Walking The Dog with Emily Dean - Andrew Cotter

Episode Date: October 19, 2021

This week Emily went for a stroll with Andrew Cotter and his Labradors Olive and Mabel (or is that Mabel and Olive?). They chatted about Andrew’s passion for dogs, his career as a sports journalist and broadcaster, and of course his viral commentary videos. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Oh, more rolling. Should I commentate on this? Olive then onto our back using that technique. It's absolutely perfect, honed over years and years and years and years. And look at the state of her now. This week on Walking the Dog, I went for a stroll with two absolute legends of the canine world. It's only Olive and Mabel. Oh, and their owner, sports broadcaster, Andrew Cotter joined us as well.

As you may already know, Olive and Mabel are the two Labradoros who became a global sensation in last year's lockdown. when Andrew posted a series of hilarious videos featuring him commentating on their antics. They've had over 90 million views across social media with everyone, from Ryan Reynolds to Hugh Grant, and yes, even Luke Skywalker, OK, Mark Hamill, becoming massive fans. It's obviously completely changed Andrew's life, and he went on to write a hugely successful book called Olive, Mabel and Me, and has just published a second one, Dog Days A Year with Olive and Mabel.

Andrew lives in Cheshire, but I grabbed him and Olive, And Mabel, when they were down in London, at one of his favourite spots, Richmond Park. And we had a lovely chat about his passion for dogs, his career in broadcasting. And of course, the two female icons he lives with who've become global superstars. I also brought my dog Raymond along to see if they took a shine to him. I'm not saying Raymond got my dog, but I wouldn't hold your breath for any canine wedding ceremonies. We did have the loveliest time with Andrew and Oliver and Mabel. and do read his book Dog Days a Year with Olive and Mabel

because he writes brilliantly, I'll shut up now so you can get listening to this fabulous triumphant. Here's Andrew and Olive and Mabel and Raymond. Come here, come here. Say hello to Raymond properly. I know you were wondering what was going on on the stage. I want to be friends with Raymond. Look at the indifference of Olive to it. It's just...

No, we're fine, thanks. We're absolutely fine just having them as a casual acquaintance. Go on then. Follow Mabel and Olive? Olive's just following the banana. It's gone. The banana's gone. Will you take them off the lead?

Yeah, I will once we're on to the... So have you not been to Richmond Park before? I came here with David Gandy. David Gandy. Well, this is trading down. Well, they're walking quite sweetly together, Andrew. Well, they do. they're on the lead yeah they walk fine when they're off the leads as well as

Raymond takes 14 strides to try and keep up all right Raymond Raymond no he's not he's not does he know his name is Mabel doesn't know her name is you see so see it's it's coming out now but I think it is the back has rounded slightly and he's looking intent you know when dogs do this you're supposed to look out for them because they're primevaly they're wide that they might be attacked by bears or predators while they're vulnerable in that position. Do you know, I'd feel the same, wouldn't you? I mean, if I was having to do an outside deposit...

Well, you'd be worried about a bear attacking you? Yeah. Well, it would be if you were doing it at Whipsnade Zoo or something like, but I mean, you should be worried about the police or the authorities if you were doing that. Someone also told me that dogs always face magnetic north when they do that as well. But yeah, but it's nonsense. I've looked at them. They go in all directions, so... Let's walk. Right, so I'm going to release the hounds at some point here.

There was a spell in Richmond Park during the rutting season where they're not allowed off the leads but I think the dears have done their rutting. So I need to introduce you Andrew. Right. Do the formal bit. Uh-huh. This is walking the dog and I'm really excited because I'm with the very wonderful Andrew Cotter and I gave you top billing for once. once and the fabulous Mabel and olive. See, so you've done it all, because you've given me top billing and then you've put Mabel second,

and Mabel is very much third. She admits that, she accepts that. As the youngest, it should always be, well I think it should be olive and Mabel and then I come last actually. I think I always do that. I always tend to put Mabel first. A lot of people do that, I don't know why. Well, I know why I do it, it's because I was the youngest. youngest. All right. I thought it was maybe just the flow of the name. People just like the Mabel and Olive, but Olive and Mabel sounds better to me anyway. Olive, Mabel and Raymond. And I've let Raymond off the lead. Good luck with that everyone. Well, you see, the thing is, it could be, so you know that this is, this is a, Olive and Mabel obviously had some success in the internet in going, going viral, but you know that,

oh, what you're eating. Olive, leave it, leave it, leave it. I'm sorry that during the podcast, there's going to be a lot of me going, Olive, leave it, leave it, leave it. So Richmond Park, Mabel's off after a squirrel, no chance. Mabel was where the famous or infamous Fenton incident happened that had millions upon millions upon millions of views back in 2011 or thereabouts. And it was over there actually, just over there. and Fenton the dog chasing after the whole herd of deer, scattering them, chasing them over the road

and this very, very middle class owner, going Fenton, Jesus Christ, Fenton! And just getting angry and angry and Fenton paying no heed whatsoever. But we all laughed at it, but it is quite serious because when deers are obviously, well, when any livestock are pregnant or scared, they can be miscarry or they can be chased in front of a car, So quite often in Richmond Park, dogs have to be on leads, I think, during the rutting season, but I think we're safe at the moment.

