Louise’s Dad Reacts to THAT Made in Chelsea Scene for the First Time EVER

0:01Mike Thompson: That's the sound of a big deal. At Wayfair, that sound happens a lot. Dream sofa for half the price? Big deal. New dining table you've been eyeing for months? Big deal. Finally, picking up those last few pieces and finishing that bedroom? Now that's a really big deal. Whatever your home needs, Wayfair has the selection, the savings, and over millions of five-star reviews to back it up. Shop wayfair.com today before someone else snags your big deal.

0:27Louise: Wayfair, every style, every home So this is basically the area where we're going to sit Are you? Are you? We've actually gone, we've searched far and wide Well I'd like to trip over the world To try and find you the least comfortable chair possible Me? Yeah because you Me? Because you can't sit soft

0:53Mike Thompson: I can't do what?

0:54Louise: Can't sit soft What a bear

0:56Mike Thompson: What would you prefer, Mike? I don't care, really. Oh, this is a turn out for the books. Well, I don't care where I sit.

1:04Louise: Have you ever listened to a podcast before? No. Do you know what a podcast is?

1:08Mike Thompson: It's not the faintest idea, no.

1:11Louise: If people with so much time on their hands,

1:13Mike Thompson: they don't know what the fuck else to do with their lives. It's only pretty basic. Max has this thing up at lunchtime. It drives me insane. It's called Loose Women. I'm trying to do something at the desk Usually trying to do the racing for the afternoon And this bloody thing with these women I mean I love women but I've got them drivel at all Come to see Sam gets invited on that doesn't he You know your son is Good luck with that one

1:43Louise: We've only done it once Sam's a regular on Loose Men It's so Sam

1:47Mike Thompson: There's a Loose Men is that

1:48Louise: There's a Loose Men I know

1:50Mike Thompson: I better get on there after this you'll be invited up

1:54Louise: if it goes well today maybe we're so happy to have you on the podcast because you

2:02Mike Thompson: yeah there's one way traffic you

2:05Louise: you probably you would definitely have no idea given that you've never listened to a podcast in your life but we talk about you we actually talk about you all the time because you're such an icon

2:14Mike Thompson: you must be very short of subjects

2:18Louise: you're just an enigma What does that mean? Well, just slightly unusual You are the least relatable person that I've ever met And our audience are fascinated by some of the things that you do

2:36Mike Thompson: You mean post-cateract, walking across a room wearing women's sunglasses?

2:42Louise: I would love to know why

2:45Mike Thompson: What do you want to know then?

2:46Louise: I've got so many questions Let me talk you through it We have so many questions for you that I can't continue my excitement. First of all, so I did share a video online of you with your wallet. Have you ever owned a wallet in your life?

2:59Mike Thompson: Never.

3:00Louise: Can I ask why?

3:01Mike Thompson: Actually, I did once own a wallet. I won one on one of those grab things at Hastings Pier when I was about ten. You know those things you put in and they grab the thing. Nothing ever comes, it drops out. Well, actually, I did win this. It was a fake plastic crocodile wallet. With the Velcro as you open it. I didn't have Velcro in those days. We're talking 1959 now. Velcro hadn't been invented. I don't carry a lot of other things around with me. Most people in wallets have their whole life story there, don't they? I don't. I just have a debit card or whatever and the cash, and that's the end of it.

3:34Mike Thompson: No photos of Leo in there. No, but I've got lots of them at home, so I like to see them. I don't need them when I'm out and about. So how do you make that wallet out of interest whilst we're talking about this? Because all I'm seeing is duct tape. What's it duct tape? What's around it? Now you've got a wallet. But what's around it? 50s. 50s?

3:56Mike Thompson: A nice nestle of 50s. Look at that. Look at that. Anyway, so what's that bit? Yeah, and I've got an Oyster card. That's called travelling on the tube, by the way. You wouldn't know about that. No, no, no. That's living with the great unwashed, OK?

4:12Louise: Is that because you've got the old people's card?

4:14Mike Thompson: Yes, I've got that, the old, yeah. Does that mean you ride the tube for free? No, no, no, I pay. But it's a third of the price? No, no, I just pay. The old Gitz card is the one which I have for long distance travel. The old Gitz card. You must have seen such a massive amount of change in London. Or the world, actually. I will say I've lived the golden years. I mean, I missed the Second World War and then grew up with all the prosperity that came from sort of kind of 1950 onwards. Yeah. You know, at various points, obviously. And you've always lived in London, haven't you? Well, I'm a South London boy, really.

4:49Mike Thompson: Support Crystal Palace in my heart. Big up, Palace.

4:55Louise: A few of the other quirks that people have really enjoyed, sort of when I shared them online. So one thing is... Tell me more idiotic stuff. No, no, no, not idiotic. I've noticed a similarity between you and Sam.

5:11Mike Thompson: I hope so, he's my son.

5:16Louise: Both You better ask Karen that But wait A lot of my friends now say that you look really alike Well he looks like me Well he looks like you But you are 76 and he's only 33 So I don't know what that suggests You both hate having your neck touched

5:32Mike Thompson: And my dad's like that as well Oh is he? I'm not keen on being touched much Anyway

5:39Louise: Yeah yeah

5:40Mike Thompson: That sounds right I've not been stroked by women in the day. On the odd occasion, I got lucky.

5:50Louise: But like just strangers. So like if a stranger is sort of like coming around trying to give you a hug.

5:54Mike Thompson: Oh, no, not keen on that at all. It stops at a handshake, you know. Oh, no, listen, I'll give somebody a hug. I won't say hello, but I tend to, obviously I know them.

6:02Louise: But only people that you really like. So like I warrant a hug. To be fair, actually, I think I remember watching Ryan try to give you a hug for the first time. Oh, we've had a couple of awkward hugs. Even now it's actually quite funny. No, no, no. I'm easy with that. I'm not really a hugger with a bloke.

6:15Mike Thompson: I'm easy with that with your dad. I'm easy with, you know, family. And also people I know. You know, no, I'm easy with that. But I don't like being touched by strange people, put it that way.

6:26Louise: No.

6:26Mike Thompson: Not wild about that at all.

6:28Louise: I think I'm a bit too polite.

6:30Mike Thompson: On the subject of tactile, though, I feel like you've softened up a lot with Leo. You're a lot more tactile with Leo these days than I... Well, yeah, but you've got to understand, I've never had a grandchild before, have I? I mean, you know, about my age, most people have had half a dozen of them or whatever. When you arrived, I feel like you... It's the fear of dropping or something. Is that what it is? Oh, yeah. It's the fear of hurting the little fellow or whatever, you know, because, you know, he wriggles around and all that sort of stuff. You know, that's why, you know, whenever he's sitting up on your sideboard in the kitchen.

7:01Mike Thompson: Yeah, you get terrified, yeah. Oh, yeah. Because, you know, he could just... And he stands on there sometimes. I think, crikey, if he takes a flyer now, you know. Yeah.

7:09Louise: I do just want to talk about the cleanliness quirk.

7:14Mike Thompson: What, my cleanliness is a bit sketchy, I mean.

7:16Louise: No, no, no. Well, no, I actually, I think it's... The opposite. I think it's actually, I think it's a good thing. But there was a time when...

7:24Mike Thompson: The cleanest man in London, I think.

7:24Louise: You are actually the cleanest man in London. And when you were... I wouldn't say that.

7:28Mike Thompson: I can move in.

7:29Louise: You know, Pete has a shower before he has a bath. He'll have like a shower, a bath, a shower and a bath. You will wash... You'll sometimes don't look like that because you've done weird things like that.

