More Rosebud - Gyles's Diary episode 49

0:00Hey, it's Paige from Giggly Squad. Summer gave your home a workout. Cookouts, long weekends, probably at-home improvement lists that never quite got finished. And now it's fall's turn. And Lowe's is making the changeover easy with their Labor Day deals. Right now, save up to 45 % off select major appliances. So if something's been on your list, this is the time. Doing laundry? You can save an extra$100 on select laundry pairs. And if you're getting the yard ready for fall, head over and grab three bags of Miracle-Gro 0.75 cubic foot garden soil for just$10. So don't miss these Labor Day deals at Lowe's.

0:35Valid through September 9th while supplies last. Selection varies by location. See Lowe's.com for more details. Soil offer excludes Alaska and Hawaii. This episode is sponsored by Aerie. If you know me, you know that my philosophy is all about looking good and feeling good every single day. And that honestly comes down to the first layer. I'm talking about bras. If your bra is digging into your shoulder, or maybe it's riding up in the back, or you are dying to take it off at the end of the day, then that bra is not the right fit. And what I love about Aerie is that they have 59 different sizes in really soft fabrics and really good fits.

1:12Because at the end of the day, your bra should hold you in and not hold you back. Visit Aerie.com to find the right bra and your perfect fit. I'm Giles Brandreth and this is More Rosebud. Cue the music.

1:46It's a Tuesday in September, the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. Who is the poet who gave us that line, Harriet? John Keats, Ode to Autumn. Ode to Autumn. Whenever I see the word Keats, I see an anagram, the word steak. Oh, I never thought of it like that. I did a thing of turning poets' names into anagrams, which is how I got toilets from T.S. Eliot. Oh, yeah. Let's raise our game. This is More Rosebud. It's a Tuesday. It's September. Harriet Jane, my producer and friend, and I, we are in the Rosebud studio on Park Lane at Grosvenor House. And it's lovely to be here. It is. We're back.

2:26We're so happy to be back. We've been away. We're back. Start of a new term. And is the start of a new term exhilarating for you or a bit anxious making? How is it for you? That's an interesting question. I think September, even when one is an adult, long after school has ended, September is still a watershed moment, isn't it? Totally. And the stomach churns and there's a sort of feeling in the air of getting a new school uniform and getting serious. New things are happening. And I've actually decided more than in January, September is when I do a bit of a reset. My wife, Michelle, and I this week have started with a new personal trainer.

3:05And we thought, well, the family that exercises together maybe stays together because my wife, after nearly 60 years, is saying on a regular basis, actually, haven't we had enough? Well, can I just float something? I'm not suggesting this for you and Michelle because I know you're happily married. But is this, I mean, I'm just putting it out there to our lovely listeners and everything. Maybe that's an idea, you know, just before the end. Sorry, Giles. Before we began recording, she said, Giles, rest assured there'll be no elder abuse during this episode. Just before the final chapter, the final countdown.

3:43The final countdown. You have a little, you have a break. You just go, okay, let's give ourselves. So I had this thought, which I've actually completely messed this up already, and you know why. So I'm a vegetarian, as you know. I had this idea in my head that was, when I get to 60, I'm going to have 10 years of eating meat. I'm going to give myself a holiday from vegetarianism for 10 years when I'm 60. And I was really looking forward to that. Because I still enjoy meat, even though I don't eat it. Or fish. actually as you know what happened is i got a personal trainer realized that i really couldn't cope on a vegetarian diet and felt tired and hungry the whole time and a bit weak and got headaches and i have had to start eating more meat already and i'm not 60 so it hasn't really worked but i like this idea of maybe fixing a sort of point where you might have a little treat or a break or a holiday do you think that could work for marriages two or three things to say yeah one is you're a generation away from being 60.

4:47And my association with you has brought me to fall off the wagon. I was a vegetarian, then a pescatarian, and now I'm with you. I'm this born-again vegetarian, which means to be more inclusive, I eat meat to support you. That's the first thing to say. Well, don't blame me for it. And you know we'll get letters of complaint from people that are committed vegetarians. And I apologise to you, the vegetarians out there. And I also apologise to the animals that have been eaten by me in jars because I still have a pang every time I eat an animal and I think about them and everything, yeah. Good, I'm glad you do.

