S11 EP29: We've lost the passports!

24:42Go on. We had chocolate one, obviously. But also we had a jigsaw one, so you'd get a different section of the jigsaw each day and you'd add to it to create a lovely Christmas scene. Oh, that's – We bought that. We hadn't created it ourselves, just to be clear. That's nice. It was nice. Anyway, the simplest things you don't understand. I've no memory of discussing this. After listening to you talk about how you don't understand how simple things work, and the first only example you could give was a plane. I can't believe we took this as us. I thought I'd chip in because as a new graduate working my first nine to five job in an office, I've come to realize I don't understand how you press a button on a laptop.

25:24the letter A, for example, and an A appears on screen. So they don't understand how a laptop works. Well, I don't understand how, if you press that button, why that makes that happen on the screen. Well, it's a circuit board. Well, no, I think it's programming, isn't it? Where they program that this thing you plug in, if you tap that, that'll make an A come up. Yeah, I mean, I don't understand any of that. But that's not simple. That's really difficult. because that's saying how does a computer work? Yes. I don't know any of that. Do you know how anything works, really, electrical? I tell you what, I really don't know.

26:00I don't know if you mentioned it, but how vinyl works, this little needle on a bit of... That blows my mind. How come that can make noise? And also, if you haven't got it plugged into speakers, you can hear it saying it quietly from the vinyl. Yeah, I don't. I simply don't understand how vinyl works. Are these sort of discovered by accident or have someone set out to make that happen? How the fuck have they worked that out? Was that Alexander Graham Bell? No, that's the phone. What's a gramophone? Who invented the gramophone? Emil Berliner. That's more impressive than a CD to me, because a CD is just electrical stuff that I don't understand.

26:33But to do it practically... And how do you print it? How do you record it? What? Print what? How do you make the record so that it's got the sound stored in it? We need a TV show. How-to. I'm willing to bring back How-to. But the problem is, I think... Did you used to watch How Do They Do That, Rob? No. Oh, that was this. I think they would explain it to us and we'd look at them and go, yeah, okay, yep, and then we'd walk out and, you know, you do the wrap-up bit. Yeah. I think we'd both go, I still don't know how that works. So there used to be a show called How Do They Do That? And it was hosted by Des Lynham and various other people.

27:09How did he get into football? Did he do that after football? We have had this exact conversation. Have we? Yeah, including the Des Lynham, how did he get into that show bit. I'm going to get so much shit people are going why does Michael leave this stuff in they've already discussed it how have we discussed this on the same topic yeah how did they slide but when Rob went how did they slide and get onto that I was like I've got to stop this the glitch in the matrix I've no memory of that I've no memory of why was this why this email happened as well yeah it might have been off the back of the first one of these emails we might have had well if the BBC aren't going to come and offer us this show that we're just going to keep mentioning it.

27:51He's still alive. What, Des? Got a kid. Yeah, yeah. Get him on. We'll ask him. Full circle of life. Sorry, Michael. Just waiting for Josh to talk about the female co-host. Esther McVay? Yeah, I remember that now. Was it Esther McVay? I can't remember, but I didn't recognise her because I was thinking of that other show. Was it How To? Oh. How To, yeah, with Carol Vorderman. Fucking hell. Do you remember it, Rob? No. This conversation? The only thing that clicked was Esther McVay. Yeah, it was Esther McVay. Tory MP. Right, let's talk about something else. Who's Jenny Hull? She did the first series.

28:26I think you've said that before. Yeah, I still don't know who she is. Estimate Vey. Estimate Vey, Rob, is the one that worked with Lorraine Kelly. Do you remember that clip of Lorraine Kelly? No, what clip of Lorraine Kelly? So Estimate Vey went on to be a right-wing Tory MP in the Boris Johnson government. She looks too young to have done how to. No, she did. How do they do that? Oh, sorry.