And also, can you imagine, and I listen, I'm going to put this out there, I love Raymond. But can you imagine a deer? Can you imagine him chasing a herd of deer? I presume listeners to your podcast know what Raymond looks like. So I don't need to describe him. Well, like, why don't you? I can't. It's impossible. It's just, I'm not sure. What is he a dog? No, of course he is.

Raymond, come to me. Raymond, Raymond. He seems to be quite busy in his own little world, though. Yeah, he's got a strange shape. Well, I always say I think Raymond's attitude to walk is a bit like... Come here. He's going for a little brows. Yes, he is browsing.

He is browsing. Hello, chops. How are you? You all right? So Andrew, I want to... You mentioned? And Henton, we should talk about this park, obviously, there's a lot we've got to talk about, but we should talk about why we're in Richmond Park, because this is quite a special place to you,

isn't it? Yeah, so this is our local. We lived, so I was in London for 12 years with my broadcasting career because the BBC was based at Shepherd's Bush and I was always in south-west London. So we lived in Richmond for a few years. We lived in Mort Lake for a few years. So always very close on either side of Richmond Park. And when you're in London and you're not really a city person as I am, then you quite often have to do that, just scoop him up. Well, he's just getting in people's way and he's being annoying.

I do apologise. There's some proper dogs. What I'd like to see is a race between Raymond and. What's your dog's name? Ah, well, he's my daughter's dog. All right, okay. He's got a very silly name called Dagonie. Dagonie?

Yeah, I recognise. This is Mabel and Olive. It is. There's Mabel and Olive. See, you've gone for, that's it. You've gone for Mabel and Olive, because I would always call him Olive and Mabel. But, um, that's it. No, Mabel always seems to get top billing.

Is Mabel the older one? No, Mabel's the younger one. Mabel's the young, idiotic one here, who's put her hackles up, you see? Does this happen to you all the time that you get recognised by Mabel and Olive? They get recognised, yeah. No, they do get recognised. Are you more Mabel and Olive fans? Oh yes.

Oh, good. And I've made all my friends be as well. Oh, tremendous. Oh, good, it's you that's responsible for all of views. I like that. Good, excellent. So what's that, sorry, Dagonie and... Well, this is Eva.

Eva. So she completes the set. Eva, look at your little grey eyebrows. Hello, she's not good on. Oh, it's lovely to meet you. Nice to meet you. Well, we're on stage tonight at Richmond Theatre. That's where we're here.

So, well, they're on stage. Well, I'm on stage as well, but it's mostly about them, it's all about them, in fact. Excellent. All right, cheers. Thank you. Bye. Come on, Ray. Let's follow Mabel and Olive. Olive and Mabel. I'm doing it just to be contrary. I know exactly. So we're in beautiful Richmond Park and we were just saying that Richmond Park has sort of, it's quite significant for you.

So when we were living in London and again it was 12 years and I'm not a city person, this was the absolute oasis, the sanctuary they escaped from, because you come in here, it's a huge part, Richmond, Parm. It's just enormous. And, you know, apart from the planes going overhead, you could be out in the, out in the middle of the country. And it's always been, you know, for everybody who lives around here, an enormous sanctuary and escape. So, but when we were living here, we didn't have, didn't have dogs because we were both working full time. And this is you and your, apart of carline, yeah. So we were, both working all the time and there's no chance of having a dog and also when you're in London

I'd we you know we thought with us both working full-time and being in London it was just too much but we would come in here and you know contemplate grabbing other people's dogs so we'd certainly just go over and start chatting to the dogs without chatting to the owners of the people but hello so yes this was this is a place where we would wander around here knowing we were going to get a dog, but just not knowing when it would happen. And I want to go back, Andrew, to pre-Olive and Mabel, back to your early dog years. Yes. So you grew up in Scotland, obviously.

Yes. And tell me a bit about your childhood when you were growing up. Well, I mean, there were always dogs. They were just an accepted part of life, like furniture. They were just always there. and you always felt very comfortable having them, you know, as you're a small child as well, that they'd be just knocking you over or taking food from your hand or whatever it might be. And you didn't feel in any way scared of dogs or sensitive about dogs.

It was just that they were just part of the family. So I think, you know, when you have dogs as a child, that's what happens. You just automatically sort of grow into being a dog lover or certainly someone who's comfortable around dogs. This is what, so if I were recording a podcast here as you are here, it's just the, it's the bane of a sound recordist's life. It's, hello, Raymond's catching up. That was him going at full throttle. And he's going to get, Raymond, show us how you want. Andrew, look. Can he sprint? Oh, look at him. Go. It's like a low-budget black beauty. It's come here. Come to me. Come here. Hey. How old is Raymond? He's four. Four. So he's the same age as Mary.

Oh, they're perfectly suited. Yeah, I'm not sure they're the same species, but they're the same age. Hello Raymond. I give you a hard time. Raymond, you make it into the new book, so that's your... This is very exciting. So tell me, so your mum and dad, tell me about your mum and dad and your... You had siblings as well.

