BIG ZUU: BALANCING FAITH, GRIME & HOW HE TACKLES HIS INSECURITIES

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2:41Hello everyone, my name is Jamie Lang and this is Great Company

2:50Producer Jemima, hello Jamie Lang, hi How are you? I'm well, you? Very good Welcome back everyone to the show I became a dentist, bang, bang, bang We're straight in there Ping, pong Back and forward Back and forward Backhand, forehand I am immediately off the rails I can't wait I'm left-handed. So do you not know that? God, have you never seen me use a pen? I have. You're left-handed? Yeah. I have not seen you. You write left-handed. Yes, that's what left-handed means. Okay. Anyway, because I'm left-handed and we live in a right-handed world, I have to do a lot of things with both hands. See, there we go.

3:26Yeah, so when I play any sort of racket sport, the French one you have to hold. You can only play it one way round. Okay. We'll come to that on another episode. Can't wait. But I, racket sports, I'll do everything forehand. I play with both hands. See, you play with both hands? So you swap? Yeah. That's insane. Yeah. Also, both hands at the same time because I'm just weak. I should probably put it out there. I don't play racket sports. So on the very rare occasion you see me playing a little bit of beach volley. Yeah, yeah. What's that beach ball with the tiny ball? It's a beach. It's rackets, volley.

4:04Wow, that really took you somewhere.

4:10That's great. I like that one more time. Yeah, look. Yeah, took you back to being on the beach. Oh, we should take GC on the beach. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the show. Today's guest is very, very exciting. It's Big Zoo. Big Zoo. Big Zoo. Big Zoo is a singer, performer. He is a TV star, a chef, huge on social media. And I want to get Zoo on for a while. he's a big character big presence he's great I'm really really excited also I can't work out whether he's more chef or more music I don't know which one he is all I do know is that his cousin is AJ Tracy that's wild which is pretty wild he's a really really interesting guy he's all about quality I just love his views and his passion and his just greatness okay are you ready for this?

4:56boy am I ready I've got my notes you do? I'm ready are you going to take notes? no for you. Okay, good. Okay. Well, listen, before we kick it off, remember to please, if you can, click that subscribe button. It does us absolute wonders. We're also on social media at Great Company Podcast, and you can send us an email, greatcompany at jampodproductions.co.uk. Okay, here we go. Enjoy this episode of Great Company with Big Zoo. You're always saying it's Big Zoo and I'm in Great Company. Do you ever have those moments where you want to be emotional? Yes. And so I I do that as well. So you go and hunt for that emotional thing just because it can make you cry.

5:35Yeah. I do that. I do this thing on YouTube where I watch like military people coming home to their families. Oh, that's deep. That goes. See, that's deep. That's the big one. See, I wouldn't cry. Why not? Because I don't know. I can't cry. I've cried a couple times in my life, yeah? When I was born. You cried then? I cried then. You know when they slap your bum? Yeah. Pursuit of Happiness, Will Smith, when he does the clap at the end.

6:03when he's walking. See, I'm getting emotional. He is. Zoom is actually getting emotional. That makes me so, because it's like, he does, because he's such an emotional end there. Have you watched The Sea of Happiness? One of my favorites. When he borrows, you know when you ask, can I borrow$5 for a taxi? Can you explain to, explain what the movie's about? Oh, Will Smith is his broke brother and he breaks up with his girl and he has his son, young Jaden Smith and he tries to get this job about like being a stockbroker but then he also invested his life savings into these weird like x-ray machines so it's just about his mission from going from being really poor to becoming a stockbroker it's based on a real life story and he's like really struggling working in Wall Street and then he finally gets a job at the end but what's so what's so mad is that his boss asked him for$5 to get a taxi and he really doesn't want to give him the$5 and then when he gets the job at the end sorry to ruin the film for you when he gets the job at the end he gives him back that$5 and it's so emotional because like he still he wants that$5 I can feel it now give me that$5 and then he walks out into a packed New York street and he's just walking under and he's just clapping like he finally made it that film is is really about the pursuit of happiness and what is happiness and all the setbacks that he goes through also just young Jaden Smith being such an incredible actor mate unbelievable it's quite mad isn't it like he's done that and Karate Kid what what and then he made a song with Justin Bieber Never say never What a song Honestly I'm not going to lie Jaden Smith doesn't even Act after that Has he really acted after that?

7:38Why did he stop acting after that? Because he's done enough Karate kid That's enough Karate kid And And Pursuit of Happiness It's like Macaulay Culkin You've done Home Alone That's it isn't it? Richie Rich And Richie Rich That's it There's no more to do

8:01To everyone, your name is Big Zoo. Yes, Big Zoo. But what's your Christian name? My real name. What's your real name? So my real name is Zahair. Yeah? Zahair. But my teachers could pronounce it, so they called me Zuhair. So because they called me Zuhair, I was like, you know what? Just call me Zuhair. Really? Yeah. But my real name is Zahair Hassan. Zahair Hassan. But I'm named after my dad. Are you? I'm a junior. Zahair Hassan Junior. Mm-hmm. So we're hanging And this is Because your story By the way I was just like I was checking out everything It's insane man Because your mum Left Well forgive me I get this from Sierra Leone Yes When she was four months Pregnant with you Yes Fleeed to the UK And brought you up In the UK With no money Not being able to speak English Not being able to write Read anything But then was this Unbelievable Powerful strong mum Yeah That is wild It's mad still She loves it She loves it She loves her story I feel like my mum My mum was just a powerful woman And she comes from a very Very Like mad upbringing My mum's one of 14 Like Crazy family Like just comes Like Sierra Leone Before the war Was a beautiful place And You know the people The people are amazing people But the war definitely Hurt them in a lot of ways So So my mum having to leave her family and come, it was tough.

9:29But, you know, now she kind of appreciates everything that came from that. So if the war never happened, I'd never be here. Because your dad's Lebanese, right? Yes. So you must be proud of your heritage. Yeah, 100%. What's weird is that my dad's Lebanese, but he was born in Sierra Leone. And his parents were born in Sierra Leone. So my dad really is just Sierra Leonean. He just has Lebanese heritage. So obviously we know our family back home and we know our family in Lebanon. but really my entire identity is Sierra Leone. I just happen to be mixed race. But like, it's mad. Have you been back? I go back every year.