7:38Mike Thompson: I can get on board with that. You have done. I never have a bath unless I'm ill.

7:42Louise: Yeah, you don't have baths.

7:42Mike Thompson: But I shower two, three times a day. Twice a day, certainly. Morning and evening.

7:47Louise: What's not okay about a bath?

7:49Mike Thompson: Well, you're wallowing on your own scum, aren't you? I mean, why wallow on your own shit? The idea of a shower is it goes off you and down the plug hole. You would be like that, Louise.

7:59Louise: To be fair, a bath is just so, like, such a waste of time. Not this one.

8:04Mike Thompson: Max is floating around the bath permanently.

8:06Louise: I know, she's always banging on a bath.

8:07Mike Thompson: I know, I know. I find it a bit boring. All right.

8:10Louise: And also, actually, when I have a bath, and I saw someone else talk about this not that long ago, I can sit in a bath while it's running, and I can enjoy it, and I like the sound of the bath running. The moment that it's full up, I'm like, well, that's my time to get out. It's so boring. So then I have to let a bit more water out of the plug, and then I have to keep running it again. Keep topping up with hot water. I can just keep topping it up, because the moment that it's quiet in the room, and I'm just alone with my thoughts in that bath. Oh, my God, that dish is layered.

8:36Mike Thompson: I could go deep into this.

8:37Louise: I'm like, I just need to get out. It's time to go and busy myself for something else.

8:41Mike Thompson: When I first met Louise, she would tell me two things. She would say, when I was growing up with my dad, we would have five roasts a week.

8:47Louise: Which is amazing.

8:48Mike Thompson: She'd put in this picture that you were doing partridges as like a side to your roast pork and your Jago sausages. Now I know it's true.

8:57Louise: It was a bit like that episode in Come Time with me where the guy cooks a bird within a bird within a bird. They'd be like, oh, here, like a 12-year-old would be offered a whole partridge with five sausages and ten varieties of vegetables to fatten up. And I think I had my first steak at about four. To be fair, Leo's been eating steak since two. It's no wonder I've got gut issues.

9:22Mike Thompson: I'm a bit of a carnivore.

9:24Louise: You are the healthiest 76-year-old that I know.

9:26Mike Thompson: I wouldn't say that. You are. I've got some form.

9:29Louise: Your bag is a bit like a Mary Poppins bag. So you did mention earlier. What bag is that? You're always carrying a bag. It used to be a Marbury bag. Now it's basically just a big plastic bag. Any old bag. Any old bag. So whilst you don't have a wallet, because that's kind of impractical and gets in the way of you in the 50s. But the bag of Trix has got like 100 folders in it. I don't know why you would ever need that many bits of paper. Probably not. But you also always have something else in the bag. And we've actually got that thing here. So when you came to the O2, it won't be a shock to you.

10:03Louise: This is something you see in your fridge every day. Oh, right. When you came to the O2, you sort of handed over... What was a bottle of gin or something, was it?

10:09Mike Thompson: Keep guessing, keep guessing.

10:10Louise: What?

10:12Mike Thompson: Oh, quail's eggs. Quail's eggs.

10:13Louise: Yes.

10:13Mike Thompson: Were they in the bag at the O2?

10:15Louise: Yes. Oh, that's a mistake, though. And you peeled them. No, no, no. When you came to the O2, you had bags and bags of quail's eggs.

10:22Mike Thompson: Salmon Pete show at the O2, you travelled across... Yeah, I know. I remember all that, obviously. With 24 peeled quail's eggs. Yeah. Oh, they're not like that. They've been done and ready to go, were they? Yeah, which is very kind of you. Yeah.

10:32Louise: But anyway, I just thought, like...

10:33Mike Thompson: Well, there must have been a reason for it. I must have told we were going into this room and we were able to have them. Oh, yes, yeah. We thought it would be good snacking options.

10:41Louise: We were there with Pete's mum and family, so it was actually, it was polite of you. Right. But to be fair, like, it is, in fact, I actually think it's one of the things that I love about you the most is that you are so generous, especially when it comes to food.

10:54Mike Thompson: True.

10:54Louise: It's actually one of your, it's one of the things that will be on your... One of the rare treats. One of the things that, it will be on your gravestone. Like, very generous man, very into food. But anyway, yeah, these were just...

11:04Mike Thompson: What dates on those? Well, there's the next thing. These are from the O2, are they? You're the only person in the world who would go to an event with eggs as the snack. Most people would arrive with nuts and crisps or chocolate. No, no, there's quail eggs. But it's so sophisticated.

11:20Louise: I know. So when we travel to Antigua on the plane... I love it. I'm not complaining.

11:24Mike Thompson: I love it. It's amazing.

11:25Louise: I love it. I would like 24 quail's eggs for the flight to Antigua just so we can really upset people.

11:32Mike Thompson: But you'll want me to bring the celery salt, presumably, as well.

11:35Louise: Yeah, if you could bring that in your Mary Poppins bag, that would be stunning. You're actually quite a domesticated man. Quite? You're a very domesticated man. There are many women out there who... Well, I can't stand sloppiness. Yeah.

11:48Mike Thompson: Hate sloppiness. But I was brought up in a disciplined world, you know. We got disciplined, I mean, you know, but it held us in good stead for the rest of our lives.

11:55Louise: What was the discipline like?

11:57Mike Thompson: Harsh.

11:58Louise: Did you ever get slapped?

12:00Mike Thompson: Snapped. I got beaten virtually every night at prep school because I was ragging and taking the piss and enjoying myself and beating up the kids in the other dorms. Is this like the era of the cane? Well, it was a cricket bat actually in those days, a small cricket bat. Slightly worse. Bang.

12:14Louise: On your bum or on your necks? On your arse, yeah.

12:16Mike Thompson: And I gave up three or four times a week, you know. You still remember his name? Oh, God, yes. But when you look back at that now, do you think,

12:23Louise: well, that was kind of just the making of me, so you don't feel too much resentment for it? Absolutely.

12:27Mike Thompson: No, I have no resentment.

12:28Louise: Do you think? None whatsoever.

12:30Mike Thompson: When I was at public school, I got beaten a lot. But, I mean, that was much more severe. I mean, that was what you were talking about, a bamboo cane. And you put your head under the table and your hands on top. And you already had these wretched nylon pyjamas around you. That's all you had. And what happened was the bloke ran at you, okay, and you could see him coming from between your legs. And then the cane, it wouldn't, it's not on your arse there. It whips right round, round your stomach here. So it comes up like that and round, and you get six bloody great strokes across here, around here, down by your lower intestine, shall we say, as much as your backside.

13:12Mike Thompson: Bloody hell. But listen, if you don't like it, don't do the things that mean you're up for it. You know what I mean? I mean, you know what you're doing. It's no good moaning after the event, is it? What kind of thing would you do?

13:29Louise: that would warrant one of them?

13:31Mike Thompson: Oh, just too many bad things within a fortnight. You know what I mean? Bad things like what, though? Oh, I don't know, stupid little things that happen at school. Stealing, like food? No, not stealing. Swearing? Being too late for talking when you're not going to be talking or doing something in the, I don't know, leaving clothes out in the dressing room and the changing rooms or anything. I mean, small things. Just tidiness. Anything. And if you've got more than so many in a fortnight, you're then up for a beating.

13:58Louise: Do you think that that's quite young?

14:00Mike Thompson: No, I don't at all. It's not young enough.

14:02Louise: So wait, because Leo's already nearly four. Sorry, he is four. Oh, my gosh.

