Woman's Hour - Refuges, Corona diaries, Jayde Adams

Episode Date: April 14, 2020

Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, has said that help is out there to victims of domestic violence. Two million pounds is now available to increase support. Some victims may be able to find a safe place at a refuge, but what’s it like at the moment for women staying at refuges and those running them? We hear from the area manager of 10 refuges in London.For our Corona Diaries, Jane speaks to Jemima from Lincoln. She's 29 weeks pregnant, working from home and caring for a toddler while her husband, who's with the RAF, is stuck in the Falklands.As we're in lock-down, we can't go out to see the comedian Jayde Adams, so she's asking us to join her for a couch cabaret night each week. In her time, Jayde's been a supermarket fishmonger, a nightclub bouncer and an Adele impersonator and her show, Serious Black Jumper, went viral on TikTok.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. I'm Natalia Melman-Petrozzella, and from the BBC, this is Extreme Peak Danger. The most beautiful mountain in the world. If you die on the mountain, you stay on the mountain. This is the story of what happened when 11 climbers died on one of the world's deadliest mountains, K2, and of the risks we'll take to feel truly alive. If I tell all the details, you won't believe it anymore. Extreme, peak danger. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

BBC Sounds. Music, radio, podcasts. Hi, this is Jane Garvey and this is the Woman's Hour podcast from Tuesday, the 14th of April, 2020. Hello, a very good morning to you today. We have, I'm glad to say, the comedian Jade Adams. She's a cabaret artiste as well. She's on the programme Life From Her Home, which is also where she does her cabaret.

I think it's every Wednesday night, so we'll catch up with Jade Adams a little bit later. There's music too from the young Cornish singer-songwriter Bailey Tomkinson. And we will, yes, talk about the coronavirus. We have another Woman's Hour Coronavirus Diary. Today, you can hear from Jemima, who is 30 weeks pregnant and whose husband is serving with the RAF in the Falkland Islands right now. And we go back to Beverly in Parma in Italy, where her children haven't been able to leave the house now for six weeks. Things are changing slightly in terms of the lockdown in Italy from this morning. But as Beverly will tell us, it still isn't easy. So there's a lot on the programme today. And you can join in as well at BBC Women's Hour on Twitter

or email us via our website. We have a couple of cracking entries in the oldest thing you've got in your cupboard competition, which I'm informally running throughout the week. So do email us if you've got a contribution to make there. Now, on Saturday, Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, gave a very clear message to victims of domestic violence when she launched the hashtag YouAreNotAlone

and emphasised that help is still available to anybody who needs to get out of a house where they're in danger. She also made £2 million available to increase support for victims of domestic violence. Some victims may be able to get a place at a refuge, although running one right now is obviously quite a challenge. Tamara White is a guest on the programme today. She's the area manager for 10 refuges in London

and the organisation she works for is called Hestia. Tamara, of course, should say that you actually only deal with women and children in terms of victims of domestic violence, but there are indeed male victims of domestic violence too. So we've acknowledged that. Tamara, tell me a little bit about your organisation. So that's 10 refuges. How big are they? How many places have you got? So across the services that i manage we've got 82 bed spaces across those 10 sites and they're across a range of london boroughs it's a variety of accommodation and so some of the houses are a little bit smaller maybe five families and everyone will have their own bedroom and then a shared

kitchen garden communal area bathrooms some of the houses are a little bit bigger. So our largest house is almost 20 bed spaces. Sorry to interrupt. Do you have space available right now? So right now this morning, across those sites, we've got two spaces available out of the 82. So two rooms that we hope to fill today for women with or without children who are fleeing today. Now, we do know that there have been an increase in calls to helplines. I think the figure reported, shockingly, was 120% rise in calls to helplines during the course of the lockdown. Has that translated into more people needing places in refuges, as far as you can tell? So at this point, it's a little bit hard to tell whether

we've got a real increase. Certainly our lines have always been busy, referrals have always been more than we can actually accommodate so it's a little hard to say whether we've seen an actual increase in the number of people looking for a refuge space yet. But that's not necessarily surprising given that people are reaching out to helplines and it's a very, very difficult time to leave. So I think it might be something we see a little bit further on down the line. We know that actually leaving is about the hardest thing anybody can do in these situations. Was there a time in the day when it was, if you like, a relatively safe time to get out, something that because of the lockdown just isn't available now? Yes, I mean, we used to see a lot of women,

particularly those with children, who would make use of the fact, OK, they might be allowed to do a school pick-up. Actually, school can be a safe space for them to go in and we could make arrangements for them to arrive, maybe pick up the children early and then leave, that sort of thing. And obviously they're just not able to do that right now. Other women would speak to us maybe in a break at work, something like that, which obviously fewer and fewer people are in an office right now in order to make those calls.

By the very nature of what refuges do, you've already mentioned it, there have to be communal areas. And of course, young kids need to get out. They can't spend the whole day in one room. It's just not possible. So how does that operate at the moment in terms of social distancing? I mean, it's extremely difficult. You know, we're providing advice and guidance to the women and the children who are living in our services. But in reality, it's very difficult. It's down to those individual people. You know, the government guidance suggests that actually you can be treated as a household if you're all living together and sharing facilities.