So yeah, two older brothers. Neither of them have dogs now, though. And what did your parents do, Andrew? So my mother's a teacher and my father was, he started off as an English teacher and then became a television director, producer. So he'd do things like Bill and Casualty and Balacus Angel and all such things and dramas. Yeah, so that's what they did and that's what Olive does. So I've got to take a break here to do what all good dog owners have to do. Oh dear. So I thought they'd both got this out of the way.

See, what do you think the kicking back of the grass over you... Why did they do that? I don't know, but that's the ultimate humiliation. When you're bending down to pick it up and grass is getting sprayed back in your face by your dog saying, yeah, pick that up. It's just a celebration, I think, the wonder of life. Having done what I had to do and kicking grass back over my owner. And they're so happy they know they've lost an extra couple of pounds.

pound or two, yeah. Come on going this way, come on. So, yeah, so your dad was in TV and were you always interested in TV as a result? No, no, and he had no sort of answering the Nadine Doris claims of nepotism. He had nothing to do with me getting into television either. It was an entirely different sort of branch of television and there was no sort of connection there or people he knew or anything. And it wasn't a desire of me. I had been when I was young, I had gone on to, you know, you know, sets with them and seen the filming process, but I still didn't think, oh, that's what I quite like to do. So I was, you know, I graduated from university and worked as a waiter for a year.

Still didn't know what I wanted to do. And then just gravitated towards something vague in the media, but I did want to do something using language. And I was very keen on sport as most youngsters are, and I applied for a sports job. Actually, no, I applied for a news job, first of all, at our local radio station. And they said, well, that job's gone, but...

And also, you don't seem serious enough to do news. But we've got a job in the sports department. And I see you've got lots of sports in your CV, so would you like to do that? Well, it's interesting. You say they say you don't seem serious enough to do news, but I really like your humour, because it's very dry, which I like, is my favourite kind of humour.

The driest of dry, yes. Well, that's quite a cliche about Scots, isn't it? The dry humour. But my favourite humour would be humour, would say, humour without, humour without emojis or exclamation marks. It's humour because when something is funny and it's written down in a dry and serious way, then it's even funnier. As soon as you put an exclamation mark on it,

you're effectively telling people, this is funny, which makes it less funny. It makes it sort of clownish and slightly cartoonish and a bit. Yeah, so, hello. So humour delivered. dryly is always funnier than the worst thing is someone laughing at their own jokes anyway so that's not the worst thing in the world is it actually now to think about it there are worse things than that going on in the world oh no I think that's the worst thing in the world and and were you were you one of those

kids who would you would say things and adults would laugh well I think they would laugh out of pity but I think you're you're sort of laughing you're trying there are certain people who like to make other people laugh laugh, let's call them show-offs. And that's kind of what, I think that's what most comics are, what are they doing it for? What are they trying to, why do they want people to laugh? And it's kind of for an approval and appreciation and that feeling of, that glow of making someone laugh.

It's not, it's not entirely for the benefit of the person who's laughing, say, I want to make this person feel better and feel happier, it's for yourself as well. The comics do it for themselves because they need that. Will you show off? Yeah. Yes. Normally it comes from damage, but you don't seem damaged. So what's that about?

I don't know. I don't know where it comes from, but certainly, you know, when you make somebody laugh or when you're the centre of it, I don't want to be the centre of attention, but when you have attention, it sort of feeds an ego a little bit. And you had a dog, you had this dog, your grandparents had loads of dogs.

Loads of dogs. So grandparents on one side had loads of Shelt and sheep dogs. And should we specifically say where this was, Andrew? This was where you were. So this would be in, oh, God, leave it. No, no, no, no, no. What are you doing? Hmm?

Mabel. Come here. Yeah, so is Raymond not usually this lively? No. Look at him, he's having to walk through loads of cobwebs. loads of cobwebs that are for us just at ankle height and we don't worry about them. For Raymond it's like fighting his way through. It's just like the Amazon drumming.

Well, if you take yourself down briefly to Raymond's height, it's like, whoa, the world is just full of blockages and impediments. Come on, I'm still holding Raymond's poo. Well, I'm still holding Mables. We're just a couple of dogs owners wandering around like weirders. They should have put that line in Notting Hill. Yeah. We're just a couple of dog owners. Standing. Standing in front of a dog holding a bag of poo. So, yeah, so you had your grandparents.

On one side had Shelton Sheep Dogs and that was in Kilcragon, which is up in the West Coast of Scotland about 45 minutes in Glasgow. And my other grandparents had the West Highland Terriers, who were perennially grumpy and always seemed to be about 40 years old. And then you had Humphrey. And then for my seventh birthday, eightth, firsty got Humphrey, who was a big Yorkshire Terrier. I mean, as Yorkshire Terriers go, he was big, he was a titan.