10:04Every December I go to Sierra Leone. Really? And they love it. When I touch down, they're so excited because they know bills are paid. Fun is happening. Let's go. Rice. Everyone gets rice. What's rice? Just bare rice. Yeah, just rice. Just straight up rice. Rice is expensive, bro. Rice is expensive. Back home in Africa. Rice expensive I thought rice was cheap Nah bro I mean you have cheap rice So in Africa A lot of the times People eat broken rice Which is the rice That doesn't get sent out Like it's the Like It's like the rice That doesn't go Like make it Yeah So just bad broken rice Like one will be long One will be short One will be Like it's bare weird They don't really eat good rice So when I touch down They know basmati Is coming Bare basmati Bare fruit Anything you want Do you know what I'm smart about Back home When I go back home so a lot of it's about like provisionals whereas here we eat what we want we have what we want we can order takeaway today like anything we want we can taste the world back home it's a bit different like buying a lot of onions and a lot of tomatoes and hella chickens and a lot of rice for your family that's some real shit yeah but also when you have that juxtaposition right when you see like the two different sides it makes you appreciate also oh yeah that's why I always go back home I went my first time I went back to Seattle when I was eight and it changed my life I was a little boy, but it changed my life.

11:23I was playing a Game Boy in my granddad's car, and the whole road was standing outside the car watching me play this Game Boy, just watching me play it. I was like, do you not want to play? They're like, oh, no, we don't want to play. I said, why? No, you play. And they just watched me play Mario. Because they'd never seen a Game Boy before. I feel like not to that level of Game Boy. Maybe they've seen like one in their life, but not like a Game Boy SP color with like, yeah, with the fresh mouth. Like, they was mad. They was watching me through the window. Like, this is mad. Like, and I'll never forget that moment.

12:00I was like, raw, like, I thought my life was shit in England, you know, because my mum didn't really have a lot of money and we grew up single parent background. But then when I went to Africa, I realized, ah, you know what? I'm all right. Yeah, bro. That's insane. That's a real eye opener. Yeah, yeah. One million percent. I feel like anyone who comes from like a third world country can tell you, like, when you go back home it makes you realise like like I remember just like first time I had a shower like in Cielo and like there's no hot water I'm like what's going on and then the electricity cuts out there's no electricity so you go put on a generator you're like oh so I can't charge my phone there's all these little little things it makes you appreciate and every time I go back it's a reset so I go every year to one see my family to two take a break but three to like reset my mentality like Like you go back there, there's no Uber, there's no Uber Eats, there's no Deliveroo, there's no, everything is just like random.

12:55Like you have no control. It's like life just is life and you get on with it and they all get on with it. See, that's a good message, man. Someone's listening right now, right? Who's like a big fan of yours, who kind of is, because I think we're all like, especially in this like Western society, that I think it's like everything is so easy. Yeah, yeah, instant. Instant. Instant, instant the whole time. If you want food, you can get it. If you want to get drunk, you can get it. If you want to order something, you can get it. And actually that then makes us complacent and like not appreciate things.

13:29So that's a really great way as a message to like younger kids. It's like actually no, you need to go and experience something like that and see actually what real life is like. Yeah, man. Makes you realize how lucky we are. Yeah, especially, I think energy is the most important thing that you realize in terms of say alone. Like electricity is not a God-given right like to have electricity. Cielo has a really bad problem with electricity. Sometimes you might be lucky, you might get it for three hours a day, you might get it for six hours a day. There was a blackout for two months. There was a blackout in Spain for like one day, the world went mental.

14:02Like in Cielo, that's continuous. Two months, my dad had no electricity. My dad's telling me, yo, bruv, like what do you do? That means no fridge. That means a lot of things, like bare things that we're just so used to having. that means they don't work. So like, I'll be at like my grannies and like, you'd be like watching a film and it cuts you like, fuck sake, bruv. Like, you know what I'm saying? And then it's like, and then the generator has no fuel. So then you got to go get fuel for your generator and then you got to run it and there's so many little, little things. But then you realise like, life could be worse.

14:39Sometimes the generator cuts and the electricity cuts and all you can do is sit in, because it's so hot, you just got to sit in a balcony and just talk. Do you know what I mean? Do you know what I mean? I tell you what, you don't realize how many hours are in a day until everything's taken away. Trust me. Dude, there's 24 hours is a long time. Yeah, and the thing is, obviously, don't get me wrong, Ceylon is filled with beauty and amazing things. And there's a lot of wealth there. There's a lot of people who have continuous electricity, have continuous generator. But I don't come from a background like that.

15:08Like my family are doing all right, but a lot of them don't have a lot of money. So sometimes when electricity comes, light don't come, is what they say. They light don't come. And then the light's here and then you know you enjoy it. And then when it goes, just carry on with your day, bruv. I like that. Whereas if it was in England, you'd be calling Scottish Power, going absolutely mental. Scottish Power? Yeah. Or one of them. I don't know who else is there. The Scottish Power octopus or something. You'd be calling them, man, going mental. Excuse me. I've been in my house for two hours. My TV's not working.

15:43I can't turn on light. I can't use the bathroom.

15:48Z, when did you realize, when did you realize growing up that you were kind of maybe less privileged than other kids? From the jump. Really? Straight away? Instantaneously. Now, you know what? My mom, my mom and my dad were still together for up until I was about three. And that's when, by the time I got three, is when the war got really intense. So the first, there was different stages of the war, but like the first like initial like coup or like rebel takeover was in 1992 and then another one happened around I think it's it's I think it's 98 like there was two times it happened and the first time it happened my family really got hit by it and then by 95 my mom came over but then the second time it happened my family really got hit by it so my dad wasn't able to send money back home my mom and my dad split up me and my mom went from like living in a my mom had like a nice house and we used to rent a room to someone, but then that all completely went and then we kind of went straight into like, like temporary housing.

16:48And then we stayed at this place, which I called a hotel, which is like, was like a refugee hostel kind of thing, which had like different rooms for people. It was like shared accommodation. So like we had, we had a room and then we'd share a kitchen, share a bathroom. But like, I was so young, I didn't know what was going on. So I'm just in this mad hotel. There's bare little kids running around. I was like wow this is sick like I live with like 50 kids you know what I mean and we're like it was a bed and breakfast so in the morning you can get like eggs and that and beans and then they would take us on trips they take us on trips every Saturday Sunday so I was I knew that this wasn't normal but I kind of just got on with it and then yeah that was that was when I was like three four years old during the war did any of your family get injured yeah yeah Yeah, so there was, I mean, my uncle passed away during the war.

17:43My uncle, Feroz, my mom's eldest brother, his story's a bit sad. Like, he kind of got caught up in some stuff and he was with the army and then he lost his life. But, like, only as I get older, I get to, like, kind of connect to my family on the stories about what happened because a lot of them kind of, like, suppressed a lot more than the stuff that happened. So only as I'm, like, now I'm 29, my dad's really sat down and explained to me the kind of things that he went through. And then my mum was explaining the stuff that her family went through. But the war was really bad, bro. It was... The problem is that the living conditions in Sierra Leone were really bad.