That means that, you know, whilst the children might still be able to use the same spaces, you know, they would all have to self-isolate if anyone showed any symptoms. You know, we try and encourage people to maybe have a rota so people aren't using the kitchen at the same time, using the garden at the same time. You know, thinking about which bathrooms people can and can't use if they're showing any symptoms, that sort of thing. We have to think about really carefully. And in practical terms, presumably at the moment, your clients cannot move on because they can't move out, can they? Yeah, so there are ways that people can move out, but it's extremely strange times. And it's a really difficult time for someone to move out. So local housing departments are still taking people.

They are still offering temporary accommodation. But it's all done with plans over the phone, which can be quite daunting for people. So we are trying to keep people moving through as if there was, you know, nothing going on to try and free up their spaces. So women who are ready to move are able to do so. And we don't kind of keep them in the refuge longer than they actually need to be or want to be. But it is just an extremely strange time for people to try and move on.

And much harder to move into your own independent accommodation when everything around you is shut. So it requires a lot more support from staff to be able to move into your own independent accommodation when everything around you is shut um so requires a lot more support from staff um to be able to move on successfully yeah in terms of uh equipping the houses or the flats so you can't buy stuff can you yeah you can't buy stuff it's much harder to arrange to physically move um you know it's it's very difficult to even register at a new local doctor's surgery and to think about all those things, find your new local shops that are open, set up all of your Wi-Fi, which is essential for your children's learning. That sort of thing is much, much harder all of a sudden. And I know that in the past you would welcome donations of clothes,

but presumably you can't accept anything at the moment. And there are some people who turn up at your refuges with just the clothes they're wearing. Yeah, we have to be quite careful, obviously, about accepting donations at this time. And we do have women. We had a woman last week who arrived with absolutely nothing apart from what she was wearing and even our normal go-to, so opportunities for a voucher for a clothing store,

we're not able to provide because the clothing stores are shut. So they can't have that either. So it was some frantic ringing around of people that we know to have been donors in the past that might have stocks still available that they've collected to try and sort something out for this woman last week. And I know you also welcomed a new arrival in more ways than one last week because a baby actually came out of hospital and straight into one of your refuges. Yeah, that's right. So mum came straight back to us

after having the baby and it's incredibly difficult. If you can imagine bringing home a newborn baby, no supportive partner, into a refuge where the staff are the only people you're really seeing and the other residents. You can't have any support from your family because they're not allowed to come and see you. And so it's so extremely difficult and isolating. And even, you know, health professionals have very limited face to face contact at the moment after the baby's born. So extremely, extremely challenging. How is that baby doing?

Baby is doing well. Yes, the baby is doing well. And we're trying to support mum in whatever way we can, you know. So our staff are still on site. They're still seeing people and providing that emotional support and practical support as well to make sure everyone has everything that they need. Thank you very much, Tamara. That's quite a start in life, isn't it? It certainly puts things in perspective.

Thank you very much for talking to us. We appreciate it. And that's Tamara White, who's the area manager of 10 Refuges Across London. She works for Hestia, the organisation in question there. Now, we're going to just lighten the mood, have a bit of music, because this has been something that I think you really will enjoy. We did this, recorded this a couple of weeks ago, I should say, long before coronavirus took hold and took over just about every aspect of our lives. I talked to the young Cornish singer-songwriter Bailey Tomkinson. Now, she'd managed to get to number two on the iTunes video music charts without a record label

or management. So she told me how she first got into singing. I've been doing music since I was 11. I've been writing and performing since I was 11. And I've been doing gigs since I was 14, releasing music since I was about 17. It's something I've been doing for quite a while. But it was this, what just happened with the press is the thing that's just kind of rocketed it. Yeah. Well, actually, what did happen? Because it sort of came out of the blue, didn't it?

Yeah, so I charted with my music video into number two on the music video in iTunes next to Dua Lipa and Pussycat Dolls. And so I did an interview with Cornwall Live. What's Cornwall Live? It's in Cornwall. They do articles and all so website news yeah and they think they print some as well but it's like just all the updates in Cornwall and someone from

Plymouth um asked me if I'd do an interview they didn't specify who they were working for and I was like yeah of course and then I saw that hadn't gone out anywhere and then it was it went in the metro and then it went in the Metro. And then it went in the Times. So he sold it to the Metro and the Times. And I didn't know anything about this. But I was getting messages and pictures from people on the Tube saying, mate, you're on the Tube.

And you knew nothing about this? I was literally just like, my mum woke me up. She was like, bae, it's all gone mad. She woke you up? I mean, that's serious when your mum wakes you up. I mean, you are 20, so you probably need your sleep, don't you? Oh, no, I'm an early riser. I like cracking on and getting my work done.

