The Rest Is Entertainment - Would Coldplay Win Eurovision?

Episode Date: May 27, 2026

Was Marina wrong about the best James Bond theme tune? Is Strictly Come Dancing about to radically change its format? Are films the reason you’re scared of quicksand? Richard Osman and Marina Hyde answer your questions about TV, film and the world of entertainment. The Rest is Entertainment is brought to you by Octopus Energy, Britain's most awarded energy supplier. Lloyds. 250 years on and still backing the nation's aspirations. Join The Rest Is Entertainment Club: Unlock the full experience of the show – with exclusive bonus content, ad-free listening, early access to Q&A episodes, access to our newsletter archive, discounted book prices with our partners at Coles Books, early ticket access to live events, and access to our chat community. Sign up directly at therestisentertainment.com For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com Video Editor: Max Archer Assistant Producer: Imee Marriott Senior Producer: Joey McCarthy Social Producer: Bex Tyrrell Exec Producer: Sam Psyk & Neil Fearn Filmed at www.westdigitalstudios.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The rest of entertainment is presented by Octopus Energy. Now, celebrity culture has a way of taking very small preferences and promoting them until they require a lot of paperwork. Yeah, it's like the first time we ever go on a show and you say, oh, could have some sparkling water and then like forever. It's like, oh, you has to have sparkling water. It must have sparkling water. It's very, very important. And that's what we call the rider. The rider.

Right. In some cases, the rider didn't stay sort of practical for long, you know. It started as a wish list and then it sort of strayed into a kind of a hostage note from the ego. There was a point in JLo's ego where she was having like, you know, you know, the white drapes, the white candles, the white absolutely everything, white flowers, white, you know, sofas, everything. Most people don't actually need a rider in this life of ours, however, but there is something reassuring about not having to specify everything twice or more.

And this is one of my absolute favorite things about Octopus Energy. If you ring them about anything, your number is recognised and you'll go through to a team who deals with you and they have dealt with you before. So, yeah, you have a team that recognize your number and you go through to people who you don't have to explain the same thing too. 15 times. You're no longer young people. You're just people.

And people are either productive or dead weight. It's my first day of work and I need to make a big impression. Were you just checking me out? No. It's too bad. I see at least 15 ladies I need to talk to you before my beta block wears off. My coworkers don't take me seriously. It's not a human.

It's just a piece of meat. Someone bring a gurney. Hello and welcome to this. episode of the Rest is Entertainment Questions and Answers edition. I'm Marina hi. And I'm Richard Osman. Hello everyone. Hello, Marina. Hello, Richard. How are you? I'm not bad. I think this whole episode last week, I said there's a joke that's called it, Marina is wrong about the best bomb theme. But I was. And we've had an awful lot of people writing. And they're right. Richard, they're right? Oh really, you've got a mayor cold boy. Should I tell you someone who wrote in,

and listen, lots of people wrote in and we really appreciate it, but you'll understand why I'm going to going to this gentleman first. David Arnold wrote in. Don't you shame and I'm so sorry, David. David Arnold is composed five bond themes. He composed the Lana Del Rey track we talked about last week. David's answer is this. He said, my favourite bond song isn't what I think is the best. He starts with that. He said, my favorite, as it was the first bond I saw in the cinema, it's always the way, is You Only Live Twice, written by John Barry, sung by the one and only, Nancy Sinatra. The best bond theme, though, according to David. Now, this is controversial as well,

but I cannot mock him in the same way. I mock you. No, you can't. He's the great genius. The best bond theme is on Her Majesty's Secret Service, which is an instrumental. And that's David Arnold saying that. You look like you want to argue, but you can't. No, I don't.

I'm ashamed of my performance last week when I literally had a mind blank as to a loss of bond theme. Okay, we'll get to yours as well. Another thing that David says, I think, is interesting. So the White Stripe Song Seven Nation Army was Jack Black's attempt at writing a bond theme based on Her Majesty's Secret. service. I did not know that. We have to listen to both of those. No, I didn't know that. So thank you, David. That's amazing. And of course, Jack Black eventually did write a bond theme for Quantum of Solace,

which I would say not as catchy a Seven Nation Army, but... It's only not a catchy movie. So what's your Mayor Culper? Okay. I had a sort of mind-blank, forgive me. I do... The one, I agree, by the way, that you only live twice is up there in the midst. I just think there's something about, I do love all, I mean, maybe people don't like it so much anymore, but I love all the silhouettes of the women and there's something about that, that vocal,

which particularly lends itself to the sort of silhouettes and the, you know. Sure, sure. Now David Arnold said it, yeah. No, I. Because you, we did start it because you were to sing, live and let die. That's where we started all this. I think it's a brilliant song, but as I say, I just don't love it as a bond. I don't love it because I love the song.