18:18So the rebels... The rebels in Liberia below, they kind of entered Sierra Leone. Because basically there was a war happening in Liberia. Yeah. Rebel war. And Sierra Leone sent troops down to try help. And then the rebels in Liberia took that as a lie. What? You're trying to get involved? Okay, what are we going to do to you? So they came through to Inter-Seylon, from the bottom of the Seleon, and started making their way to the city, which is called Freetown. And obviously, I haven't got all the, I'm not super clued up on the wall, but I know a couple of things. But what I know is that what they was doing was they were taking over the diamond mines in the provinces, in all the villages around, where all the diamond mines are.

18:57and they would swap diamonds with the West for arms and use those arms to take over villages, take over cities. That's why it's called Blood Diamonds. That's why they have the term Blood Diamonds. That's why that film by Leonardo DiCaprio called Blood Diamonds, which is about Sierra Leone, which is literally what you see is that the guy finds the diamond and then everything goes crazy. Everyone's after him and it's all about child soldiers. You know, the child soldiers stop him in his car. All that stuff is real. and what I think the main thing is how the war affected my family is that I have to obviously I have my mum's side who's Sierra Leone and my dad's side who's Lebanese so from my mum's side they just had to stay safe and not get caught by the rebels whereas my dad's side they was quite wealthy so they lost all their wealth by trying to survive so it was there's so many different sides to it there's so many different textures layers you know obviously I lost family to it but also the destruction it did to the country itself.

19:55Like the war ended 2001, 2002 and you know, 20 years on it's still, the country is still battered. Like there's young people don't have opportunities. Yeah. You've got young men on the street who just have nothing to do. You know, the corruption in the government, X, Y, Z, it's deep.

20:15Did you win two BAFTAs? Yes, we got, we got Dublé. Come on, baby. Man. Yeah, it was mad, bro. And we were talking about earlier, your speech when you got up on stage. Yeah, man. It was powerful. Thank you, bro. Do you remember what you said? Yeah, yeah, definitely. Hangtime on right there, the woman in the pink, that's what started. And then I spoke about me, Tabsy and Haider coming from, where we come from, you know, Haider, Tabsy coming from Warner Rock. Haider being from Kurdistan, which is not a recognized state. And then me coming from Sierra Leone. And then I spoke about working class, and I spoke about TV, and I bigged up my commissioner, Natalie Rose, who's a black woman.

20:57I tackled a lot in a small space of time. And that speech, it went crazy and a lot of people respected me for it. But I felt like it was the one chance I could use a platform to maybe just talk about all this stuff that we're talking about. I was able to kind of address it in a two minute speech. And what's sad is that if you watch the speech, I'm kind of angry because the reason I'm angry because instead of being able to enjoy my moment and just be like, thank you guys. I had to use it to say something powerful. Yeah, but that is powerful, man. Yeah, of course. But it's just sad that sometimes we have to hold that, I have to bear that because at the time, I'm 25, like, I just want to get lit.

21:37That's it, right? But then that shows your personality, which is most people, myself included, if I was that age, right, would have like, not said anything profound. You just go up there and it's just like, oh, let's just go for it. But you're actually thinking clearly. You're thinking this is my point to actually make a difference. Yeah, definitely. I think it's because I'm looking at the room of the BAFTAs and it's like, look at this swanky hall, like South Bank. You're not nervous? Nah. Was I, bro, honestly. What? I was just like, I kind of just looked at them and I was like, I always say this joke, but there's nowhere to look because you're not looking down the barrel of a camera.

22:16You're not like, hi, welcome to my BAFTA speech. You're looking in the air. And there's like, there's like, there's like an autocue that is telling you two minutes, but you don't want to look at that because then you're just staring at autocue that's telling you, hurry up. So I looked at Ross Kemp's head. I saw Ross Kemp. He's mad bold. I was like, that is my, that's my focal point. So I stared at Ross Kemp's head and I've said this better times. I don't know if he's ever going to hear it, but one day I hope he hears it. Ross Kemp, big up you. Because I stared at his head and it let me just zone in and his head became an autocue and I saw all the lyrics in his brain.

22:50But then when I was looking out, I was like, this is some bougie room full of bougie people who probably don't want to hear this right now. But fuck it. You better listen. You better clap. If you don't clap, you look like a prick. Do you know what? Like, I reckon you've had this, right? Which is where, you know, with your cooking show and your presenting and stuff like that, what probably happens a lot, which is, which weirdly it sort of happened to me a little bit because I came from reality TV, which is a totally different story. But to you where people will say things like, oh, he's actually not bad.

23:26Oh, he actually can do that. And in your head, you know you're good. And you know you can do that. And so winning the BAFTA is like, no, I definitely should have won the BAFTA. Yes. And that's a big thing, right? Yeah, 100%. Where a lot of people are congratulating you because to them it's a surprise. Yes. To you, it's not a surprise. Yeah, we earned it. 100 % you earned it. That year I won the BAFTA. I went ham, I did everything you could possibly do. I did every, because we won, we won the show, we won the BAFTA for our second season, which was filmed in COVID. And we won it, we won Best Feature.

24:03And I also won Best Entertainment Performance. And that was against the late, great Sean Locke, Alison Hammond, Graham Norton, Michael McIntyre, and Joe Lycett. so like I've beat these incredible, incredible broadcasters, presenters to win this mad prestigious award. And I remember like, I remember when I, when I won it, I was like, I deserve this, but I've gone ham this year. Maybe not as ham as them, but I'm not in the positions that they are. So for, for my world, I just remember thinking after everyone who was in the academy that voted for me, because a lot of people think, how was it voted?

24:44Is it fake? It's just an academy. It's just, just a collection of people get to decide. Half of them probably don't even watch the shows. They just click a name. It's true. Do you know what I mean? Not everybody who's in the academy studies what's right. A lot of times people should probably just vote for their friends. There's a crazy statistic in that. I don't know what the statistic is, but something I saw about the Oscars. Something like a third or maybe more that the academy don't actually even watch. Yeah. Watch it, they just click. Yeah, because apparently they're changing the rules. They're changing the rules.