28:54And then she was on Good Morning Britain. Yeah. And they did the cross to Lorraine Kelly. Yeah. And they said, you used to work with Esther, didn't you, Lorraine? And Lorraine went, yep. That's amazing. She's so funny, Lorraine. It's a great clip. I'd highly recommend it. That's such a good response if you don't like someone about actually saying it, innit? Yeah. Because obviously she can't go, yeah, because she's a politician. They've got to be like impartial or whatever. Yep. Yeah, she was on Good Morning Britain, whatever it's called, TV AM or whatever. Watch the clip, Rob. Why not? Right now.

29:32Go on, play it in. Play it in. Have we done this before, Michael? Just check before I do it. No, I don't think we've done this. Although we might have discussed it with Lorraine when we had her as a guest. No, it was after that. We did Lorraine quite early. Lorraine Kelly's here. Do you remember Esther McVeigh? from her GMTV days? Yeah. Yes, I do. Okay, coming up after half-cast, Queen's Women, we have to take the scenes of the new series.

30:01Go on, Lorraine. Go on, Lorraine. She don't fuck about Lorraine. Yes, yes I do. Does she? Own show named after her. No one else has got that. Hi, Rob and Josh. On the topic of kids' names, I'm a primary school teacher. In my previous school, I taught at, there was a child called Harrison Ford. When little Harrison was first introduced to his teachers, this is amazing, the preschool teacher said, ah, like the Harrison Ford, to which the mum replied, who? No. The confused teacher didn't know whether this was a joke or not and tried to say as politely as possible, you know, Harrison Ford, the actor.

30:35The mum stared at her very confused and said, never heard of him. If the mum's young, say the mum's in her 20s, would you have heard of him really? Exactly. What's he done recently? No, exactly. I mean, they're like the Indiana Jones comeback films could easily bypass you. They're the kind of things that you'd watch in a Coventry lay-by or whatever. And they've not really aged well, Indiana Jones. They're not on much, are they? I don't know. You don't see them on the telly a lot, do you? No, exactly. Thank you for all the laughs. I've been listening since the beginning of lockdown days and saw Rob this year in Manchester, which was a great night, and also have tickets to see Josh in Salford next year.

31:07Keep it sexy and relatable. Becky, 372 months from Manchester. There we go. That is incredible to not know Harrison Ford. I searched my kids' names on Google before I named them. Did you? Just to double check. There's nothing like horrendous out there or like problematic or... Yes. There's nothing. Hi, Rob, Josh and Michael. You asked about nightmare names and thought I'd get in touch. Not sure what my parents were thinking when they called me Billy Hunt. You can imagine the nicknames. So he was called Billy Hunt? I don't understand that. I don't know because obviously Hunt sounds a bit like see you next Tuesday.

31:42But that's not the parents' fault. Well, no, because that is just a surname. But then Billy's not going to make that worse, is it? No, I don't understand. Willie, Willie, Willie? Am I Britain's Sickest Matt? Well, you're not good at comedy anymore. Not only that, but my middle name is James. So my initials are BJH. What? BJ, Blowjob. Yeah, I get that. But would it be Blowjob Hunt? Is that the... A Blowjob Hunt. No, but then it's not Blowjob, it's just BJ... Sorry, what's his name? Billy Hunt. Billy James Hunt. I don't think it's that bad. Well, I don't understand what's happened. I wouldn't call that a nightmare name.

32:17I'd just call that a tricky name. But I don't understand why Billy Hunt's bad. Brilliant. Brilliant. It can't be brilliant. Why is Billy Hunt any worse than like Sharon Hunt? I don't know. I would say Sharon Hunt's worse for a boy than Billy Hunt. Oh, yeah, obviously. Billy Hunt. Is it an accent? Where's he from? It can't be that it's a bit like brilliant. What's he fucking losing? Your name's a bit like brilliant. What's his surname? Sorry, where's he from? Hunt. where's he from because it might be an accent thing no we don't know where he's from right okay so michael help i'm just googling in case there's some kind of like street slang that i'm not aware of but i can't find i can just find people called billy hunt with no issues hi rob josh and michael you asked about names and i thought i'd get in touch i haven't even finished this here rob by the way there's more yeah okay sorry really quickly i've got it so it's an Australian phrase referring to silly **** oh it must be from Australia you Billy Hunt oh first of all well done Michael second of all Billy Hunt liven up give us a bit of fucking context you silly **** and also apparently it might be Cockney rhyming slang as well although I've I've never heard that and Cockney rhyming slang for Billy Hunt we found out something new Billy Hunt **** a stupid person with an Australian cricketer Billy Hunt was an Australian cricketer and it's become a I thought it was named after this, but it says a convict named Billy Hunt tried to escape Paul Arthur prison by disguising himself as a kangaroo.

