The Rest Is Entertainment - The Real TV Rich List - REVEALED

Episode Date: July 21, 2025

Who tops Richard's list of the best-paid people in British telly? And is Gary Lineker *really* the BBC's highest paid star? Why do all celebs' faces now look the same after filler and botox? Richar...d Osman and Marina Hyde explore the annual BBC talent pay-list and 'spill the tea' on what the broadcaster's hosts are really paid, from Amol Rajan to Jeremy Clarkson - we've got the receipts. The beauty industry, fuelled by our TikTok and influencer obsession, is one of the UK's biggest retail sectors - Marina reveals why we should speak more about this sleeping giant. The Rest Is Entertainment AAA Club: Become a member for exclusive bonus content, early access to our Q&A episodes, ad-free listening, access to our exclusive newsletter archive, discount book prices on selected titles with our partners at Coles, early ticket access to future live events, and our members’ chatroom on Discord. Just head to therestisentertainment.com to sign up, or start a free trial today on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/therestisentertainment. 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 Assistant Producer: Aaliyah Akude Video Editor: Kieron Leslie, Charlie Rodwell, Adam Thornton, Harry Swan Producer: Joey McCarthy Senior Producer: Neil Fearn Head of Content: Tom Whiter Exec Producers: Tony Pastor + Jack Davenport Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:01:15 So what should we talk about? No sugar added. Neutral. Refreshingly simple. Hello, and welcome to this episode of The Rest Is Entertainment with me, Marina High. And me, Richard Osmond. Hello, Marina. Hello, Richard.
Starting point is 00:01:43 How are you? I'm all right. It's nice. Very nice to see you. We've seen each other a few times. This week. Yes. We did a special bonus Q&A. Thanks everyone for your kind words on that. Yeah, it was not an emergency podcast, but it was a standalone and it was related. You say it was an emergency podcast, but there were sirens all around and the whole studio was taped off. So something was going on. It just said that tape saying emergency podcasts do not cross. But yeah, okay. This has been ahead of a week for those stories,
Starting point is 00:02:10 which are not big enough for us to do a whole item about. But I- Listen, if you think I didn't spend hours thinking, how can we do what happened at the Coldplay concert on the Kiss Cam? Do you know what? I'm so glad you said that, because I was about to say to you,
Starting point is 00:02:22 I cannot go on with the rest of the podcast before asking you about the gentleman and the lady on the Coldplay kiss cam. Yeah. I mean, I have, I think, once seen Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall on a kiss cam and that was obviously disturbing in a number of ways. I mean, everyone's seen it, but if you haven't seen it, at the Coldplay concert, the kiss cam picks out this couple who was standing together and the second they see they've been picked out, the guy literally just like goes down on, like hits the floor basically, goes down below the parapet and she turns around and puts her head in her
Starting point is 00:02:53 hand and does all this sort of stuff. They very consciously uncouple, don't they? Yeah, I mean, yeah, they've, everyone else is very conscious of their uncoupling as well and to the point of which Chris Martin has to say, oh my god, those two, I mean, are they having an affair or something? And it turns out that actually they are not with each other in a formal setting, are they? Although he is the CEO of a company called Astronomer, no idea what they do, and she
Starting point is 00:03:20 is the chief HR officer. I mean, there you go. Listen, who do they report themselves to? I mean, there's no one left, is there? Well, I imagine Mrs. Astronomer is going to have something to say about it. Do you know what? Terrible. I mean, God, can you imagine?
Starting point is 00:03:34 It's quite a moment. I mean, I don't think they made it as easy as they might have for each other. I like my favorite online comments. A lot of people made the same one, which is, I thought Coldplay weren't releasing singles anymore. They just released two there. There's some very good ones. Yeah. I mean, our producer was telling me that Mrs. Astronomer, that people were joking that Mrs. Astronomers might say, oh my God, I can't believe I found out my husband makes Coldplay.
Starting point is 00:03:57 Well, listen, we're not going to do that story. It feels like we just have. But we're not also as Stephen Colbert being canceled in America, which is an interesting have. But we're not also, as Stephen Colbert being cancelled in America, which is an interesting story, but to balance it, Banna Mori is coming back. So listen, for every yin there's a yang, right? Every door that closes a window opens. Yeah. Now, what are we doing? We are going to talk about talent pay. So the BBC released their top 25 paid hosts in that list that is deeply flawed as always. We'll talk about why it's deeply flawed and what the real TV talent pay list might be. People get paid for various shows. We're going to, as you say, spill the
Starting point is 00:04:36 tea. Yeah. Oh yeah. There'll be tea spilled all over this desk. Now, we're also going to talk about the beauty industry, which has become incredibly linked to entertainment, but is worth an unbelievably, surprisingly enormous amount of money a year to the UK economy. Like, bye-bye creative industries. This is like, this is blowing out the water. So we're going to talk a little bit about that because it is actually very linked to screens and beauty-tainment, as we might call it.
Starting point is 00:05:01 And which should we start with? I think we'll start with talent pay. Do you think? That too needs billing. Yeah. Okay, let's do that, as we might call it. And which should we start with? I think we'll start with talent pay. Do you think? That too needs spilling. Yeah. Okay, let's do that, shall we? So the BBC always bring out their talent list every year. Well, they don't always.
Starting point is 00:05:11 Can I go back and say the story of that? Because they didn't used to. And it was first floated under the idea of David Cameron's government bringing out that list. I remember him. Yeah, well, you remember him. But for whatever reason, in that era, the idea that anyone could be paid more than the Prime Minister, who had the temerity to work in arts or culture,
Starting point is 00:05:33 was always regarded as an affront, presumably to the Prime Minister. Although, you know, did Tess Daley make Libya a failed state? Did Tess Daley... I mean, for me, I'm with Cameron, the idea that David Attenborough might get paid more than this trust, I find absolutely horrifying. Yeah, when all of these things, yes, exactly. So, but it didn't actually happen under him. And they eventually got it started under Theresa May, who was, you know, another 13 and a half of our ministers ago.
Starting point is 00:06:02 And Karen Bradley, I think, who was the Culture Secretary at the time, who even by the standards of our culture secretary was a complete imbecile. She managed to get it started. So they do publish this list, which is supposedly the top whatever earners. 25, yeah. It's usually called the Gary Lineker list. Yeah. But next year it'll be the Gary Lineker Memorial list. Yeah, because Gary Lineker was always the top of it, at one point, whatever it was,
Starting point is 00:06:27 and that's been a slightly sliding scale. If you think that Gary Lineker was the highest paid person, front of house person at the BBC, wake up. And I do find it quite bad that every single year it is reported as though it were actually true. It's a great industry of journalism. Nobody's earned their money there, let me tell you. Nobody in journalism has earned their money if they're actually believing that that is the definitive list of who is paid the most at the BBC.