I think it's great. But it's not to me a sort of quintessential bond theme, because I prefer the female vocal on a bond theme. We cannot call two episodes in a row. Reno is wrong about the best bond theme. So what is it that you did think you got wrong? I think Adele should be at number three. Okay.

With Skyfall, which I absolutely love. I love what Sam Medes did that with that film. I absolutely love it all. And I think it was kind of modern, but the same sort of thing and the huge, amazing singer, managing to do something with something that, you know, we feel like we already know the conventions of.

I might put you Only Live Twice as number one then. Okay, so number two is Goldfinger. So did you do number one before you did number two? Because you already knew I was going to maybe say it. It doesn't matter. I don't know what, honestly. I've established I'm wrong about all of these things. But Goldfinger, Shirley Bassy, there's something about that gold finger that I just think is,

maybe that is, and it's almost, it's such the sort of quintessential bond theme in some ways. Okay. And then suddenly, just seconds after David Arnold says how much he loves you only live twice. By the way, he says, it's not the bond. It's not the best. No, I know he says that. But you're saying it is. I'm not going to say he's incorrect.

So you're saying he's wrong. I've lost a chance to say anything about anything about these things. But yeah, those would be my, I don't know. I didn't want to play favourites with any of those three, to be perfectly honest. But those are the three my three favorites. What about you? I don't say this often, but you are absolutely all over the place. Sorry about that.

I mean, that is quite something. Well, listen, it doesn't matter what I think because our listeners have been giving their opinion. We've been asking them to vote on the best ever bond theme. So, shall we do that? We'll start with, I'll do the whole top ten. We've got tied for ninth, no time to die, Billy Elish, which you said last week was one of your favourites, and a view to a kill, Duran-Juran. They're both tied ninth. Eighth, we have all the time in the world, Louis Armstrong, not an official bond theme, but was at the end of Honour Majesty Secret Service, which, in David Arnold's opinion, is the very, very best.

Seventh, you know my name, Chris Cornell from Casino Royale? No. Okay Six. This is even more controversial I would say. Golden Eye, Tina Turner. Again?

No. Fifth diamonds are forever, Shirley Bassie. Bassy, he's got to have out there. Fourth goldfinger, Shirley Bessie. And by the way, these top four get a lot more votes than anyone else. Top three. Number three, live and let die.

Wings. Okay. Just listeners, just so you know, the scorn that I'm seeing. I love the song. I just don't think it's like a classic bond theme. Okay. Number two, nobody does it better, Carly Simon.

But that's, I love that song, but that's not a classic bond theme. No. Hasn't even got it in the titles. But that's okay. It hasn't got one in the title. He's got the words in it. Spy He Love Me is in the lyrics, but it's not. Yes.

Yeah. Number one, I would say far above number two, Skyfall, Adele. How about that? So listen, at least we are brought together a little bit towards the end of this absolute mess. Do you want to know what the worst bond theme is? Number 25 out of 25? What? Moonraker, Shirley Bassie. So there you go. Moonraker is the bottom, the man of the golden gun, thunderball, die another day and another way to die are at the bottom there. Die another day is dreadful. Now, funnily enough, we didn't actually poll on a majesty's secret

service because I think we polled, we have all the time in the world for that. So David Arnold sits outside the list. So the best bond theme is either Skyfall or on a Majesty's Secret Service. And now we all have to listen to it and see if that's where a seven nation army came from. Listeners, thank you so much for that. There was a lot of chatter about that, so we had to do that poll. But it feels like everyone's agreed about Skyfall, and I'm happy because live and let die and nobody does it better with my favourite two. And then number two and number three.

That sort of was a question, wasn't it? Because you very much post a question, which is how wrong can I be? How wrong can I be? Yeah. How wrong can I be? And it turns out very, very wrong indeed. I was reading that all off the laptop, which I'm going to give to producer Joey. Very good.

Oh, he almost appeared on camera there, Joey. People wouldn't believe. He's like 7 foot 6. He's like 20. He played the mountain on Game of Thrones, Joey. I have a question for you, Marina. Oh, this is a fun one. Alex Haworth.