And that was to go with the Shetland sheepdog my mother already had, Piri. Yeah, so small dogs growing up, but, you know, big characters. Raymond's lagging now, he's always early. Oh no, look at him go, look at Raymond go. Yeah, so lots of dogs growing up, but then as got older it was in Humphrey and Peary went it was moving on to massive dogs and bull masters so um and you obviously went on to become a sports broadcaster and a lot of people who end up going into a radio and broadcasting there's usually a story about them doing their own commentary or pretending to do

DJ never never did you ever do that no never never i watched a lot i mean i my training was watching a lot of television growing up. I was never one of those who wanted to be a sports commentator and I thought I would practice sports commentary as a teenager and commentating on matches in my head or whatever. Never. Not so it was very much a sort of falling into it and but then finding out that you can do it and finding out that you enjoy it and that's really how it's how it kicked on from there but there was never a grand plan. There still isn't the grand plan it's just just keep on doing stuff and if you're enjoying it you if you find a job that you enjoy doing then you're very lucky it's not um and were you academic as a kid were you uh i mean i was i think reasonably

reasonably bright but but very lazy at school like most people she's doing it again like she's found another bit oh what has all have done it as well all just rubbed in the fox Excellent, good. Well, that's it. So well done everyone. Is your dog called Kevin? That's what I thought. Seven. Seven. Seven? I heard Kevin as well, so that would be a great name for a dog. Ah, right, okay.

Okay, I'm going to call him Kevin. That's Kevin there. I think he's been called seven. Also, it's just rather impersonal that it's called seven because it's the seventh of the litter. This is first, second, third. I'm seven, oh God. Oh, it does.

Oh, of course they used to do it, didn't they? But I believe it was, is it Roman, Septimus. Septimus Prime. Which is a fabulous name, I feel. Yeah. You see already how doggy Richmond Park is. Yeah. I mean, it is just an absolute festival of dogs.

I do think, though, from when I was growing up, kids, you can normally tell those kids that are going to go on to be performers. the show-offs. Do you think that Pete, your contemporaries or your family, would have thought, oh yeah, that makes sense? Yeah, probably, yeah. Why? Because, you know, whether it's, you know, actually there's a sort of strange paradox of it is that I quite like showing off, but I was, I didn't, I was the only pupil who didn't

take part in the school play because I couldn't face being up there in front of everyone. and I would never, even though I quite like singing on my own, I would never sing in front of anybody, and I would never dance in front of anybody. So there's a real reticence to show off in certain ways, but there's a, I don't know, maybe it's, maybe wanting to, I don't know whether wanting to do sports broadcasting, and wanting to make people laugh comes from the same,

same sort of source that you want to, I don't know, need to sort of impress people or something, but it's maybe it masks an insecurity. I thought this is just going to be a nice one when we walk the dogs and talked about how fluffy dogs are and it's becoming it's becoming psychoanalysis. I'm yeah I could go on about how miserable I am but it's probably best not to do that just let let people... You don't seem miserable you seem very... No I am yes I'm a little bit a little bit of a bleak pessimist so maybe that's why you get Labradors because they are the ultimate

optimist and they can counterbalance it. And you went on to become a very successful sports commentator and a broadcaster, didn't you? Far be it from me to say, Emily, but... Well, I'll take the question mark off it. Well, I mean, in terms of sports, yes, I suppose if you're doing the events and doing it on the BBC, then yes, that would probably be seen as being quite successful in doing the major events. but yeah I mean I've enjoyed doing it I'm talking quite a lot in the past tense I've enjoyed doing it but it really is time to hang out the microphone and go and become a mountain guide somewhere and did you look at someone like there's Lyonham who I suppose for my generation hmm we're a similar generation I'm like yeah it was the first time that I would think oh oh he's really funny as well you know there was a sort of rye element to it was that something well I always admired I always loved watching him

him but I wasn't you know wanting to be a presenter or sports presenter so watching me but you just admired the way he did things and made it look so easy and when you're young you don't quite realise what sort of talkback's going on in the years as well the things you're having to cope with to make it look so easy is the great skill to make it look um you know to make yourself look relaxed as you're doing it um but yeah he was very much of my vintage growing up him and David Coleman and and people like that. But I never at any point, and listening to the commentators of Bill McLaren or Peter Alice, never at any point thought, I want to do that.

I want to work with them or I want to follow them. And as I say, it's just it has happened that way. But I think there is, once you start to do the job, then you start to feel more of this sort of privilege in honour of it and why you want to do it and you want to do it well. Because it is a privilege and you're sitting in the seat that all these great broadcasters have sat in, and you're also, you are the accompaniment to all these millions of people watching these sporting events. So that's a huge privilege not to ruin it, first of all.

You shouldn't be in that position if you're going to ruin it for people. But if you can any way enhance the viewing, if you can any way enhance the viewing experience, then you've done very well. So it is, you know, it sounds a bit sort of trite and corny. It's a privilege, it's an honour, but it is really. So you just want to do it as well as you can, and you should never take it for granted and become lazy about it

and say, I'm just going to turn up and talk, because that's really abusing the faith that people have put in you and the fortune that you've had to get into that position. But it's a very, it's quite a strange job, though, as well, if you stand back and look at it and think, this person just talks while the sports going on because I can see what's going on so there are certain sports that you think

do we really need the commentator you could do tennis you could watch a whole match and you know you'd be fine watching it without a commentator other sports certainly need the identification much more I don't know I think psychologically I know for example when I'm watching England football I'm talking about here

I do, I always say when Gary Lineca is not in the studio, I only realise when he's not, when he's not covering a match, I feel like my phone's on 50% charge. Right, yeah. It's that slight sense of anxiety I get that you, I think with your voice, you just get very used to it and it feels comforting. Comforting voice. I mean, I don't know if that's what your partner would say. No, she would say a deeply tedious boarding voice that just drones on all the time.