33:46That's incredible. No, that's bollocks. That's got to be bollocks. That's got to be bollocks. Maybe it's Cockney Ryan's song. I don't know, but I've not heard that before. Billy Hunt. Yeah. Do you want to, let me give you, you've done a couple. Do you want me to do, I've got it. Yeah, hit me, hit me, hit me. First week of uni fails. That's what you asked for, wasn't it? No, but here we go. Yeah, we did. We're all going back to uni. I feel like I'm having a mental breakdown today. It's like we've been sent the post back for a podcast I've never listened to. Well, that's true. We haven't. To be fair.

34:12Kia Ora, Rob, Josh and Sexy Michael. New Zealand. Yeah. It's spelt like Wakatane, but it's pronounced Fakatane. Fakatane. Fakatane. Following your request for embarrassing uni student stories, I thought I would email to tell you mine. When I went to uni at 18, my cooking experience was zero. Not even boiled an egg, but ever the trier and not deterred by my serious lack of skill. I one day decided to cook myself some pasta. I went and got... Sorry. In went the pasta. We're doing a bad job today. It's right. You can snip it up. In went the pasta in the saucepan. And I was proud that I'd managed to turn the hob on.

34:48Two men who've never finished an email before.

34:53Just us going, what? Sorry? What's this saying? Bilia! Bilia! What's going on? Sorry. So pasta's in the saucepan, turned on the hob, and ten minutes later my poor uni mate came in wondering what the burning smell was. What are you doing, she asked me in a concerned voice. Making dinner, I replied. Yeah, you need to put the water in the saucepan for it to cook. You're trying to burn down the building. I was trying to cook pasta dry. That is mental. That is wild. I still hate cooking, but most of you remember the water these days. That is, so you just dry pasta in a bowl. How do you think that's going to work?

35:31Like, isn't there enough? Even if you've never cooked, isn't there just enough shows in which people are cooking on television? Yeah, I genuinely think, no offence, Ria, but this is really simple. If I said to my seven-year-old, make pasta, she would get a saucepan and fill it up with water. Yeah. At seven years of age and they do no cooking. That is just... That is wild. This is a good topic. She said, oh, I've been listening to the pod for years, love the relatable stories which make me laugh out loud when I'm cleaning up my messy house thanks to my two smelly prepubescent boys. The episodes are really good for my mental health too as I'm a counsellor.

36:06As you can imagine, I hear a lot of sad stuff in my day-to-day job. I think it's so important to hear other people struggling sometimes to remind you you're not alone in this journey. A bit offensive, but fair enough. No offence, Ria, though, but imagine your counsellor not knowing how to cook pasta. Too right. You're going there. What's that smell? You've got the bus all the way to Fukatane to chat to Ria.

36:29And she's a dry pasta cooker. This isn't as stupid. But I have done it where I haven't put water in by mistake. What are those coffee things where there's like two chambers? There's the one at the bottom and then it bubbles into the top. Percolator. Is that what it's called? So you have the bottom bit with the water in and you put it on the hob. Yeah. And then it kind of... Hipsters use that, don't they? ...bubbles up through the coffee. Yeah, I mean, I had it 20 years ago. What about the old pump one? That one. Plunger. That one's called a... Fucking hell. Coffee. Fucking hell. This isn't good enough.