Is there a name for the phenomenon where something is much more common on TV and film than in real life? So people begin to believe that to be true. And if so, what are your favorite examples? food poisoning, for example, my girlfriend is convinced happens to her weekly, despite my protest that is really not that common in real life. Gosh, okay. There's some psychotrama there. Yeah, there is some there.

I don't think there is a name for it, although I actually started thinking about this before I came here today, and I realized that I would really quickly get to 100 examples of this. So I just sort of stopped, but you will all have your own ones of these. Okay, so in no particular order, mistaken identity. Okay, this is something because I suppose goes back to, I don't know, Greek drama, but yeah, people tend not to make mistake people for other people. People sort of putting the phone down and then a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding lingering, and you just feel like, no, just call them back or just die back again. If they didn't pick up the phone, just call

back again, something like that. Witnessing a murder by chance, generally people don't witness murders and so, you know, in general, all forms of... That's like saying going to the moon, though. Yeah. I think they make films about murder. Yes, they do. But criminal masterminds with elaborate schemes, really, really elaborate schemes, because obviously in real life crime is very sloppy and it's not really, you know, it's often financially motivated and, you know, impulsive. Amnesia for me is a big one. I think that doesn't happen nearly as much as it does in fiction. There's a lot of medical ones. Being unconscious for a really long time and then waking up and just sort of being fine, like, oh, hi, you know, I'm back in the room after you would have a massive brain injury at that point. And it's just like, it doesn't work like that. Enemies to lovers. Yeah. I don't think, a lot of these things are just done to make stories work.

And it's really interesting. It doesn't mean that people don't want to see those things because there's something very satisfying about enemies to lovers. And we love the kind of sparring. And then when it, you know, when they get together, we really like it. But I just don't think it happens that much in real life, I have to say. But I don't know. But people really, it's very, very fictionally satisfying.

So you can see, also conflict makes stories work and maybe that's the satisfaction of it all. But surprise evidence happening in court. Yes, people running into court. Yeah. Any kind of gotcha evidence that happens in court. I mean, actually people crying and breaking down and completely contradicting their witness statement because of that also, once you're there, you tend to just, in my experience, and I've covered various court cases, people don't tend to. kind of get broken down and falls to pieces and then just sort of confess to everything. They kind of stick with what they went with in their witness statement.

We all know the cost of characters, flats and houses and all of those. Someone on that bank, people being able to afford things out of their income bracket is like beyond. Oh, like the flats in Thursday Murder Club. Yeah. Oh my God. The Thursday Murder Club, I remember thinking, I said to you, when you sent me the first picture of them set, I was like, and that's Cooper's Chase is it then? Wow, okay.

Remind me to retire there. I mean, with respect, Spielberg couldn't afford the flats in the... No, it's unbelievable. Remind me to mortality back in this case. Quicksand... Quicksand is the... It's the number one. Being kids, yeah.

Yeah, we used to think about quicksand. When I was a child, I was... Well, certainly when I was a teenager, the things, you know, I was scared of quicksand ghosts and getting toxic shot syndrome. I still don't know about quicksand now if I'm on an unfamiliar beach or just in boggy land. Yeah. Because you do sort of think, oh, I mean, that could be it. I've seen it so many times. You've got to be so careful.

But it's fallen out of, as a sort of trope of peril, it's gone because I think it became so ridiculous. Yeah, it was so ubiquitous. Yeah, it was so ubiquitous. Like it would be in every, every sort of Saturday tea time show would have, night rideer will have got caught in it. Yeah. The 18 will have got caught in it. But that's very close to what Alex is saying, which is things that genuinely affect your life in some way, which are purely because you've seen them on TV. By the way, I think food, I think perhaps Alex, perhaps your partner, does get food poisoning. I think it's hard to have something.

I'm not a doctor and I don't even play one on TV. I don't we should get into that. Yes, I think it's, there are so many of these. You'll all be writing in the ones that you see. I got a couple. Yeah. Finding a parking space. Like right in front of somewhere.

Yes. I mean, that's like, I mean, it literally never happens. You never see somebody going to a multi-story car park and like going, okay, there's nothing on the ground floor. Okay, it's got to the foot. No, there's nothing on there. It's just, just go all the way out to the roof. Yeah.