Starting point is 00:06:51 Yeah, so the list is people who are paid directly by the BBC. And so if you look through the list, Linneco is there, Anna Shearer is there, I think the second place is Zoe Ball, Fiona Bruce is in the top 10, Nick Robinson. You'll see a lot of them are news presenters or radio presenters and that's because it's one of the few areas where still BBC make all of their own programs and contract their presenters centrally. There are very, very few entertainment names on this because Strictly is made through BBC Studios. Almost every big entertainment show they do, Michael McIntyre shows are all made through Hungry Bear.
Starting point is 00:07:21 And we should say that if it's made through BBC Studios, which is the sort of commercial arm of the BBC, or made via an indie, then you're paid via them and you don't have to disclose it. Yeah, and also the indies would go insane if it was disclosed because that's information, that's sort of fairly market sensitive information. Although the government always wishes the BBC to publish all its market sensitive information for whatever reason, or all successive governments have wished them to do that. Does that deliver extra value to the license payout fee payout
Starting point is 00:07:50 or does it actually just mean that it makes talent poaching easier or whatever? Yeah, once a year it gives us a fun list. And that's about it, which everyone on it resents being on because they're like, do you genuinely think that I and Nick Robinson get paid more than Graham Norton? Or even than Amal Rajan. Well, Amal Rajan, I noticed, is on this list. He's somewhere in the teens, I think, Amal Rajan. 315,000. But of course, that doesn't include... I'm buzzing in right now.
Starting point is 00:08:20 Hyde, Wadham. I would like to say I reckon he's on upwards of a million and I'll tell you why because he has been tried to be poached and they've tried to find things I think to do with him. You can't be on that much for doing this today program or doing whatever but if they put you on University Challenge and you make 35 or 40 shows a year and they put you on 12k a show which doesn't sound that bad, but when you add up the thing, then you're going high. No, I am going to, sorry, I'm going to mop up your tea. No way, absolutely no way in
Starting point is 00:08:52 a billion years he's on 12 grand a show for University Challenge. Well, some people are on much less. So if you look at someone like Clive Murray, who I don't think has an agent, he will be on a lot less, why would Clive get an agent? Ideally he'll be on a lot less for doing mastermind, but sometimes we find these sort of things out because other people are trying to poach people and sometimes they might inflate how much they get paid in order to make their... Sometimes I find them out by ringing the producers of shows and saying how much this person gets paid per episode and sometimes they won't tell me, but often they will. I'm not saying that that's the definitive, but I'm saying it is ballpark and they have found ways
Starting point is 00:09:29 of finessing it. I'm saying it's nowhere near ballpark that would be my view. So the interesting thing about this list is it comes out every year then immediately everyone goes oh but they're missing out the you know the big money that the BBC is paying out which slightly hides the fact that the BBC does actually pay much much, much lower rates for presenters than any other broadcasters. So if you're doing University Challenge on ITV, you may well be on 12 a show, you might be on more than that, you might be on 20 a show. If you're doing it on the BBC, you're not even close to that. I think number 25 on this list is somewhere around 280,000.
Starting point is 00:10:01 I do 110 episodes of House of Games every year. Thanks for your service. I would not be close to that list because of BBC. So you don't get it's, and by the I'm, listen, that's not me going, where was me? Goodness. I love doing that, but I wouldn't be anywhere close. But others that would get more than I would have thought. I mean, Graham Norton would be on more than Jonathan Ross. No, I wouldn't have thought so.
Starting point is 00:10:20 I think so. No, well. I think he's on 70 a show, Graham Norton. I'm spilling tea here. Don't forget he owns a part of Soap Productions as well. It gets made up various different ways. But the basic principle is don't make me at the end of the show think I'm going back to the BBC and ask for a pay rise because that's the exact opposite of what I want to do. You know that I want you to do that at the
Starting point is 00:10:41 end of the show. I always want you to politely ask for a pay rise. Of course I never will. Because my view of the BBC, and it is the BBC's view now as well, which is this is funded by taxpayers, so you do have to pay something because you can get a huge amount of money elsewhere and most people, especially if they're stand-ups, they're very aware that they can be out every night earning 40 grand a show because they can just go and play big venues or they can do a corporate so they can make that sort of money. So there is a level that would...
Starting point is 00:11:06 Yeah, let's talk about... We'll have a whole section on pricing comedians later. But I've been talking to virtually every producer I know at all with anonymity and we have come up with a lot of things, are the 10 best paid TV presenters on British telly and not a single person on that BBC list apart from Gary Lineker would be in that top 10. Not even close. I've negotiated for years and years as an independent and I can get eight or ten times more for my presenter if I'm on ITV or Channel 4 than I can if I'm on the BBC.
Starting point is 00:11:39 Production companies accept that. Most agents have started to accept that. They didn't five, ten years ago. They do now. And so the BBC is cutting its cloth about as tightly as they can, I think. Whereas you only have to look at what people are going to get on Sky, or you only have to look at what people were being paid on Last One Laughing on Amazon Prime, and you realise... I agree, on the streamers that. I'm comparing within PS PSBs because I think that's fair. And I think a lot of other PSBs, by the way, would still say,
Starting point is 00:12:08 oh, there's still that hangover feeling about the BBC, but in many ways they can outbid on everything. Yeah, I think most people on this list do, you know, as I say, they're radio presenters or they're sports presenters, and they're doing 200, 250, 300 shows a year, which, you know, starts to add up. That's why most of these people are on the list. Whereas I could, if I was doing an eight-part entertainment series on ITV, which I'm not going to do, I would be paid more than I'd be paid for 110 episodes of House of Games.
Starting point is 00:12:36 And rightly so, because it's advertisers' money, and therefore I'll ask for anything, because it's personal paying, not, you know, British taxpayers. And the disparity between the two is fairly enormous. When I go through my list of who I believe to be the 10 best paid presenters on British TV, I'll explain why certain amounts go to certain people on certain channels for certain shows. Yeah, I mean, it's quite interesting. I know that there is a sort of counter view. There is a counter view in the industry. It's certainly interesting to compare something like celebrity traitors on the BBC to I'm a celebrity on ITV They're these two sort of although we haven't seen the celebrity iteration yet
Starting point is 00:13:14 But we know it's gonna be massive look at the caliber of the people they got I spoke to somebody who's seen the first episode. I spoke to somebody said to me. Do you want to know who wins? No, of course, I don't. Oh my God, have you lost your mind? I know, I was like, if you take anything, anything that, like one single thing that meant, and all the next things they said, I was thinking, they're hinting now in a way, or are they? I don't know. Now I'm just obsessed with- You cannot go anywhere near that.
Starting point is 00:13:37 No, I do not want to know at all. Anyway, apparently it's amazing. Apparently it is amazing. Right. But for that, they were able to pay everybody a blanket 40k fee, right? Okay. Yeah, I am spending all my days today That's been there before to KP you it's very difficult Can I can I say to the daily express and daily man and all that in this headline?
