowell was very very big I think he'd have to be number two of that and then you know he's gone on to do some other stuff too so I have to put Donald Trump as my biggest ever TV comeback wow I think realistically and I only realise it when I was talking that's why you're Britain

greatest journalist. I'm going to talk about books. If only, yes, please. Three very different types of comebacks here. The first one I'm going to talk about is Donna Tart. So I love... Donald Tart writes a book every 10 years. Yeah.

Oh, my God. I got a 10 year. That's your... You'll be living your best life one day. No, because that's... I mean, what are you doing the rest of the time? I know. I presume she does stuff.

But it doesn't... I mean, that's like... Essentially, she's writing a paragraph a day. Wow. Wow. Anyway. Hey, listen, they're good. Yeah, I mean, listen.

Nice paragraph. It's working, Donna. So Secret History comes out in 1992, one of the greatest novels of all time. I think very, very, very hard to follow that up. And a complete cultural vibe moment. Books opened in the 90s, like mega, mega, mega TV series open now. And then if they take off everyone's talking about them. That's what 90s books was like.

And that's a great book. Also, if you've got older teens as well, it's an absolutely great book for them to read. I know it's sort of. a museum piece now, but it's so beautifully written. It's, you know, it's a museum piece like Middlemarch is a museum piece. So, you know, it's great. So 10 years later, she brings out the little friend, which is sort of a disappointment, I would say. I think it wouldn't have been a disappointment if she bought it out two years later. But when it's 10 years later, and you're thinking, well, you've only done a paragraph a day for the last 10 years, so this is

going to be spectacular. And it is slightly fallen off. So 10 years on from that, she brings out another novel. And that's at the point where people think it's been 20 years now. since the secret history you've got to write a good one and she writes the goldfinch which i think is better than the secret history so i think it's a wonderful but some people disagree i think it's an absolute masterpiece so i think somebody who had started an absolute you know just you can't it's hard to start your history career in a more spectacular way than the secret history 20 years later the pressure on her for that and that could have been the end of everything but no um the goldfinch i think I'm going to put that number three, greatest ever book comebacks.

Number two, I am going to talk about one of the loveliest men in all of literature, Mick Heron. So Mick Heron in 2003 writes a book called Down Cemetery Road about a private investigator. It doesn't really trouble the scorers. He does a few more. No one is buying these books. And this is an incredibly familiar story for an awful lot of writers. So people, they're publishing more of them because people,

People can read that he's great. You know, his publishers know that he's great. So he thinks, okay. And he works at Incomes Data Services. He's sub-edging the employment law brief. That is mixed day job all the way up to 2017, by the way. Probably our finest contemporary writer. So 2010, he thinks, okay, I'm going to move in a slightly different direction.

I'm going to write like a spy type thing. But I want it to be funny. So he writes slow horses, which, of course, now we know as this huge runaway hit and everyone absolutely adores it. Write Slow Horses, nobody really reads it. I mean, you can read it now. You'll see what a brilliant book it is. And he writes the follow-up to Slow Horses,

which is called Dead Lions. And his publisher, Constable, reads it, says, sorry, Mick, not for us. I'm afraid this is, it's not going to happen. You know, you've written these four books in the other series. Now we've got this, you know, we've seen slow horses. We're giving you a go with that. It's just, it's not for us.

So his agent takes it around to various other publishers. And they all go, well, it's sort of follow up to something that another publisher released. I don't know what we would really do with it. And also it's, what is it? Is it thriller? Is it funny? I mean, I don't really know what this is. The tone, Mick, with respect, is absolutely all over the place.