Because every single floor will be full apart from the roof and there'll be loads of spaces there. But no, they literally just park in front of wherever they're going. And turning on the TV just at the time that the thing that the film is about is being talked about on the news. Yes. Like, you don't have to sit through like sort of, you know, three minutes on the war in Ukraine before you get. And in other news, a local businesswoman was murdered today. It always, you switch on and it always is immediately. It's always on demand.

The first thing that's talked about. On narrative demand. Yes. And written in such a way that would never be on the news. Yes. But I think, I mean, it's very, very hard to look past quicksand. Yes. Perhaps younger listeners would think...

It's completely fallen out of favour, as I say. But there are many of those things. And if I honestly, I just stopped after a little bit of time because there are so many. But you all have your own ones and I'm looking forward to hearing yours. People who have the volume up on their phone. People who have alerts on their phone. Just so you know that a time. Texas has come through.

I think who's got them, who's got their alerts on? What my mom has, but they don't really... Yeah, that makes sense. For definite. Yeah. Anyway,

do write in and we'll... Alex, we will do some more of those next week as well, I think. Shall we go for a break? And after the break, I think we have questions on Strictly and Eurovision. Oh, yes.

Okay. Very good. Let's go. Okay. Wow. You really mean it. Oh my God, you love avats. Yeah, I do.

I love them. This episode is brought to you by Lloyds. Now, I love it when characters are part of the club. You wouldn't know anything about that. Would you, Richard? The Thursday Murder Club in some ways reminds me of the A-Team. I would now like to map each of those characters onto the A-Team and feel I probably could. I mean, Elizabeth is Hannibal and it's not even close.

That's exactly right. And Ron is howling Mad Murdoch. Well, there are definite perks to being in a club. Just ask the members of Club Lloyds, because with Club Lloyds, you can bank on Lloyds to give you more wherever you are. If you join Club Lloyds, there's all sorts of benefits you can choose between Between there's, for example, six free cinema tickets. They've got an annual coffee club and gourmet society membership, which would be mine. And also something that the Thursday Motor Club would enjoy very, very much indeed.

To top it all off, you have fee-free spending abroad, which means wherever you are, you won't be charged by Lloyds to use your debit card when you're travelling. Now, joining this club costs £5 per month, but that is refunded in any month that you pay £2,000 into your account. Now, that is a club that's worth being part of. Check out Club Lloyds today. you'll need to be a UK resident and aged 18 or over to apply. This segment is brought to you by Lloyds, the home of Club Lloyds. Now, the film industry has always had its private rooms, the sort of deals, dinners, juries, where the buyers and critics who decide what gets notice, meet,

and they also decide what gets finance and what gets talked about. And one of the best examples of that would be Cannes, the Cannes Film Festival, which is a club that once you're in, it can be very, very lucrative. So what does it mean to enter one of cinema's most prestigious, clubs and what actually changes once Cannes lets you in? You've been to Can a number of times. It feels like the whole town becomes this very, very prestigious club. It's interesting because the thing about the Canc Festival is that everyone there is

100% convinced that they matter and it all matters almost more than anything. It's like a real pace of unapologetic sort of star power, star culture, glamour. And it's quite easy to sort of walk around and think, would I be admitted to this club? Well, a lot of the parties happen on boats. Wow. Yeah, some people say have rules. I will never go to a party on a boat. I don't like a party on a boat, so you can't leave.

Yeah. But nonetheless, lots of the big and prestigious parties do happen on a boat. So there is that sense that if you're not part of it, you're on the shoreline kind of not pressing your nose quite up against the window. But that's where you... They call it a porthole. A porthole. If you're at the porthole, you're too close. But it definitively is, can.

If you're accepted, it can, suddenly you are in the Hollywood club. I think that's for sure, isn't it? like Pulp Fiction, which won Can, many, many years ago and went on to win Oscars. Parasite would be another good example of a film that was massive at Cannes. Even Soderberg, satisfies and videotape. He was 26. If they agree that they will allow a film to be shown in competition and they have, to some extent, admitted to the union to the club, then it becomes enormous.

And you can arrive as a nobody like Steven Soderberg did, really. And then you leave, oh my gosh, you're now going to be in all the awards conversation back in the US. it can become a big thing if you win the palm door. Like a Nora would be another example of that. Nora would be a huge thing. And Sean Baker said, I don't read the director. You know, I'm not sure we were a big film at all before that. And then suddenly it dominates all the awards conversation.