I take it all back. So tell me about your style. Now, I don't want to mention, well, I haven't mentioned Taylor Swift too early in the interview, but I am going to do it just because people are comparing your style to her when she was more country, I guess. That's when the comparison is a reality. Yeah, so I find it's obviously a massive compliment. Taylor Swift is one of my biggest inspirations, definitely. I don't want to be like anyone, though, that's the thing.

I think I want to be myself. I'm not looking to be the next so-and-so. But she is one of my biggest inspirations. She was partly to why I wanted to learn the guitar because I think I watched a video of her at the bluebird cafe when I was like 10 and I was like oh if I want to sing then I'm gonna have to play the guitar and write so she was partly to why I wanted to pick up the guitar and start writing um but I've got lots of influences I think people have associated me

Taylor Swift because of the the blonde hair and lyrics about, you know, boys we like and stuff like that. But anyway, it's a massive compliment, definitely. She's awesome. I think she's great. Well, we're going to hear you sing now. I'm looking forward to it. Is this the track that actually made it into the video charts? Yes, this is I Wish It Didn't End Like This. OK, let's hear it, Bailey. I Wish It Didn't End Like This I drank with the devil, he had your smile

Told me I was wonderful, he made my heart beat so wild Then ruptured it with a single smoke, oh I wish We had never kissed, I slept under my duvet before the sun went down carol king was my holy ground avoided you as I found myself collecting dust on your crowded shelf Oh, I wish you weren't hard to miss. Oh, I wish it didn't end like this. All the war came down in a tragic way. Your ex-girlfriend burning up the place. My head on your chest for the right few weeks.

You still said a name deep in your sleep. Oh, I'd known. We wouldn't see the snow. Not only I lost you, but my closest friend. You cried down the phone when my grandma passed. But when I needed you, you had to sabotage your love. Nothing more than giving scars oh i wish you never had me convinced oh i wish it didn't end like this

long with times i call you ace you simply let me slip away I haven't seen your face for quite some time I heard you're back with her I'm hoping that's a lie to get that car to send from Spain I found it difficult to write your name oh I wish I didn't have to admit oh I wish I didn't have to admit. Oh, I wish it didn't end like this. That is Bailey Tomkinson, make a note of the name. The song is called I Wish It Didn't End Like This and I think you'll be hearing a lot more of her in the future. I wish I hadn't started this old item thing, but here's Aidan's contribution.

I've got half a jar of cloves that my grandmother bought in 1939. 1939. 1939. Keep hold of them, Aidan. And from Alan, my contribution is a jar of mincemeat, dated March 1993, which I found when clearing out my cellar. I did have a bit of it last week. It was all right. Alan, don't have any more.

And from Tim, I don't know why they're all male contributors. They just happen to be. When we were on holiday in Corsica in 2000, we brought back half a baguette. We still have that baguette on the shelf. We kept it as an experiment and it still looks pretty much the same. He says, I could send you a photo if you'd like me to. Listen, Tim, I don't need men sending me photographs of old baguettes.

Thank you very much. Or anything else for that matter. This is Woman's Hour tomorrow. The Booker Prize winning novelist Bernadine Evaristo is on the programme talking about some of her writing, but also about the sheer joy of reading and the comfort it can bring. So, I do apologise. Bernadine Evaristo is talking to Jenny on the programme tomorrow.

I'm still laughing about Tim's baguette. And on Friday, Vanessa Kimball, the author of The Sourdough School, the groundbreaking guide to making gut-friendly bread, will tell me why I'm wrong about sourdough. And if you've missed Woman's Hour, you shouldn't, get the Woman's Hour podcast with additional material every day. You can subscribe via BBC Sounds and then you can listen at your convenience. Now, let's have another Woman's Hour coronavirus diary.

We've had a number of emails, actually, interestingly, from military families talking about partners being stationed and effectively now stuck abroad. And Jemima's husband couldn't really be further away. He's in the Falkland Islands. Jemima is in Lincoln, and she's 30 weeks pregnant and looking after her three-year-old daughter, Thea, as well, and working from home. Jemima, good morning to you. How are you? Hi, Jane. I'm OK, thank you. How are you?

I'm good, thank you. Thea's in fine voice. What's she doing at the moment? She is, yeah. I've just distracted her with a packet of mini cheddars and she's got some dinosaur toys so hopefully she'll be distracted for a few minutes at least. Tell you what, you can't beat a packet of mini cheddars.

They're extremely moorish. I'll have a packet as well when you get the chance. So tell us a little bit about your situation. Obviously your partner, he honestly couldn't be further away really, could he? No, not really. He's quite a way away. He left about a month ago, I think now, although I'm losing track of time every day. He left about a week or probably slightly more than before things really started kicking off here.

So it's just Theo and I at home. Yeah, I'm 30 weeks pregnant, as you've mentioned. I'm also working from home as well. So just trying to juggle a few things at the same time, really. Are you close to other members of your immediate family? No. So your immediate family? No, so my immediate family are all based down in Hertfordshire, which is a couple of hours away from here.