5:24Yeah, I have a conscience. That's good. You know that animals now are being used as donors for parts of the body. That's been going on for years. My friend's about to get a pig's valve in her heart. Well, a pig's kidney this week has been given to somebody. Oh, that's good. Yeah, and I was thinking I wouldn't mind little bits of squiddle. Oh. Which bits would you like? Well, no. Blood transfusion is a shortage of people giving blood. And I would quite like some squirrel blood because outside our window, there's a wonderful squirrel at home who is skipping about like nobody's business and I could do with his blood.

5:57Can I just say, Giles, I think you plus squirrel blood would be a nightmare of manic. I mean, it's bad enough with normal Giles blood. But, yeah. So, going back to my wife deciding after nearly 60 years that maybe it's time for a break. There is a school that says that a marriage contract should last seven years and then just be renewed automatically unless you apply for it not to be. A bit like home insurance. Yeah. Every seven years you get a chance to break it or make it. So people would accept that and they would know that they could get out of it. Yeah, the seven-year itch. The seven-year itch.

6:33Anyway, my thought was we would do something together. And what we're doing together is we've got a personal trainer who is coming in. And part of the reset is getting a personal trainer in who's coming twice a week. He's also the personal trainer to Patricia Hodge. That's what gave me the idea. You know, we had Patricia Hodge on the other day on Rosebud. Very, very popular episode. Doesn't she look amazing? She is amazing. I mean, she looks physically fantastic. She's beautiful. She's the same sort of generation as Michelle and me. So I thought, well, let's go to her personal trainer. So he's coming.

7:06He's doing it at the moment out in the garden. And so we're having a joint session. So it can't be that energetic. What are you doing in the garden? What are we doing in the garden? I mean, just because you're not on machines. What are you doing, Giles? Is this serious? Very serious. What are you doing? Boxing, among other things. Yes. Boxing. Wow. And hand-to-eye coordination with very fast balls, large balls, and at the same time, small balls like tennis balls. Catching, fielding them at the same time. Oh, yeah. Boxing with boxing gloves. With boxing gloves. Really heavy boxing gloves. It's what is, I mean, we've only had one session so far.

7:46That is really good for you, boxing, by the way. But essentially what it's about, given our age, it's flexibility and strength. Flexibility, strength, balance. Balance, yes. Is what we're working on. The long and the short of it, it's been quite fun doing it together. That's so fun. So is Michelle hitting you with boxing gloves? Yes, she's hitting the palms of my hands. And I'm hitting the palm of my hands. But we're also doing it against the trainer. Yeah. And he is, as we're doing it, he is backing across the garden. So we've got to do it against him. We're banging, bang, bang, bang, bang. And then he drops one hand, hit the other one.

8:20It's really tough work. Whoa, Giles. Is it bringing out a sort of latent boxer in you? Are you channeling your inner... Aggression? Yeah. I don't know. Anyway, that's not all we're doing. We're doing all the usual things. You know, sitting up and standing down and balancing on one leg and all that kind of thing and running and going backwards. You name it. We're doing all that push-ups and press-ups and weights. All of that's going on. It's exhausting. Sounds absolutely exhausting. But by virtue of doing it together, maybe it's a good thing. So that's one of the resets. Another reset is I'm thinking about finances.

8:54I'm going through all my direct debits. I'm paying for things on the television that I haven't ever looked at. You know, channels. So I'm cutting out all that. Yes, that's good. Cancel any subscriptions you're not using. but obviously not the one to the Rosebud family because you are using that. And you are using it. And if you haven't yet joined, it's patreon.com forward slash Rosebud. Yeah. Only a five of a month. It's only$4.99 plus fat. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm cutting back on expensive coffees in unlikely places. Oh. I'm going to be making some economies. I'm not leaving lights on around the house.

9:27I never did that much anyway, but I'm making sure that people don't. Yeah. So it's a little bit more discipline and I'm starting on a lot of new exciting projects. So it's been a bit of a reset for me. Has it been a bit of a reset for you? Yes, I've started a big project, which is we've started landscaping our back garden. So we've got the builders in, which I enjoy. I love my builders and I love a project. And when I've got a project on, I spend loads of time thinking about it and imagining what it will look like. I really enjoy designing things. In fact, if my career as rosebud producer ends, which I hope it doesn't, Giles, but if it does, I think I'd be a gardener slash interior designer for a while.