You know, I can't see a world in which people are going to love this. So Mick returns back to his day job thinking, oh, my God. An American publisher, Soho Press, says, love to slow horses. We will publish two more. So they said we will take deadlines and also take Real Tigers, which was the next one. And so he's still writing. There's still money coming in. But again, there's not sales coming in. 2015, John Murray, which is a different publisher. Because see, that's the thing. All these books were brilliant. Yeah. And anyone with a proper eye can see that they're brilliant. And this is no shade on constable. His publisher, by the way,

you can't keep throwing money at something if you're not selling it. So they could know it's good, but they think it's not a lot we can do. John Murray say, look, we must be able to reissue these and do something with them because they're so great. Again, not really. You know, nothing was really happening. 2017, Waterstones pick slow horses as their thriller of the month. Now, this is a book that was written seven years ago

and that no one really wanted to buy the follow-up from, but over the years, you know, enough people have liked it. They pick up that book, 2017, suddenly it becomes a hit. Does someone just read it and thinks, this is great? everyone should know about this and because they have the power within the organisation they just say please

yeah and the same thing by the way was happening in America like NPR the Puddick Radio which is a big deal for books over there one of their presenters had picked up so horses as well and was like it was everyone you have got to buy this book

and read this book and there are lots of books by the way that don't have this just it's a you know you need a little bit of fortune along the way as well but the truth is Mick was always an amazing writer so everyone who picked up these books

would have the same response which is sorry, why is everybody not reading this book? So there are a couple more by that point so you can already get on into that house. So Mick's got all this back catalogue and you know just continues writing gives up his job as I say in 2017 which is the same

year as the Waterstone is making the thriller of the month and you go all the way back to 2003 that Down Cemetery Road and that's now on Apple TV with Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson playing the main parts. So Mick Heron who also is just one of the nicest men you will ever meet

and one of the most talented men you'll ever meet but how about that from a comeback from his publisher saying I'm sorry that was more than on the ropes that's really on the floor no more of these books to being one of the best-selling authors in the UK and America but my number one in book comebacks

is a character oh really I think you're going to say one day okay oh I'll be well you tell me what you thought afterwards 1887 Arthur Conan Doyle releases a in Scarlett, the first Sherlock Holmes novel. Mere, six years later, he's only written two novels, but lots of short stories as well. And the public has gone crazy for Sherlock Holmes. They love Sherlock Holmes, Strand magazine that is published in.

It's just, you know, boosts their circulation by so much. Arthur Conan Doyle thought of himself, he only sort of dipped into detective fiction because it started becoming fashionable. He thought, I reckon I could do an English version of this. And so done this Sherlock Holmes things, but he saw himself. as an historical novelist, really. He said that Sherlock Holmes was sort of taking away from the real

work of his life, which are these historical novels, which have been lost to time. And so six years after the very first appearance, Arthur Conan Dog goes, I'm going to kill him off. So he kills him off in a short story called the final problem. He goes over the Rikkenback Falls with Andrew Scott, I think.

Spoiler? You've spoilt the Rik and Back Falls, but okay. I can't believe you sport, Andrew Scott. And refuses to write another one for 10 years, just won't do it. And the Strand magazine says, we'll give you literally any money you want. He goes, no, I'm not going to do it. It's the first real example of, like, fandom and, you know, all these groups that were around Sherlock Holmes. You loved Sherlock Holmes and, you know, were incredibly angry that there was no more Sherlock Holmes.

So 10 years later, he had genuinely had no desire ever to write another word of Sherlock Holmes. 10 years later finally gives in and writes the hound of the Baskervilles. And Sherlock Holmes is now the fictional character who's appeared on screen more than any other in the entirety of cultural history. And for 10 years, he was dead. And then Arthur Conan Doyle, for reasons best known to himself, I imagine a tax bill, thinks I'm going to bring him back. So I think Sherlock Holmes has to be the greatest comeback in literary history. That is very, okay, I agree with you.

I agree with you. The person I was going to mention wasn't a character and I think a character is much better was George R. R. Martin because he starts as a sort of science fiction and a horror writer to some extent and he has like some success and he makes it a career to some extent.