So there is a sense that once you've been swept up into the Cannes Club, that great things are going to happen for you. Talking of clubs, we go, listen, this is a more everyday version of a club, but one that's easier to join. I would say that rather than having to make a movie. Or swim up to a porthole. Or swim up to a porthole. Club Lloyd's, here's the segue, is rather easier to join

than the Can Club. You do not have to make an Oscar-winning film to get in, but there are still many, many rewards. There are. You can choose one lifestyle benefit each year with the choice of 12 months of Disney Plus, six cinema tickets, an annual digital coffee club and gourmet society membership, or an annual magazine subscription. You also get access to preferential savings and mortgage offers. altogether that could add up to over £129 in value per year. You can find out more at Lloydsbank.com forward slash clubloids or download the app. You must be a UK resident and age 18 or older to apply. Club Lloyds has a £5 monthly fee refunded each month you pay in £2,000 or more. Hey, this is Michael and Hannah from Gollhangers The Rest is Science.

This episode is brought to you by Cancer Research UK. We often think of beating cancer as treatment, but imagine stopping it before it begins. After years of work, Cancer Research UK scientists are launching a clinical trial of lung Vax, the first vaccine designed to prevent lung cancer. It builds on TracerX, the world's largest cancer evolution study, which tracked lung cancer cells over many years to uncover the disease's earliest warning signs. Lung Vax is designed to train the immune system to spot these. signs early on, destroying 40 cells before cancer develops. So it's not treatment, but preventative,

with the potential to stop lung cancer before it starts. The first stage of the trial starts this year, focusing on people at higher risk. It shows what long-term research makes possible. For more information about Cancer Research UK, their research breakthroughs and how you can support them, visit Cancer Researchukuk.org forward slash the rest is science. Welcome back, everybody. Now, there is a very good question which can lead us into various bits about Strictly because there's obviously news. Janet Colthurst asks,

given the announcement that Johannes Radebe is going to be some sort of roving reporter on this year strictly, I've started wondering whether the show is quietly changing its format and whether a change like this is influenced by audience data. Do streaming platforms know exactly which scenes people skip? rewatch or abandon. If so, are producers starting to shape programs around that data? Well, there's two questions there. I'll take the second bit first, which is, do broadcasters have that information? Yes, they do. They absolutely have sort of minute-by-minute information about when people switch off, when they don't switch off, and certainly the streamers.

I mean, that's absolutely grist to their mill. That's absolutely part of their business plan. And including for shows like ours, you know everything, how long they stay, yeah. You know, we can access that data. So it's, you know, for example, if Marina is run about bonds, suddenly everyone switches off because they're just like, they're just fuming. People come to listen at that point because they love to hear it. Yeah, definitely, you know, if you've got a formatted show, you can find out very, very quickly if there's a point at which people go, no, this is not for me. Or, you know, like the music act on, you know, on an entertainment show, that's when people switch off. And so it always has been, always will be.

It doesn't mean you shouldn't have them. But, you know, that's definitely when when people switch off. And dramas as well, they absolutely know at what point they abandoned it or a film. They'll know what time they abandoned it. And, you know, but they'll do all that in testing as well. You know, they'll sit with the test audience with, you know, little dials when they're happy, when they're not happy. And so forever and ever TV and film have been very good at that. In terms of strictly, I don't think that is the case because it's not, it doesn't really have a format as such.

If you think about what strictly is, we introduce the judges. We'll do a dance. We'll go to Tess. Test will introduce the couple. That'll finish. And so test will ask for opinions. You'll go upstairs and Claudia will be talking to the couple. We then get the votes, rinse and repeat with VTs and between.

So that's always been the format of that. So there sort of isn't a point at which if there's a bit of that that you would turn off at, then it's happening 10 times in a episode. So, you know, it's sort of meaningless. I would say that 7 million people or something watch it live. Yes. So that's harder to tell what people are doing in that. Yes, it sort of is, but enough people are watching it on catch-up that you can.

So yes, they're going to have three hosts now. And I think that is not, or people don't like this or something, but you cut your cloth according to your presenters. You have the opportunity now to ring the changes a little bit, because that show is on train tracks. And we've talked before about the fact that it needs to be on train tracks because it's a big live show and you've got a lot to get in. And, you know, any time you run over by five seconds on an even,

a single element of it, then, you know... You're eating into someone else this time. You're eating into someone else this time because you have to come off air at the right time. So now they've got, because Josh and Emma Willis hosting, which by the way, I think is going to be a great combination. And Johannes backstage, they are obviously building new things into the format. Now, what they can't cut down on is, I don't think they were cut down on a number of contestants. They are not going to cut down on the length of dances.