25:15to be able to decide. So when the people that are part of the BAFTAs are probably choosing who wins the BAFTA that year, they're probably just going, you know what? I've seen that big zoo guy a lot this year and he's doing some shit. So I'm going to click for him. Do you know what I mean? That's how I think it got voted. Maybe a couple of them were like, you know what? I really love his shows. I really love what he stands for. I really love what he's doing. But I reckon a big percentage of them probably gone, I've seen this kid a million times. Go on, give it to him. Do you know what I mean? And like, I think one thing about that that moment that definitely changed my life is that after that I went into I went into the that BAFTAs I walked in I was in my bright yellow Stone Island jacket with my two friends Tami who also in Stone Island and bombers and turtlenecks and half of the room don't even know who we are half of them have probably seen us a couple of them know that we're nominated Michael McIntyre came over his wife and gave me a big hug because I've been on the wheel before the wheel I've been on that i've been on that so he showed me some love like there was like it was weird like we walked in we kind of just felt like outcast we just went straight to the smoking area did you really yeah just went straight to smoking there chilling in the smoking area just smoking bear cigarette and then and then and then when we won you have the dinner after yeah which is like and we're in the dinner and everyone's like oh my god i absolutely love you you're so amazing and and it was just like we're just like we want to leave why?

26:41because it just it didn't feel right it didn't it felt like we got this shiny light on us that just didn't so we left we went to Marouche in Knightsbridge love Marouche and got a kebab wait but hey explain that to me it didn't feel right because you felt like people were being fake or you felt like imposter syndrome it was definitely imposter syndrome people weren't being fake it's just I've been to a lot of award shows since and naturally when a person wins an award you want to congratulate them after how genuine you are is different because like sometimes people win the award and you really love them and you really love the show that they won the award for so you're like oh my god bro you deserve it man and then sometimes you're just saying it to say it and I felt like me at times in high especially because I'm with my three friends the two friends that I grew up with we're just kind of like yo this energy is a bit weird man everyone's just coming up to us talking to us like what?

27:35who are these people like? people come up and say, hi, I'm the head of BBC, congrats, we'll speak soon. And you're like, okay. We're just a bit lost in it. Do you think that there is a sense of imposter syndrome in there because you're talking about that it feels like an elitist industry? Yes. Yeah, it's like, it just felt like a lot of people that were like super like mad powerful and mad this and mad that, we were kind of just like, we was the prey. It's like, ooh, you love this one, you're back. us how can we benefit from you how can we commission something now from you do you know what i mean and don't get me wrong like there's those people in the room now were genuine and showed us real love and like i remember i and deck one that night and we was in a table next to them and we took a picture with them with their baptisms and i'm like and i'm looking at my friends like bro these are like legends of tv like so that was a beautiful moment but you got all these mad like heads of you know telly bro there's like five million heads of everything heads of factual heads of news factual heads of factual entertainment head of entertainment factual like it's so much shit that it was just a bit overwhelmed but but let's say you say you won a brit award yeah for music yeah would you feel the same imposter syndrome there no because the industry is completely different explain that to me because in music the room's going to be full of like you'll have a couple of the same like elitist wankers but you'll also have a room full of my friends and artists and different people that run labels that come from different backgrounds it'll be a way more diverse room the brits will be way more diverse compared to the baftas the baftas is not what like people probably don't even know what it's like at these award shows i go to a lot of them because thank god i've been nominated a lot of times but whether it's the baftas whether it's broadcast whether it's the royal television society awards all of them they're all the same and they know they are which is why they're trying to make a change which is why people like me are here are winning them do you know what i mean but like those rooms they're very old and they're very white and there's there's there's not a lot to say we all know what's going on we all know how it is we all know how they're trying to make a change but then when you're a young person like me in that room and you you're just looking around like oh where's the man then so i want to ask you a big question because this idea of a diversity right it's seriously important yeah and um more and so like in the workplace people want to have diversity but a lot of people don't know why they want diversity they just think it has to be a thing yeah of course so for someone listening now saying like okay well why do i need diversity in the workplace or in my school what would you say to them well a lot of people think it's about ticking boxes right correct it's like same like when you watch adverts oh that advert oh look oh it's woke now oh they look they got a lesbian couple oh look there's a black couple oh look there's a disabled guy oh that adverse well no it's about representation you can only have diversity in four of people are represented so if you have a room full of people who come from all come from the same like telly is made for the people right so if telly is not reflective of society if if telly is is 50 middle class um um upper class and it doesn't have a representation of the working class and just majority white yeah and majority white then how can it be represented of society now obviously we live in the white country we live in england but there's also a big percentage of people from different diversities and also we want to sell tv to the world so if you want to have more diversity in thought you have to have more diversity in the room having different people around means that it brings different ideas and it's not just about color it's about diversity in everything especially gender as well like you know like women are very underrepresented in terms of position of power in television as well so it's not just diversity in like oh we need more black people no we need more every people we need everyone we need like sometimes i've been on set and i've never seen a woman in a hijab so i'm like there's no muslim women here so maybe if we wanted to cover a topic how can we how can she be represented okay there's no asian women here all right there's no one that's disabled here so how can we represent them in these things and when i first worked on big eats our crew was very very like just not diverse at all and i was really lucky we made a great show and I was able to get through it.

31:50But at second season, I said, no, come on, we need more diversity. I want to get a black director and I want to get more people involved. And by the time we did season four, it was completely just all different people represented, all different ideas. And what it meant is that you have different opinions. It's like, this is the best example I could give. It's not really an analogy, but it's something I said to my friend to kind of break down. Because he was like to me, oh, bro, all this TV stuff, it's all just ticking boxes, isn't it? Like, are you man on telly because, come on, they just need more black people.

32:19I said, imagine when you finish a football game, yeah? You're all in a changing room, bag of lads. You're going to be talking shit, you're going to be having fun, banter, whatever. But if there was a woman in that room now, suddenly the conversation changes because you're a bit more mindful. But then, depending on what that woman's like, then if she's gang, then you might say a couple more things that you wouldn't have said. But then, now if you've got three women in the room, the conversation changes. Now if you've got a disabled person in the room now you're not going to say those things you might have said that joke you might have said about a disabled person.

32:55But then if you learn from them and you're in that room with those people suddenly the conversation changes. So when you're in a room full of all the same type of people sometimes you get comfortable in saying what you want to say. Then when other people come in the room it kind of puts you on edge. You're like can I say that? Am I allowed to say that sexist joke I was going to say before? Maybe I can because that person actually understands it, respects me and I feel like that's how you create diversity in thought is understanding that people can be in a room doesn't mean you should change it just means you should learn yeah I mean diversity in creative industries makes innovative content that's it it changes the content it makes it better it makes it different what season were you when you won the BAFTA?

