PLUS For All Mankind and Saturday Night Live

23:32Yeah, but I thought before he came in, that sketch about the bra, trying on the bra, I thought that was one of the weakest ones, actually. That's the one he's in. I know, I know. But he enlivened it, for sure. I thought up until that point where he arrived, I thought that was... Didn't you think the bra sketch was a bit laboured? No, I didn't mind it. I didn't mind any of it. And I, like you, I did kind of think privately to myself, oh my God, am I not going to like this? But, no, I did. I thought it was, and I also feel like they need our support and we need to get behind them. Oh, I'm totally behind it.

23:58I'm just, as a, you know, I'm just pointing out a couple of things that I had issues with. Okay, that's fine. I'll allow it. But in general, I thought, no, it was actually a triumph. Yeah, it was good, yeah. And isn't, God, isn't Graham Norton just such a lovely man to like go on? And he's like, you know, grandfathering in and saying, this is great. Yeah, he was wonderful. But Tina Fey going through her British sitcom, Catch Bases, was hilarious. She did, she's like, Keeping Up Appearances, 40 Towers, Dead Parrot, Bonty Python. She did that, reeled them off. That was really funny. And even like, you know, when she did like, auto glass repair, auto glass replace.

24:28It was, you know, very British. It was good. Please watch some of it. I don't give a shit whether you watch it or not. The listeners, the listeners should watch it. Yeah, they should watch it. I do give a shit. Please watch, please watch one, just for me. Well, if the listeners demand it, I will watch an episode. So I'll wait for feedback and see if they want me to watch it. Yeah, I'd like to really like to know what they think. But they may be quite understanding. We have no interest in what James, hater of comedy, thinks of this literal comedy show. Okay, well, let's leave it up to them. They will decide.

24:55Okay, they will decide. Okay, good stuff. I believe it's time for the postbag. Oh, God.

25:04Triage. It's the postbag. We are back for the postbag and we've relocated because it's literally the next day and we are remote. We are in our homes once more, but with the postbags. That's good, isn't it, Steph? It's great. It's great. Comfortable. Boyd's really happy about it. Yes, Boyd's thrilled. Thrilled to be back with us again. He's like, didn't I see you fuckers yesterday? Yes, we were in the studio. I don't think we mentioned this. We mentioned that we were in the studio yesterday because Elizabeth Moss was coming in and so we had her in the studio, which is why we were gathered, which we wouldn't normally be on a Monday.

25:40Well, maybe we'll do that now. No, we won't. We won't be doing that now. It was... I'm not coming in from fucking Luton every Monday to see YouTube. No. No way. That is fair. That is fair. Shall we have a look and see what's in the post bag? Have you looked at all of them and have you done it properly, James? Well, I have a little... My triage system has evolved slightly, so I will go through and ones that I think are good, I will slap into a folder for Pilot Plus. Well done. So there's been a very, very top level amount of triage at some point, though I don't know what any of these things are.

26:10Okay, great. Let's see. Let's see. This first one is from Guy, and it's for Boydie. Hello, all. Please can Boyd confirm exactly when he saw Star Wars in 1977? Because unless he began his famously transatlantic lifestyle at an early age and saw it in America, or at the Dominion Theatre, Tottenham Court Road over Christmas of 1977, where it had an exclusive run, he saw it with the rest of the UK in 1978. Also, loving the new Steph's Word of the Week segment in which Miss Seelan ascertains a word in quotidian parlance. Who is that from? That's slightly... This is from Guy. Guy. Guy, king of snark.

26:49Yeah, it's all very good to adopt a snarky tone. I feel like in some ways you're the James of... Of the postbag. Yeah, making assumptions left, right and centre. I was in Orlando, Florida, when I was 10 years old, taken by my mum on a holiday to Disney World. You lucky fish. And Star Wars was on at the cinema, and I went to see it with my mum, aged 10, in 1977 in America. Wow. Indeed. Oh, wow. Yeah. There you are. And indeed, the British public had to wait months, months for it to arrive in the UK. So I was lording it over my schoolmates, probably in a modest, likeable way, that I'd seen Star Wars already in America in 1977.