37:05What's that called, Michael? A French press. A French press. It's called an American, but there's another word for it, isn't it? No, it's called a distiller or something, but it's not called that.

37:23Some of the worst podcasting we've ever done, and it's a low fucking bar. fucking hell what's it called I'm going to leave this really long pregnant pause in so people know it's just that long I'm going to keep talking what is a French press called in the UK cafferties yes it's a French word how does that work cafferties because the Americans can't use French oh love it Agatha Thierry. University Fowl. I've got another one here, Josh. Well, he might have booked me an osteopath for midday. Perfect. I went to an art college in London in the 80s from my home in rural Wales. Picture it. No internet, no mobile phones, no email, no streaming, no downloads, no Netflix.

38:14Back then, On Demand went running to Woolworths before it closed. Here we go. I lived in uni halls, crammed into a flat with six of us. For the big London move, I loaded everything into my Fiat 127. I don't even know what that car is. No, it sounds small though, doesn't it? For my entertainment, I had raided my parents' VHS collection, John Wayne Western's Dolly Parton concerts, and one rare signed Tina Turner tape. That's quite a good bit of merch. I'd buy that. But by the end of my first term, my Fiat died gone. The problem was we had to clear our student flats over Christmas. Most had families bringing cars to collect them and their stuff.

38:49But my fine art flatmates, they were doubling up on a Vespa. Two grown men and their luggage. How? Simple. They stuffed everything they owned into black bin bags and buried them behind the uni halls. No. That is incredible. So they buried all their stuff, so then when they come back after Christmas, dig it up. Fucking hell. Genius. Student logic. When in doubt, bury it. So I joined in. Did it work? Well, here we find out. Sorry. It's called Uni Fails, so I can't imagine it does. You're listening to Parenting Hell with Rob Beckett and Billy Hunt. So I joined in, dug a hole. Harder than you think when you don't have a shovel handy.

39:27And buried my worldly possessions, mostly VHS tapes. Not the Tina Turner tape. Put that in your pocket. That'll fit. Marked with a little pile of stones. Perfect plan. Then I got home for Christmas and my dad went into a panic. Where's my signed Tina Turner video? Oh, no. I was going from a cassette to a video. The rare one. The precious one. Oh, no. He's panicking. He's upset. And I couldn't say, oh, Tina Turner? Yeah. Well, I buried her six feet under in a bin bag next to some chicken skeleton jewellery. Oh, no. Chicken skeleton jewellery. January comes. I'm buzzing to get back. I take a taxi from the tube station, walk up to my uni halls and freeze.

40:07Sorry, can I just ask, why do they have to take their stuff out their halls? What's going on? I think in some uni halls, you can pay to have it over Christmas and New Year or you don't. And if you don't, you take all your stuff out. Because I think some towns and cities used to rent that out to travellers. Oh. Also, they've done it over winter, so it's going to be hard, the ground, isn't it? You know what I mean? Yeah, fucking hell, frozen ground. January comes. I'm buzzing to get back. I take a taxi from the train station, walk up to my uni halls, and I freeze. Oh, no. I stop him dead in my feet and see that they've only built a brand new car park.

40:42Oh, wow. That is the greatest thing. That is wild. Fresh tarmac, white lines. Oh my God, that is fucking incredible. And that's just game over. Yep, somewhere underneath the new car park, Tina Turner entombed along with Dolly and John Wayne. A bit like Richard III under that car park in Leicester. So my dad never got Tina back, and one day in the far future, archaeologists are going to dig up that art college car park and wonder why. Why bury Dolly Parton, Tina Turner and John Wayne together in a black bin bag? Oh my God. And if I'm still alive, I'll say, because, mate, it was the 80s. That is incredible.

41:23Sarah Bridgend, Gen X. Wow, what an email. Gen X. I was reading about Gen X recently. Sorry, did I just say that out loud? Yeah, yeah, go on. What was happening? I was reading a book. At least we know it'll be new content and not Des Lynam's back catalogue. Fucking hell. Fucking hell. I genuinely think I might need to go and get my head checked after this episode. I think we both need to not be as busy with work and we need to resolve some sort of psychological issues involving the panic of not working and earning due to something in our childhood. It's a curse of freelance. I think a lot of freelance people have this.