So what we've done here is we've gone up an incline that's about 1.5% incline and Raymond is also almost going backwards now. Come on Raymond. See he must get reasonably hot though in the hot well. I'm going to pick him up now Andrew. Are you? I'll pick you up for a bit of the walk. I want to talk about the moment when Oliver and Mabel went viral or when you went viral? During the global pandemic, appropriately enough. Yes, right at the start of it. Because we had been out and about, you could see it coming though, and it was, but at that time, so this is March, end of March 2020.

And you kind of thought, oh, there's something like SARS or swine flu and it, you know, it's getting over here, but it's, you know, it might be having to do things differently for a month or so. And we had no idea that it was going to go on for so long. But then there was a Friday, Friday the 13th of March it was actually, when everything was cancelled in sporting terms. Or certainly a lot of the major events that I work on because there was the final match of the Six Nations or the final weekend was cancelled and the London Marathon, the Masters, the boat race. It all sort of went at that time.

And so you're thinking, well, that's not great. But hopefully we'll be back doing things maybe in June. So I would just put out a tweet saying, hey, I'm a sports broadcaster. but I've got no sport to commentate on, so here I'm commentating on my dogs. And I just captured that moment of oddness and the strangeness of the world and everybody was looking at social media at the time as well

because it became a focal point when you couldn't do things in normal life. So it was, yeah, it was a sort of perfect storm of things coming together to create a viral video, really. But that wasn't why I didn't. I didn't think it would obviously go, you know, because that first one, had 10 million views pretty quickly.

And the first one... The first one was when they were just eating their breakfast. And you just put up... I seem to remember, because I saw it when it came out and you just said, I was bored. Yeah. And it was you doing the commentary. Yeah, putting their bowls down and commentating on them, eating, yeah.

And what was fascinating was that it became this sort of global phenomenon that video. There were people... I mean, there was extraordinary people liking it. You know, but there were some people like Hugh Grant and some people. Perkins and that was like Julianne Moore yeah is it Ryan Reynolds Ryan Reynolds yeah Ryan Reynolds come in the first one I remember Julianne Moore and Mark

Hamill come in the second one and the second one went even bigger you know because when once you've done a viral video you think that's it you've had a sort of oh you've had a viral video well done you and you retire like Fenton to dream of chasing deer but but then so then when you put out a second one which was not your intention and that one goes even bigger and you know it gets to 20 million views, you just think either the world's gone completely mad or you're kind of onto something. But I still didn't think, oh, I can make this into a, I can make this into a career. I was never as, I promise you, I was never as cold and calculating as thinking, right, I'm going to

make Olive and Mabel into this brand and this thing. Because if I wanted to do that, I could have sold out many, many times over in terms of the things, the offers that came our way in the, in the succeeding months. Yeah, because you've got some really... Lots of offers to do joke commentary but lots of offers to involve Olive and Mabel and selling products as well. Oh really? Yeah. Oh no, don't drink that stuff

that's rank. Come on. Olive, no, no, no, no, no. Olive, out, out, out! There's better water than that. No, they... There were just, yeah, lots of bizarre products like home shopping and rental cars and yoghurt and pizzas

and yeah, all sorts of things. to commentate, to do sort of joke commentary on, but I didn't want to do that because then you really do sort of sound like the joke commentator. But then there's the other aspect which is can we get Olive and Mabel to help advertise our product? And that was very much a no-no because I didn't want, it's always been an escape from the sort of more rolling. Should I commentate on this? Olive then onto our back using that technique. It's absolutely perfect honed over years and years and years and look at the state of her now and straight through to the final.

Look at the statey. Sometimes with her it's just a scratch. She likes the scratch but anyway, you're good girl. There we are. I'm rewarding over rolling in something. Yeah, so I didn't want to associate them with anything because once you do that, it becomes much more, I don't know, there's a sort of crassness to it and it's, there's nothing wrong with, you know,

Everyone's got to do what they do to make a living and you could easily have I could easily have taken some of them You know God knows how many dog food offers I do know lots and lots and lots and but then immediately the charm of all of them Mabel has gone entirely Because it's never been about that's always been just about a bit of an escape from You know the human world so I could have done calendars and t-shirts and baseball caps and mugs and of course all that merch stuff as well but I don't know maybe I've been naive and not doing it back. I quite like to keep them away from all that stuff.