27:39Very good, Boydy. I mean, God, James, did you expect it to go that way? I didn't. I didn't see that coming. I was expecting Boyd to eat humble, chronological pie, and yet here we are. How lucky are you, James? I'm sure your mum took, how lucky are you, Boyd? Oh, we're just interchanging with you, aren't we? Okay, sorry. Yeah, it's like when you do that with me and Kate. It's true, I do. How lucky are you, though? You went to Orlando to do this. Wow, that must have been amazing. It was unbelievable, yeah. No, it was very spoiled. Yeah, yeah. I think it was because my parents were kind of getting divorced, I think, or something at that time.

28:10Okay, well, why have you had to put a sad twist on that? Yeah, it was just fun. My dad took my brother to something on another trip somewhere else. Oh, my God. Separated. Separated one to Disneyland. Oh, my God. I wish I'd never asked. Yeah, it's got a dark side to it. Yeah, okay. Well, let's move on. Let's move on. Let's move on. We have a question here from Bent Stammers. Bent says, being a Norwegian with a name other nationalities struggle with, even though it is pronounced just bent, as you would say in English, it's been interesting to hear the team struggle with Harry Hula over the past mentions.

28:48so I thought I'd send you a voice recording to clear things up once and for all with an added for good measure that's amazing thank you let me see if I can make this work there we go that's the correct pronunciation do you want to hear it again yes please

29:09I think I did alright I think I did alright I think I did alright I think I did alright I think I did alright I think I did alright I think I did alright I think I did alright listeners for my buttering of your lovely language. But this is good. Thank you for that. We do like to be corrected. I find that it's nice and educational. It is. I really appreciate that. Thank you. Okay. We have a question here and this comes from Jim. And Jim says, I've been a loyal listener and plus subscriber from the beginning. In fact, it was my tweet you read out on air when selecting the name Copilots. However, at the time, I recall it was a name for loyal listeners okay fair enough uh but just seems to be used for the three of you could the name be reclaimed for all hmm interesting but we'll see on to my question like james my comedy staples growing up with red dwarf and black adder i'm pretty sure i can still quote entire episodes even now however nowadays i find that no comedies seem quite as good big fan of shows like shrinking right now but don't really think of it as being a full-on comedy like those old classics am i just getting old and teen me might find some current comedies funny or do they simply just not make them like they used to very similar taste to me actually as well um i think we had a question similar to this before and we talked about do they make those type of comedies because yes shrinking whilst you know i'm a huge lover of shrinking as is k um it isn't that type of comedy i mean you know that they're night and day with with red dwarf there's they're not i don't think they have then you know it's ridiculous to even think that there's anything similar about those um and i do think red dwarf in particular is a very specific type of comedy i think i said on the last pod it's either it's a real marmite you either love that comedy and you really immerse yourself into it or you just hate it you don't get it um i don't know b what would you say i can't remember what you said before about there being do they make those types of comedies anymore because i know we talked a lot Yeah, not really.

31:07Those were studio comedies with film in front of a live studio audience, and they're incredibly rare now in the UK, certainly. They still do them a bit, but not as much in America. But I think, yeah, Blackadder and Red Dwarf, they've got that quality to them where then it's a very different vibe to single camera as they're known, you know, shows like The Office. So The Office helped start the revolution in TV comedies being much more like that. And The Royal Family, you know, shows without laughter tracks and not filmed in front of audiences. And it's just a completely different vibe. So I think there aren't many of that type of show run anymore.

31:47But I would contend that, you know, there are loads of great half-hour comedies that are just different. Like Derry Girls and, you know, I'm now going to struggle to see Bad Boys. you know half hour comedies that are more rooted in big boys i was gonna say big boys slightly different vibe big boys sorry bad boys i always get that wrong what you're gonna do yeah do you know what i mean so i think i think there are loads of brilliant comedies around just different just just not in that not not in that vein of recording filming in front of a live studio audience with that tone to them however you know what if if kind of sketches and what you have to maybe you'll be one of the people that loves SNL UK because that is sketch after sketch after sketch.

32:30Maybe you'll like those. I don't know. Yeah, well, sketch comedy is also incredibly rare as well. So James hates, James hates funny things. I've never enjoyed sketch comedy. It has to be said. But I wonder whether Jim has a point in terms of foundational comedy, because I would say, certainly from our era, things like Red Dwarf, things like Blackadder, things like Fawlty Towers, and even Friends to a certain extent became foundational comedies that kind of were the building blocks of your own personal sense of humor. But this, this was your kind of like, your sort of litmus test for what was and wasn't funny.