42:09Michael's got it as well. Michael's got it as well. He's not bringing up Des Lynam. him he's the one stopping us that when you're freelance it's almost impossible to not think the work is going to disappear tomorrow yes and when you've come from not much money or no money you are scared of that happening again so you're in constant fear you do think in our job yeah when my daughter is 20 and it's fucking difficult enough to get on the property ladder now in 2025, let alone 2040. You're trying to protect and provide for your children. And she's like, come on, mate, you could have gone to Stockton.

42:47It would have really helped me. Or she's going, I just want to connect with you as a person. You haven't got the option now because no one cares about you anymore. You can't go to Stockton because they don't want to come and see you. You should have taken the opportunity while you could. You got sacked from last leg for touching people or something like that. Exactly. Well, not quite that, yeah. When's your tour end? Probably about this time next year. Okay, that's a problem. No, the truth is, Rob. What's the truth? Give me the truth. Come on. I'm sick of your lies. Give me the truth. This is the toughest bit.

43:24This is the bit that's back to back. Yeah, we've not said that before. Michael's going to chip in in a minute. Yeah, you've had this conversation every year for the last five years around this time of year. We've worked too much again. Before Christmas is always mental. Yeah, as opposed to that really chilled year you've had already. Yeah, I know. I've got January off. I'm trying.

43:46That was so real. That was so real. I'm trying. At this point, I could have made this episode from old soundbites from previous episodes. You guys didn't need to be here. I tried to move the topic on. What was I trying to move the topic onto? Something good. I can't remember. It sounded new. Gen X that you read about Gen X. Gen X. Oh, yeah, it was boring. What did it say about them? I was just reading about Gen X in America, and it felt like it didn't really happen over here in the same way. That's all I thought. Like what? What kind of thing? All that slacker thing and Nirvana and, like, people not being interested and stuff.

44:18It wasn't what it was like over here in the 90s. Well, everyone was on pills and coke, weren't they? Yeah. It was a bit more free love.

44:27Flying solo as a child. Hi, Rob, Josh and Michael. In the early 90s, my dad moved to Cyprus when I was nine, and my brother was 11. We used to visit every Easter and summer holiday. For the first few years, we'd go as unaccompanied minors, where BA would look after us at the airport and on the flight. So we got used to this. And by the ages of 13 and 15, we told my dad we didn't need to go unaccompanied anymore, could make our own way around the airport and to the plane. My mum used to drop us off at the entrance to Heathrow. We'd navigate our way through the airport. Being children of a certain age, we used to have a sneaky cigarette behind our parents' back.

45:05So imagine our delight when we're able to go to the check-in desk and ask for seats in the smoking area and get them. How old are they, 13 and 15? Yeah. That must have looked so mad to other passengers on the plane that we young teenagers were just sitting on the flight smoking. No one said a thing. As if it's not going to float to the front of the plane. I know. Where was it? Was it at the back or the front? At the back, but it's like, it's as if it's just only going to stay there. By dint of there being a smoking section, there is a line where that stops, where you are basically in the smoking section.

45:42If you're the first line of non-smoking, you're in the smoking section. Yeah. And smoking is so disgusting and pathetic, and I can't believe people still do it. On the way home, my brother and his call would buy loads of cigarettes from Duty Free so that he could sell them to his mates at school. Oh, God. It was a different time. Stay sexy and relatable. Jane, aged 532 months, no longer a smoker. Yeah, good on you. Because I see people, and it's terrible, because obviously it is an addiction, and people just can't stop, and it's part of, like, they're coping to have a cigarette in the morning.