I've got a really good network of friends up here in Lincoln and in the surrounding areas. So I've had a great deal of support from them in terms of conversations, WhatsApp chats, that sort of thing. People dropping off bits of shopping for me. But obviously, I can't meet up with them and catch up like we normally would do. We can't take fear for playdates and things like that. So it's you and a three-year-old and they are delightful. But the company of a three-year-old and only a three-year-old

is a little challenging. And also you've got her understanding as well to deal with and the limits of her understanding through no fault of her own. So what sort of questions is she asking you about her daddy, apart from anything else? She does understand that her daddy is away. It's probably one of the first times that she's really understood that when he's away he is away um in another country we won't be seeing him for a while it's quite difficult to explain to her when he's going to be back you know when you

know what the date is that he's going to be returning but but when it's up in the air um and things are changing every day you're not sure when he's going to come home it does make it more difficult um so she's not really asking any questions about him at the moment but she she does talk about things that she's going to do when Daddy gets home and talks about old Daddy's in the Falkland Islands where the penguins are. Yeah, as for her own social life, I was actually on one of my government-approved walks

in the park the other day and there was a little girl, I imagine about the same age as Theo, who was just kicking at the gate of the, what do you call it, the playground in the park because she couldn't get access to it. She was fuming. And how on earth do you go about explaining to her that she can't do the stuff she wanted to do and wants to do? Yeah, it's really hard.

And she's just now trying to come and talk to you. That's fine. Through the phone here. So we try and go out for a walk every day, but we go past the parks and things, and she wants to know why can't we go into the park and play. She's now asking questions about when she can go back to nursery, why is it that she can't see her friends anymore.

And I've tried to be as honest as I can with her um you know obviously that has limitations for a three-year-old so we talk about how we can't go out of the germs um that are going around and before this happened she had chicken pox actually so she was prepped for understanding about bugs and germs and the fact that she'd caught these off her nursery friends before. I think actually we don't want to discourage her, Thea, because a lifetime in broadcasting could await her so if she wants to say good morning into the microphone

that's absolutely fine or however you're communicating with me. Would you like to say hello? Yeah. Say hello. I just talked to my daddy. Oh, you talked to your daddy. Yes, you do, don't you? How do you talk to your daddy?

Don't know. We talk to him on the telephone, don't we? Yeah. Yeah. Thea, have you eaten all those mini cheddars? No. She got any left? She's got three left.

She's just showing you. Oh, great. Thank you, Thea. It's just making me feel very hungry. I know that last time, Jemima, you had a home birth. So I'm imagining that's been ruled out this time? At the moment, in the Lincolnshire area, home births are on pause. That might change in 10 weeks time, but we just don't know.

I mean, this is part of the difficulty at the moment, I suppose, is that you can't plan for anything. So I feel very much underprepared for this birth. To be fair, the poor baby is taking very much a back seat at the moment and I am quite concerned that it's going to come as a bit of a shock when she does arrive. Yes, because you are not overthinking what those early days and nights are going to be like when the baby's born, is that what you're saying? Yeah, not at the moment. I'm not thinking about it.

Well, that may be a good thing. To be fair, Jemima, that might be a good thing. And I mean, I wonder too, whether Thea knows about, does she know about the forthcoming baby? Yes, she does. She's very excited. She was adamant that she was going to be a girl even before we found out. So she's quite happy about that. Yes. Well, little girls do tend to know what they want. Yes.

Quite clearly, Thea has ordered a sister. So there we are. She does know her mind. Yes. Yes, indeed. Well, that sounds amazing. And I really do wish you the very best of luck with everything. And as far as you know, your husband will be back when? Perhaps you need to be careful about saying this in front of her.

Well, obviously, there are all sorts of variables that could occur between now and then but we did hear over the weekend that he should be back in a couple of weeks so keeping all our fingers crossed right and the support from the military i imagine has there has there been much um i have to be honest and say no um but i don't live on base um so we live um in lincoln itself in the city i would imagine if you lived on base and you were um sort of socializing with other people that live there that there might be a bit more support but i have um as i've mentioned a strong friendship network here, people who are in the military themselves, well, I was going to say a brave face, a brave voice. But it's not easy to be pregnant at the best of times and it's not easy to be pregnant right now and not in the situation that you're in. So thank you very much indeed for talking to us.

And I'm sure things will continue to go to go well for you both. And lots of love to Thea as well. And thank you for talking to us. Thank you very much. Take care of yourself. That's Jemima who's in Lincoln as she said she doesn't live on the base so she doesn't perhaps have the support from the RAF that you might expect

but I don't know if anybody out there has got any thoughts on that. Let us know what you think about that. You can always email the programme via our website bbc.co.uk slash womanshour. We'll catch up with Beverly in Parma in northern Italy in a little bit of time because I understand we've got a few problems talking to her right now. Let's move on to Jade Adams who is the queen of cabaret, well the queen of home cabaret really,

Bristol-born comedian. Jade, good morning to you. How are you? Good morning. Thanks for having me on. Well, it's great to have you on. I was really enjoying your serious black jumper show on Amazon Prime, which I watched last night while ham-fistedly throwing together yet another lockdown meal. Oh, thank you so much for watching it. It's one of the things I'm very thankful for, that I've had this show on Amazon Prime during lockdown. I mean, it's been very useful because I can't go on stage

and at least people can watch at home. Yeah, well, I think I could say honestly that I endorse it. And there's a bit of light smut and suggestiveness, but nothing that will offend the average Woman's Hour listener, Jade. Not that there is such a thing, of course. So tell us about, you've got an amazing CV, but the best thing about you, and I don't mean this in any way offensively, is that you did your cruciate ligament dancing to PJ and Duncan's seminal work, Let's Get Ready to Rumble.