Starting point is 00:13:52 This is Marina hide is revealing. It's not not Richard Osmond is revealing every time in this podcast We say anything they get Richard Osmond reveals. I think I'm not I'm gonna reveal some really dark stuff and then just have it ascribed to your name. But anyway, yeah, so you can give people 40k each to appear on trade. First of all, it's a sort of prestige format as we can see by the caliber of the people they got. Well, it's like White Lotus when everyone got paid the same, they got paid much less than you would normally do on a drama. By the way, everyone is massively overpaid in the television entertainment business.
Starting point is 00:14:21 I just want to put that under the record. We're not saving babies, but we are where we are. No one's getting overpaid in the live entertainment business, which is where the rates come from. Agreed. And we'll come to that in a minute. We'll have to do more on comedians. But if something like I'm a celebrity, you can't say everyone's getting paid 40k because you're not going to get anyone. And you're much more in booking a show like that, you're obviously much more concerned of like, do I have that kind of marmalade dropper booking so you've got to say oh you know what did what did Colleen get I can't remember was it like 1.2 or 1.5? Yeah it was a lot.
Starting point is 00:14:52 I mean Noel got 600. I know. Quid. I was in the first step. I can't remember what Colleen got but it was something like between one and 1.5 but in that sense you're sort of thinking I've got to have that sensational booking or whatever it is. And also by the way I can afford that sensational booking because advertising money is...
Starting point is 00:15:07 Because it's part of it. And it runs, however many weeks, it runs three weeks or whatever. So you're getting some stuff out of it. Okay. You're more able to do what's called that sort of Favourite Nations idea, weirdly. Favourite Nations, if you ever go on a TV show, they'll say, here's the fee, and it's Favourite Nations, so no one gets more than you. And so you accept it or fee and it's favored nation. So no one gets more than you. And so you know, except to honor those always nonsense. Yeah. Because
Starting point is 00:15:28 it's then you know, someone suddenly cut like we did favorite nations on a show for years and years on a panel show. And then Joan Rivers said she'd do it. And we think, okay, now we don't know we can't do favorite nations anymore. She is not going to take 750 pounds to do this show. Yeah. There are certain ones. Do you remember that episode of Have I Got News for You when Johnny Mercer said to Ian Hislop, he really, like all those people who go on and you're like, oh no, don't try and be this guy. But obviously, a politician going on and trying to say to Ian Hislop, oh, I know how much you get paid. And I think he said, I had to get paid 20k an episode. Anyway, Hislop doesn't argue with him. Originally,
Starting point is 00:16:02 I thought, oh, I heard he, that must mean he does get 20k and someone said to me this week, no, he gets 40. That's why he didn't argue with him. So one thing we can say after that is that talent salaries have got smaller and people have got more realistic because there was a sort of, you know, as you would describe it, 90s, noughties money and then it has contracted. We're really talking about entertainment talent here, by the way. Acting is insane.
Starting point is 00:16:24 I mean, that like crazily insane. Well it's interesting someone like David Mitchell who is obviously on Would I Lie to You but also was in that mega hit Ludwig. So that's interesting as a... does he make your list? He's not on the list even though you know but but things like the the show he does on Dave, The Outsiders, I suspect will probably pay better per episode than What I Like to You. So yeah he does not make, The Outsiders, I suspect will probably pay better per episode than what I like to hear. So yeah, he does not make me laugh.
Starting point is 00:16:48 I haven't included actors on this because that is really the Wild West. Yeah. I mean, that's absolutely bonkers. It's so ridiculous, this list. I mean, it's like, light entertainment talent, the end, or I mean, sports or whatever, on its own, rather than saying, well, what about all of this other stuff? And yet it's never interrogated in that way. But I will say that I'm happy to go on record as saying there's no way that Amal Rajan is getting 12 grand an episode for University Challenge. And if he is, then that doesn't
Starting point is 00:17:18 even investigating. I suspect that he isn't even in the heyday. He's got a parity clause with him. Even in- He's got a parity clause with him. Oh my God. But I don't. That's the point. I love,. He said I want a parity clause with him. Oh my God. But I don't. That's the point. I love, you know, I present on the BBC for a reason.
Starting point is 00:17:29 I don't want someone to have to, you know, pay out a license fee for that. I don't want to. I can go to ITV if I want to do that. I do a podcast if I want advertisers' money. You know, the BBC is for something different. The BBC is to do shows for, you know, families to watch that's kind of smart and funny. That's what I love doing anyway. But yeah, if he's on 12 grand then I resign. With immediate effect. Richard Osman resigns with immediate effect. Please don't write it in the Daily Express.
Starting point is 00:17:58 Even in the heyday of Deal or No Deal. I'll tell you the other salaries I know, you can have that for your newspaper. In the heyday of Deal or No Deal, well I'm going to talk about what some of the newspapers have done, lists of who they think are the best paid presenters. It is in some ways dumber than the original list of the BBC. I'm so sorry for my understress, truly. Even in the heyday of Deal or No Deal, Noel wasn't on 12 an episode, and that was the biggest hit on television for years and years, and that's Noel. So you know, this is, it's, it's, it's, he does everything out of the kindness of his heart.
Starting point is 00:18:29 But that would be a lot of money for doing a show where you do four or five a day. I'll talk about the, um, the newspapers lists cause they did a thing where they said, Oh, actually this doesn't tell half the story. Here's, here's what BBC stars actually get paid. And then, then they, they sort of went through companies house at various people and say, well, they get this, like Jules Holland, said Jules Holland gets paid 3.3 million. And you go, no, you've looked at Jules Holland's company. He does like 250 massive gigs a year, every year.
Starting point is 00:18:56 He's not getting 3.3 million for doing later with Jules Holland, right? Even though his name is above the door. Oh, I saw this bullshit, yeah. And Stacey Solomon, it's like- Right, 7 million. Yeah, she's got to deal with Primark. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:19:07 Well, we'll get on to beauty and stuff, the way that people actually make their money. But that, you know, and one of the points is if you can make money outside of that, that sort of reflects the rate you can get inside of it. But that list was even dumber than the BBC list. I saw you were on that. I've heard you've written some books, so that's probably related to that. Listen, if you thought the BBC list was dumb, that list was, I mean, spectacularly dumb. If they think Stacey Solomon's getting £7.5 million to present Sort Your Life Out,
Starting point is 00:19:33 listen, I would pay it. But that is not what is happening. So I spoke to a lot of people. Do you know what? It won't shock you to learn every single producer I talk to loves this. I'm actually, it's unusual for this podcast, I'm going to go from one down to 10. But because it actually works better for the format, you must never ever be hidebound. Like listen, they always said never do a show where the jackpot goes down, then we have a million pound drop. Sometimes you have to break the rule. Number one, Antentech. Buy a mile. I mean, buy an absolute mile. Oh, you're talking about the highest paid on British TV. Yeah, right. Sorry. Yes I agree. Yeah, I thought you took my own the BBC. Yeah, no on the bit. You know what genuinely?