33:02And I wonder what the modern equivalent of that is where people are, you know, in their sort of early teenage years, they're establishing their personalities, what they like, what they don't like, what they find funny. Like what is their, what is their foundational comedy? What is it? What is going to be the building blocks of their funny bones? Well, I think this is an incredibly interesting point because I think the other thing is now so many of the things which were the building blocks of our humor and what we find funny are not allowed anymore or you do know i mean there's a there's a lot that you can't do i mean if you actually think about those kinds of shows if you re-looked at them again and we talked about this again with 40 towers you just couldn't do that stuff now those a lot of the jokes you couldn't you can have a like you know things like uh little britain you know that's come under fire you know people looking back and go there's a lot of that stuff you just couldn't do now so that's a really interesting point you mean where are these in work britain so it's like where are people getting their comedy now what are they where you're not allowed where it's it's not permissible to find some things funny that you might privately find funny um yeah that's a really interesting also i would say that like not everything in faulty towers was problematic there are a couple of massively problematic shows but a lot of it is quite broad fast and slapstick which is timeless.

34:17Yeah, it's repeated constantly on UK Gold and Dave and every other channel. Presumably not every episode and every scene. I don't know. But, you know, I'm thinking specifically the stuff that you would quote endlessly to your friends. And I would say, certainly... Oh, Inbetweeners. Inbetweeners. That's what I was going to say. Inbetweeners and Spaced feel like ones that are the more recent ones. So Spaced is quoted endlessly. They were more recent. They were fucking decades ago, mate. No, but I'm saying more recent than the foundational comedies when we were growing up. Because I was an empire when that stuff came out.

34:46but we still quote it to this day but I wonder what the most recent quotable comedy shows are that you do kind of that filter into your everyday lexicon that become a part of your everyday vocabulary do people quote The Office in that way? yeah I think they do I don't obviously I do quote extras though I do quote the Patrick Stewart and extras at Empire but we very very often say it's too late I've seen everything Patrick Stewart legend oh no you know born entertainer all the David Brentisms are still going strong yeah deaf people still quote those for sure I think the other thing is of course we're in a different world now where back when 40 Towers and Blackadder and Red Dwarf were new to viewers you didn't have any option of you watched them live going out live you know you could have recorded them on a VCR I guess and watched them at a time but now everyone can still watch those shows on those channels on you know everyone's still watching The Office and Extras and Red Dwarf, indeed, and Blackout on catch-up channels on Dave and UK TV and et cetera, et cetera.

35:53So they're all very much – and Friends. I mean, talk about – you know, Friends has never gone away and it's still, you know, one of the biggest shows in wherever the hell – is it still on Netflix or whatever or HBO? It'll be on HBO Max, presumably. Comedy Central. Comedy Central literally is on right every day. Comedy Central, yeah. So those shows are still very much alive, aren't they, for kids? I'm always hearing of my niece and nephew going to Friends at a very early age. I would say... They're still alive, really. And so I think the answer is that those shows are still delivering, helping form people's senses of humour now.

36:27The same shows that were doing it for us 30 years ago, basically. I have... There's a few of Gracie's friends who are seven, and they all watch Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and they love that. And that's very kind of kid-friendly and quotable. as well. I agree, actually. It's not 100 % to my humorous tastes, but it's not bad. I don't mind it. But yeah, I do think that. I think Netflix has been the great leveler there, because I think Friends became cross-generational when it went onto Netflix, which is not there anymore. And Brooklyn Nine-Nine being on Netflix has just made it because it feels like most households have Netflix, and most kids have unlimited access to Netflix.

37:04So when you have these shows on there, it doesn't matter whether it's 10 years ago or 20 years ago. They'll watch it. Disney Plus did the same thing with Buffy, to a certain extent. Oh, Buffy. R.I.P. Buffy. Indeed. Indeed. Well, from that question on comedy to the next one, looks like it's also somewhat comedy related. Pointed to Steph, it says at the top, dear Pilot and Steph in particular. Oh, is it going to be nice? Be nice. Right. No, it's not. I'm a day one subscriber and the subject of cringe keeps coming up to the point that it finally annoyed me enough to write in. Several studies have linked low tolerance for secondhand embarrassment or cringe to a high level of empathy.