So is that true for a start? Did you really did that happen? it happened six years ago I was uh I'd just come back from doing TIE with a drag queen around Spain so I did theater and education with a with a with a drag queen because the children of Spain really need that right now oh sure yes um and uh I had come back and I'd earned a little bit of money I'd now I'd sort of you know not earned that I've always been a waitress from the age of like 13 so I you know had a little bit of money and I I drank a whole bottle of champagne to myself and decided to go to my friends uh sort of may uh like sort of may day or easter party they were putting on and I I did my cruciate ligament by showing off right um which I wonder what the moral of that story is but I I'll be honest it was one of the most spectacular falls I think anyone's ever

I was I was really I was very very entertaining just before I did it but the the annoying thing is is because I am a larger woman um I know you can't help people who are larger because I couldn't be lifted by anyone in the room so I sort of almost had to I was dragged out were you yeah dragged out and put work aware i mean where did you go they sent me to homerton hospital it was in east london they sent me to homerton hospital and um one of the chaps who was djing that night he sat with me for as long as he could and then he said um there was this really like we were just sat we were waiting and waiting because when you've got you know uh this ligament stuff they know you can hold on you're not going to bleed to death in the in the

in a and e no and he just turned to me he'd been there for about three hours with me and he was this ligament stuff, they know you can hold on, you're not going to bleed to death in A&E. And he just turned to me, he'd been there for about three hours with me, and he was like, Jade, I have to go, I've got a DJ. Well, fair enough. Fair enough. Fair enough. No, I'd have gone as well. You mentioned drag.

Actually, drag's been quite a big part of your career, hasn't it, in a variety of ways? Yeah. Now, why? Why the attraction there? Well, I sort of, I attracted it and I was attracted to them. I moved from Bristol to, I went to Cardiff, first of all. I lived in Wales for a long time. Well, you were at university there, weren't you?

I was. I was at the University of Glamorgan, which I don't think exists anymore, or it does, or it's merged with another university. You just finished them off, did you? As soon as I graduated, they they were like we're done no our work is done yes no more um yeah and then i and then i sort of made the leap and i i was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar in cardiff and um i finally made the leap and moved to london and uh when i got there i ended up working at this in this cloak room and this chap walked in and he had my accent and when we hear each other uh when we hear each

other it's it's like two foxes meeting in the night um this is some weird Bristolian thing yeah we've because it's not you know a lot of Bristolians with this accent don't really leave Bristol and I mean why would you Bristol's fab but I um I couldn't make a comedy career in Bristol so I had to come to London but then there was another one and he was called Glyn Fussell and I met him through another friend and he runs Sink the Pink and he introduced me to loads of drag queens and it was the community that I managed to get work from and I did cabaret shows and drag shows and hosted things and it was just a community that let me in basically and before because you know, stand-up's not, it's not as easy to get into stand-up

as it is to dress up as Adele and do an impersonation of her. Well, you were an Adele impersonator for quite some time, weren't you? Which of her songs gets the biggest reaction? Well, I only did a few. I didn't do, I only did a few, but I think Skyfall is the one that people go for also because i changed the words which everyone always loves i changed the words to trifle arctic roll and crumble our arctic no skyfall crumble and arctic roll for the for the chorus um which isn't

very funny uh without an audience but it's a very funny moment i will say yeah no listen anything with arctic roll is is funny funny. It's a real, and I don't mean to be offensive to the manufacturers or indeed to regular users of Arctic Roll, but it's a low-level pudding, Arctic Roll, isn't it?

When we had it at home, and we did, I was always very disgruntled by it, I have to say. Well, I think I used to be as well, but then as you get older, like I really appreciate a button a butterscotch um angel delight now i really appreciate it i've had i've had the fanciest

food i've i've been dining with heston bloom until this year because of a show i did on channel four um i met heston was uh one of the hosts on a show that i did on channel four called crazy delicious right and um it's meant that i've i've done some fine dining over the last couple of years and actually at the end of my serious Black Jumper show I talk about going to one of the best restaurants in the world and getting made to feel really... I had a bit of a working class chip on my shoulder in the restaurant and had a bit of a terrible experience

that talks about confidence. What happened? Did you have a bit of a meltdown? No, I didn't have a meltdown. I sort of walked in and had all these ideas that we were rocking up to the... It was named on Google as the best restaurant in the world and we were all excited. It was me and my chap and we were all excited about going and I dressed up in our finest,

which was a lot of colours and patterns and sequins and we thought we looked really fancy and we rocked up to Pierre Gagner and everyone was in a black turtleneck. And I'm not saying that because that's what I wear in the show, but we felt very silly. And they said to me when I walked in, they said, oh, can we get you a chair without arms? Sort of, you know, looking at my weight.