33:35season two season two you won the BAFTA yeah so when there started to be a change then things like that yeah yeah definitely it definitely helped and it also I don't know look don't get me wrong I feel like I feel like obviously living in England I feel like sometimes people are like but we live in an English country why would you not want white people to work it's not that we don't want white people to work I want everyone to work it's just that if you give more people opportunities you get better content out of it at the end of the day because when you have that when you have those different thoughts those different voices in a room suddenly you start representing things that you never like I can't speak on behalf of a woman so So if my whole team is just full of men, then I'm not representing the thoughts of women.

34:18I'm not being able to tap into what makes them great, what makes them laugh, what makes them smile, what they enjoy. So then my content isn't as good as it can be now. And you're speaking from experience. Yeah, one million percent. You know what, that is the biggest difference for me, is that a lot of people trying to make these decisions or having an, haven't had that experience of, you know, growing up in a certain background, growing up as, you know, perhaps black or whatever it is. They haven't experienced it. No, no, definitely. And I think what I realized was it's about the, I think the big problem is, is classism.

34:52Classism within TV is the biggest problem. Like, and classism within everything. I think, I think the more we understand that, if you have people from the working class getting into positions of power, it makes them, it makes them be able to bring in people and represent views and ideas that maybe are not seen if you come from a different class. And I think it tell you, that's one thing I realised is that it's like, when I got into it, I was like, yo, like, I always be like, yo, where's the man then? And it's like, it's kind of mad because it's like, it's not that I want to deprive people of opportunity.

35:24Yeah. If you deserve to work, you deserve to work. 100%. My director is an old white man. He's called Chris Faith. He's a fucking legend. He's amazing. he's a G I love him so much I'm so happy that I work with him my exec that I work with all the time is a middle aged white brother from Manchester called Alex Gilman I love him if I wasn't able to work with him I wouldn't be able to do all the great things that I do it's not that I don't want to work with white men I just also want to work with women and diverse brothers

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38:09When you go through hardship Yeah You want to help Yeah, definitely It's really strange, right? And when you've been through a lot of privilege Yeah It doesn't come as naturally because you're not thinking It's the norm is that life has been easy You've had a roof over your head you put food on the table whatever it is so you don't think about it as much yeah and more than i've got older the more i've realized that perhaps i haven't lent into that side enough and actually what you realize is actually helping younger kids helping other people helping less fortunate people that is the magic in the world that should be happening all the time exactly and you do that a lot yeah i mean like i used to be youth for a car that was like my main goal to in terms of career when i was a young person i just wanted to like help young people but like you said it came from the fact that when i was growing up i had a lot of help so when i got older i was like what can i do in life i talked to a career advisor they're like what are you good at i said i'm good at talking and she said why didn't you work in social work so i started like leading into youth work i volunteered for a charity called cea yeah which is part of the national citizenship service and you know what was that like that was mad i worked in a school in east london called Hagerston, Hagerston Girls School, but it just became mixed when I came.

39:24So the oldest boys were year 10. So the oldest boys were all like 14 and I was 18 at the time. So when I was, I was a TA and they kind of just like, they really resonated with me. I used to play football with them. Like at lunchtime, I'll be there, take off my tie and play football with them. Like I look like one of them. But then as soon as lunchtime, as soon as break time's over, put my tie back on. All right guys, get back in class. You know what I'm saying? Like it was mad. One thing I've always said is that I feel like we as a society have to volunteer more, have to volunteer more, more time.

39:54It doesn't just have to be helping young people. It could be helping elder people. It could be helping people that are the same age as you. A lot of people that are neglected are young men who are from the age of like 19 to 25 because society looks at them like, we owe you nothing. Do you know what I mean? A lot of times we do focus on young people and we focus on elder people, but sometimes that middle ground where you have people who have no job, have no career, have no idea what they want to become in life, they end up just getting lost in the source. And I feel like the more we volunteer, the more we give people opportunities to get into different careers or look at different career paths, then you kind of give that chance to the next level of society.

40:35And I feel like that's one, especially now, in the cost of living, all the problems that we have in England, if we all volunteered a little bit more and spent some time to give young people chances to get into different jobs and different roles, you definitely see a big difference. I feel like, I feel like it should, like volunteering should be something we all do at least once a month, like an hour. If everybody volunteered like an hour, two hours a month, just doing something to give back. Like just, unless, sometimes charity, if people think it's all about money, it's not about donating money.

41:06It's not about just going online, Googling charity, sending your money. That's great. But if you give your time, that's worth more than anything. Do you know what I mean? Man, you're sorry. Because, you know, after 18, or even early if you leave, you're kind of thrown out of school with no direction whatsoever. And you're like, here you go, here's life. And you're 18 years old. Like, what do you do? Especially if you're living in an, like under sort of, you know, if it's, you're not coming from a British background in any way whatsoever. Maybe your parents aren't there to look after you, whatever it is.

41:37That's when bad shit happens. Yeah, exactly. Because you haven't got guidance and then people take advantage. And that's what you see. That's what you see in life. I feel like, I feel like for young people nowadays is tough because, you know, it's tough for everyone. So it's hard to focus on what's going on with young people, especially after COVID, like a lot of youth services closed. So youth clubs, community hubs, they all closed. Like, I think it was like a third of all youth services closed. So, you know, it's tough, but I think the more people, whether you're in a position of privilege or not, if anyone can just volunteer time to help in, that will make a big difference, man.

42:16do you remember anyone in particular who you looked up to as a kid that really helped you I mean for me it's a collective bro I'm not gonna lie like I do a lot of work in my secondary school which is hilarious I I have an award named after me the Zahair Sun Award which is about like like the arts and creativity and my school created it because they realised they didn't lean into that when we was at school not lean into it a lot but like they didn't they it was second best yeah it wasn't as big as important as math science english music drama like those kind of like cooking but one thing my school really realized is that so i made a show called big zoos big eats which which was a really successful program and then it changed my life but it's me and my two friends who went to the same secondary school so us all three of us did catering as a gcse and my school look at that and go wow like they went from doing catering to getting an award-winning program so we should maybe invest more into catering because we might make a couple more big zoos so when we go back to the school they're always so big on us like cooking with them and doing all these little and obviously the fact that i'm a musician as well they would like want to invest more in the music so they created this award named after me and every every term i go and get hand out the award and i've been doing it for about two years now and every time i go back you just see more and more like engagement with it like i remember the first time we went they had they wanted to do like a music section.