Starting point is 00:20:13 Nobody on the BBC. I've got one name on this list who makes most of it Yeah, their money from the BBC, but that is it's it's insignificant in terms of what people are getting paid on television It's It's absolutely kind of a foxhole conference. So when you're saying you're talking about television, can we just do the parameters please? Television entertainment.
Starting point is 00:20:30 Television, they're not getting it from touring, Primark, blah blah blah, all the other bits and bobs. Yeah, simply what they are being paid to present television programmes on British TV. Nothing else. Not how they're monetising different things, not how they've got brands, not how they form a rhythm and blues orchestra and play 300 gigs a year all across Europe, rather than just presenting later with Jules Holland. So this is literally just from presenting TV. Ant and Dec, at the top, by a million miles, you could split it in half
Starting point is 00:20:56 and they would be number one and number two. Because you've got, you know, you've got I'm a celebrity, you've got Britain's Got Talent, you've got Limitless Wind, there's always, and they bring audiences time and time and time again. So Ant and Dec. Well, they do bring an audience. That's what I think is interesting, because it's so amazing how many people, that's part of what's, I don't want to say depressed talent, talent arteries, because they still get paid off. But actually, there's so few people in British television with the greatest respect that bring an audience.
Starting point is 00:21:26 Antonek, MacIntyre, and there's not that many others. Formats and shows bring audiences, and rightly so, and they're beloved and people fit so well into them and they're masters of those formats. But in terms of actually bringing the audience and it kind of doesn't matter what they're in, there are very few. It's funny how after I quit Pointless, literally nothing changed in the ratings. But of course it didn't. Of course they don't, you know, it's, you know, anyway.
Starting point is 00:21:52 I should say that Richard's obviously instrumental in the format as well, so there we go. You did some, you know, by one remove. Well, I'm not even involved in that anymore. But listen, I love to watch it. Number two, Bradley Walsh. I was going to say, yeah. Because Bradley has that unbelievable combination, and very few people do anymore,
Starting point is 00:22:14 of having a daily show on ITV and a daily entertainment show on ITV and a daily entertainment show that regularly tops the ratings on ITV, an entertainment show that has spin-offs, and then does his documentaries with his son, comes over to the BBC to do Blankety Blank and Gladiators, which he will be paid a lot less for, but he will still be paid nicely. But, I mean, he is doing 200 episodes of The Chase every year. I don't know what he's on. I suspect it's more than you think Amal Rajan is on and less than Anton Decker on, but he's doing 200 of them. And again, he
Starting point is 00:22:49 brings an audience in a way that other people don't. People love Bradley Wash. They love to watch him. And you launch a show with Bradley, you've got more chance of it working than if you launch a show with someone else. And you have to say that what you've just listed is a huge amount of work. He works a lot. Oh yeah, he works. He absolutely does. So do lots of people, we understand that. I know, I know. Compared to lots of the other presenters who are not doing so much. His year is busy.
Starting point is 00:23:13 Yeah, it's packed full. Number three, Addison Hammond. I think because she has a combination of Bake Off, which is a huge franchise now and the budget for which has gone crazy in recent years since it went to Channel 4. And of course she does This Morning as well, and she does For the Love of Dogs, there's all sorts of different things as well. So I think that, again, this is definitively not a real list. This is just from all of us talking together, trying to work out who fits where.
Starting point is 00:23:43 And she came on at number three. Addison, if you're number four, I apologize. If you're number two, I apologize. Whichever you'd rather be. So we've got her at number three. At number four, we've got Jimmy Carr. Yeah. Because Jimmy, he does a lot of formats for commercial television.
Starting point is 00:23:58 So he does, you know, I literally just told you on Channel 4, he does countdown still for four. And of course, now he does Last One still for four. And of course now he does Last One Laughing, which is an enormous hit and is going to remain an enormous hit for a number of series. So you're counting streamers in this. I find it so hard to... I think you have to because there's so few entertainment shows on streamers. You simply have to. And because you can't... If you are ever... For example, if someone wants to book you on a panel show for Sky, they
Starting point is 00:24:27 pay you 10 times as much. Which is why you will see big names doing those things. I think it's crazy not to, and there's another couple of names down here who definitely benefit from that. So I'm going to say Jimmy Carr, Lee Mack. Lee Mack simply because, and again, not from what I lied to you, but just because 1% Club has been such an enormous juggernaut of a hit. And so he can sort of name his price because those are the sort of hits that advertisers come to channels
Starting point is 00:24:55 for. And that's been absolutely- He doesn't have to name his price, I should also say, because he's represented by someone, we could just do a little quick sidebar on. He's represented by Avalon, who perhaps are our listeners. Avalon, who are like a sort of talent management and production company, they are, I mean, maybe, I think it'd be hard to argue with the idea that they're Britain's most successful indie, almost, because of what they do. But they have, they are famously, what's the euphemism? Drive a hard bargain? I drive a hard bargain. I think that's the, there's so many euphemisms, I can only speak the euphemism? Drive a hard bargain? They drive a hard bargain.
Starting point is 00:25:25 I think there's so many euphemisms, I can only speak in euphemisms about. As everyone, actually people in the industry, when they're not doing a podcast, do not speak in euphemisms about them, but they've always, always driven a hard bargain. Yeah, I think also if were they to express a preference, and wouldn't say that they would, I think they might express the preference that they'd rather keep their talent on Avalon shows than put them on other people's shows. So you can, which is a sort of a double bubble. They might, they might argue with that. Yeah, they wouldn't argue with that. And, but people don't leave. And also if they do
Starting point is 00:25:56 leave, then often they own the formats that they're in. And so this is why you can't see them on your television anymore. Yes, exactly. This is why you can't see TV burp anymore. Well, number six, I'm going to go joint Claudia and Michael McIntyre. Only because they both got huge shows on the BBC and shows that sort of run and run and run. And they both got two huge shows that are almost sort of on season off season.