And it was very offensive. And I told them no. And I sat down. And the whole story is all about, because the whole show is about confidence and where I get mine from. Yes. Well, there's the very funny bit where you just show lots of pictures of the very famous and very serious and people who are taken seriously all wearing these turtleneck black jumpers with the exception of Helen Mirren I think Mirren as far as she she has a v-neck jumper on because that's as far as Helen Mirren will go for

a black turtleneck yeah um but yeah I'd sort of, it all came, do you remember when Dapper Laughs went on Newsnight to sort of apologise for his bad behaviour? That was a long time ago, but he went on in a black turtleneck and it was then I started thinking, this is something a lot of people do. I need, and I need the industry to start taking me seriously.

I'll just wear a black turtleneck. And you do, because you're wearing one in the show on Amazon Prime. You also talk, and this did, it was something that I had vaguely noticed and then forgotten about, Beyonce and Jay-Z and what he wears and what she wears. Yes. She's very scantily clad and she looks fabulous. She's got a great figure.

And then he comes on wearing a coat. Well, it's sort of an anorak. It was a dad rack, wasn't it, effectively? He's got an anorak dad coat on, yeah. He comes on and he looks, I'll be honest, he looked cold when I went to see the show. And she's there in these incredible sort of cat suits and they're really high-waisted and they're covered in,

she's got her cleavage out and everything. She's looking sensational. And then Jay-Z rocks up beside her, looking annoyed, wearing an anorak. Do you think he's got jealousy issues? Oh, I think probably it's there somewhere. I, you know, I wouldn't be that, I wouldn't, I can only hypothesise about their relationship.

Yes, you would not be so bold as to suggest that, even for a moment. So the Couch Cabaretaret it's every wednesday night isn't it this thing every wednesday at 7 30 p.m well how do people see it they come to my facebook page uh which is uh you do www.facebook.com forward slash jade adams comedy um but i link all of this stuff on my social media anyway so there'll be various links around for you to have have a watch yeah um but it's every every wednesday and it's exactly what it says on the tin it's a cabaret show it has drag acts it has stand-ups it has um singers i have actors i have musicians i have poets i have artists

illustrators and i've sort of found a way to sort of because i realize it's not just stand-ups who have lost their work everyone has and some people don't have the ability or the technology to be able to create something like this so I hope my platform is useful to people that still want to sort of keep their creative juices flowing which I think actually people have been quite they've responded quite well to that yes and the people that you've invited, have they been basically really desperate about what their prospects are? I'm talking financial purely at the moment, just in practical terms. Well, there is. Yeah, there's a huge. I'm sort of fortunate. I don't rely solely on my stand up, my life, you know, my life stuff is I'm not reliant on that.

I have a bit of telly going on and stuff. But there are lots of comedians who have been for the last, you know, 20 years sort of making a living from the live circuit. And they make a healthy living and they're able to sort of get mortgages and, you know, provide for their families. And that's all been taken away from them. It's a very, very scary time for comedians at the moment. Yeah. Well, I mean, a lot of people I know are really up against it financially. But we mustn't forget the people that we will need in the future, hopefully the very near future, to entertain us again so they can watch some of that great talent on your couch cabaret on a Wednesday. Jade, can I ask you just to stay with us because I'm going to attempt to talk to a contributor in Italy and we're not certain the line's going to hold up. So we'll come back to you if we need to.

I'm keeping you as my, how can I put this, my kind of seat warmer, my radio seat warmer. Hang on in there. I'll sit here. Funnily enough, I don't have anything to do. Thank you. That's one of the boons at the moment. We know no one's got anywhere to go. Beverly can talk to us from Parma in northern Italy.

Beverly, I hope you can hear me. How are you today? Oh, there you go. Looks like we're going back to Jade, doesn't it? So, Jade, there we were. Hey. Oh, there you go. Looks like we're going back to Jade, doesn't it? So, Jade, there we were. I should say that I'm now being sent pictures of Arctic Roll, which is in its own way. Very nice. But the Bristol commute was a little bit too far for the stage of my career I was at. But I miss the Bristolian sensibility. There's a real sort of West Country sensibility. Because I mentioned this in the Amazon Prime show, which is, you know, when you have this accent, people don't often take you seriously but what you do have is

uh west country people and bristolians are some of the cleverest people they're super sharp they're super witty they're super wise and they're very loyal as well but it's all hidden in this accent where people just think we're you know you know might think we're a bit thick but we're not you know like i it's the thing i miss about bristol is that i'm around a load of people that you know, might think we're a bit thick, but we're not. You know, like it's the thing I miss about Bristol is that I'm around a load of people that, you know, they don't, they don't, you know, I don't know how to say this without not swearing. They...