43:45Then this year, when I went back, they had a full band. So like, you can see like the, the, the influence from the school going, okay, how can we use what, what, what, what Zoo's gone through to inspire the kids? And a big part of that is my head teacher, a guy called Eugene Moriarty. At first he was my head teacher. So I didn't, I didn't really like him. Cause when you get, you didn't want, you know, who really likes their head teacher? You're afraid of them. You don't want them to, but now like I see him as a friend. He's called, I call him Eugene, which is quite weird. is it weird that moment that it switches so weird like you when it switches yeah but he like you like eugene he's he stepped down as head teacher now he just works at a school but i really see his passion for young people and how much he's just proud to try and make a change and then another teacher a woman called miss andrews sharon sharon andrews she really really just beautiful amazing woman that invested a lot of time into us cared about me showed me so much love a guy called mr Hatch Graham good old Graham he so it's amazing that you remember them of course I know I got my connection with my school and Bradley Wiggins went to my school as well really yeah the Olympian yeah what a weird mad school mad school and SEAL SEAL went to my school as well anti-seal SEAL?

45:00yeah yeah anti-seal the school was quite my school was quite random like but we Bradley Wiggins obviously going there meant that when the sports department got a lot of love because obviously being one of the most decorated Olympians, going to our school you get a lot of respect for that so our sports was really really good, we had like a lot of great facilities and that so you kind of see like if somebody comes from a school and they go on to do good things, the school normally gets a lot of investment back in for what that person was good at so because I've left school and I've gone on to do music, art TV, now my school's going okay how can we invest in that because sometimes normally the government go, all right, if that young person's going on to do that, how can we get more young people to get in to do that?

45:45If you had to give up food or music? Oh, bro, come on, G. What would you give up? That's like saying, shoot your wife or your mum.

45:57I think your mum would have something to say about that. No, that's a bad example. No, I would say, oh, food or music, bruv. Food or music. Obviously food, like, man will die, innit? Yeah, but you will survive. Well then music I will also die as well I'll give up What gives you more pleasure? Music What gives you more pleasure? I'll be real

46:22So tough bro I would say Food Gives me more pleasure Really? Only cause yeah Like I love music My life is music But like Food is like I would travel for food Like I would go To the random corners of the world just to eat, bro. I go on holiday for food. I don't go on holiday for beach, views, tourism. I don't care about the attractions. Like when I went to Rome, yeah, great. Yeah, there's mad. Oh, yeah, there's mad things here. Coliseum. Like, oh, my God, that building's so mad. I don't care. I want to eat pizza. Food's good. Food is banging. People like to me, people like to me, Rome hasn't got good food.

47:06I'm like, well, you just don't know how to go on TripAdvisor properly, do you? Like, there is banging food in Rome, bruv. I listened to a story of yours that growing up, your mum wouldn't change the food that she cooked. Yeah, all the time. Same thing. Same thing all the time. So you then had to go and cook some pasta. Yes. What happened? So my mum, obviously, being an African lady, you know, when she first came to England, she was just used to her same dishes that she grew up cooking all the time. and what she used to do was like sometimes when she couldn't be able to cook she would buy tortellini just to like pull it in the fridge like because it says like you just boil it heat up the tomato sauce in the microwave bam but she used to boil the tortellini for 10 minutes because obviously it's fresh pasta but she boiled it like it was dry pasta she didn't know the difference so one day when my mum was pregnant I boiled the pasta and I read the packet it said boil for 2 minutes so I boiled it for 2 minutes and then I gave it to my mum and I was like, yuck, this is not cooked.

48:09She's like, zoo, it's raw. I took the packet out of the bin. I said, mum, look. It says, boil for two minutes. She said, oh, okay, maybe you're right. And then I remember just that feeling of like proving my mum wrong was like the greatest feeling in the world. And then I fell in love with pasta. I fell in love with like al dente and boiling and like fresh pasta, dry pasta, sauces. like then I'd like and then I'd like learn how to make a tomato sauce then I learned how to make a bechamel then I learned how to make lasagna then you learn how to make spaghetti and then you learn how to make this and that and apparently your macaroni cheese will destroy your life it will destroy your head top how good is it?

48:51ah bro give it to me actually how good is it? like we can call people we can FaceTime people I've got people that I like that just want to come to my house and have macaroni cheese that's all they care about They don't want anything but Mac. My Mac. The thing is, it's about the roux. I make the bechamel with love. Yeah, yeah. I whip it. Look at this wrist action, yeah? I whip it with love. You can't make a roux with a whisk. You can't make a bechamel with a whisk because then it will be lumpy. So I make it with a wooden spoon. I make it with good butter, good flour, a lot of milk. Sometimes you can boil the milk with like cloves and black peppercorns and bay leaf and onion.

49:33I don't give a shit about any of that. Just boil the milk. Make the milk hot. You don't have to make it hot. It's fine. You can do what you want. But then, it's about how you season that bechamel. A lot of paprika. A lot of hot sauce. You have to have hot sauce. Because the hot sauce, the vinegaryness cuts through the saltiness of the cheese. Then you have to have mustard. Hella mustard. Like stupid amount of mustard. A lot of black pepper. A lot of white pepper. And then every version of cheese that you love. I do four cheeses. White pepper? Yeah, white pepper. Whoa, get out of here. Yeah, white pepper.

50:03That's rare, no? White pepper's length. White pepper? Yeah. White pepper, bro. White pepper's important. Why? It's the same as black pepper, no? No, it's not, bro. Come on, bro. It's pink Himalayan salt, the same as table salt. No. They're different salts. Different flavours, brother. Like paprika and smoked paprika. Different papricas. sorry I'm gonna be angry at you I was gonna fuck you up I love you so vexed no honestly white pepper bro it's unbelievable white pepper onion powder garlic powder there you go

50:45your cousin is AJ Tracy AJ Tracy yes let's go we was at a show yesterday his London headline AJ's doing all these small like intimate shows so like it's like not Like he's so used to doing like big, massive, massive arenas and shit. So like we've gone back to like the essence. And yesterday was amazing. Do you love it when you see, it must be amazing when you see your friends and yourself, you know, especially as we talk about the background you come from, like having the success. Yeah, it's mad. It's mad. Like AJ, seeing AJ do well kind of inspired me to want to do well. And then now the place that he's in, He's one of the most important rappers of the UK scene.

51:28One of the most successful independent artists to ever come out of England. He's my friend. He's my brother. He's my cousin. He's someone that I grew up just respecting. And now we were able to kind of like share this joy, you know, because me and him, we have a show coming out on Sky this month called Rich Flavors, which is going to be sick. And like... What happens in Rich Flavors? It's just me and him eating really expensive food and just taking the piss out of it. And then I cook my version of it. So we went to Korea. We did a bit in Scotland and we did New York as well. And like, we just tried all this.