But then he goes to Hollywood or to television and becomes a TV producer and TV writer and all of those things. And I think there's 12 or 13 years since he's published a book. And during that time, He's thought, I actually want to do something totally different. I don't think I'm, you know, I'm not really going to do science fiction to some,

although there may be supernatural elements in it. And he comes back with a Game of Thrones. And I think that's pretty, because he's almost, he's in another career by this point. And he's, so I think, but it's not the same. Yeah, it didn't quite fit my idea of a comeback in that way. I agree. I didn't realize until recently that Game of Thrones is a pun on the, it's based on the Tom Daly knitting show on Channel 4, a game of wool.

Game of Will, yeah, yeah, which is so much better. It's based on that, yeah. A Game of Wool. It really works as a title, doesn't it? So I think George R.R.R. Martin had obviously watched a game of wool. I thought a game of, hold on a minute. This is about Thrones, a Game of Thrones. Okay, that's a good one. There's one. This is fun, by the way. I really like this. In terms of sort of biggest ever impact, these are the ones,

can I just give you a couple that I felt like couldn't specifically fit into any category. Oh, so you're going to do like a like a kind of sweep up category. Well, yeah, sort of. And then I'm going to mention one person. person, one person who I think has had the greatest comeback in British entertainment history. Okay, good. That's where I'm ending. The ones that I was going to mention was, I would say that when 20th Century Fox buys Star Wars,

they are in so much financial trouble that people think they're going to fold. And this kind of weird space opera becomes, it's so enormous to that company that even in that money. It earns something like $100 million in the first few months. They are buying all forms of other companies. They essentially become a conglomerate because of this film. And the share price is absolutely tanking and it's down at six and it goes up to something like $25 within three months, all because of this film. So I would say that that is a kind of amazing story because that could have completely folded. The other person I find absolutely fascinating in terms of like two halves is Lucille Ball

because she was this huge television star and obviously she and her life story is absolutely amazing there's some great books about her but she kind of leads everything with I Love Lucy for as long as it's on television and she's married to Desi Arnaz Jr and they have a production company which ends up producing her shows called Desi Lou and then they divorce and she buys him out of Desi Lou

and she becomes a television producer and she is an extraordinarily adventurous and committed television. Eventually, by the way, Desilu is sold to Garfield Western and it becomes Paramount TV. But can I tell you the shows that she personally said, I think we should go ahead with is a little show called Star Trek. She's the EP on all these, but they're all Desilu shows. Mission Impossible, the Untouchables.

So all of these shows, which are huge kind of, I mean, you know, there's still IP that we talk about and that people are endlessly remake. Star Trek particularly is such a weird punt and she takes it. It's more of a second act in some ways than a comeback, I suppose. But in terms of how difficult it was

when her marriage ended, she had this company and rather than sort of giving it up, she just revolutionizes her role within it and instead of always being the star, she becomes this producer. She's going to use this power that I've got. And I just think Lucille Ball's amazing so I have to have her in my biggest ever comebacks

just because. So Star Wars and Lucille Ball. Star, yeah, yeah, okay. Tell me. Well, no, I was thinking about Bob Monkhouse, firstly, because Bob Monkhouse, who was a comedian, obviously, an actor, joke writer, and had got into a sort of rut of hosting game shows. Yeah.

Bob's Full House, all sorts of different things, which he was very good at, but he sort of became slightly wiped clean. There was one, you know, he was doing a lot of them a day. He could do them very easily. You watch Bob's Full House, and the first 14 minutes are him doing a monologue to a non-existent audience, literally to a floor manager and some camera operators. And so... What a pro. What a pro.

But I think a generation grew up thinking that there was some smarm to Bob Monkhouse. And then in the late 90s, early 2000s, proper comics started to really look at what it was he was doing, started going, he's not what we think he is. This guy's really writing his own stuff. The stuff is great. There's some amazing material. And it's really odd and subversive in lots of different ways. But people just felt because of the game show Garenne and the sea, I know what I get, but it wasn't at all.