10:14Very nice. I think it's very good. I'm afraid it won't end for quite a while because I've also had lots of medical tests this week. Yes, part of the reset, a complete overhaul from top to toe. I can see, I can breathe, I can walk. Well, some of the test results haven't come in yet, but so far, so good. So with a bit of luck, we've got another 20, 30 years of rosebud ahead. Oh, fabulous. I'll clear the diary. Yeah, please do. Now, what are we doing today? Well, we're going to start with an email. Very good. Because, sorry, I think Charles and I both had a cup of, I've had a cup of coffee and Charles has had a cup of tea.

10:47So if we're speaking rather quickly, that's why. Are we being a bit manic? I think I'm being a bit manic. Yeah. Well, I tell you. Just had an espresso. We've, I've had a manic three days. Yeah. Because we've been away performing, we got back and we stopped performing. I had a kind of, hmm. Well, in fact, you warned me. You said, it's going to be different, Charles, don't have a low. I thought, I'm not going to have a low. So you decided you were going to do some days in the office, which you did. You had to buy accounts. Accounts, bookkeeping, all of that. Has to be done, that's life. And I thought, I'm going to be dynamic.

11:22I'm going to start on my new book. I'm going to arrange the audio of the current book, which I've been doing. I'm going to be writing lots of fun emails to people about being guests on Rosebud. And I've been very actively involved in my charity that I'm a trustee of, the Queen's Reading Room. I've fired off all sorts of things there because we've got our lovely weekend at Chatsworth for the Queen's Reading Room coming up. So all sorts of things have been happening. And then I got to today and I thought, oh, am I a bit low? So I think I've been a bit high and then a bit low and a bit high. So do you think where should we be now more even?

11:57Is this why you started fantasising about having a squirrel blood transfusion, which is a sign of a low point, I think. I think it is. When you're lying in bed and you're envying the frisky squirrel out there, you think, well, it coincided with me reading about the pig who'd given his kidney to a human. And I thought, and there's a blood shortage, and there's a squirrel. He's got lots of spare blood. Well, I don't know if he has got lots. He's probably got a sort of thimble full. You'd have to have a whole raft of squirrels, wouldn't you, Giles? A little goes a long way with me. So, today's a diary day.

12:30Wait, I'm reading an email. Oh, good. You're going to love, by the way, you're going to love this email. Aren't we lucky? We're in our fourth year now and people are emailing us. We're getting more emails than ever. Before I read this, which is from someone called Darren Lingley. Great name, Darren Lingley. I want to say thank you so much to Marie who answers and looks through a lot of these emails now and really couldn't do it without her thank you Marie Marie's a really good friend of mine as well and she answers people so kindly and beautifully and has lovely chats with them and then I sometimes chip in too but it really is helpful and I occasionally chip in as well yeah we all chip in I chip in to people who belong to the Rosebud family and also on Facebook oh it's so fun Because there's the Rosebud Reflections page there.

13:20Oh, it's brilliant, that. All right. So what has Darren got to tell us? Dear Harriet and Giles, I put Harriet's name first, as I know she enjoys it so much. He says, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. And perhaps he knows how much it irritates me, because it should be alphabetical, Giles and Harriet, or indeed Brandreth and Jane, or indeed presenter first, producer second. But no, no, it's dear Harriet and Giles. Okay. May I thank you so much for being my workmates for over a year of driving and working around rural Essex and Suffolk in my old transit van. You kindly stepped into my son's shoes, who'd worked with me but now has sadly fledged from the family nest and business.

14:04You both work so hard by keeping the van full of banter, memories and inspiration. You've been amazing help building weirs, river sluices, refurbing houses, laying patios, engineering structures and forestry work. God, I didn't know we've been doing all that, Giles. I'm impressed. Love the idea of dealing with a river sluice. Yes. There's no end to your abilities, says Darren. Now, I love this bit, obviously. I have to say how much I love to hear Harriet's voice. So joyous and energising, it melts me. Harriet sweetens the most laborious chores with her silky, seductive and rich tones like Devon cream.