14:07Mike Thompson: You can start with the simple things, can't you?

14:09Louise: Well, no, I think he's quite disciplined. But the idea of sending him to boarding school at eight when he's about this tall is quite a lot.

14:17Mike Thompson: But you have to understand it's a whole different psycho now. You've got to remember, my parents went through a war. When you've been through those sort of things, I mean, I was highly privileged to get the... of the education I had, in my opinion. But what they had been through and the lack of things that they had that they then thought they could actually give to their children. I mean, you've got to remember that things were pretty bleak for them. I mean, you know, you...

14:43Louise: Do you think people have become a little weak?

14:47Mike Thompson: Soft. We always took responsibility for our actions, okay? Nobody takes responsibility for anything now. They just sort of... But we had to take responsibility for everything we did.

14:56Louise: Everything, you know.

14:59Mike Thompson: I'd actually agree with that. We're very privileged now that we live, like, very comfortable lives. Well, but are you? You are in some ways and not in others.

15:08Louise: Okay, so an example of being privileged then is if I'd gone through my childbirth experience even 50-odd years ago, or definitely 100 years ago, I wouldn't have survived.

15:19Mike Thompson: Oh, no, no, but you're not really talking about sort of personalised things I'm talking about. You're talking about how medicine's improved and health and lots of other things have improved. I mean, you know, look at a car, for example, today as opposed to a car back in the 50s or even before. You know, obviously things have moved on. All those things, there's technology for you. That's all moved on. I'm not sure the technology right now is necessarily going in the right direction as it happens. But I mean, you know, that's a different story altogether. And I'm too old to really comment on it because I don't involve myself with it.

15:52Mike Thompson: Yeah.

15:52Louise: You're actually one of the people. So this actually feels like particularly rare because you are so off grid from all of that technology stuff. You are probably the last generation that hasn't had to get fully suckered into.

16:03Mike Thompson: Yeah, but I suffer as well, though, because if something goes wrong on the desktop, I don't even know how to change the thing. Like the bank saga. Exactly. I don't know how to change the thing on the top bar. You know, so to that extent, I have to call Max for the sake of, can you do that? And if she's not there, I'm stymied.

16:20Louise: Max is a bit like your guide dog. Like, we've got to give Max a lot of credit.

16:23Mike Thompson: Except she can see.

16:27Louise: Yeah, no, a guide dog can see, but you can't. But you have just had your cataract surgery, so now you can see. Yeah, crystal. For anyone that doesn't know Max, that is long-standing on it.

16:38Mike Thompson: We've been together. We met in 2000, and we've been together since 2001. So we've been together 25 years.

16:44Louise: But she... I am the old boo-o. Big up to Max. That's Spanish for owl. Sorry, sorry. You actually do look quite like that gal. but you are like a wise old owl and you and Max have been doing Duolingo so I'm kind of obsessed when we go somewhere in Spain which is your favourite place to travel to and we'll sit at a restaurant and you'll go quiero una cerveza por favor actually you don't even do the quiero you just go una cerveza por favor or la cuenta

17:12Mike Thompson: la cuenta por favor yeah I'm obsessed with it I've got quite a lot of questions I want to ask well I'll just stop you because it's something you said just now it was basically about discipline It's a Thompson problem. I see. I made certain to my world. I mean, you know, Louise and Sam were very lucky. They're still lucky now, but they were lucky as small children. But I made certain whatever they pulled out of that toy box every morning. They put it back. Oh, God, in the evening, it was like bombsite down there, okay? I'd say all that lot's going back in the truck before you do anything else. Well, I'm very much like that.

17:44Mike Thompson: I'm like that. I can't just, you know.

17:47Louise: Yeah, but I do think Sam's been a bit mollycoddled, but that probably came like slightly later in life.

17:52Mike Thompson: Were you equally as disciplined with both Sam and Louise? Well, they were very close in age. True. The answer to the question is yes. Yes. They would have been anyway. And who gave you more of a pushback on these things? What does that mean? As in like, Louise would be like, I'm not doing that. Piss off, Dad. Louis has always had more of a temper. No, more of a temper. Nothing's changed there. Nah.

18:13Louise: Oh my God, that's reminding me of the time that I slapped you at the Eiffel Tower. What?

18:16Mike Thompson: Yes. Slapped you. You didn't slap me. Gave me a smart left. hook to the arm. I'm so strong, guys. Because she's left-handed. Yes. And she went, because her left hook is what we would call a right hook, okay, for a right-handed person. Yes, thank you. That tends to be a stronger arm. Yes. She lands, 12 years old, lands this thing on my arm. What did you do? I had a sort of dead arm for about sort of three days, you know. What did you do to get that? No. I just, I said, well-handed. Very good. Good punch. Good punch. What happened before the punch? Oh, I'll tell you. Oh, because she was just angry.

18:49Mike Thompson: because I said, well, why don't we go up the Eiffel Tower? And she goes all the way. Oh, I don't know. She sort of got pissed off with it. I don't know whatever it was. I know why it was. No, this is very funny. We then get up the Eiffel Tower. I think we're walking up part of it. And to either the second stage or the first stage or whatever it was. And Sam involves himself in this ruck that was going on earlier. And she, Luby. Between you two, you mean. Luby then drags Sam and takes a whole fistful of hair out of his head. she turns on her brother that I remember very well yeah I'm standing there with an arm I can't feel Sam's there with half his hair in Luba's hair Lewis where do you get this little streak from oh blimey guys this hormone very much so very much so

19:38Louise: I actually remember why I did that just because I was scared of heights going up the eye for a chair and I couldn't communicate so I just laughed it was something an irritation I feel like I was permanently irritated. It wasn't heights.

19:50Mike Thompson: It was you were irritated about something. Like you often are.

19:55Louise: Oh, my God. It's all coming out.

19:58Mike Thompson: When Louise was unwell in hospital, we'd know when she'd get better, wouldn't we? She'd start complaining. Getting angry. And bossing people around in the room. Getting angry. Yeah. Getting angry.

20:06Louise: Did I do that?

20:07Mike Thompson: Yeah.

20:07Louise: But I was better behaved than Sam.

20:09Mike Thompson: No. What? No, you were about the same, really.

20:12Louise: I thought I was always the good child.

20:13Mike Thompson: No, no, you were just good mates. You were actually very good mates. All the way through their childhood, they got on nicely. Yeah, well, they went off to school at a certain age, but, I mean, yes, they were fine. I mean, the business at the Eiffel Tower was a real one-off. I mean, he had his hair tugged out. But, I mean, yeah, they got on tremendously together.

20:34Louise: I feel like Sam's actually so much again. I'm not just saying this.

20:37Mike Thompson: I mean, I have no memory of Sam and Lou not actually being very fond of each other and getting on very well together. Were they confident as kids? Yeah, were they?

20:45Louise: When you were growing up, you would have been allowed to probably play on your street.

20:49Mike Thompson: We did. With your friends, playing football for hours. Yeah, but there wasn't anything else. You played on the pavement out on the street because that's all there was, you know what I mean?

20:59Louise: But now people are wrapped in cotton wool and parents think that it's safer to keep their kids at home so then they're locked in their bedroom and they're gaming on a computer instead of out being social. And actually it's important for kids to be able to walk to the bus stop to get to school, walk to the playground. Well, we did all that. I did all that.