37:42Those of you who enjoy watching cringe have lower levels of empathy, which is why other people's embarrassment doesn't affect you, but amuses you instead. Basically, you're psychopaths. I'm extra annoyed with Steph for making me defend James, whom I still haven't forgiven for having the most basic straight man take on heated rivalry ever. Just because it's gay doesn't make it porn. unless normal people is also porn. That is entirely accurate. I was, however, just having fun at Steph's expense at the time. No bones to pick with Boyd. Keep up the good work, Boyd. Oh, yeah. Great man. P.S. The extra higher levels of empathy have also been connected to being on the autism spectrum, which wouldn't be the only sign James has displayed on that.

38:25Hello, hyperfixation. Thanks so much. That was from May. Okay. Sorry, who's the person who wrote in? Right, May. Okay, listen, May, right? Firstly, okay, I'm sorry I annoyed you, okay? But I am going to need to see your sources on that. What are the studies? I'm going to need a bibliography, all right? I would say I am the most, I have the most empathy of everyone. Wouldn't you say, boys? What, in the world? Of us three. No, I'm probably not. I think it's two different things, yeah. So there's being highly empathetic and then there's being hyper-empathetic, which is autism-coded, but it's also ADHD-coded, which is why I kind of fall into that bracket.

39:08But then it's like almost like it's more about not being able to define boundaries between your emotions and other people's. So sometimes why I can't watch really traumatic sequences in TV shows because I feel like it's happening to me, like it's quite hard to separate me from them. So it's quite traumatic. Yeah, but they're not real. So I'm like, that's why I can, right. I understand that on an intellectual level, but kind of, again, it's like hyper-empathy is a little bit, it blurs the lines a little bit. it makes it a little bit hard to deal with. I'm just going to say, I don't, I don't, I don't, in real life, if someone fell over, I'd feel bad, I'd be the first person to help them.

39:41But yeah, when it's on a show, May, then I, you know, I can, I can understand it's on a show. It's not real, says Steph. And also they're getting paid for it. So it's fine. It's fine. So, you know what? And also I feel, I think you should feel bad about defending James, who is very mean to me. Just saying. Wow. let's become friends mate you may have burned that bridge at this point you may have burned that bridge oh very good yes indeed okie dokie right this is a message from Stuart this one's from February I'm trying to go back and forward between recent ones and older ones and Stuart says just listening to James talk about picking his next rewatch where he says he considered the West Wing but wouldn't think about Game of Thrones as it's too long Google suggests there are about 110 hours of West Wing and 70 hours of Game of Thrones Great James logic as usual.

40:33Yes, thank you very much, Stuart. I would argue that Game of Thrones is a large narrative watch that you have to be invested in. The West Wing, I could dip in and out over the course of 12 months because it's comfort food. So therein lies the distinction. Anyway, he continues. On the topic of re-watching things, I'd love to know how many listeners regularly re-watch things over and over. Personally, I almost never re-watch anything as it's more fun to see new things and it feels like wasting time retreading old ground. I don't really get the concept of comfort watching, so it may be just me. Right.

41:04I'm going to say, I don't know whether you guys ever get this, but when I want to re-watch something, it's because something has gripped me so much that I've done a full binge and then I realise I get to the end of it so I know the resolution and then I think I can re-watch it now and now I can enjoy it because I know it all ends up okay or I know the end or I know who the killer was and now I can watch it back and there's just that relief of knowing the ending. Do you know what I mean? Do you ever get that with stuff where you're like, it's so frenetic, you have to get to the end of it because you have to know or you have to get out of this state of fear that you're in that it's not going to resolve nicely.

41:43And then you can go back and watch it at a pace that you're more comfortable with. Is that just me? No, I get it. I can see that. Emotions. I find, I have to say, I rewatch comedy all the time, constantly. Oh, yeah. And I think that's, I don't get rewatching dramas I think is fucking weird, I have to say. Jenkins' obsession with re-watching The West Wing and Game of Thrones and whatever the hell else he re-watched, you re-watched, I find that absolutely mystifying. I do not. I mean, it's a drama. You know what's going to happen. You've seen it before. What's the fucking point? Whereas comedy is there to amuse, delight, and entertain you and comfort you.