Starting point is 00:26:17 And you know, Traitors Now, because it's celebrity and it's regular and you've got Strictly, which runs and runs and runs and runs. I think that probably puts Claudia on the list and also because she does ITV shows as well. She does the piano, she does that one question as well which she'll be remunerated for I suspect. And Michael McIntyre, yes again because he does those huge shows as The Wheel and the big show and also because that is is somebody who literally could be getting 75 grand a night just doing a gig. You sort of... That's the thing that people who commission and whatever say that comedians are really,
Starting point is 00:26:54 really hard to price because they're already in general quite rich. Very rich really. Yeah. And you've got a show that you want to spend a million quid an hour on, and then you think, well, I mean, Greg Davis might want 150k to do it. I mean, you're not necessarily going to give it to them. But they can make such a lot of money touring and they do make such a lot of money touring. But you do need people to be on the front of your shows and they can't always be a particular
Starting point is 00:27:18 type of, you know, you want comedians to be on lots of them because for obvious reasons. I always used to say years ago, whenever book a comedian they should do it for free because you're selling their tickets for them. And by the way I was right, but it didn't catch on with agents or with comedians. But if you had said, okay, no comedians ever getting paid again to come on these shows, you'd still get a steady stream of people coming on, you know, because they know what they're doing. Yeah. You know, so much Teddy now is a lost leader.
Starting point is 00:27:47 And, you know, if you take something like Mr. Beast going to Amazon prime, now he did not make a penny out of that show. Quite, I mean, quite the opposite. Probably cost him somewhere around 60 million just to make that show. At seven, I'm going to say Ramesh Ranganathan. Yeah. Because Ramesh, well, first of all, he does a radio show, but, you know, he'll do things like weakest link, but mainly because he does lots for Sky.
Starting point is 00:28:07 And he'll do, you know, League of Their Own, and he'll do Robin Romesh, and all of those things. So he has lots of different income streams, but the most important ones will be the Sky income streams. He'll be on an awful lot of money for that. He might be further up that list, but I've demurred. And then Clarkson is definitely there because if Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and because of Clarkson's Farm.
Starting point is 00:28:30 And again, he's doing that Mr. Beast thing of, you know, not that fussed what you pay me for Clarkson's Farm because this is a commercial enterprise and there's lots of different ways for me to monetize this and to get this in front of people's eyeballs. The thing about those shows is that we know about what happens on prime shows is that people get paid just beyond money because it's a rounding error for the Edge, everything corporation. They, you know, they, they will use your buy stuff and they have a market map and each of those shows really carefully addresses, and Mr. Beast was one of them. What they paid him was extraordinary. He happened to have spent it all because of the extraordinary nature of the show. But Clarkson's Farm is
Starting point is 00:29:09 somewhat cheaper to make. Yes. Yeah. I wouldn't say it's not super cheap, but it's somewhat cheaper. No, it's no beast games. He is. Although it has lots of beasts. So he will be on an absolute fortune. By the way, some of these can be moving up and down this top 10. Yeah, it's hard. If anyone's listening, I would love people on this list to just message us and say, I should have been lower or I should have been higher. I'm interested in the person that
Starting point is 00:29:31 you've tried to talk to. All you have to do is do it on the record. If you do it on the record, just ring in and we'll read you out loud exactly what you said. So Jeremy, if you think you're higher than eight, do please let us know. And then the bottom of the list is slightly, bottom of the list, I mean, these are the 10 highest paid people, but lots of different names came through on the bottom of the list is slightly, bottom of the list, I mean, these are the 10 highest paid people, but lots of different names came through on the bottom of the list. I'll go through some of them.
Starting point is 00:29:48 Joel Domet, who I suspect might be there because he does Masked Singer and the Western National Television Awards. And he has an aesthetic and he has a youthfulness and he does an ITV game show now as well. It feels like Send for Joel. Yeah, he's an investment presenter. And also such a deeply lovely man. He used to do warm-up for Pointless. Did he actually?
Starting point is 00:30:12 In the early days, yeah. Oh, that's fun. So in the first three series of Pointless, there's Joel being paid 250 quid a show, me being paid nothing because I was the creative director, so I always said don't pay me. And Xander on 90,000 a show. No. Notice I haven't put Zander on this, even though he does 200 shows a year, because it's the BBC. So maybe Joel Dommet, maybe someone like Susanna Reid or Lorraine, just because they're doing 200, 250 shows a year, actually Lorraine does fewer these days. And because they have
Starting point is 00:30:42 shows that bring in a regular audience and that's, you know, and they have. Yeah, no, I don't think they'd quite make it just on the basis of, I don't think they would. I mean, listen, they might not be making as much as Lineker, but they're certainly making more than Zoe Ball, who was second on the list at 500,000. Oh, yeah. I mean, as we said, the original list is just a nonsense. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:31:02 Jeremy Vine, I'm going to say now because he's already on the BBC list at something like, he's already on the BBC list at 310,000, add on Channel 5, where it's literally the Jeremy Vine channel. Yeah. He does the Jeremy Vine show, he did Eggheads, you know, there's Jeremy Vine's House of Games, their new series. And so they're paying him. They're not paying him what ATV would pay
Starting point is 00:31:26 him or what Channel 4 would pay him even, but they are paying him and you add in the BBC thing as well. And I suspect he'd be right up there. Dermot, of course, because of this morning and because he's done a few streaming shows as well. So he won't be, he won't be skipping a meal anytime soon. So that would be roughly our top 10. I'm sort of at the bottom of that list. I'm spreading it out a bit because none of us could agree. But I think it sort of shows you what the market is and you can argue whether that market's good or bad.
Starting point is 00:31:57 But a lot of these people have another way of making money and provably bringing an audience. But it also, I hope, shows you how dwarfed those BBC salaries are. I know they sound absurd and ridiculous. Most of the people at the top of that is because they're doing, you know, 300 shows and they're doing lots of different things and, you know, it kind of all adds up. But it's a lucrative business entertainment, you know, like sport is a lucrative business and music is a lucrative business entertainment, you know, like sport is a lucrative business and music is a lucrative business. But I just having looked at that BBC list, and it's hard because how do you compete and
Starting point is 00:32:31 get those people to come on the BBC? So you do have to pay, but it is, you do pay an awful lot less. But it's still, you know, what we should say and what they do say when they are trying to get people to compete is you don't get exposure like that almost anywhere else More people are going to watch you here. Yeah, then anywhere else more people will watch you as you say they'll send you tickets They'll do whatever it is. You'll get more corporates whatever it may be. Yeah all the sort of You know subsidiary stuff, but that's an argument. That's very slowly disappearing, you know because well because that you just don't get a huge amount of exposure sometimes, even on a BBC show. It used to be that on a mediocre show, five million people would watch you.
Starting point is 00:33:12 And now it's 700,000. Sure. I think it's good to have it because all of these people are now so diversified. And that's one thing that we do know. In the old days, it used to be a light entertainment presenter and that's it. And now we see people with clotheslines and lifestyle portals and all sorts of other things and they're brand ambassadors and they're everything else. So within that, it's good to have a PSB show within that. And it almost, unless you have that, you can't describe something that pays them 400,000 pounds and you're a lost leader. I can't describe it as a lost leader, but to some extent you need that in order to have all the other bits.