And presumably as well, because I get the sense that you're a bit like me and that you see your dogs as kind of part of the family and stuff. Yeah, they're not commodities. They're never, and that's, the other thing we got was a, you know, approach is to make it into, make it into a proper series

and we'll get script writers involved and get producers and things like that working with you. I thought that's not, you know, I don't want to be pushing and prodding them into position. So... Well, you can, it's easy, isn't it, to get into a situation where you don't want it to take the joy out of your relationship. Yeah, no, and I felt that a couple of times, just a couple of times when I was making a video,

I was on the edge of, I was looking at standing back, looking at myself, going, oh, no, if you just done that, that would have been perfect. And of course they don't do that because they're dogs, but I never wanted to be the person shoving them, prodding them around. and just for the sake of a joke on the internet. Because if they ever got stressed by it, I couldn't live with myself. If the dogs were ever getting stressed at me, telling them to, they were doing it wrongly and we have to do another take.

But again, that's for, what are we doing it for? Are we doing it for likes? Are we doing it for, you know, we're doing it for appreciation. We're doing it to get our own egos fed. It's a strange, well, you get some lovely views from Richmond Park, sorry, I'm just seeing you see over to the city there. Really beautiful.

It's beautiful. Of the canary wharf over there. And actually if you go up that side there, the view is down. So there's a famous view of St Paul's Cathedral from up here. It's called the King's View. Oh, really? And it was, I think it was Henry 8's view. Oh, he's my favourite.

He's got to be my favourite king, Henry the 8. Well, you know what I always say? What? At least he put a ring on it. He didn't with, I can never remember which one it was. Oh, look. What's over there, Andrew? Well, that's called a horse, Emily.

Oh, I can't even see. It's a horse. Look at me. You and your partner, you chose to move outside of London, didn't you? Yes. And why was that, by the way? Well, it sort of was forced apart.

We would have done it anyway, but it was sort of helped on the way by BBC Sport moving up to Salford. And Caroline's job moved up to Salford. So my job was, you know, I was event-based so I could be based anywhere. But I was delighted when they moved because London was just...

I mean, when you're young, In your 20s, London is an exciting place to be, but then after a while, for certain people, and I would be among that number, I'm not a city person, I'm not really a people person, a crowd person, and cities just close in on you, and you just want a bit of peace and quiet in the countryside. So that move came at the right time, that was in 2011. And then, of course, we were able to get a dog, so along came Olive. And then I said, right, Olive, in seven and a half years time I'm going to get you and an as yet unknown dog and make you into global stars is that okay? She said yeah that's fine you seem like a nice man and

they've got slightly different temperaments haven't they they have olive who's eating a stick at the moment olive leave it leave it leave it leave it leave it leave it leave it so you love walking with the dog in because you love climbing as well don't you? Do you like climbing? Yeah, so... So sell me climbing. Oh.

Well, but right, but you live in London. You are a sort of adopted Londoner. Where are you from originally? No. I'm one of those weird indigenous Londoners. So you're a Londoner, so you love London. You love people in crowds and busyness. So I...

I like edges. Yeah. So as I said, I don't like any of the... things so I love peace and quiet so it's about getting away so that's why you go into the mountains and there is something about there's an element of it which is about the dangerous aspect not dangerous aspect or but it's you know if it's if it's minus 20 all the better and if it's got something to sort of clamber up all the better as well or something to potentially fall off but more than that it's

about getting out into nothing space emptiness and not seeing people at all And if you got a couple of dogs alongside you, all the better. But see, with Olive now, so we wouldn't do, I would have done 30 mile walks through the mountains with her before. And I wouldn't, with both of them. And I wouldn't do it now again with her because she's eight and she's going to be nine in November. Oh, hello. It's Dagonie again. Hello, Dagonie.

Frank is, yeah, Frank's really going for it with all of no, he's giving up. Bye-bye. Nice to meet you again. See you later. So tell me, your life has changed. It seems like your life will have changed a lot because all these extraordinary things have happened and suddenly...

Well, yeah. What was that moment? I know you get asked this a lot, but I'm still interested, the moment when you thought, oh my God, this is... I think it was after maybe the third video, which was just Mabel standing in a pond.

Maybe the fourth when I did the Zoom meeting with them. Because by then it was such recognition and we were doing, you know, morning television, not just here, but in America. And actually, we talked about we did Good Morning America, which is, I should know this, ABC, NBC, I think it's ABC, ABC is Good Morning America. Anyway, so we did an interview with them just down here, actually,

in these trees. And so I think it was, and then there was a point, I'll tell you what it was, there was a point, and I made a video about it, which is still one of my favorite videos, but it didn't quite get the pickup. I think people thought it was. serious but it was a mockumentary and behind the scenes behind Oliver and

it sort of it sort of suggested that Mabel now had a major drinking problem and various things but it included lots of the madness because it included little clips of MSNBC in America whenever I put an Olive and Mabel video out they used to end their news bulletin with their anchor Brian Williams saying let's look at what all of and Mabel have been up to and he was ending the news bottom with well good night and thanks once again to the great Aleve and Mabel. And that's when I thought this is... And you mentioned a lot of the people getting in touch, the celebrities of Mark

Hamill and Julianne Boone, whoever it might have been. And actually I noticed, because I just missed so much in the thousands and thousands of messages that were coming in. But, you know, you notice so many other celebrities who have actors and actresses and people who got in on it from America and said, I love this, fantastic, blah, blah, blah. So I suppose that's when I realised that it had gone very strange, when it was the sort of worldwide effect of it. And then getting asked to do a book as well. But that's the way of it, and you know as a published author.