52:05Love that, man. Yeah, mad. It's on Sky. It's coming out soon. And it's just like mad. Just me and him eating crazy shit, like eating the most expensive hanwoo beef in Korea because they don't do wagyu. Because, you know, Korea and Japan is very big beef. See what I did there? I like what you did there. Thank you very much. so we had some hanwu we had some ginseng then we went to Scotland we had the most expensive haggis in New York we had the most expensive slice of pizza it's just our view on like really expensive food Can I ask you when do you ever get nervous? Do you know what's weird? I didn't get nervous for a long time for a long time because a lot of times I was always within my work I just kept on doing madder things madder things madder things and every time I realised the more you embrace the better you do so maybe at the start of my career when I first started hosting and first started presenting I was a little bit nervous when I did like a radio show or something but then for a long time I wasn't nervous but you know what going back on this tour with AJ I was a little bit nervous on stage I was like damn because I haven't performed in so long I was like this is like what I used to do all the time but I've gone into telly world and I'm so used to like are you ready guys ready yeah hi welcome I'm Big Zoo whereas that was like there's no freestyle it's looking at you yeah yeah yeah that's pure entertainment yeah and it was like I was a little bit nervous I was like ah and then I kind of like messed up some of the songs but like it was fine I got on with it but like it was good to feel nervous I haven't felt nervous in years man I felt like do you know what's mad I remember when I first started doing like panel shows and talk shows like you know like Graham Norton Jonathan Ross all them ting there when I first first first went on those things I was a little bit nervous but then you realise like rah this is just a big like this is just like we're just chatting shit it's about who can track the most shit and get it on camera like it's like a battle it's like a rap battle it is like a rap battle like if you stay quiet if you stay quiet you will not get a chance so you have to be in it and I'm so loud so over the top so like when I started going on those shows I realised like this is sick man this is dope I'm able to have better fun so for a couple of years in telly I've been really comfy but like I remember I just sat in that takeaway I was the guest announcer and I didn't know they're like in the corner we've got a big zoo and then I had to say my bit and I remember doing it and I'm just like what am I doing bro like what what is life what is yo bro I put my hands in the air like this and my armpits are sweaty and then one of the producers sent a note zoo can you not put your arms up again because we can see you're sweaty and I was like obviously I'm fucking sweaty bruv might as well Saturday night takeaway blud okay big question for you yeah go on what are you insecure about ooh I don't know I think sometimes I'm insecure about how loud and boitous I am sometimes I feel like sometimes that gets used against me I feel like I feel like sometimes people are like you're so loud that's why you just shout all the time or you're just and I feel like sometimes that makes me feel like rah should I should I be quiet then but then I can't because my brain doesn't let me like I'll probably think I'll be like mindful like you know okay let me chill out let me not talk too much let me but then like I've got ADHD bro like I like sometimes I can't control it and like I remember I'll do shows sometimes I'll like get do like I'll do like Saturday kitchen or Sunday brunch and I'll get like a tweet that says like that big zoo guy didn't understand him all he was doing was shouting slang and I'm like brother like sorry innit because that's who you are you're just being authentic to you yeah but then sometimes it makes me go like obviously don't get twisted like if you read if you read every negative comment, you're going to lose your mind.

55:48But sometimes, like, you're human, isn't it? Do they ever get to you? Yeah, sometimes. Maybe. What kind of comments will you get to you? Stuff like that, like, oh, this guy, sometimes I get things like, oh, this guy's only here to tick a box, or who's this random brother they got from the street on the show, like, shit like that. Don't get me wrong. I definitely believe in myself and I know why I'm here. But sometimes, you know, when I was younger, when I first started getting those, I've gone from, like, music where I'm celebrated for who I am, celebrated for my difference and respected as an artist.

56:21To go into telly where it's like, I kind of had to earn my stripes again. So when I first got into telly, there were times I was getting comments and I'm like, brother, like, and I can't reply, you know? Whereas in music, like, I can. I send a war dub to your head. You know what I'm saying? Like, I come from grime where, you know, it's a bit more like, if a fan talks shit, like, I can tell them to shut up. But in TV, can't do that. I want to ask you one more thing, Zoo. Talk about your faith. Oh, man. It's been interesting, bro, because I wasn't really open about being a Muslim and stuff. People knew I was Muslim, but I never really spoke about it.

56:59But then I did this doc called Big Zoo Goes to Mecca, and it kind of changed my life. I'm not the most religious person in the world. I don't practice Islam every day. I am very like I am pious I believe in God a lot and I don't know man it's been it's been tough because I feel like I represent Muslims in the media my name's Zaheer I have a beard like it's clear isn't it I'm one of them I'm one of you but I also come from music which is also considered haram like music is not allowed in certain aspects explain that to someone who's naive so in to people haram means not allowed basically essentially yeah it was forbidden so music is considered to be haram why because because there's so many teachings and things about it yeah I can't get into it too tough because I'll probably get like I'll probably get someone just giving me a lecture which I don't need right now but no but it's fine I'm not worried what I will say is there's passages in the Quran that say anything that takes you away from Islam is haram, essentially.

58:12So things that distract you. But then there's also things in music that obviously promote negativity. That's also the haramness in it. So there are forms of music that are halal, which are allowed. So basically anything that distracts you away from the Quran is haram. Yes, essentially, yeah. So it's quite a fundamental way you have to lead a life. Yeah, because the Quran is about interpretation. So the words of Allah, which is the Quran, is what we live our life as Muslims. But then you have like, you have like hadiths, which are like stories that come from those times after. And those are your interpretation as well.

58:52So someone can interpret that thing and say, well, you can't watch TV then. Because that's distracting you from the words of Allah. That's distracting you from your faith. Do you sometimes get conflicted then where you, now that you've done this show and you went to Mecca, which is amazing. and you sort of opened yourself up more and understood the faith more, do you then sometimes get conflicting of how you're meant to be? I think, nah, because I'm always, like, one thing I definitely know is that I can't change how I am. Like, I can, like, grow and become better, but, like, I am who I am. Like, when I get home, like, sometimes you have all these thoughts about what you want to do and then you wake up and you just go straight back to what you're going to do.

59:27Like, no, I'm not going to eat that food ever again. I'm going to stop smoking. I'm going to stop drinking. I'm going to do this. And then you wake up tomorrow and just have a cigarette and have a glass of wine. So, you know, sometimes you really want to change, but you are who you are. And I feel like with me and Islam is that I've gone on this journey to try and become a better Muslim, but I fundamentally, and I come from, I'm a grime MC. Like I spit bars that I grew up smoking weed and drinking alcohol and talking to women, all things that are very haram, but I own those things. And one thing about Islam is that it's about repenting and how God is merciful and how it's about how we're humans.