14:48As the producer, I, if I'd been you, would have said, Charles, I think you should read this letter. It would be more appropriate, particularly since Darren is a bloke. Normally, you read the letters from women and I read the letters from men. But no, no. Maybe you should. She wanted to read herself. I have to say how much I love to hear Harriet's voice so joyous and energising. It melts me. Harriet sweetens the most laborious chores with her silky, seductive and rich tones like Devon cream. Then he adds, almost as an afterthought, Giles, yours is gorgeous too. Well, that's quite nice. At first, you were a guilty secret.

15:26Not really the thing for the macho, outdoor, working man's bag. But now, I've outed myself as a true rosebuddy, spreading my love of and converting those unfortunates that haven't had the pleasure. Giles, we did meet briefly at the Colchester Oyster Feast, but I can't remember much as I was having an oyster and Guinness drinking competition with the wonderful Betty Boothroyd. Goodness. That lady could put them back. The former Speaker of the House of Commons. I think we both got urged to slow down or leave. Wow, there's a story. My first memory is of a strange, hairy, spider-like shape lit orange by the moon above.

16:06I remember it, feeling swaddled tight in my cot. Actually, I was looking at the cat who was sleeping on the faded Perspex roof light in the caravan I grew up in. I've confirmed it with my mum that a cat did sleep on the roof, and I wouldn't have been sleeping in the position after my first birthday, so it seems a very early memory and occasionally appears in my nightmares. The more I listen to Rosebud, the more I realise how much tone and diction of the voice matter in conveying the story. The voice is an amazing instrument and you both use it to full effect, along with a magnificent selection of guests.

16:48Please, can you make an effort to produce more episodes a week, as I'm just about to finish all the past ones and I'm not very good at rationing. I'm off now to re-listen to an old episode just to get me through the torture of work Many, many thanks Darren Lingley Rose Buddy I ought to explain to listeners that we've had a problem with people not writing to us and therefore I asked Harriet to make up some letters and send them in to herself so she could read them out on the programme This is clearly one of them Cue hollow laugh from Harriet What a lovely, lovely email, actually I mean, I know I've said this before, but we really do have the best listeners in the business.

17:31I mean, what a great email. But also, what a fascinating early memory. Yeah. And plus he'd been in an Oyster and Guinness drinking competition with Betty Boothroyd. I mean, that's a whole... I think we need to get Darren on Rosebud. Well, or maybe bits from his diary. Yeah. So if people want to write to us, please do. The address is very simple. It is... Hello at rosebudpodcast.com It's diary time. and we've reached 1979. This is for people who are new to Rosebud, just joined us in our fourth year. I, since the beginning, have been reading from my diary, which I kept from the 1950s onwards. I'm now, oh gosh, about 31 years of age, and I've got two or three children, and I'm living in London.

18:17Well, you'll discover more. Should I read some of the diary? Yeah, I think you should, Giles.

18:54We'll be right back. and online. Valid through 9-7. While supplies last, selection varies by location. Holland Papers offer excludes Alaska and Hawaii. Hi guys, it's Paige from Giggly Squad and oh my god, I've been binging the funniest TV show. FX's Adults, it's about five roommates living in New York. I mean, who would ever live in a house without many roommates? They're leaning on each other to navigate love, work, friendship, and family. Not relatable to me and Hannah at all. While tackling pressing questions of your 20s like, What if the person who inherited your fake ID is cooler than you ever were?

19:27Why does being around your family make you regress into your worst self? And how do you tell your roommates that you have other friends? FX's Adults, all episodes now streaming on Hulu. Most women have been there. Something feels off. You don't feel like yourself. Yet your doctor says everything looks fine. Spoiler, it's your hormones. Midi is a virtual care platform built for women by women and offers specialized hormone care from trained clinicians. Plus, it's covered by most major insurances. Getting started is easy. You can book your first visit with a clinician right away. It's not you, it's your hormones.

20:02Visit joinmidi.com to book your first visit. That's joinmidi.com. Insurance coverage varies. Check with your plan for coverage.

20:12It's the Saturday, the 5th of May, 1979. I'm on the train going to Birmingham for the Midlands finals of the National Scrabble Championships. This is something I'd founded a few years before. Of course. It is the end of an historic week. It began with the completion of our purchase of the house next door. We are now the proud owners of numbers one and two Camden Hill Gardens. It ended with the election of Britain's first woman prime minister. I have the front page of today's paper in front of me. mrs thatcher in number 10 heath in running as foreign secretary she has a majority of 43 enough to see her through five years and enough i'd have thought for her not to include heath in her team if she doesn't want to i feel a sense of change and an aura of calm she announced from the steps of downing street the dignity of office began to work from that moment according to the telegraph.