Jade, go on. No, I won't say the swear word. But, you know, they're tough. They're tough. That's what I want to say. Oh, right, they're tough. They're tough and they're funny. And I really miss being around that

because every time I go back for Christmas with my family, we all play penny poker with each other. And I don't laugh as much as I laugh with Bristolians anywhere else. OK, I'm going to put that out there. We've been doing old food in cupboards this week, but let's do who's the funniest in Britain. Is it the Bristolians? Let us know what you think. Stay where you are, Jade.

I'm going to talk to Beverly again or attempt to. Beverly, hello. Hello, hello. I'm here, yes. You're having a tough time, I know, in every conceivable way. Now, just remind us,

because we talked to you on the programme a month ago and you were in the early stages of your lockdown. And actually, you were having quite a structured day, weren't you? You were still able,

you were doing stuff with the children. How is it now? Yes, I would say my energy levels were definitely up when we first spoke and things you know it's it's fairly wearing being at home for this amount of time and it's slightly different from the lockdown in england as we're when the children can't leave the house so this is now i think week six without the kids having left the house so we're not quite as structured as we we were in the beginning I mean I was baking and doing all sorts of fun things in the beginning but now the homework has stepped up and boredom has stepped up and to be honest we're just trying to get through the day rather than do lots of fun activities okay do you know i think a lot of

people will be faintly reassured to hear that beverly only because if you look at instagram sometimes you you might think everyone's having a great time um and it's it's good to get a dose of reality so we are hearing that some of the restrictions in italy have been lifted but it's actually not entirely true really is it well i had had an email from one of my clients this morning saying I heard that the restrictions are lifting. But when they say it's lifting, children's toy shops and clothes shops and I think bookshops are opening.

But we still can't leave without a document. And if we go, it's on our own. And I don't, I mean, that's lifted, yes. But we're still till the 3rd of May on complete lockdown. And again, only allowed to leave the house with a document and it has to be to the nearest supermarket or pharmacy, or I guess now a clothes shop or toy shop. However, I can't take my children out. We can't do exercise. We can't go for a walk. So, yeah, it hasn't really changed that much. And we know that, tragically, the death toll in Italy is now over 20,000. New cases do appear to be slowing, thank goodness. So might the end be in sight?

I hope so. It's slightly daunting, the thought of everything opening up. I mean, it's not something that I'm really looking forward to at the moment because we're not going to get down to zero cases. I mean, there's still, I think yesterday, there was over 3,000 new cases in Italy yesterday. So it's a weird thing that now that we are in lockdown, this is my life and I'm fairly used to it. I mean, I would love to be able to go outside for a bit of exercise, but it's sort of a new feeling that you know what will it be like when it all opens up um i haven't quite got my head around that yet

and just a quick word on your children how are they because six weeks i know your youngest is only three six weeks and they haven't been outside are they all right i mean we have a tiny garden which they can go out in but to be honest it's it's quite difficult you know we're trying to do schooling i mean not for my three-year-old obviously but my eight-year-old it's quite a struggle to just you know i'm having to do be a teacher basically and run a business and all sorts and you know it's not easy school is no longer fun for him it's just homework and it's just a drudge to come and sit down. Beverly, right. I do feel for you. I really do.

Because we're still in the early stages of something you've been living through for a long, long time. Beverly, thank you for talking to us this morning. Appreciate it. And Jade Adams, thank you for your patience. Jade is very funny and her show is on Amazon Prime right now. That was Beverly joining us from her lockdown. It's been a long, long period of time now for her and her three young kids and her husband in Parma in northern Italy. And I was glad she made the point that actually, although you might hear that some of the restrictions in Italy have been lifted, their lives were much harder anyway and much more firmly and strictly regulated than our own. And in fact, you do need you need a piece of paper just to go out of your flat or house at the moment.

So their restrictions really were much more severe than our own. And still, they've only opened timber merchants, children's clothes shops and bookshops. So it's not as if life is normal in Italy. Far, far from it. But thanks to Beverly and to the brilliant comedian Jade Adams. You can catch her show on Amazon Prime. She will make you laugh. I think if you're looking for something a bit different in lockdown, Jade's your woman.

She'll cheer you up. And she's also got her couch cabarets as well every single Wednesday for the foreseeable future. Now, just a brief mention in Apology Corner to the regular purchasers and people who enjoy Arctic Roll. I can't believe how presumptuous and snobby your presenter sounded, said one listener. Well, the reason I mentioned it was because we had it. That was the whole point. I was sick.

Frankly, I'll be honest with you. I don't like Arctic Roll. OK, I didn't like it in the 70s. I don't like Arctic roll. Okay. I didn't like it in the seventies. I don't like it now, but I'm certainly not snobby about it. Really? No. I always felt the thing was with Arctic roll is the jam that was so hardly any jam on the sponge. And what was the point of it? I don't know. So I do apologise if you are a big, big fan of Arctic roll. And other listeners have pointed out as well that kind of course, you kind of make your own. You don't need to get the Findus thing that was knocking around in the 70s, although why you would make your own, I don't know. But apparently some people, I mean, actually, what are the practicalities of making an Arctic roll?