21:14Mike Thompson: And you're stoic. Between four and six, I walked down a road for at least a mile and a half to go to a pre-primary type school. At four? Yeah. Yeah, four to six. And I met another little fellow who lived in the next door street to me, and I'd pick him up and we'd head off down to school, and then on the way back, we would walk all the way out. But listen, there was a big main road that I had to cross before getting to his house, which was down the next street. And I actually, we learned, the very first thing we learned at the pre-primary school was the highway code. We learned it. We were A, B, C and the signs of the red, yellow and green for the highway code.

22:00Mike Thompson: We were taught before we could even read or write. Oh, yeah. And we walked around and I can remember having a row with him and throwing his cap over the hedge. I can remember that. How do you remember these things? Yeah, how can you remember?

22:11Louise: I can't remember being four. Yeah, but I can't remember yesterday. That sounds quite dangerous, obviously, in the world that we're living in now. Did you ever have any near misses? What's the closest that you've come to danger?

22:21Mike Thompson: I can remember my mother in the old Rover car that we had. And we had this little hill. It came out of the sort of main road. And our road sort of went up a sort of hill. And the car was spinning. And my mother said, you two, out the car. There's rags in the boot. So we went out of the boot, got the rags out. My brother and I, I must have been five, four, five, and Gerry would have been there for seven. And we're behind these spinning tyres at the back of the car, stuffing these rags under for my mother to get the traction on the back wheels of the car. She got the traction and shot off and never stopped.

22:56Mike Thompson: She just kept going. And we were just left in the middle of the road with the rags and snow, and we then walked all the way up the hill and to home. and we met her back at home. That's how it was, you see. That's what I mean, you see.

23:11Louise: God, I wish I had the products to do that.

23:12Mike Thompson: You get those sort of, you know. That's hilarious.

23:16Louise: We're far removed from that.

23:17Mike Thompson: Yeah, but the world's a different place. I wouldn't have my time again now. I wouldn't want to be in my 20s and 30s. As in this era now? Yeah, because I had so much fun in the era that I lived through.

23:29Louise: You also actually, didn't you like row in a little boat across the channel? Yeah. You've done so many weird things. You should write a book, actually.

23:36Mike Thompson: You should write a book.

23:36Louise: You should write a book for Leo. And then I could read the stories to him at bed at night time. So, Rowan mentioned earlier about us as children and who was better. And I'm actually quite offended by the fact that you said that me and Sam were the same level of behaviour. But anyway.

23:54Mike Thompson: Well, you were. Neither of you were sort of, you were a straight little.

23:58Louise: The school experience. I was a nerd, basically. I was a do-gooder. I like to do things well. but then we also I was thinking about the whole suspension situation

24:09Mike Thompson: of you when we were at school well I have his drag back from my bay come and pick you up and take you back to school you did it all in one afternoon yeah I left in the morning and I was back in time for dinner back on the beach at Fabio's in time for dinner

24:24Louise: that's not strict parenting well it is I basically got suspended for having a boy in my room which was really awkward oh I wouldn't say that Well, it was a little awkward. And neither of my parents were in the country to be able to pick me up.

24:38Mike Thompson: No, no, no, no, she picked you up and then announced that she was going off somewhere. I said, fine. I said, where are you? I said, well, I'm in Spain. So she said, well, do you mind, you know, looking at her? I said, yeah, all right. So I just flew back in the morning and got the taxi from Gatwick up to you, from you down to Newbury, Newbury back to Gatwick.

24:54Louise: So, but can I just... Well, I nearly got kicked out. Thankfully, the board of directors... Did you get suspended for that?

24:59Mike Thompson: That was a suspension.

25:00Louise: Yes. Apparently the board had to have a meeting. Couldn't do without the fees. And they couldn't do without the fees. I also got 3A. So it was really good for them that they did keep me. And actually I've since won an award at the school for my hard work campaigning.

25:13Mike Thompson: You've made the alumni.

25:14Louise: I've made the sort of alumni. I won an alumni award. What, when? Look, now it's interesting. No, no, just now. A couple of months ago, yeah. Oh, that's brilliant.

25:22Mike Thompson: That's magnificent because you certainly never got given an award or a thank you or a shake of the hand from the headmistress at the time, did you? I mean, go back to when you were 18. Did they not like Louise? She's still there. Love you.

25:33Louise: Love you.

25:34Mike Thompson: Who did they not like in this situation? Well, Daddy was a bit... Is this when you would arrive in the van? Oh, yeah, probably. Deliberately to wine. That's beforehand. Yeah, so he used to drive in a van.

25:46Louise: A lorry, a bit like we did the removals video in.

25:49Mike Thompson: No, no, it's all I had.

25:50Louise: He just had a lorry.

25:52Mike Thompson: Rough times.

25:53Louise: No, it wasn't rough. How did you go from having a Porsche to a lorry?

25:58Mike Thompson: Because it's called rough times.

25:59Louise: Was that a rough time?

26:00Mike Thompson: Well, I could have had another Porsche and you didn't go to the school you went to. It's like I gave up the Porsche and paid for your school fees.

26:06Louise: That's what happened. Well, thank you. Well, well done. Thank you.

26:10Mike Thompson: Oh, 30 years later. Well, thanks, darling. I have thought about writing your thank you letter. Very much accepted. Thank you very much. I'm glad it was, you know, but you didn't waste it.

26:19Louise: Yeah, me and Sam have done an interesting job of life.

26:23Mike Thompson: Did you ever have any predictions when they were growing up that they would be? No, nothing at all. No. Nothing at all. I didn't care what they did as long as they did something. That's all. Spent their day out there either looking for a job or getting a job or just doing. I mean, when Sam first started and he was washing dishes or he was doing, sweeping the floor up the place.

26:44Louise: Yeah, the pub, yeah.

26:44Mike Thompson: The pub there. He said, oh, I don't care. I think it's marvellous. Anything, because you're getting up in the morning and going somewhere and doing something. You know what I mean? Because he didn't go to university.

26:53Louise: That's all I care about. university probably would have been lost on him.

26:57Mike Thompson: Completely. Completely. Oh, I forget that. He didn't do university. No. So he never had that experience. Absolutely pointless.

27:03Louise: But everybody always knew, even from when he was really young, they'd say, like, his skill is in his...

27:08Mike Thompson: Gift of the gab.

27:09Louise: Yeah, the gift of the gab.

27:10Mike Thompson: No, but the other thing too is, I mean, you know, in my day, university was only for people who wanted to go either join the church or wanted to do scientists or something that required that type of thing. Nobody else went to university. Life was a university. You left at 16, 17, 18, and out you went and on you got. And that was the end of it.

27:30Louise: I actually can't believe I've never asked you this question before, ever. Have you ever watched Made in Chelsea before?

27:41Mike Thompson: That's the sound of a big deal. At Wayfair, that sound happens a lot. Dream sofa for half the price? Big deal. New dining table you've been eyeing for months? Big deal. Finally, picking up those last few pieces and finishing that bedroom? Now that's a really big deal. Whatever your home needs, Wayfair has the selection, the savings, and over millions of five-star reviews to back it up. Shop wayfair.com today before someone else snags your big deal. Wayfair, every style, every home. We live in a culture obsessed with dieting, weight loss, and exercise.

28:14Louise: And that can make eating disorder behaviors easy to miss.

28:17Mike Thompson: But the reality is, eating disorders are serious mental illnesses that take a major toll on your health and your life. But recovery is possible. Eating disorders are more common than you might think. Chances are you know someone who is struggling with one. Or maybe you're struggling yourself. If you're concerned about an eating disorder in yourself or a loved one, I want to introduce you to EQIP. EQIP is a fully virtual, evidence-based eating disorder treatment program that helps patients achieve lasting recovery at home. Every Equip patient is matched with a multidisciplinary care team that includes a therapist, dietician, medical provider, and mentors.