No. They're definitely still going to have some VT stuff because you need that. But my guess would be, and you can't really cut down on what test did because that was always very, very, very tight. You're probably not going to cut down on what Claudia did because that's not, that does go off. So there's not a lot of fat to cut. I think the VTs is the place that you can do it. I agree. I think that, you know, if those VTs are 120 seconds, there's nothing to say they shouldn't be 75 seconds.

and give yourself four minutes, five minutes really, for Johannes to do three hits backstage, something, you know, maybe of 90 seconds each, something like that. And so... Is that what he's going to do? Is it going to be backstage, or will he go out to the VT places?

It's a very good question. I imagine they'll use him for all sorts of different things. And I imagine he'll come out. I imagine the three of them will be out there out front at the beginning. Of course he's going to do lots of dancing within that and we'll see him in group dances and all of that stuff. So I think that,

yeah, they will just fight because there is not a lot of fat on that show. I know it feels like there might be, but I don't think there is. It really isn't. It's a miracle everywhere. I don't think the judges will agree to having 30 seconds less on each thing because why would you? Because they have to do their job seriously and they take it seriously. So I would think maybe you cut down a little bit on VTs. Maybe they'll add five minutes, ten minutes to the to the duration, which is absolutely they can do.

That wouldn't be an issue at all. I think that it's just adding an extra element, which is to see behind the scenes, which people like anyway. And you get a lot of it on it takes to, you know, you'll see wardrobe and stuff like that. And it's a shame not to see that on strictly because it's part of the clamour of the thing. And Johannes is a perfect person to do that. So, yeah, I think it's probably, it's not they're responding to what viewers have switched off. I think they are thinking, we love this show. What is it that the viewers love?

What are the most popular bits on it takes to? what are the bits that people always really, really respond to. And we get Johannes to do that. Cross-ponating some of those. I agree. Although in general, absolutely, Janet, all shows are looking at that data all the time and completely modifying, you know, and strictly is slightly different for the reasons you said, but lots are always looking at things like that.

And it's what's created huge amounts of the dynamics in things like Netflix show where they say something enormous has to happen at the end of episode four of a drama. You know, there's a sort of template now for lots of this stuff, and it's because they know they have so much data on audience behaviour. What I'm fascinated in is if they do all come out at the beginning, which they will, is that idea of having to write a three-hander, which is quite hard. Rob Colley has written on that show for years and years and years. By the way, I'm reliably informed that there's a brilliant joke on,

have I gotten used for you, talking about a monk jack that was found on the escalator in MNS, and the joke was it's not the first time someone's been in MNES, and said, oh, that's a little dear. And I'm reliably informed, Rob Cully, wrote that joke. But to do a three-hander at the top, that's very hard. If you watch Homes Under the Hammer now, you know, that's a tough intro. But it's going to be a really fun refresh. And it's different. You know, it can't be the same because then you're going to be directly compared to Tess and Claudia, and that's not fair on anyone. So, yeah, it feels to me you've got three, like, great

presences there. Yeah. Marina, a question for you. Jason Cash, that's a good name. Very good name. That's a really good name. Jason, if I could use that at some point. I was about to say, yeah. Yeah, that's amazing. Jason Cash. Anyway, Jason, he does have a question.

He says, who makes the call when a newspaper changes its political allegiances? Would it be the editor or the owner? It's a good question because I think we're going to start seeing more of it. It does really depend, and it's different from paper to paper and proprietor to proprietor. But in general, newspapers, most newspapers have been. quite small C conservative in that it doesn't happen very often. You can't have know broadly. But we had a two-party system.

A change in allegiance. Yeah, it happens. Yeah. So it hasn't happened, but it's definitely one to watch now because we used to have a two-party system. The Times actually has changed a lot. I don't know. You know, lots of people changed who would never have said vote,

Labour suggested voting for Tony Blair. I also, by the way, find the whole business of, I suppose we're talking about one thing. generally like which party does this paper kind of covertly support? Which when there comes to a general election, did they in that ridiculous fashion tell their readers to vote for? The Times has varied quite a lot over history. The Sun, the Sun was left wing back in the start,

but then became under Murdoch, you know, huge sort of Thatcherites. They said vote Blair. And they back Labour in 2024. But you know what? They want to reflect their readers when they can feel. the vibe or the writing is on the wall. The writing is on the wall, by the way, is number 11 in the best bond themes, the Sam Smith one. A lot of that has come from Murdoch, the proprietor, but also people within those

organisations pointlessly, but all successfully, second-guess Murdoch all the time. I think what would my boss like all the time? And it's always happened, you know, are they going to go reform in 2029 or whenever the election happens to be, I would have thought that's possibly quite likely, but I don't, you know, the Times will, for instance. So there has, there is that sort of disparity. The mail, are they going to go reform, the telegraph? Lots of things are going to change in that because we've got lots of different.