Because you'd have to get, you need time, Siobhan says you need time on your hands. But also you'd have to get a sausage of ice cream effectively and then wrap sponge around it, could you do that at home? Look if you can contact the programme, tell us more Liz in North Wales says I loved Jade Adams today

but I thought it was Fallon from The Archers, their accents are very similar, Liz I don't think they are that similar. Where is Fallon meant to be from? A lot of people enjoyed hearing three-year-old Thea during her mum's interview, Jemima's interview on the programme today.

And a lot of people, in fact, pointed out that she made a lot more sense than me or indeed any other regular contributor to the programme. So yes, we'll get more Thea over the months ahead if we can. Catherine says, I sympathise with Jemima, your pregnant lady, this morning. My husband was Merchant Navy during the three-day week and I was on my own with a two-year-old and a five-week-old

and the power went off in the evenings, of course. Yeah, I remember that. Feeding by candlelight with the radio for entertainment. Take heart, you'll get through it. My children are now 49 and 47. It will end and stay well, says Catherine to Jemima. That's a very nice message, Catherine. Thank you very much for taking the time to send that.

And from Alice, I wanted to say thank you for taking the time today to highlight military families during this time. I'm an army wife. My husband's in the American Army, currently midway through a six-month deployment in the Middle East. I've got a three-and-a-half-year-old, a one-and-a-half-year-old, and I'm now 15 weeks pregnant with our third child. I was fortunate enough to have pre-planned a trip to England. We live in North Carolina for a few weeks before the lockdown happened. But now I am stuck here for the foreseeable future with so much uncertainty.

We're unsure as to whether or not my husband will have his time extended and unsure of the best time or when I'll be able to get back to the States. I'm very thankful to be living temporarily with my parents in Suffolk. And that also plays a part in the decision to go back and when I do it. In North Carolina, I wouldn't, of course, have any family around, and I'll be confined to our house over there. Thank you for highlighting what is, of course, a minority group in the UK and abroad. Those of us going through dealing with this separation on top, of course, and then the challenges of solo parenting. So, Alice, thank you for that. And there are a lot of you out there in similar positions.

Annie is talking about her son. He's being deployed to Afghanistan next week for six months without any R&R. He's stationed in Northern Ireland with his wife and two-year-old at the moment. And their second child is due in a month's time. And I was supposed to be going over to Northern Ireland to help out. I'm 71, and there aren't any flights, so I can't do that. I am concerned for them all. Annie, I'm sure you are,

but hopefully they'll be getting the support they need at the moment from the military, the British military, out in Northern Ireland. I very much hope so. From Tilly and Sid, lovely to hear from Thea and her mum on the programme this morning. Also much appreciated by my two and a half year old who is very obviously missing

the company of other children at the moment. So that's interesting. So your two and a half year old heard Thea's voice and thought, there's somebody I could get on with. That's very sweet, isn't it? So thank you for telling us about that. And what else have we got?

Oh, let's end with another bit of old food. This is from Dee in Tatton Hall, who says, a tin of Del Monte ground coffee. It was brought round by our elderly neighbours. Jack knocked on the door one day, he was in his early 80s, and said,

you and Nick drink coffee, don't you? We've bought this just in case, but we don't drink the stuff, so we thought you and Nick drink coffee, don't you? We bought this just in case, but we don't drink the stuff, so we thought you and Nick would like it. Well, when I had a look at it, it was from 1944. Right. I mean, I appreciate this happened some time ago, but even then, that was a very old bit of coffee your neighbour was generously palming off on you. It may be time for me to investigate the inner recesses of my store cupboard to find what lurks. I know in the freezer there's all kinds of stuff, just sort of brown things in Tupperware which I made on a boring Sunday

afternoon. In the old days when you used to think Sunday afternoons were boring and now of course I'd give anything for one of those old school boring Sunday afternoons. Thank you very much indeed for listening and engaging. Jenny is here tomorrow. Bernadine Evaristo is one of her guests. And then I'm back on Friday, and we're going to be talking in detail about sourdough bread and why I'm so wrong about it. So I guess that means that in a few weeks time, I will indeed be hand wrestling my very own Arctic role here in the studio for your delectation and delight. Thank you for listening. Jenny's here tomorrow.

I'm Sarah Treleaven. And for over a year, I've been working on one of the most complex stories I've ever covered. There was somebody out there who's faking pregnancies. I started like warning everybody. Every doula that I know. It was somebody out there who was faking pregnancies. I started like warning everybody. Every doula that I know. It was fake.

No pregnancy. And the deeper I dig, the more questions I unearth. How long has she been doing this? What does she have to gain from this? From CBC and the BBC World Service, The Con, Caitlin's Baby. It's a long story, settle in.

Available now.