46:12But, like, I see people on the school runway, they're head out the window smoking a fag, and I'm like, well, Jesus Christ. Did you ever smoke? Never. I could never, and this is from me, I could never get addicted to it, however hard I tried. I think we've both got fairly weak lungs, and it just doesn't, it hurts too much. Whenever I had a cigarette, I just felt so lightheaded. I couldn't believe people could handle it. It would just hit me so hard. I didn't feel any good thing about it. When I did it, I just made me cough and hurt my throat. There was no point where I was like, this is enjoyable and I can see why there are people who get into it.

46:44With like drink and drugs and stuff, there's almost more of it. But with smoking, I was like, there's nothing happening here. No, it wasn't for me. And I'm lucky in that sense. You know, so few people smoke these days. like when the smoking ban came in I used to get left in the pub with the coats because I was the only non-smoker and everyone would go outside and smoke you just sit there with all the coats I just sit there on my own with the coats looking at your lap thinking of new routines I didn't even have the internet on my phone at that point so just with my thoughts we know that's not a good place for you that's a bad place

47:20another six pints please

47:24this is good No one's here. I can have three pints while they're away. Get me your confidence up. Yeah. Oh, dear. Right. Small business. Small business. Can you get a show out of that, Michael? I think it's one of the best ones we've ever done. I love your positivity. It's the best of. For life. We're doing the hits. Hi, Rob, Josh and Michael. Hope you're all well. I'd massively... Oh, that's the one I was going to read. The first one. That's how lazy we are today. I'd massively appreciate if you could give my husband's small retail business, a shout out, please. trying to manage a three-year-old a baby and setting up a small warehouse has been intense to say the least so thank you for keeping my spirits up with the weekly laughs and relatable chaos loaded dice is an online shop specializing in creative hobby products and family games we have hay clay and ugy e-u-g-y model kits to spark kids imaginations without the mess board game to families couples and parties as well as all the new pokemon trading card and Warhammer releases.

48:20We have a shop in Barry, South Wales, and offer gift wrapping and next day shipping throughout the UK. We'd love to offer Parenting Hell listeners a 10 % discount code with GOBBLEGOBBLE10 in capitals. The website is loadeddice.uk, loadeddice underscore UK for Instagram, and TikTok is loadeddicetiktok. Thank you so much and all the best, Amy. Loaded Dice. I don't know what Eugene, that clay stuff is, though. What's that? Have you heard of that? Sorry, I was organising my osteopath. Okay. Hey, Clay. Oh, hey, Clay. Yeah, so it's sort of like... Yeah. Clay, you can make... Oh, you can make like Father Christmas in a pen.

48:56That's good. Do you know what? We went to watch someone. We went to the House of Marbles, Rob. We went up to the moor. You bloody lost them, didn't you, mate? Hey, here we go. Couldn't bloody find them in the House of Marbles. I watched someone blowing them... Like, making their own gold... Gold glass of... Oh, who cares? I'm too tired. Go on, mate. Go on, go on. I've got you. You've got this. It was like they had a lesson where they were making marbles and I was watching it and it was one of the most... You've already spoke about this? Oh. No, I'm joking. You haven't. Jesus, I believed you. So someone was making their own marbles.

49:31Like blowing glass, you know, like when you blow glass. Right, okay. And what is the House of Marbles? The House of Marbles is a place... It's a house. ...that we went to on the way back from a walk on Dartmoor and it's like a gift shop full of marbles with marble runs that you can watch. And it's basically... And you're trying to suggest there isn't a slower pace of life in the countryside. Those marbles are going pretty fast. You've gone to a house with just some marbles rolling about in Dartmoor. Sorry, just really quickly. Rob's face, as you were describing the house of marbles, was like when a baby's been fed something it doesn't like.

50:07What was funny was a walk on Dartmoor that you popped in the house of marbles. We had a cream tea? I love it, Rob. It's absolutely the happiest place on earth. The House of Marbles. We'll big up the House of Marbles. I mean, they're not a small business. They're absolutely massive. If you buy anything marble related. Are they? Yeah. You go to Hamley's, they stock a load of their products, Rob. You walk on Dartmoor, then you walk past. No, we didn't walk past it. We were driving back. You drove there? What, to the House of Marbles? No, we drove past it and then we were like, let's go in. Right, fair enough.