28:54Mike Thompson: And you get a personalized treatment plan that's tailored to your unique goals and challenges. Equip treats patients of all ages and all eating disorder diagnoses. It's covered by insurance and there's no wait list. If you think that you or a loved one could be struggling with an eating disorder, don't wait to get help. Visit Equip.Health to learn more. That's Equip.Health.

29:25No.

29:26Mike Thompson: Do you know that's the show Louise and Sam were on? Yes. Yeah. Good. Just checking. No, no, no, I know that. But I didn't really watch it because I was so much older. You know, most parents would be much younger than I was. So how old were you then? 21 or something? 24, 24? Something like that. Yeah, yeah, I was in my 20s.

29:44Louise: But you were 40 when you had me and then 42 when you had Sam, which is quite normal now, but back in the day it wasn't.

29:50Mike Thompson: And you've got to remember, if you were 24 doing that, most parents would be under 50 probably. So I wasn't. I was 60.

29:57Louise: Look, let's call a spade a spade. Regardless of your age, I don't think that you would have wanted or had an interest in watching it. Not really, no. Let's just be honest about it. No, no.

30:12Mike Thompson: No. You weren't worried about Louise going on the show? It's pretty tame stuff, isn't it? I don't know. Well, no, she got pretty worked over, didn't you? Did you?

30:21Louise: Well, I used to be called Tiers Thompson because I used to cry all the time because I'd always get cheated on and then dumped.

30:25Mike Thompson: Oh, toughen up.

30:26Louise: It did toughen me up.

30:28Mike Thompson: Yeah, good.

30:29Louise: And then I at least ended up with someone that was a good egg. Had many bad eggs. What did you actually think of some of my exes?

30:38Mike Thompson: I never really met them.

30:39Louise: Well, you took me quite a few.

30:41Mike Thompson: Who did I meet?

30:42Louise: You called one of them a mirror man because he looked in the mirror when he walked into your house.

30:45Mike Thompson: Who was that?

30:46Louise: Well, we're not going to say his name because that would be a bit mean.

30:49Mike Thompson: Yeah, but...

30:50Louise: And then there was Alec, the American.

30:54Mike Thompson: Well, I only remembered him because the dog kept shitting in the back garden and he wouldn't clear it up. Yes, that actually is bad manners. That's what I do remember.

31:03Louise: What, that massive dog he had? Yeah. He moved over here with his massive dog and there was no plan for the dog. It was not fair on the dog, to be fair. It wasn't. It wasn't nice in the talk. And did you ever meet Spencer?

31:16Mike Thompson: Yeah, but not really to talk to or anything. No, not really. How is this?

31:21Louise: How have you not?

31:22Mike Thompson: How is there not more?

31:24Louise: Well, I probably actually tried to keep him a bit of a secret.

31:27Mike Thompson: Really? I know, really.

31:28Louise: But you would turn up, which I actually now looking back, it's funny because I used to find you really embarrassing, but now I think that everything you do is just absolutely hilarious. But you would just, you would show up and just like unlock the door and be like, hello! And sometimes these boyfriends would just be in the house, but you actually wouldn't really have an interest in them. I did the same thing when I was your age.

31:52Mike Thompson: You're a grown-up, aren't you?

31:53Louise: It's kind of the same. He's checking the racing. But you still do it. Stop it.

32:02Louise: You are like Sam, because that's why Sam has to remove himself from a long conversation on lunch. You then have to check your phone, pick yourself back up.

32:10Mike Thompson: I always remember... when I was at prep school, one of the main things that came through on my report, difficult to keep his nose to the grindstone because I was always, you know... We're basically doomed with Leo. Right, Leo's doomed. Because I wasn't an academic and I was not interested in those sort of things particularly, my mind would wander. I'd still look at other things and I couldn't be bothered to listen to what they're talking about because I wasn't interested, you know.

32:34Louise: But that will be passed down the male gene then. Bad luck, Leo. And Leo's probably the same. well

32:41Mike Thompson: Leo's always a shot

32:42Louise: but do you see that you're diverting away from the main Chelsea conversation

32:45Mike Thompson: no no no really it's just I didn't have any part of it I didn't have any input did I so I mean well yeah it's true and you're grown up and I I rather get the impression that one shouldn't be what I call inveigling one's way into one's children's what they're doing and getting on because you know you can make your own mind up you know what you're doing right wrong or good or bad or whatever it might be I mean, listen, you asked me for advice. I'm there to give it to you. But, you know, I think in some ways it's better.

33:15Louise: I actually agree. I actually agree. I think that it's better for you not to watch it. And people that are out there, parents that are obsessed with their children, that would watch the whole thing, I actually find quite nauseating.

33:28Mike Thompson: Well, I love you both dearly, you know, all of the family. But I'm not obsessive. You know, I love people who have space. and you'll ring me if you want to have a chat, a hey daddy job, you know. When there's been bad news. No, no, not just that, want something. You know, but I'm not obsessed, I couldn't be obsessed with that. But my parents were never obsessed with me, they loved us. I hear you. Yeah, yeah.

33:53Louise: Yeah, and also actually it was all quite like personal awkward stuff, so you probably were like, I don't need to see my children muddling their way through that.

34:00Mike Thompson: Well, I mean, nobody saw me getting, I got more of the Spanish arch of Elbow with girls with my teenage years, you could throw a cat at, you know. I didn't expect my parents to be worrying about me whether on a Thursday night I was boo-hooing in a car because my favourite girl told me to piss off.

34:18Louise: Not a big boo-hooer. No. No. We're just going to get you to watch a couple of the clips from Made in Chelsea, some moments. So this is the most iconic scene in 25 seasons of Made in Chelsea. If I ask you what you've been up to...

34:32Mike Thompson: You know you call me about 90 times when I go out, Whenever I go out and you call me, where are you?

34:36Louise: Where are you? Where are you? Where are you? Where are you? Just leave me alone. Why the fuck would I want to be with someone like this? All you do is disrespect me again and again and again. Everything you do. Guess what?

34:45Mike Thompson: It's fucking hard to respect you when you allow me to cheat on you. Fuck. And you're going to go home off this and cry your fucking eyes out. And I hope you do.

34:53Louise: You know what? This is fucking over biggest relief.

34:56Mike Thompson: Right.

34:57Louise: It's actually a bit savage, isn't it? Not really. What?

35:01Mike Thompson: Not really, no. Wait, mate, you've got to explain this to me. Well, how does that not make you boil? Boil. Because it looks terribly... Oh, you think it's staged? Staged. It doesn't seem... It doesn't seem... What's the word? You know what I mean? When it's a spur of the moment. It doesn't seem spur of the moment in real life. I didn't watch it, but... It looks filmed.

35:21Louise: Really? Which is what it is.

35:23Mike Thompson: You know what I mean? Wait, no. Surely... What's your opinion? Surely you can see the emotion on Louise's face, which would suggest that it's real. No, really. I was thinking to myself how your voice has changed and how you got older and grown up. That's the first thing I noticed. Did you give him a left hook? Listen to it. Oh, I actually did. That's what it sounds like.

35:38Louise: I actually did give him a left hook, though. I actually missed the left hook. Oh, he had an Eiffel Tower moment, did he? He did. OK. So at least, are you proud of me for giving him a left hook?

35:49Mike Thompson: Bloody good. Did you land one on him? Did it connect? No, she missed. You missed. I fucking missed. You didn't miss with me.

35:56Louise: No, I know. Do you know what's annoying about me and Chelsea is you're forced to stand an uncomfortable distance away.