If you're a political leader, you know, we've seen historically Blair going out to Australia and meeting Murdoch and stuff like that. If you're Farage, who do you target the owners or the editors or both? Do you just think that none of this matters anymore? And it all matters so much less than it ever did. it would be, it's a nice to have, isn't it? I don't think he particularly cares. The FTA of, you know, endorsed the Lib Dems, Tories, whatever.

I remember the got, and in terms of how it's done, by the way, lots of these people just don't want to be left behind. They don't want to, if they think that the pack has moved or the herd has moved or whatever it is, and that that's the, you know, like you knew that New Labor were going to win in 1997. Do you want to be the person saying, oh, vote for the Tard old Tories? There's always a thing where they actually slightly want to reflect what's happened. Everyone wants to back a winner. They lead everyone by the nose. Forget thinking they lead anyone by the nose anymore. It's just that is dead.

The Guardian is different. They have an editorial conference to decide who is back. Oh my God. That must be one of the worst mornings in the year. I tend not. Can you imagine that meeting? I haven't attended it for a while. But they have a long discussion about it.

I mean, I think, you know, this time, lots of people will want, green to be endorsed. And there are different ways of everyone doing this. Either it's so obvious it comes to the proprietor or there's a sort of tacit agreement anyway that you'll get, that some of those papers, as I say, will back reform because I think that's where their readership's doing and they don't want to look off the pace, basically. And they are off the paces. We already know that the media organizations have changed so much. So I do think, I mean, it was when Jeff Bezos said up, well, why do we even have to have a leader saying who we support in this election, even though I don't sympathies with almost anything. I sort of agree with the Washington Post. I mean, it's,

nobody wants that sort of nonsense, patrician instruction. They can kind of work out which way you're on, which side you're on anyway. And for me, it's always embarrassing, always, always embarrassing. It tends to be a top-down thing. And occasionally, someone like, and occasionally the Guardian will let everybody decide. But certainly if an editor and an owner were to disagree, then the owner would win that argument. Oh, yeah, in our country, yes. Yeah. And in America. Yes. Yeah. Well, perhaps not, yeah, I know. I don't know. In the old ways, no, not always an American. Okay. Because I think it might be, you know, they remember they are on such an ego trip about

their journalism and how sacred it is, even though it's been so often shown not to be. But so there is a sort of self-regard there that thinks it's absolutely soundcrusang that the editor must decide. But yeah, what actually happens in the backroom is not so clear-cut. Yeah, Jeff Bezos would. Bezos will do what he likes, of course, as they now know. Okay. Callum McKeown would like to say if Coldplay entered the Eurovision Song Contest

would they win it? Or is the UK cursed? What is the butcher's bill for the BBC? And is there any public service value? Ha. There's a lot there. And the bill, somewhere around 1.3, 1.5 million. They pay half a million for the rights to screen it.

And also, by the way, the rights to get straight through to the Finox with one of the largest contributors. when you add in the BBC's production bits of it and all the programming around it probably around 1.3, 1.5. Get massive ratings. Yes, less than it used to. I think it was about five and a half this year, which is still far and a way bigger than anything else. Really, really, really big.

But, you know, it's certainly the lowest it's been. But, you know, it takes up an entire Saturday night. I always think it starts quite late. Yeah. Eurovision. I mean, if there's any way, you know, if the BBC is straight into the final, surely we'll have to start it an hour earlier. I'm absolutely certain that discussion's been had. So it is, you know, for what it delivers, it's not insanely expensive. Is there any public

service remit for it? Huh. I mean, in a way, given the sort of programming the BBC does around it and, you know, talk about music bringing people together and things like that, I guess there is an argument for it. Plus, I've always been of the view that's, you know, big entertainment that brings families together is one of the jobs of the BBC. And definitively, that's what, you Eurovision does. And continents, Richard, and continents. I mean, like it brings, I mean, more incontinence, you know what I mean? Yeah. So, yeah, I think it's one of those things that the BBC does very well and it's part of the, you know, it's like sport.