42:25it's just it's just doesn't make any sense to me to to to um re-watch drama yeah so i very i mean i can't remember i'm trying to think of any i mean every now and then i might watch an episode if it pops up on live tv so to speak of the sopranos or something or game of thrones something like that every now and then i'll do it almost just purely of in in the moment but i i choose to re-watch comedies constantly yeah i'm gonna say you know so sorry who was it who wrote what What was the name of the person who wrote in? I believe this was Stuart. Right, Stuart. I would say Game of Thrones, I would do exactly that, Boyd.

43:00Because I don't think you need to do a full rewatch of that. If it's on the TV, I will watch an episode again. Because I know what happens and it's fine. I think you can just watch those episodes in isolation. If you're so familiar with Game of Thrones, you know what happens. Are you watching it for the porny bits? Yeah, so I'm like fully watching it for the bums out. Like he did rivalry. No, but you know, you can do that. But yeah, I agree with you to a certain degree, Boyd. It is to watch a full drama. Although, saying that, I did watch The Fool again. Do you remember? I did do a rewatch of The Fool and I really enjoyed that.

43:34Oh, The Fool, not The Fool. I thought you were saying The Fool as in F-double-O-L. No, The Fool. Jamie Dornan's The Fool. And I really enjoyed that. But I don't know whether it, because the passage of time was so large, I'd largely forgotten what happened, even though I knew he got caught and everything. Do you know what I mean? And that's a drama. I know what you mean. You wouldn't do that. I would not do that, no. Yeah. Absolutely not. So, James, explain yourself. What was going on? I think there are a number of different ways of approaching this particular question. I think the emotional regulation thing is real.

44:02I think sometimes it is nice to watch things you're familiar with because it is quite calming and it takes the stress out of it. To your point, Steph, I think some people genuinely do. And in fact, I know several people who will look up what happens in stressful things like horror films so they know exactly what's going to happen. Wow. So that when they watch it, it's not as anxiety-inducing. Triggering. Yeah. It takes the anxiety out of it because they know where it's going. For me, that ruins the show. But for some people, it gives them an element of control over something that would otherwise give them anxiety.

44:28As for re-watching dramas, I think there are kind of two ways of looking at this. I think one is when you watch as much TV as we do, and, boy, do you of all people should understand this, you fill up the hard drive space in your brain. And, frankly, for new things to get in, old things have to drop out. So I will get to the point where I have just forgotten everything that's happened in a show. I absolutely will do because I've seen so much stuff since then. and so watching it again while it's familiar to me i don't remember the individual beats necessarily so it's actually really nice and i'm experiencing it again um for things like game of thrones there's a transportational aspect to it as well because it's pure escapism and it's fantasy it is transporting you to another place and that's never not delightful like it's it's the purest form of you're really into that aren't you yeah i love it i live for it that's what tv is for me yeah 100 yeah i'm not because it's why we're saying when when you know weirdly when we touched on with with hyper empathy it's like when i watch tv i don't watch tv i live the show like i project myself into it i am there for the duration of it like it's on the dragon right it's a very very intense experience so yeah it's like being in like vr dario argento directed an absolutely terrible film about the condition the stendhal syndrome which you know what that is i think that is when you place yourself into a painting or work of art right okay yeah and that's what you're doing you have the stendhal syndrome basically yeah that is what i do that is genuinely intriguing so for me it's it's a fantastic way of getting out of whatever troubles i have and just being in this place i have almost precisely the opposite um which is that i enjoy game of thrones almost despite the you know the dragons and the fantastic fantasy element because it's so well written and acted and so you know brilliantly plotted etc but like avatar i mean film sorry like avatar you love avatar because you know it transports you into that for me i i i kind of enjoy avatar just about because of the it's it's quite fun but i find the whole setting of it and it's actually like basically like a bad yes album cover from the 70s and i can't take it seriously and it's so kitsch and kind of like you know a facile for me that i almost enjoy that that those those films despite the fantasy setting and i couldn't imagine myself riding one of those fucking creatures at all.