36:02Mike Thompson: Which you wouldn't.

36:02Louise: Which you wouldn't, and that's why it was obvious. It's too staged. Whereas we're having a chat and we're nice and close, but there would always be a marker on the floor. You'd be over there, I'd be over here. So I tried to fucking left hook him, and I couldn't get in there.

36:13Mike Thompson: No. No. Your little paws couldn't reach him.

36:16Louise: My paws couldn't.

36:16Mike Thompson: Right, well, yeah, you see, that's why it's staged, isn't it? Do you know what swilling is? Yeah, it's swilling a thing down the drain. Hasn't Sam been, like, swilled quite a few times on the show?

36:27Louise: Oh, God, that was kind of the iconic move.

36:28Mike Thompson: Has he ever been given the boat?

36:30Louise: What did you mean by given the Spanish archer? Elbow, like this. What's that, elbowed out?

36:35Mike Thompson: No, elbow is when somebody gives you the elbow. Oh, yeah, yeah. It's not a Spanish archer, elbow.

36:39Louise: Okay, oh. The man with the knee, elbow. So you were dumped quite a few times as well.

36:44Mike Thompson: Oh, I spent my whole life being dumped.

36:45Louise: Well, I do think - Even your mother.

36:50Mike Thompson: Boom.

36:51Louise: Oh, gosh.

36:53Mike Thompson: By default, obviously, I ended up doing the same show for almost three years. Right. I didn't understand how it worked at all. I didn't know that it was scripted or programmed or teed up. So I would only ever give my true response in situations. And the first time I met this American fellow that you met, who was shit in the garden, well, he wasn't shit in the garden. I ended up grabbing him by the throat and pinning him against the wall. I remember that. And I could understand that. But that wasn't, what I'm trying to get at is like, unless you say otherwise, that probably wasn't staged. Okay, let me try this again.

37:23Mike Thompson: When I watch that, it makes my blood boil because I think, oh, you heartless bastard. Yeah, but you are, Louise's partner which is slightly you're Louise's dad yes but yeah but it's I know Louise is not in real trouble put it that way how do you know that like I just know I need to go to the school with Mike Thompson I'll tell you why

37:43Louise: maybe because as an old 76 year old now 76 year old you know that in life you go through horrible conversations like that and you come out the other side stronger

37:52Mike Thompson: I need to harden up a bit

37:54Louise: Ryan's very sensitive

37:55Mike Thompson: do you think it's alright for men to be sensitive with emotions no not at all You don't think it's all right? I do think it's all right. Of course I think it's all right. We're all different, aren't we? It's how you process those emotions, how you are with the emotions, isn't it? We're all different. We're all different. How do you process emotions? Well, certain things I'm more emotional about than other things. Let me ask you a slightly difficult question then. When you lost your brother, how did you deal with that? I was all right with that. Were you? Well, because you just accepted the reality.

38:23Mike Thompson: No, Gerry had been very ill for five years and he and I were like that. like that. When it came to the day he died, I remember going in the morning at about 10.30 and Alex then rang me and said, Dad's just died. His son. And I went back and there was Jerry and lying there and I thought, well, if you believe in that sort of fairy tale, he's now at peace because he hasn't got this pain of liver cancer. And at the end, the pain was so agonizing that not only are you on a full dose of heroin but you're unconscious because you It can't keep you awake. The pain is to manage the pain. And so if that's going to happen, I mean, his life was cut off at 61, but then there's an awful lot of people whose lives are cut off very young.

39:09Mike Thompson: And, I mean, you know, here's me sitting here at my age, and God bless, touch wood, may it keep going. But, you know, I've seen enough death at a far too earlier in age to let it sort of get to me. You know what I mean? It's, yeah, I miss Jerry every year. There's not a day I don't think about Jerry. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. I think about him every day. I get that impression. Every day. Every day I think about him. Really? And I miss him. I miss standing at a bar like we used to stand at the bars and laugh and joke and all this sort of stuff, you know. I miss that terribly. Yeah. But it's how it is.

39:45Mike Thompson: But again, I have more emotion, much, much more emotion standing on a beach in Normandy, much more emotional. I wasn't even there, but my father was, and I know the place exactly where he was wounded. And those sort of things I find very touching. Really? Oh, yeah, very. That sort of stuff.

40:06Louise: Gosh, that makes me feel a bit emotional. I guess death is inevitable, and at 76 you'll... Don't say it, mate. I'm almost there. Don't say it. No, no, no, that's not what I mean. But you've had to experience so much death. If other people, every time you come round to the house, you're like, oh, so-and-so has popped their clogs. So it's just, you have to get used to it.

40:26Mike Thompson: You see a lot of it as you get older.

40:28Louise: Do you have anything, though, that you do when you do feel bad? Like any, like...

40:33Mike Thompson: I usually reach for a drink. Yeah, yeah. But, no, I mean, it's how it is. Do you have a sort of voice in your head, just keep buggering on, type? Because you're stoic. Of course, yeah.

40:46Louise: All right, we're basically just taking it to something light and fluffy really quickly. I posted a video of you on TikTok. We were talking about Nicky Beach.

40:55Mike Thompson: Yeah. You know the one. Oh, you mean coming out of Nicky Beach and being at the car park at DeSavio's? Yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah.

41:01Louise: And just like your kind of overall consensus of Nicky Beach. And I think like people really related to what you had to say.

41:08Mike Thompson: Sam, if you want to eat at 12.30, you should have just stayed somewhere else or done something different. I don't do that sort of thing. I mean, I certainly wasn't staying there any longer anyway. Where were we just now? Where were we? What was it called? Liquid Beach. What did you think about that? What? We did fuck with this one. You don't sound like anybody. I lose everybody. You and me get along very well. Well, just as well as not.

41:33Louise: A lot of our listeners watch something called Love Island. Right. And they want to know, have you ever seen it before?

41:40Mike Thompson: No.

41:40Louise: Never?

41:41Mike Thompson: No.

41:41Louise: Do you know what it is?

41:43Mike Thompson: Oh, it's usually sort of people sort of pretending to have relationships in places like Mallorca and stuff like that, isn't it? Ibiza, Mallorca, that type of place. And again, it all looks massively staged, you know, because that's what it is. What happened in that car park is typically the difference between staged and real life.

42:03Louise: Yeah, it's true.

42:05Mike Thompson: That's the difference.

42:06Louise: It's true. Would you ever go on Love Island if they did an old one?

42:15Mike Thompson: whilst I'm necking an 80-year-old or something like that. Do you watch any reality shows?

42:23Louise: No. He's watching Minder, isn't he? Have you watched First Dates? Well, I watched Minder. Have you watched First Dates? That's like quite cute people going on dates on Channel 4. I probably don't do cute people going on dates.

42:36Mike Thompson: Well, why would I? Because I've had my own life going on dates. I don't want to watch other people, do I? It's like, come dine with me. I don't watch that because I gave dinner parties. When I had dinner parties, my friends and people, I don't need to see some staged dinner party, do I?

42:52Louise: It's actually kind of fair enough. It's fair enough. Actually, you lived in an era where people would watch movies, which are obviously based on amazing novels, whereas now we basically watch people doing things that we should be doing ourselves at home. They now even have shows called Gogglebox where you're watching people watch these shows. Oh, my God, Gogglebox. Have you ever watched Gogglebox? You need to be on Gogglebox.

43:12Mike Thompson: Well, I don't really because at the point of my mind, when you watch any of these things we've been talking about, they aren't people that you would invite to your dinner party, are they? They aren't people that you would actually probably want to go out with. So what's the point of watching something that isn't what you would actually choose to do?