1:00:08We have our flaws. All monotheism is around that same thing that all God wants is worship and our praise for making us. And in that, he knows what we are. He knows, he gave us these things that make us bad. Like they just come from the ground, like from the sky. Everything we have on this earth, if you believe in God, it comes from God. So, well, humans have free will to decide what they want to do. So it's kind of like, we're always going to make mistakes. We are flawed. But as long as your intention is pure and you want to change, you want to be a good person, I feel like God will look past that.

1:00:51So then if God will look past that, then you can't really care what people think about you. Do you know what? I grew up, at my school, we had to go to church pretty much every night. I had church on Sundays. And because of that, I kind of like went away from it. yeah but but now i think i think some sort of faith is really important yeah definitely and what i do now is like every evening and morning i pray don't know who i'm praying to because i don't know what i quite believe in yet but i pray for thanks and i'm grateful and that has definitely changed my life 100 it makes you more grateful it makes you more thankful it makes you sort of help with understanding about like everything perhaps happens for a reason whatever it is it was kind of changing my life a little bit I mean faith is beautiful bro and I feel like some people overuse it and there's a difference between like religion and culture and that's the main thing people have to realise is that what's in the book and what is taught that's different to what you grew up with so if culturally you have these ideologies that I don't have doesn't mean that I'm a bad person because I don't follow what you think is right in your faith.

1:02:03Yeah. Because that's what you grew up with. I always say this, like, there's one thing I always say, yeah, there are different types of Muslims, there are different types of Christians, there are different types of Jewish people, there's different types of Buddhist people, there's different types of every religion. But if God made us all, then they didn't have a choice, innit? I didn't have a choice if I was born here and I have this ideology because I'm from this place. This is what we think. So I can't judge you for having those thoughts in terms of like, I can't, you're not, You're not a lesser of a human being because you think this or you think that.

1:02:35Same way I might follow my faith in this in one specific way. You're not better than me because you follow it in that way. Because you was born there. That's how you was raised. So someone's born in a random village and there's no religion. Does that mean they're going to hell? Because they don't praise God. No, because they're born in that random village. They don't know about God there. So you can't... You can't, I'm just very open about the fact that I believe everyone has a right to believe whatever they want to believe in. And if you were raised in a certain type of way, that's how you are.

1:03:09If you're an evil person and you believe in fucking mad shit, then obviously I'm allowed to judge you and say, yo, bro, you're a bit fucked up. But if you understand the roots of people's thoughts, it always comes from what they're raised around. And if I was raised in a certain way, you have to respect that. Same if you're raised in a certain way. same way you're you know you're saying you were told to go to church all the time and you kind of strayed from it but now you've gone back to being faithful in a specific way you don't know being faithful to but you know that you're showing love and you know that you're praying towards goodness someone that's super religious might turn around and say nope that don't count I don't care you're wrong you need to pray this way you should pray in this direction shut up bruv it's quite deep isn't it I freaking love that man can I say I like enjoyed this has been insane it's been deep I really liked I liked everything about this conversation I really appreciate it Likewise bro I got final quick fire questions Yeah go on that you can just fire if you ready for this Yeah go on What's a saying or phrase that always makes you smile or cheers you up?

1:04:07Oh Bamba clock

1:04:12Best compliment anyone's ever given you? Oh that's deep I would say anytime someone compliments my energy bro anytime just you you got good energy bro You got great energy Thank you what scares you most about yourself oh my mouth that sounds quite dirty nah joking nah my mouth bro I talk a lot sometimes I need to shut up when was the last time you cried and why I watched that clip of Pursuit of Happiness the clip on Twitter in my bed it just came up like you know sometimes you have like TikToks of like two minute moments from films that's the new thing now apparently and I was watching that and it made me getting emotional now goosebumps what's something you can't let go of old clothes that have memories attached to them good shout out my house is fucked bro good shout out what's your guilty pleasure sweets 100 % what turns you off oh being rude to random people like to like waiters and stuff people like dismissive to anyone that is like a service industry hate that shit what turns you on oh love people who are like loving and caring and like like just do stuff out of like just because they they've got good intentions what do you like most about yourself uh apart from my dashing good looks I would say I love my openness I'm open man I don't judge bro I mean sometimes I might do by accident and I feel bad when I do but I respect anyone from any walk of life whoever you are whatever you do I don't care bruv love final one your favourite swear word oh what is my favourite swear word I don't know oh I don't know oh there's so many there's so many that are great shout one out I'll probably say prick prick do you know I like prick because it's like it's actually not that bad it's actually not that bad I gave my finger a little prick but then if you say it in a you prick it's actually really bad see you're brilliant it's been amazing thank you so much baby I appreciate it all right blessings lovely

1:06:34lovely guy yeah give it to me what do you think the energy immediately walks through the door he overslept he did he overslept and the funny thing about him oversleeping was that he didn't lie but he just said sorry overslept I did that once and I got told off I turned up to work and I was like oh sorry I'm late just couldn't get out of bed and they were like that is not an excuse I was like but I just couldn't I was just so I just kept snoozing I quite like it actually I did that this morning did you I knew 8.30 was a number I needed to to go and I didn't realise in my head I got confused I thought 8.30 was the time I needed to wake up and 8.30 was the time I needed to leave but I like the honesty from you and him it's a good thing it's a good thing so immediately when he walked in I was like we're friends yeah he's great so a big shout out to Big Zoo Thank you so much for coming on.

1:07:21Hey, to you guys, remember also, if you enjoyed the episode, please subscribe and share it with everyone. We're also on social media at Great Company Podcast on YouTube. And also you can send us an email, greatcompany at jampoproductions.co.uk. Beautifully done. Thank you very much. We're going to see you next Wednesday for another episode of Great Company.

1:08:19We'll see you next time. or near you. Warning, this product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical. This episode is brought to you by Huggies Little Movers. It's fun having a baby that loves to move, but it can be challenging to find a diaper that can keep up with them. Huggies Little Movers is designed to move with your baby with either the double grip strips or the new HugFit 360 degree waistband. You can be confident relying on Huggies Little Movers for your active little ones. Huggies Little Movers made with double grip strips or the new Hug Fit 360 degree waistband so your little double can keep moving like you.

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1:09:34Becoming parents. Yeah, that's right. Newlyweds is now Nearly Parents. and we're bringing you the same honest, heartwarming takes on our journey to parenthood, I guess. Join us as we find out what it really means to become a family while trying not to kill each other. Get ready for Nearly Parent, your favourite new podcast.