46:42I just, yeah. Ikran. Yeah, thank you. There you go. I think, I mean, when I re-watch stuff, I'm with you, Boyd, on the comedy. Like, do you know what I love to watch episodes of In Isolation? Like Veep. I love doing that because I find that really relaxing. But also, I know it's going to give me a belly laugh. So, James, are you saying when you're watching these things, do you feel relaxed? Because it doesn't sound relaxing to me to be fully immersing yourself in Westeros. and do you know what I mean? And like, that sounds like the most, I love, I love Game of Thrones, but that's not relaxing.

47:15It's not always the most relaxing show in the world. Yeah. Okay. So what is it you're watching when you want to relax? Honestly, things like that. Genuinely. So it is relaxing for you. It's anything that's transportational. Like I do it with Battlestar Galactica. When I was younger, I did it with Star Trek, but it was very much like being in those places. And also there's a familiarity to characters where, you know, if you really binge something, if you really immerse, these people feel like you know them. Like there's that parasocial relationship you have with them and they feel like friends so just spending time in the company of these great characters is quite soothing and enjoyable but yes maybe it is stendhal syndrome but i really like i find it quite intense so we're going to get onto this on on the next monday show but you know when you when you binge watch something like the pit especially something that's in real time you go through like 15 hours of that and you feel so in that place and you feel so like connected to those characters it's quite you know like i said it's a transportational experience oh yeah that's yeah i get that i know you're thinking but it's different because they're real people and it's a much more relatable thing yeah i know it's not you're going full k at this floating rocks and waterfalls full k oh boydy what is your beef with the hallelujah mountains is that what they are that is what they are okay yeah okie dokie this is a question for steph from phil i don't think i've asked this before if i have to tell me phil says and this came from the beginning of the year but phil says is can i just is phil also annoyed with me because may because may is not happy phil has a question as it is her area of expertise specialist expertise he says has steph seen murder in monaco i would love to have her thoughts particularly as i used to work in that exact office building i haven't seen murder in monaco i'm gonna look that up a netflix true crime documentary explaining the 1999 death of billionaire banker edmund safra oh my god i haven't do you know what i haven't seen this and now and now that you've brought my attention to this i'm not only going to watch it i'm going to do a feature on it because this looks amazing right okay thank you so much for filling the content of crime monthly because i'm going to watch this and this looks like a great feature oh died on december the 3rd 1999 after a fire was intentionally set in his fortified monaco penthouse okay thank you I'm sorry I haven't watched it I am going to watch it this is this looks brilliant this is right up your alley isn't it it is right up my alley okay we have another message here from Phil and Phil was responding to our discussion the other week where he said I loved the nostalgia fest noting childhood cartoons even now maybe 40 years later whenever I hear the name Esteban when in Spain all the time I am instantly transported to the cities of gold ah cities of gold just in case you missed me doing it last time there you go yes barbara says in response to our uh perhaps slightly ill-advised mount rushmore of uh female heroines emma peel she says my first and forever female heroine of all time and i'm american can't believe how skewed american your choices were when emma peel and diana rig are right there that's bob from maryland bob you're totally right yeah you're totally right fair enough take that on board oh i like purdy who is of course uh the new avengers played by uh Jonah Lumley that's true I'm sorry so the new Avengers were Florence Pugh and David Harbour oh god yeah yeah anyway we've got another one along those lines this one comes from Heather a few additions to the international Steph Day list of best VMA TV characters Anna Sawai in Shogun Nicola Walker in Forgotten Anna Torr in Fringe Claudia Black in Farscape thank you Regina King in Watchmen second do you have any pre-pod routines that help you set up for a successful recording session.

51:01Can I just say, I'm so angry now I didn't think about Nicola Walker. Thank you so much for mentioning that because I love her and she is absolutely brilliant in everything. Ironically, she was forgotten. I know. God, I'm so annoyed with myself. I'm just going to sit in silence for a bit and just feel bad about that. Sorry, the question was pre... Do you have any pre-pod routines? uh the pre-pod routine is basically get into the studio i asked boyd if he's seen the question um and he'll say oh no fucking question and i'll be like um no i haven't seen it either and then we'll quickly try and look james will be fiddling around with the muffs um the cameras won't work i'll try not to speak what's one of the hilarious things is in the record last week where james is like Steph don't speak or breathe because the camera keeps going on you and I look insane when he's trying to talk so it's actually went on me with me holding my breath did you see it I was holding my breath trying not to speak um what else this is when we start the show the cameras seem to just home in on Steph when we start the show no matter who is talking it would just look at you yeah I mean fair enough um I uh I just have to have some kind of beverage so I usually have a tea.