43:33Louise: I get it. So you're like, why would I watch Love Island because I don't like those people?

43:36Mike Thompson: I don't say I don't like them. That's too strong. That's unfair. Because they obviously maybe like one another. But I wouldn't. Rescue it. But it's of no interest to me. PR rescue. It's like watching, come down with me. I'm not going to watch that because I wouldn't invite them to my dinner party. Louise did. Louise won that TV show. Well, good luck to you. Great. Super great. Fantastic. I fucking won come down with me. Yeah.

44:01Louise: I actually cooked a beef wellington. You'd be proud. Yeah, it's the best. It was the best. A little sticky toffee pudding.

44:07Mike Thompson: Not crazy about that. too heavy. Zara did Love Island, if that makes any difference. Doesn't make any difference. I mean, you know, a lot of you do a lot of things. Actually, Sam, Sam for a long time did the Love Island after show. Lucky old him. I'm with you, by the way. I don't know what it is. I think it's a waste of time.

44:27Louise: Do you, did you know what Gen Z is?

44:29Mike Thompson: Who?

44:31Louise: It's basically Generation Z. It's American.

44:35Mike Thompson: It's now an American show. Oh, I do. You don't read Gen Z.

44:40Louise: it's the generation under, I actually don't even know the order, I think I'm a millennial. No, wait, I'm born in 1990. What am I?

44:45Mike Thompson: I'm not a naughty, aren't you? I'm a millennial. No.

44:47Louise: So then there's something else, and then there's Gen Z, and then there's like, Alpha, Beta, Delta, Gamma? I don't fucking know. But basically, yeah, so Gen Z, Gen Z is so over it. I don't know what the fuck you're talking about. This is the reaction when we talk about things that are unfamiliar territory. So Gen Z are, you know, the next generation. They're actually going to be they're going to be paying for our retirement so we should be kind about them.

45:14Mike Thompson: When they've got rid of Gen Z they go back to sort of Gen A that's what we just said

45:19Louise: with Gen Alpha. Gen Alpha.

45:21Mike Thompson: Smart though

45:21Louise: that you came up with that idea on your own and you got it right.

45:24Mike Thompson: Quite clever eh? He's in. He's in on the conversation. He's ready.

45:28Louise: He's ready for a drink. Basically so Gen Z Where's this leading to? I'm just joking. Gen Z have a lot of like sayings and expressions. Yeah. I want to know whether you've ever heard of the saying it's giving.

45:44Mike Thompson: Thanksgiving.

45:47Louise: It's giving.

45:48Mike Thompson: It's giving.

45:49Louise: It's giving.

45:50Mike Thompson: I don't know.

45:51Louise: You know what it's giving means.

45:52Mike Thompson: Yeah, so when I look at you I'm like it's giving Churchill.

45:56Louise: Yeah.

45:56Mike Thompson: I've never heard of that. So it's like it's giving

45:58Louise: it's giving fish. It's giving condom. It's giving condom.

46:03Mike Thompson: I've never heard of this before. When you look at something or an observation and it might be Louise's dress like that, you might say, oh, you look like...

46:13Louise: It's giving Victorian. It's giving our... Oh, I see what you mean.

46:17Mike Thompson: The word giving means relating to it. It relates to a Victorian era. Okay, fine.

46:23Louise: So try and come up with an example, like an ex-giving example. Hmm?

46:29Mike Thompson: No, I can't. I don't know the word. I mean, we never use that word. So you've just got to be like,

46:34Louise: it's giving camp with pink stars.

46:37Mike Thompson: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Look at me. I'd say it's like something, wouldn't I? Oh, it reminds me of. Or whatever, you know.

46:42Louise: But just try one thing with it's giving.

46:43Mike Thompson: Look at me and say it's giving something. Duh. It's giving, man. No, I don't think it's correct. That's great. That's great. That's perfect.

46:56Louise: That's your impression of Sam most of the time growing up. You always used to just go, like, duh.

47:01Mike Thompson: Should we have a buzz ball? Should we have a buzz ball? Do I have a what? Should we have a buzz ball?

47:05Louise: We're going to have a, it's time for a drink. Oh, right. Yeah, sure. Thank you. Yeah, yeah, this is actually a Gen Z drink. Oh, no, look, it's fake. We're off to a bad start.

47:13Mike Thompson: I'm not very good with kimi drinks. Prosecco or a can of beer or something.

47:21Louise: Did you have a WKD growing up? A who? A Sman Off Ice?

47:25Mike Thompson: No, that's weird. Yeah. We grew up on whiskey, gin. There was no vodka. Whiskey, gin or beer. That's all there was.

47:33Louise: These, the girls that I work with, Well, Dry March. They know what these are. there was an empty one on the street and I was like, oh, lettering. And they went, oh, that's a buzz ball. And I was like, come again.

47:42Mike Thompson: I've never tried or seen a buzz ball. So we're in this together.

47:45Louise: So you can either go tequila rita, strawberry rita. Are they all like a...

47:51Mike Thompson: What's a rita?

47:52Louise: Okay, wait. So listen, you've got tequila margarita, which that's just going to be a normal flavour. You've got strawberry flavour or you've got a chalk tea.

48:01Mike Thompson: Oh, I'm going to... Just give him the green one. I don't like sweet drinks. Let's just crack it and try it. Yeah. What's this one? I'll end up with the... Before you open them up, what's that one? Yeah, you open it. What is it?

48:12Louise: It's a margarita. What flavour is it? It's just a margarita flavour. Let's crack them open. You've got to do this in case the fizz.

48:20Mike Thompson: Wrong way around. Do you have a glass or anything?

48:25Louise: No, you've got to drink it out of the buzz ball.

48:27Mike Thompson: Why? It's going to go everywhere.

48:30Louise: Just have a little swig. Gusty. Get it down and you might start enjoying it. Oh, God.

48:40Louise: Quite nice, actually. Oh, no.

48:42Mike Thompson: Well, it smells like the smell of disinfectant. Oh, no.

48:47Louise: I should slug some more. You better have it. But that's essentially what alcohol is, isn't it? It's not for me, this one.

48:53Mike Thompson: Mike, after this, we'll get a proper drink. Don't worry. Try that one. No, no, come on, try it.

49:02Louise: Listen, I've got some listener questions.

49:04Mike Thompson: Yeah, we've got some questions for you. Sit back and relax. Some questions from the people who listen.

49:08Louise: Okay, so I did an Insta story.

49:12Mike Thompson: A what story? No, don't worry about that. An Instagram story.

49:14Louise: And I asked people to write in because people are fascinated by you. I'm also quite fascinated by you. And yeah, Ryan just actually spends most of the time when you're around our house just observing you, like watching you. Stalking. You might actually never feel... Stalker. Yeah, you might not feel comfortable in his presence again. Have you got a drool? Yeah, I'm sort of... It's just the gift that keeps giving my...

49:36Mike Thompson: Anyway, here is the first question.

49:39Louise: What was your reaction when you found out that you were becoming a dad?

49:44Mike Thompson: I can't remember it so long ago. What did I think? It was super, fabulous. Super great, fantastic.

49:50Louise: Also, do you know what's amazing? You can remember every single moment, every day, every hotel stayed in, every flight, BA 734 on 1972. She's got a point, Mike. You're on the road. All the things I wanted to do.

50:06Mike Thompson: She's got you on the ropes. When your mother asked you when she was pregnant, I said, expense. Ka-ching.