So the way the publishing business works now is quite, if you're a serious writer, it would be quite dispiriting if you had a great book in mind and you couldn't get the deal. And you see all these influencers and viral Johnny come lately just arriving with something on the internet and they get book deals but it happens everywhere because publishers know that will sell so that's kind of why I was determined to try and you know make it a book that would have stood on its own anyway with it and this is your first book was called all of Mabel and me yeah and

I really loved your book because it's it's so I mean it's well written for a start which I love because you can really write but also I got the sense that even if you weren't, you know, it's not designed to just appeal to people who are obsessed by dogs. It's just, it's funny as well. So when you're writing your book, everybody died, I've got a dog. So you're writing about life, though, aren't you? You're not writing about you. That's what most books are.

They're writing about a subject, but that subject is sort of shining a light upon human condition of life or whatever. And what I feel about you, Andrew, and I've met you a couple of times now, because I interviewed you in very St. Edmunds. and where Raymond... Stormed the stage. I'm so sorry. No, no, he didn't storm the stage. We invited him to storm the stage, but then he took the house down.

He was just... He was the star there after. So that's when I kicked him into the audience and said, no, no, no, this isn't about you, Ray. And then you emailed me in it recently to say, I should warn you, Raymond is going to be in my next book. Yes. So tell me about...

This is your new. book which is out pretty soon is it it's out well we're recording this it comes out in about 10 days time so it comes out on October the 21st oh and it's called dog days I mean again I'm typecast I'm really now but it's not but this is exactly what you're talking about so it's a diary of the last year but it's not really short form little entries in diary it it's you write about something that happened on that day and you expand upon it and what happens is ostensibly it's got lots of olive and Mabel in it but you're right well I'm writing about

the events of last year And sometimes they're about, because it's a diary, it ends up being sort of personal. And I'm not really keen on that, but they wanted a diary. But you end up writing about life and all the strange things we've done to get through lockdown and all the strange way we're living. I found myself writing more about the strange contrast between the virtual world, which we were all inhabiting and the real world, which we couldn't get back out into. And then eventually you can get back out into it, and you find that it's changed a little bit,

and it's a bit, perhaps a bit more daunting for people as well. So it's, I would say it is, I mean, it's, listen, I'm not, I'm not too serious a person. So a lot of it is, rye observations on life, Emily. But it's got some sort of darker, more down bits. That sounds terrible. But you know what I mean? Because we've all had those highs and lows of the last year. So you can't write about life in the last year and everything's amazing.

But we all have those. And I think it's important to be honest about them. Because, I mean, there was a time when people weren't. Yeah, but what happens now is that there's a sort of almost an overcorrection in a way that everybody, it's great that everybody talks about their mental health. But I think now people might almost say, you know, there are mental health issues. and I wasn't laughing when I talked about mental health issues. I was laughing at Raymond who was trying to keep up with Olive and Mabel and it was a forlorn effort.

It's when people talk about mental health issues which are so serious and so many people, and you know, I've probably included myself and that have been affected by in the past, but there's a difference between, you know, there is a difference between feeling a bit sad and a bit... It's all a different level of mental health issues, but I think, of course it's so much better that people are talking about it, But then there's a lot of, you don't want to be the person that seemed to be writing about, oh, here's another one talking about feeling down or feeling blue, whatever. Because there's a lot of that, a lot of that going on.

It's funny, though, because you wonder about previous generations who had hardships to deal with, which were so much more serious than we're dealing with. And yes, there was definitely a lot of repression and suppression of suppression of, of feelings and you just got on with things and that was not a good thing at all. But there is certainly a lot to be said for also just trying to, well, like we're all doing, I suppose, you just try and get through things. And I don't know, there's a, you know what I'm saying, there's a balance between talking openly about mental health issues, which is so important, so vital, and actually everyone just

I come from a generation where let's bury things deep, let's just bury it and it'll go away and it'll come out in some sort of sobbing rage when I'm 80 years old. But do you say sobbing rage there? Do you cry? Oh yeah, but that's the thing. In the past year I've cried a lot more than I would have in years past and I'm not particularly, I'm quite a sort of emotional character but you come from a generation and I'm not you know I'm approaching 50 you come from a generation where it's not seen as particularly and particularly male as well it's not seen as particularly manly to to be crying but in the last year you you can't help if you if you've not had a little sob at things

in the past year then you've not been paying attention I don't know you've been looking the other way when the whole of the world is going on so yeah it's um it's interesting though we've never we've We've never shared more, but I don't know whether sometimes it's, I say sometimes oversharing is not necessarily a good thing. I say just take your dogs for a walk and get angry with them chewing a stick. Olive, there's clinical depression, there's bipolar disorder, there are all sorts of schizophrenia, whatever it might be, there are serious medical, mental health conditions,

and then there are those conditions, those situations that we all find ourselves in from time to time where we don't feel we can cope with things or we feel very stressed or very sad about things. And I do think that is different to, you know, I've been put in, you know, you've been put in antidepressants in the past when actually you realised at the time that it was just that you were feeling sad and whether there's a difference between that and proper depression. I think that probably is. Mabel, leave it. Leave it. So I just went on to just exercise to within an inch of my life. Just exercise constantly, which I think is the best thing for combating. We get so wrapped up in our mental torments as human beings, whereas dogs will just come

through and say, look, I've got this stick and it's frothy and covered in saliva. What do you think about that? And so you can't help just laugh for a moment. That's why they're the best. Are you quite a shy person? Well, it's maybe that contrast between being quite shy and not wanting to be in the comfort of people. that as I said that paradox of strangely liking going out on stage or liking the microphone going live. But when you're not performing, you don't want to... But that's not intimate in a way, is it? Which is why you're getting a sort of people fix without feeling slightly drained by it.