Starting point is 00:33:47 Yeah. Oh, I forgot to say also we were arguing about for number 10, possibly Greg Davies, only because he does Buzzcocks for a big streamer and he does Taskmaster and that's a mammoth hit. And again, a mammoth hit that was bought in from another channel and so is funded at quite a premium like Bake Off. So maybe with those two things together he's up there. But I don't think… Even though Bake Off, as they've showed, by simply taking it to another format and getting it off the presenters, it's the format that people are watching and it's
Starting point is 00:34:17 not the presenters. So despite the fact we know that and it's been actually demonstrably proved… Because if you look at some of the most loved British TV presenters out there, look at Stacey Solomon, look at Ryland, look at Alison Hammond, they all started on reality TV shows. They were not comedians, they were not local journalists who sort of worked their way up, they were just people who appeared on screen and people immediately liked them. People immediately went, I want this person to be in my living room. And there are loads of people out there who don't want to be on Big Brother or Pop Idol or Britain's
Starting point is 00:34:50 Got Talent, who would have that same charm if only there were a way to find them. The truth is, you would put them on very, very cheaply for the first series. The second that series was a hit, they would be on exactly the same money as all of these people because that's the market. But I'm a great believer that there are generations of people out there who could present television shows. Oh yeah. There's people at the top, Michael McIntyre, Ant and Dec, Claudia, you just think, no, okay, absolutely get it. But there is a level at which you think, yeah, I think we could
Starting point is 00:35:19 probably replace you with somebody cheaper. My radical proposal for these things would be, because the one thing I tell you is always you have a hit and yet the money doesn't go up. So you have this massive hit and then, you know, certainly on the BBC, usually the money goes down because it has to. The world of podcasts is very, very interesting. So in the world of podcasts, this is my dream always, always, always. And it's what happens in some podcasts, no, and actually, funny enough, the BBC is an exception to this. But in the world of podcasts, most of the hip podcasts I know, people do not get paid. You do not get an upfront fee. What you get is, if it's
Starting point is 00:35:55 successful, you get more money because you get a revenue share of the advertising, which to me as a producer was the business I was always in. Which is so BBC is different and that's looking after British creativity and all that stuff. But on ITV and Channel 4, all I'm doing is giving you something that you can sell to an advertiser. You are then selling that to an advertiser. 15 different people are taking chunks of that money. I tell you, someone who isn't taking any of that money, me.
Starting point is 00:36:21 You know, so as a producer, you get your 10% fee and then it doesn't matter how well you did with it, you get your 10% fee and then it doesn't matter how well you did with it, you're not going to get more. If one week you get three million, then it's what you do. You get four million, you don't suddenly get a 33% uplift in your money. And I would love TV to be made like that, which is no one gets paid, apart from the crew, but production, all that. We don't get paid until the numbers come in. And if we get paid more, if the numbers are bigger and bigger, then you get paid more and more.
Starting point is 00:36:50 Imagine that. Imagine that. That would never happen. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you've got to back yourself at some point. Yeah. Listen, it happens in an informal way because Ant & Dec didn't start on the money they're
Starting point is 00:36:59 on. They had a series of hits and so they did it. But it's very interesting, the podcast thing of people just doing it for nothing and then the more successful it is, the more money you make. Like music, the more records you sell, the more money you make. And TV is one of the few industries where that doesn't quite follow. There's that extra layer of friction or skimming off or whatever you want to call it. Yeah, I would call it skimming off. Also worth noting that every single channel spends all year focus grouping every single presenter they've ever had.
Starting point is 00:37:30 So whenever people go, you've got Greg Wallace and people go, but he wasn't even a good presenter, people didn't even like him. But I mean, you don't want to hear it, but they did. They loved him. I saw so many people this week saying, why don't they just cancel this tired show? Oh no, I'm so sorry. It's because people really like Master Chef Yeah, no, there's nothing you'll cancel the sewing ones and this was like no no, no
Starting point is 00:37:49 Yeah, they're all really popular because people like them Yeah, I guess it's innocent if you're the main character in your own story Then if you don't like something then everyone hates it But yeah, the numbers do what we do have some cool ratings Which allows us to see that other people do like these and those you know, you know, if you go, oh, God, I don't want to watch Alison Hammond. I tell you who wants to watch Alison Hammond, two groups of people, me and most of the British public. And they know that week after week after week because they're constantly asking and people
Starting point is 00:38:15 are constantly saying, yep. I like her. We love her. Exactly. And so, you know, if it's ever a mystery to you why someone's on TV, it's probably because other people disagree with you. I mean, listen, there are some... You've lifted the curtain there.
Starting point is 00:38:31 Right. I think we must, after that, curtail this because we could spill this tea forever, but shall we go to a break? Yes. Yes. Let's monetize that. This episode is brought to you by Sky Cinema, the ultimate destination for the latest blockbusters. Speaking of blockbusters, let's talk about something that defied gravity, bewitched critics and fans alike, and has now landed on Sky Cinema.
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Starting point is 00:40:50 What is growing four times faster than the UK economy and is now worth £30.4 billion pounds to it every single year? Is it Amal Rajan's wage back? It is the beauty industry and the value of beauty, which is an annual report compiled by Oxford Economics and it's commissioned by the British Beauty Council. It's fascinating. I mean, this is a sector that unlike the creative industries, although it is linked and that's how we're going to get onto it, but you'll never see a cabinet minister out there talking about it. It employs more people than are in publishing and broadcasting. Put together, its direct contribution to GDP is more than the whole sports and
Starting point is 00:41:30 recreation sector, so more than going to football, museums, parks, concerts, all of that. And it makes up over 1% of the UK's economic output. It's part services, it's part goods, we know all of this. It's like a little beauty spot for British services. Very good, very good. Thanks. Thank you. Brexit slightly slowed the recovery. But it's interesting, it's something that particularly took off in or was accelerated and catalyzed during the pandemic. And a big part of that is because people saw themselves on screen. is because people saw themselves on screen.
Starting point is 00:42:06 So, so many people saw themselves on screen. I remember that Caroline Hirons is someone who is a very sort of significant player and this sort of thing saying people just couldn't stand it. They were looking at their faces thinking and obviously no one really understood the technology. So, it took them like the whole first lockdown to work out. They didn't have to look at themselves while they were having a meeting with somebody. I still do that. No, so do I. I mean, completely.
Starting point is 00:42:27 And you're just thinking, gosh, I mean- If I'm being really professional, I will look at the little lights, but it's so difficult to do. Yeah. And people just sort of mesmerized by their own flaws or whatever it is. It really took off.
Starting point is 00:42:36 And so when we're talking about beauty, I should say, we're talking about skincare, makeup, haircare, fragrance, sort of tools and devices. And there's obviously a service element to it as well. But it's become huge via screens and beauty attainment as it were is absolutely massive. Like TikTok is now the fourth biggest beauty retailer in the whole UK. Retailer? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:42:59 Yeah. Because people are shop window or sort of stuff. People are buying shops. Well, first of all, if you go go into a boot you will now see, which we've seen for a while in book shops, you know, Book Talk or whatever, you'll now see as seen on TikTok in chemists and they have to really be sort of nimble with it because all these trends are happening all the time. I like by the way as seen on TikTok because you can literally download anything to TikTok.