It's like the FA Cup final, Eurovision. I mean, that's exactly what it is. And no one's obsessing about the ratings for the FA Cup final. Exciting, though it was. There was no programming about it in the old days. The front page of BBC Sport website on the morning of the FA Cup final, you had to scroll so far. far down to find... What was in Chelsea, Man City?

I mean... To find, yes, but nonetheless. Fun for Chelsea fans, fun for Man City fans. You could get up in the morning and you could start watching things and now it's like, yeah, yeah, same. Yeah, but there was nothing for so late, until so late, until right down the bottom of the website.

But so, yeah, I think that, you know, it's almost got like protected status in that way. I mean, yeah, we've, listen, we've come last six times this century, Plum last six times this century. A number of reasons for it. Of course, you know, we have taken it less seriously. The fact that we get straight through to the final means that we're not terrified about being knocked out in the semifinals.

I think we try and win it. Yeah. That's for sure. So would Coldplay win? Now, no, unless the song is great, which if it's Coldplay, probably would be. You know, there's lots of people with big, big, big social media presences in Eurovision this year who did nothing. The German song, for example. It needs to be great in the Eurovision style as well.

There's something quite specific about it. There is something quite specific about it and you can get very technical about it. And the brilliant Chris Lockery often produces these incredible statistical-filled things of how to write a Eurovision hit when the key change should happen. You know, what language should it be in? All of that stuff, what time it should be in. I think that there's no real reason for it. No one wants to vote for Britain particularly. But, you know, other than the Ukrainian entry winning, we would have won it a couple years ago with Sam Ryder.

Yeah. So we have to get rid of any idea that people hate us or that we can't win because we definitively can win. Yeah, it was perfect. Yeah, there was something great about it. And by the way, I couldn't tell you why. Because if you ask me to pick a Eurovision song, we would almost certainly come last. And the guy on no computer is clearly a very, very, very smart guy and very entertaining guy. He does incredible things.

And, you know, I did feel for him. You could see him thinking, oh, this really felt like a good idea. And I just, I'm not absolutely sure that it was. But, you know, this idea goes, oh, we're always, you know, we don't know how to do it. I mean, I mean, that's not true. Almost every country always loses. You know, it's very few, very few countries. You know, if the Bulgarian song had been our song, would we have won?

You have to say probably yes, because we have the example of Sam Ryder, which tells you, which tells you we are absolutely capable of winning the Eurovision. song contest. If co-planted, would they win? I think the question is, would a band that is massive, automatically get enough votes that they would win? There seems to be zero correlation. I mean, we've put in all sorts of bands over the years. It's probably being the biggest, and who did perfectly well, I think they were top ten. But it's, I think there's zero correlation. It's quite a meritocratic thing, the Eurovision song contest, and those juries and the public decide. I mean, where I

cold play, would I want to do it? Actually, cold play really, really wouldn't need to do it. But, you know, there's, it's, I'd love to see someone like self-esteem to a Eurovision song, you know, because someone who absolutely gets why people listen to music and gets how music connects to people and it isn't there because it's a novelty, but wants to

just write a big old hit that brings people together. But it's, I would hate to be in charge of who the British entry is. Oh, God. Yeah. You can't get it. I mean, it's, it is, it is a lottery. It is. There's a lot of it that's a lottery and it's still one my favourite. I've said many times before that the single best thing I ever did in my career was giving out the votes at Eurovision of anything I've ever done in my entire career across all the different media.

That was still my favourite saying, hello, London calling. Here are the votes from the UK jury. Just to remind you, we will be talking to Stephen Spielberg very soon for one of these Q&A things. But as always, we want your questions. That's much of the most. fun way of doing it. So it's The Restors Entertainment at Gollhanger.com if you've got a question for Steven Spielberg. For our members, Marina, your series of bonus episodes talking to James Kanagosaurian, the one on Timothy Shaname is out this week and opera and ballet, was he right about that. And I know lots of people, because the first one was free, listen to and loved the first one on Tradwives. If you haven't heard it, listen to that. And if you do want to join and become a member,

it is therestorsentertainment.com at free listening, all that kind of stuff. Otherwise, we'll see you next Tuesday. See you next Tuesday.