You're presumably getting more people, having more interaction with people on a daily basis. That's what being well-known does. Yes. And so the good part of the good part of... of all this is that because I am quite cynical and quite a misanthrope is that, no, but I am, I don't, I really admit that, I don't, and also the past year has made, if you haven't particularly enjoyed the company of people before this year, then you certainly, you know, you can grow more, yeah, it's, you see, trouble is you see so much of what people do that makes you think, oh my God, the human race is doomed and there are so many are, are,

in the world. But all you're seeing are the sort of, are the noisy, annoying people, the ones who make the most noise. So of course you see them, whereas, whereas, what I've seen is, sorry, I've got to just break into this. So here's a big boy, Labrador, Black Labrador, who's taking a shrine to Olive. Mabel told them off, and now he's just basically stuck his nose into olive. So, what's going on here? It's a free-for-all, Olive. Drag yourself away. Come on. I know, it really is a Labrador-loving. So, He's a big boy, this one.

He's American. He's American. Oh, he's the American? He's from Western Washington State. Has he? He's got a slightly shorter legs than big body. And a very large head. A massive head.

Ah, that's because he's got his balls. Ah, right. What, his head keeps growing? They get a big testosterone head. Do they? Why is it? I'll bear that in mind. Actually, my head's quite big.

What's your dog called? That's Owen and this is Alice. Owen. Right. I'm happy to meet you. Owen, off you go. You see, that's what I like, Andrew. I find I like to have interactions with people on dog walks because they're sort of, they're nice.

They punctuate the day. Yeah. But they're not sort of overly intrusive. Yeah. But the thing I've liked about the Oliver Mabel stuff is they've seen all the love coming back from good people. And I, I, Mabel's seen, Mabel's seen Carline. Incoming. Now Olive has as well.

There she goes. Oh, are they really like Caroline? Well, it's just, no, they, I think if I were, had been absent for an hour or so as well, they'd be going mad for me, look at them. Anyway, so all the nice stuff, this is the nice side of social media. Right, so Twitter and social media gets a bad press,

and rightly so for some of the horrific, horrible, unpleasant, odious stuff that's on it. But for a lot of people, it's just a really nice way of staying connected with people and sharing nice things. But you don't see the stories about that. because it doesn't make stories, doesn't make headlines. So all the stuff that's been coming my way because of Oliver and Mabel has been 99.999%

just lovely messages. And also, when I've been doing this theatre tour with them and you see people afterwards, and everybody's so nice. And it kind of has, and it sounds quite grand, but restored my faith in humanity that we're actually, you know, it is the majority of people are nice people.

The majority of people are just good people trying to get by and do the right thing. The trouble is when you have my view of the world, you walk down the street and you're picking out the person being annoying, the person dropping litter, the person talking loudly on their phone. Even that annoys me. So you're not picking out the person who's just going by or doing a good thing or doing a nice thing or being. So it's helped me see the world in a better light. That's what Oliver and the videos have done for me. Do you think they're better than you? I think they have an innocence that humans don't have and they're not, obviously they're not doing things for an ulterior motive.

They're not that bright, which is a good thing. Speak to your own dogs. Well, no, I mean, Raymond. I've seen Raymond tries to do the 12 times table. Look at him. Yeah, I know, they're, they're better than humans. They're just different and they operate in a more simplistic. They operate in a far simpler way and simpler is better

if you want to use that word because we're complicated and we're devious and Raymond is not devious. Look at him. Oh Andrew, I've really loved our walk today and I was really hoping to get Mabel and Olive together. Right, Olive and Mabel you mean?

You're going to have to let it go. No, I think, well, I just think that there is reckons. So it wasn't Hardy and Laurel, was it, ever? wise and morcom. Well, I say Clyde and Bonnie. Do you? Yeah. How do you feel about Raymond?

Genuinely, I'm very fond of Raymond. Because look at his little face. Come here. You got a little bit of something there. Hey, Raymond, look at me. I mean, look at his face. He is an Ewark, isn't he? He's an Ewok without the terrible acting.

Say goodbye to Oliver Mabel. Right. Mabel, you want to say goodbye to Raymond? That's Raymond. That, that, that's Raymond. Olive's just doing her sit for food. Olive, do you want to say goodbye to Raymond? No, I'm not interested in that whatsoever.

Right, well I'll say goodbye to Raymond on their behalf. Raymond, bye-bye. I really hope you enjoyed listening to that and do remember to rate, review and subscribe on iTunes.