50:16Louise: Fair play. Good. I like the honesty.

50:18Mike Thompson: No, darling, it was lovely. Absolutely lovely. Seriously, don't be so stupid. It was fabulous.

50:23Louise: That came later. I know, we're best friends. Ah, fabulous.

50:25Mike Thompson: Exactly.

50:26Louise: Best life advice for anyone young?

50:29Mike Thompson: Aim high. Aim high. Because if you aim low, you can only go low. If you aim high it gives you a chance of being somewhere up there doesn't it?

50:39Louise: Love that.

50:41Mike Thompson: Never underestimate your own ability to be able to get there and life will soon tell you if you can or you can't. You'll be taught a cruel lesson if you can't you know what I mean? But don't give up before you start give it your best crack and so aim high and I'll tell you where I've cribbed that line that came from the headmaster to my to Jerry when he was about to leave, when he was literally walking out of the door with my parents at the end of his first year there, he said, Jerry, aim high. And I never forgot it. I was only 11. Never forgot it. Really? It's amazing how things like that stay.

51:19Mike Thompson: Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. I like it. That's great advice. You got another question?

51:24Louise: Who's your favourite child? My favourite child? Yes.

51:27Mike Thompson: What do you mean, my favourite child?

51:28Louise: Out of me and Sam.

51:29Mike Thompson: Oh, don't be ludicrous. I love you both equally. It's absolute madness. I mean, you know, I adore you both equally. And don't get me wrong, I adore Max as well. The three of you together, and I don't want to exclude you out of this. Sorry, Max isn't your child. If you were asked, well, Max and I have been together now for 26 years. You've been with me obviously all your lives. And you have to understand, I don't have favourites. No, no. It's all one for all and all for one.

51:54Louise: Good answer.

51:55Mike Thompson: One more question, Mike. Well, I don't know how much your dad knows about our journey journey with the whole expanding the family and hopes towards that well i i i'm i'll put it like this to you yeah on the smidgens i get and i don't pry because it's a very very personal and private thing yeah i'm totally behind you with whatever route you go down absolutely a hundred and one percent okay so whatever you decide to do however you decide to go about it a is your affair and nobody else's and secondly i'm four square behind you okay whatever you whatever you choose to go and how you go, you don't go, you do go, you do this route, you do that route, whatever route you do, I'm right behind you.

52:34Mike Thompson: So you have no need to worry about what I may be thinking at all, because I'm right behind you. Should we update? Well, yeah, I mean... Tell me what you like or don't tell me what you don't want. The last time we spoke about it

52:44Louise: was when we were at the Hurlingham, and we spoke with Max a bit about, obviously it's been a complicated journey to get to this place. And anything else, if we were able to have another child, it feels like a total blessing to be able to offer that for you. Of course I understand that. But we have managed to, with the crazy science that exists now, we've got four embryos that have been tested.

53:08Mike Thompson: They're chromosomally viable.

53:09Louise: They're chromosomally viable, which means that it saves a lot of heartache because obviously the whole process is really hard anyway. Why buy yourself heartache? It does eliminate the chances of a miscarriage.

53:20Mike Thompson: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

53:21Louise: I think the big challenge for us was even getting to the stage where we could get the embryos because we had to do that a couple of times. Right. And that feels really, really positive because it means genetically, which I guess we already knew because we've got lovely Leo, that we can create more children together. And so then at the moment we're trying to find an agency, which sounds really commercial and weird. Is this the route that I told you to get on America?

53:47Mike Thompson: Is this that route?

53:48Louise: So the options are... A version of that. Yeah, we've got a few options. It's as good as that though, isn't it? It's as good. America's just so expensive.

53:55Mike Thompson: That's what I was telling you. That would be my route, regardless of money. That would be my route because I think that's incredibly important. You've got to be with a country where you told me in America they have no right to the child or whatever. That to me is of absolute priority. I mean, not priority. It's the non-negotiable. It's a non-negotiable. I agree.

54:16Louise: But can you put a guess on how much it costs to do it in the US?

54:20Mike Thompson: Well, I think you're talking about a quarter of a million. Yeah. No, you've absolutely nailed it. You nailed it. You told me that six months ago. Isn't that phenomenal? Not really for life. You think that's expensive?

54:33Louise: I call that dirt cheap. That's why people are on green mortgage. When it comes to life...

54:40Mike Thompson: Boom. I don't think you put a price on a thing like that, can you?

54:43Louise: It's very hard to.

54:45Mike Thompson: Well, it's impossible to.

54:46Louise: It's impossible to.

54:47Mike Thompson: Do what only you two can actually do between you. As I said to you earlier on, I'm only here for advice. and so is anybody else. I'm not talking about the medics. I mean, they have to do, obviously, that's a different subject because they're the experts, okay? But from a socio-emotional aspect, everybody else can just only be answering a question if they're asked the question. So you don't, only you two can make that decision between you. Nobody else.

55:17Louise: Do you think it's a chaotic jump up from having one child to two?

55:23Mike Thompson: No, not at all. I mean, I've actually, yeah, I mean, I was lucky enough to have a brother and a sister. I mean, when I was young, my sister was that much older than me. What was the age gap again? That would be the same with Leah, of course.

55:36Louise: What was the age gap?

55:37Mike Thompson: Susie and I, she's 82 in April. I'm 76. We're five and five, just over five years apart.

55:44Louise: Well, that actually might be the age gap.

55:46Mike Thompson: Yeah, exactly. But that's no problem.

55:47Louise: And that worked for you?

55:48Mike Thompson: Look at me. I mean, apart from being very little, when you grow up, the age difference vanishes. and I mean, Susie and I have had sort of 70, 60 years of good old laughs.

55:58Louise: You know what I've just thought? You've managed to get out of nappy duty, scot-free with Leo because he's now four and he doesn't wear nappies and you've never had to wipe a pooey nappy. You've never dealt with a mustard attack, but now if we go again round two...

56:14Mike Thompson: Yes, off you go again then.

56:16Louise: We're going to be getting you in, recruiting.

56:18Mike Thompson: You're getting the call-up.

56:19Louise: You're going to be doing a night nanny?

56:21Mike Thompson: Right, I think so.

56:22Louise: I think so. And we're going to get a nappy change. You're addicted to wet wipes.

56:27Mike Thompson: I'm addicted to wet wipes. We know that. I'm bringing a dozen packs for this next week. You'll never be short of a wet wipe with Mike. Hang on, that makes you sound like you are a wet wipe. I am a wet wipe. You're not really though. We've just learned that you've been beaten across the backside six times a day. Yeah, the little ones are very good. Anyways. Mike, I've got so many questions, but I'm aware that we've got... We'll save them for next time. You were our first guest on He Said, She Said. And it's been... It's right there, mate. Oh, right. Oh, blimey. Oh, right. Let's just use that as the clip.

57:03Mike Thompson: Mike, that was phenomenal. Thank you very much.

57:05Louise: Yeah, thank you for coming and joining us. No. You're a busy man. Well, you're a... Well, I'm not really.

57:12Mike Thompson: Oh, I'm so... I can't tell you how happy I am. I can't begin to tell you how happy I am.

57:24Mike Thompson: That's the sound of a big deal. At Wayfair, that sound happens a lot. Dream sofa for half the price? Big deal. New dining table you've been eyeing for months? Big deal. Finally, picking up those last few pieces and finishing that bedroom? Now that's a really big deal. Whatever your home needs, Wayfair has the selection, the savings, and over millions of five-star reviews to back it up. Shop wayfair.com today before someone else snags your big deal. Wayfair, every style, every home.