Starting point is 00:43:20 You know, you could have your local garage, you know, as seen on TikTok because they just uploaded a video. But yes, it's a... But it's become such a sort of thing that people are drawn, and so they've made whole breakout bricks and mortar areas of their shops. And it's interesting because, I mean, I suppose in the old days, you know, that whole idea of shopping as entertainment, I used to be mesmerized by shopping channels. I remember when they first came to the UK, I'd be like, this is so cool.
Starting point is 00:43:44 You know, I love that novel, Cellavision, that Augustin Burroughs novel about kind of those places. And I was absolutely gripped by the relationships, as I imagined in between the hosts, where they hate each other, where they liked each other. I love to see washed up celebrities doing infomercials. Okay, all of that has gone on its head now. Nobody washed up does infomercials. I mean, you look at brands like Selena Gomez's brand Rare Beauty, which is on sale and the biggest retailer in the world really for this sort of thing is Sephora. Hailey Bieber, who's got her brand Rode. Selena Gomez's brand is valued at two billion. Hailey Bieber's is just valued at one billion. She basically started
Starting point is 00:44:20 what used to be called a direct consumer marketing thing. She had about eight products. It's now worth a billion. It's going into Sephora and it's really, it's a little bit like that Gore Vidal quote, you know, it's not enough for Haley to succeed, Selena must fail. So they're already being sort of pitted against each other in terms of what it will do to your shelf real estate in these places. Oh, I just think, I just think fair play to you for both being billionaires. I mean, it's unbelievable. But it's unbelievable. You couldn't have done fair play to you for both being billionaires. I mean, it's unbelievable. But it's unbelievable.
Starting point is 00:44:46 You couldn't have done this before. And people couldn't do this. They have these celebrities via screens of all different types, via different types of social media, and with very, very few products, have leveraged their brands into these huge businesses that are sort of unrivaled by people who are in those businesses to start with. And I think it's very interesting. Shoppable entertainment is, as I say, what was once a sort of niche thing that I, as
Starting point is 00:45:13 a young person who wasn't going out anywhere, might watch. Or we imagined bored Floridian housewives sitting there buying diamond rings or whatever they were buying off QVC. Shoppable entertainment is everything now. Well, I remember even 15 years ago, you'd sit in production meetings and people would say, oh, we could get some product placement on this. And if I go, oh, I don't know about that. And now you think it's not like, oh, I've got a can of Diet Coke here.
Starting point is 00:45:37 Let's get some money. It's literally you can make programs about your own things. And people consume it. They watch your advert as entertainment, then go out and buy your product afterwards. They watch your Get Ready With Me video. They would rather watch that than whatever is on ITV at that time or BBC or whatever it is. Every time I see one, I really, really, really see the appeal.
Starting point is 00:45:55 So do I. That's how they've mesmerized me. They look amazing. And when I watch it, I get that there's a commercial thing and people are selling. I'm slightly mesmerized when I see it. I love the... Well, you get that it's an authentic presenter and that it's essentially a format, right? Yes, and that they're doing something they're good at and they care about is what I sense whenever I see those things. Yes. I mean, you can literally see the views happening and then you can see the click through. And it's really interesting. The UK, this is another thing that's come out recently,
Starting point is 00:46:23 the UK is TikTok's most advanced e-commerce market outside of Asia. Number one. So we're, you know, we're leading the way on this stuff, Richard. Whether we're leading the way to a good place, I don't know. But it's really interesting how brands themselves have had to adapt to this being entertainment. As we know in entertainment, you know, you want a new episode and you want something different.
Starting point is 00:46:43 So brands that used to just be like, okay, well, we'll bring out three lipsticks this year and we'll leave it at that. Now you constantly need drops and all of the, and they've had to completely adapt. Other brands that didn't start like this, didn't start as kind of a person on TikTok, just kind of, and suddenly building up a billion dollar business. They've had to adapt to this kind of thing and they've had to become much more nimble. But it's so interesting that it's all a form of shoppable entertainment. And also that the money goes from, you know, if you are a skincare brand or even if you're
Starting point is 00:47:15 boots, the money that you would spend on filmed adverts that you then place on television programs which should have been through the roof huge. You now go, we're going to take all that money. It's like we were talking about podcasts in the previous thing. We're going to take that money, we're going to give it directly to somebody who speaks to our audience and get them to make something that doesn't cost very much. Get them to put it in a Get Ready With Me video. And the person making it is getting more money. The brand is having to spend less money and
Starting point is 00:47:39 the result is 10 times bigger than it would have been. And it's so much less of a gamble than like everyone hates your Christmas advert or whatever it is. All of those things are starting to feel sort of... One of my favorite side things in entertainment these days is because everyone, you know, there's not a marketing department in the country doesn't try and do these things. I love seeing failed versions of these. I love it when people try and get something trending or they try and get a hashtag going
Starting point is 00:48:03 or they try and get some sort of signature move going and It doesn't work and you see you can just sort of see the desperation What an old like almost like a legacy brand tries to create one of those organic online moments. I see. Yeah Okay, there was even like a few years ago They even there was that sort of very brief interregnum where big brands were kind of going. Oh, let's do an advert But like it's like an influencer, and they're doing this thing, and we'll do it, we'll shoot it like it's an influencer doing like a kind of online video, and that would be great. You go, why don't you just get an influencer to do the online video?
Starting point is 00:48:33 Because, you know, people already like them. They always had to feel, they had to put sort of inverted commas around it. And in fact, it's all been blown away. But as we've talked about before, people are, and social media to some extent, as people have always said, is you're just participating in something in which the product is you and you're giving companies your data. But that line between advertorial and entertainment, which used to be, as you say, either sort of morally frowned upon or disregarded as really NAF, like QVC and infomercials, the of NAF but that's completely gone it's definitely not something you do when you're washed up anymore it's something that you know hot and talented young 28 year old women do
Starting point is 00:49:12 and then become billionaires. Well also you know I've you never ever meet any presenter of any stripe at all who wasn't kind of going what can I do what can I do that you know because they sort of see now that rather than someone just paying you to present a TV show out of money that comes from advertisers, for example, me, I mean, there is not a brand in the world that would increase its share if I advertised it right. I don't believe that. No, but there isn't.
Starting point is 00:49:35 What about your voice? And if it was something, it would not be something that has a high market capitalization. I get that. It would be snooker balls or something. That's not for me. But you know, all sorts of presenters, they're all kind of, what can I do? What is it that I can do?