52:20I like a cup of tea. Comforting cup of tea. And of course you're not supposed to have liquids in the studio at all. Boy's a maverick. Sorry. That's my one. And I try to adjust my mind to the vagaries of James'. Yeah, having to deal with me for the next hour and a half. It takes a mental shift. Every single time we go in the studio I moan about having to basically climb on the chair because the chairs are so high and I'm only five foot and it takes me so long to get the chair down that's really annoying um and then I rustle my papers in the order that I think James because James never tells us the orders of the review before we go on air um that I think he's going to do and then I have to do an on-air rustle to get to my notes yeah James what do you do I like to keep doing those uh what do I do uh well I try Just getting the desk ready, you know, getting all the dials up, making sure the cameras are thing.

53:22Like weirdly that gets me into the right headspace, just setting up the studio. It's quite, I find it quite meditative. Then we talk about things that have like been on the, on the Reddit or something, don't we? Like. Oh yes. The, the pre-podcast chat. Yeah. Which you get the tail end of at the beginning of the video, except it's muted. So you have to be lit reading. My favourite thing about the last record was, no, the women's, the International Women's week is you kept in the bit where at the end because i was so angry with you about making me do all of the shows and looking like an absolute idiot where i go i hate you yes to be fair that was darren was it thanks darren yes uh we should say heather had two ps's to this particular message ps thank you for recommending halo i recently binged both seasons had a great time even as someone who's never played the game yes halo was great i was gutted that got cancelled PPS with the utmost love and respect The connect pronunciation of our neighbouring city to the east Is St.

54:19Louis Like Hamilton or Pullman And not St. Louis Like Armstrong or the French Kings You know what I thought that I meant to say this As soon as we first started talking about the show And you said Yeah we were all mispronouncing it I knew we were mispronouncing it Yeah meet me in St. Louis Oh god we're awful It's like New Orleans What's wrong with us? Yeah. Norlands. Okay. We have one more. This one from Angie related to the International Women's Day episode. Another brilliant podcast this week, but I really must take issue with the egregious omission of two of the absolutely best female characters on television.

54:55The Expanse produced the indomitable Christian Avasarala played by the extremely talented Shre Agdashloo. Absolutely true. And I'm horribly remiss in not remembering that. That's on you, James. That is on me. And Farscape gave us the radiant Aaron Sun in the form of Claudia Black. Also true. I can just about forgive Boyd or Steph. Boyd is often biased against sci-fi and Steph was always going to pick Jessica Fletcher but given Boyd said CJ and James was scrambling for another answer I couldn't believe James' egregious decision to suggest Veronica Mars over Avasarala or even drummer or Officer Sun.

55:30Are you a nice listener? I panicked. This is from Angie. Angie's a paid up member of the James TV fan club with that. array of James obsessed shows yes the Veronica Mars nomination for me was such a low point in your like stay in your like in your you know you have a lot of stellar opinions but I was like wow I was trying to think of something that wasn't connected to shows I talk about all the time so I was trying to do a little bit left field and for whatever reason it didn't occur to me to say the correct answer which was Sarah Lancashire from Happy Valley I don't know quite what happened to be then but yeah I totally should have done that it's like Veronica Mars would not be the go-to for anyone I don't know I mean I didn't even say Captain Janeway which also would have been a very me one which would have worked but yeah I mean I let the whole side down there you really did yeah but mostly yourself but yeah that's true and what better way to end this particular episode of pilot plus than me having let the side down we will be back thank you for your messages I should say if you do want to send more in it's pilot TV at empire magazine dot com and we will be back in your ears on this very Monday when we will have on the show not only Elizabeth Moss in our studio talking all about Imperfect Women but Lisa Kudrow and Michael Patrick King will be talking to Boydie about the Comebacks Comeback that's very exciting plus we'll be reviewing Babies and the Burbs and the second season of Your Friends and Neighbours as well.

56:58Okay and May once again I'm sorry let's be friends okay? Pilots out