50:39You love all that little twee stuff, don't you? Yeah, I'm a classic English eccentric, Rob. Did you buy any marbles? Yeah, I love them. You've got your own marbles? Oh, no, not for myself. Oh, no, yeah, absolutely not. For your children. Well, I'll give House of Marbles a look next time. Do. You're never going to make it down this far. I won't. I'll go and watch a film and have Hernando's again. Yeah, exactly. Hello. I would love a small business shout-out for my sister, Leonie. Or Leonie? She is an avid listener with two children aged three and four. Close. She's been put in the business. She started in 2013 on the back burner until her kids start school, which will happen this September.

51:17And I'm sure a shout out would give her a great boost. I imagine this was sent before September. She creates gorgeous wedding invitations and stationery, table plans, order service, save the dates, et cetera. She designs and makes all the items herself by hand to ensure great love and care goes into each and every one of them. All of her items can be personalized and adapted to suit the wedding. She's an amazing mom and a lovely sister. Etsy shop from Leonie with love. From Leonie with love. Many thanks, Sian. 518 months old, mother of two feral preteens. I've just sent you a photo of marble making.

52:01I can see why. It was really exciting. Here we go. Also, I found you a physio and an osteopath in Newcastle. Oh, I've got one. I've got a midday appointment. Who with? What's it called? I don't know. Ali's organised it and I trust him implicitly. Well, I've got a recommendation from someone that lives in Newcastle and he said, here's a really good physio and here is a physio that's probably the best in the North East. Sees all the top athletes. Well, I can't cancel now, can I? Yeah, just go and see your High Street one and Ali's found. Yeah, I will actually. As opposed to a personalised recommendation for the best physio in the North East.

52:31So you're saying Ali's not good at his job? I'm saying that he is not as well connected in the North East as a friend of mine. He might be. He's not. He might be. This is a direct recommendation from Mike Ashley. Mike Ashley. The least popular man in the North East. But boy, he's connected. From the prince of the Saudi royal family or whatever it is. You've got to go to the staff room of the House of Frasier. I've sent them to you if you need them. Right, Josh, I'll see you next week. Michael, apologies in advance, but you're pretty good with the fingers. I'd put that out unedited if I was you.

53:09Bye.

53:19Hello, Parenting Hell listeners. Recognise that voice? Yes, it's Josh Whittacombe here.

53:27I have got a new podcast. Josh Whittacombe's Museum of Pop Culture. And I'm going to say it. I'm about 85 % sure you're going to love it. Here are the reasons why. Number one, I'm confident if you're listening now, you don't hate me and possibly think I'm funny. Number two, I'm confident if you're listening now, you like podcasts. Number three, I'm confident if you're listening to me and Rob, you prefer pop culture to people talking about things, let's be honest, boring things like history, economics, or politics. I know I do, and that is why I made this podcast. I wanted a show that tells the stories I love from popular culture in the way other podcasts do for drier topics.

54:04See above. Basically, I wanted a podcast that realised Milli Vanilli were more interesting than Elizabeth I. Join me as I give the definitive, or at least the funniest, takes on Mr Blobby. When Ghostwatch convinced BBC viewers ghosts were real. When a band burned a million pounds for a laugh. The Spice Girls, a truly catastrophic Spider-Man musical with music from U2. And David Hasselhoff, Baywatch and his part in The Fall of the Berlin Wall. All of them are real, by the way. Either you know what these things are and you're about to learn far more about them than you ever realised you wanted to, or you don't, and you're about to be introduced to some of the maddest things in modern or ancient history.

54:43Stiffnecks will learn, loose necks will laugh. New episodes available every Wednesday and Saturday, perfect to fill those gaps between your weekly doses of parenting hell. So go on, you might as well listen, subscribe and follow wherever you get your podcasts now. Museum of Pop Culture with me, Josh Whittacombe, available everywhere on the 1st of January. you