Starting point is 00:49:48 Where can I, how can I monetize this? And as you say, 10, 15 years ago, everyone would have turned their noses up at it. Everyone would go, no, I'm not going to do this. I'm not going to, you know, hawk that. And now they kind of go, what kind of hawk? What have you got? I remember when we first started doing this podcast before, you and I were talking about it and you said, I don't care about things like the adverts, because as I always say to anyone,
Starting point is 00:50:07 unless you work on the BBC, you've been in an advertiser-funded medium forever. So what is the difference? You're just holding your handkerchief to your nose like some pretentious thing. If you think that if you're on a channel for an ITV show, the thing that happens in the commercial breaks is nothing to do with you. People say sometimes, I never advertise that. You go, listen, here's the news. You've been advertising it for many, many, many years.
Starting point is 00:50:26 Exactly. You have. You can't have it both ways. You know, either it's OK or it's not OK. But that's why all those people make so much money. All those middlemen, because they go between you and the advertisers. So, you know, you never have to meet them. They're still paying you.
Starting point is 00:50:36 We're talking about skimming off again, aren't we? We are talking about skimming off. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But the great skimmers off are in retreat now. Yeah, they've faded away. And now they will become Instagram influencer managers, which is I think the biggest growing industry in the UK. Is that the growth sector? Yeah, you look at the latest census, I think there are now more Instagram influencer managers
Starting point is 00:50:58 than there are miners. And people who believe in the Jedi. Yeah. Where does it go next, do you think, this sort of thing? Is it because it feels like if you're so enormous and so ubiquitous and as you say, you know, you've got people making billions out of this. Sure, there comes a point surely where that market becomes saturated. I mean, obviously there's huge money to be made in very natural makeup and all of those things, but
Starting point is 00:51:20 don't bet against making women feel crap about themselves. I mean, that's the thing, isn't it? Don't have a bet against that. I mean, the nice thing is now they're trying to do it to men as well, because they're thinking, hold on a minute. It's like Philip Morris, tobacco, they're going, hold on, we forgot China. Why don't we? Oh my gosh, why haven't we killed millions of people there? And the whole beauty industry thinking, hold on a minute, men are feeling pretty good about themselves.
Starting point is 00:51:41 Well, this report was very interesting, because they were saying that more young men in the sort of, I think it was 18 to 23, had had Botox than women in that. Yeah, this looks maxing this whole big online trend is absolutely huge. I didn't know what fillers were particularly, but whenever Ingrid sees a young person with fillers she's like, and now I recognize them. Now I see a filler. You've become filler literate. I've become filler literate. And it's all like youngsters. They look the same as the 40 year old women,
Starting point is 00:52:08 it's just a sort of homogenized face that is incredibly linked and defined by the platforms. You know, the idea that someone can talk about Instagram face, the aesthetic is, I don't want to say decreed by Mark Zuckerberg, but it's effectively handed down, you know, via his medium. We are literally becoming our own uncanny valley. Yes. People who look almost like a human being.
Starting point is 00:52:34 But they don't in real life look like human beings at all, actually. Where they look like human beings and where they look of a piece with what they're looking at is on the platforms. So on screen, people actually used to say this about celebrities, oh, it was quite shocking when I saw her, you know, I happen to see so and so on wherever it was, and I was shocked by what she looked like. First of all, she was tiny, you know, they're always much thinner than you possibly think.
Starting point is 00:52:57 This is what I'm talking about, this is going back 20, 30 years, people would say that. They look very odd off camera, but everyone now is on camera all the time, and so everyone has a sort of camera face Yeah, hello to our YouTube viewers, by the way. Yeah, this is all My highlight which are delightful by the way, thank you They were done on Tuesday. Who is that by the way who does this? My hair. Yeah, someone called Josh Josh word. He was wonderful Josh word. Yeah
Starting point is 00:53:22 Chimching ching ch, ching-ching, ching-ching. He's a listener to this podcast, by the way, too. He is very, very good to me. Let me just put it that way. He's a wonderful person. Pauline does my hair. Thank you, Pauline. Yeah, she was my pointless makeup artist, if you know what I mean. And yeah, now she's my Josh Wood.
Starting point is 00:53:40 So that's beauty. Yeah, that's beauty. We've done beauty. From all the way from Hayley Bieber to Josh Wood. We are now going to conclude this episode of the podcast by me saying to you, have you got any recommendations? I do. I have a very strong recommendation this week.
Starting point is 00:53:53 I think we have a new proper, proper massive hit on our hands, which is Bookish, the Mark Gatiss detective drama, which is on You and Alibi. You can see it on NowTV as well. It's so great. He's incredible. I literally, I mean, he is a national treasure beyond all that. He plays Book, who is a bookseller. Please stay with us. But it's sort of set just after the war in London. And he's a sort of a detective sort of a bookseller. It's surrounded by brilliantly cast and brilliantly acted sort of gang as well. I was watching it fingers
Starting point is 00:54:25 cross thinking if this is as good as the people involved then this is going to be amazing and it really really really is. Honestly I thought it was terrific you know when you watch something you just think oh this is going to be on for years. This is my recommendation too. I absolutely loved it. I love him. I think pure joy from start to finish. Yeah and just every actor in it absolutely doing a terrific job. But we watched the first two and I will literally be going home this evening. You're now in that rationing stage where it's that good that you want it.
Starting point is 00:54:54 It's one of those shows you'd like to ration. 100% that, it's exactly that. On that note, we will be back on Thursday with our question and answers episode. Yep, we have another bonus episode concerning British sitcoms. Don't forget to try and count down the greatest British sitcoms of all time. Please remember to vote and if you want to join the club, it's at therestofentertainment.com and you get ad-free listening and various other things besides. That felt like a long podcast.
Starting point is 00:55:19 That was a long podcast. I mean, to be fair, it's the first time we've ever done a tight half hour on a Mulrajan. You know, and so I guess if you're doing that, it tends to spread out, right? I think it does. Right, we'll be back for a properly timed Questions and Answers edition on Thursday. See you then. Bye bye. This episode was brought to you by our good friends at Sky. Sky is home to the shows everyone is talking about and plenty you haven't discovered
Starting point is 00:55:56 yet. But what really sets it apart is how it makes your whole entertainment setup feel smarter, slicker, better. With the new Skyglass TV you don't even need the remote. Just say the name of a show, genre or actor and Sky finds it instantly across all your apps and channels. No scrolling or forgetting where you saw it last. Even from across the room, voice control works. So whether you're making tea, loading the dishwasher or the remote's vanished again, just say hello Sky, play poker face or whatever you fancy and it's already on by the time you sit down.
Starting point is 00:56:26 Or add it to your playlist, maybe Succession for Power Plays and Poisonous One-liners, or the White Lotus for something sun-soaked, sharp and unsettling. Either way, it'll be there, ready when you are. Sky Glass doesn't just make things easier, it makes finding your next entertainment favourite feel effortless. Visit sky.com today.

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