And he's got that real, you know, he's taken his look from, you know, American TV of the 60s and 70, so, you know, which is that very, very polished. And it just, so when you first look at him, people, people were turned off him slightly. But the comedy community worked out just in time. It turned out that actually this guy was one of the greats. And there's amazing documentary you can watch called Bob Moncastle. last down from 2003, where he does a gig at the Albany Comedy Club, a small little gig, and invites an audience of young comics to come and watch him, do this amazing set of just

great, great, great jokes. And it's the last thing you'd ever see of him, because he died a few months later, prostate cancer. And how lovely, though, that at least, he had had that comeback, that he'd been turned from a figure of, you know, that was unfair to what it was, and the comedy community, goes, no, this guy, this guy's a real deal. Anyway, so I think about Bob Monkhouse and that's a great comeback. But I think, I just want to do something very, very current. So I'm thinking about, it's 2013, I think, we're on series seven, episode six of Would I Lie to You? And it's the first time I've ever done it. I love Would I Lie to You, so I'm on Would I Lie to You? And I think great. And it was also the first ever appearance of Bob Mortimer. And Bob

it's easy to forget that in 2013 so Vic and Bob have been absolutely massive and shooting stars have been absolutely massive and they'd done things like Randall and Hockert Decease and they'd done like Catterick which is a crazy sitcom so he was always around and about and doing things but I think he was at the stage

where Vick had started doing his own things Bob was sort of doing his own things he'd done his own panel show called 29 minutes of fame on the BBC which hadn't really done anything Vic and Bob had teamed up again to do House of Falls

which is another sitcom and he was in danger sort of floating through British culture that people liked him. He still loved but a legacy person. Exactly and you go oh Vic and Vic without Bob and Bob without Vic is this maybe this isn't going to work

and Rachel Ablett who's the producer, What I Like to You so even now she said I remember talking to him and saying you should come and do what I like to you and Bob said I don't think I'll be very good and he went on and did that he said since this is the show that's had the most impact of anything I've ever done in my whole career.

And from that moment, bit by bit by bit, I would argue that he is, in 2025, our greatest entertainment national treasure. He's bigger than he's ever been. Bigger than he's ever been. His appearances on that show are huge. His appearances on last one laughing were absolutely massive. People are absolutely fuming that he hasn't been on celebrity traitors yet. His appearance on Taskmaster was absolutely huge.

His books are amazing. Everything he does. that exactly white house and mortimer go fishing everything he does as an author as you say is sensational yeah but in 2013 genuinely he's in one of those positions and it happens to lots of stars where they're like i don't know the thing to do next what's it i don't know the british public don't quite know how to define me because people didn't know what it was that he could do and who he was turns out almost everything turns out yeah exactly everything you know they were used to seeing him as something else so i genuinely think that decision he made

to do what I like to you. And that very first episode is the one where he says he can tear an apple apart with his hands. No spoilers. I wonder if you can. And from that moment on, I think that was the beginning of him becoming our current greatest national treasure.

Biggest and most heartwarming ever come back. Yeah. There's not a single person in this nation who would begrudge him in it. Yeah. And the loveliest man. Yeah. The loveliest man. That was really, really good fun.

That was great fun. I enjoyed that very much. Yeah. Our biggest ever comebacks. If you have opinions on those, do please tell us as well. We'd love to hear you. Because we must have missed people out. I know I will have. For definite. For definite. But, you know, we should do more of this sort of thing. It's a good subject. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Not comebacks. We'll do something else. Yeah. But it's fun to do, it's fun to do lists every now and again.

Yeah. Thank you so much for listening everybody. Don't forget we have a bonus episode tomorrow. If you want to sign up for ad free listening and bonus episodes, it is the rest of entertainment.com. It is. God, I've always get that wrong. Yep, you got it right today. And thank you to people's Postcode Lottery. They're about to do their biggest ever prize pot.

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