21:11Is that what she said? I feel a sense of change and an aura of calm. That's a rather amazing thing to say. It is interesting. And if you met her, she was actually always quite calm, quite sort of centred. You need to be in that job, don't you? Yeah. Next headline, Callaghan, generous in defeat. He was. I watched him on the box. He said it was a tremendous moment in our country's history to have our first female prime minister. He's right. Thorpe unbowed. Jeremy Bunnies Thorpe was trounced in North Devon. What happens to him now is anybody's guess. Noel, this is my friend Noel Davis, Noel is very clear on the subject.

21:55Buggery? He virtually invented it. That poor Marion Harwood. Marion Harwood was Jeremy Thorpe's long-suffering wife. Indeed, she stood by him. Gosh. Yeah. Thursday, the 7th of June, 1979. Today are the first elections in Britain for the European Assembly. I shall be going to vote in a moment. First, I shall try to encapsulate yesterday. I'm having to record the events of 6th June on the morning after the night before for reasons that will become apparent. I began the day at Simpsons in Piccadilly having my beard shaved off. The beard was not a success. I shan't try one again. Sorry, Giles, can I just interrupt you?

22:38Just a bit of info about the beard, please. Well, I thought I might, coming into my 30s, I might look a bit macho with a beard. Actually, I think I grew the beard to find out if I could. Yeah. Because not everybody can. Have you seen the photographs of me with the beard? Maybe, yeah. Yes, I think you sent me one. Yeah. So how long did you have it? How was it easy to grow? Just give me some... It was very easy to grow. It was quite bushy. Alarmly easy. It became then a bore to trim to maintain. It was bushy. It was a big bushy bit. Oh, dear. Exactly. And eating food, drinking soup, that was not attractive.

23:15And how long did you have this for? Oh, I suppose a few months. And what was Michelle's take on it? I don't recall. I don't think she was drawn to it particularly. She tolerated it. She's a very tolerant person. I wonder, actually, if she even noticed. Is that a possibility? Well. I don't know. But I didn't go back to it. No. Where are you on beards? Do you like a beard? I don't dislike a beard. No, I think they really suit some people. What about physical contact with a beard? Don't think I mind it. I'm not sure. Actually, I'm not sure I've had a huge amount of it, thinking about it. I had a boyfriend who had a beard for a while.

23:57What about a moustache without the beard? That's a bit odd, isn't it? Love a moustache. Oh, do you? Yeah, a sort of First World War officer. moustache. I'm not sure I've ever really seen anyone with this moustache but in my head Outside the movies, yeah. I think that's wonderfully elegant yeah, and I could really see myself going for someone who looked like that in the 1920s or you know, back in those days. What about those thin moustaches that people like David Niven and Errol Flynn had? Why do you think to carry off? I'm not sure many men can but if they can then they've probably got a lot of shush Do you think I should try a moustache now at this late speech?

24:36No, I think that would look a bit sinister, Giles. A late life moustache? No, I don't know. What do you think? That I could twirl? No, don't twirl it. Okay. Well, I lost my beard in 1979. Yeah. I began the day at Simpsons in Piccadilly having my beard shaved off. The beard was not a success. I shan't try one again. At lunchtime, I performed to the American Petroleum Wives Club at Quaglino's. It went well, my kind of crowd. At 5pm, we took Aphra to the doctor. Tonsillitis. But she'll be fine. At 8pm, Michelle and I were due at the Garrick Club to join Noel, that's our friend Noel Davis, and his new friend Martin for dinner.

25:15Noel is a newly elected Garrick Club member. This was his first time entertaining there. It was an important occasion. At the last minute, Michelle decided she couldn't go. Aphra was fine, but she didn't feel she could leave her with the babysitter. I went alone. As I climbed the Garrick Club stairs and reached the hallway, I heard Noel's voice. He was in the dining room, giving instructions to the waitress. He wanted the table setting just so. I found him and broke the news. Michelle can't make it. He coped well, shrugged his shoulders and instructed the waitress to reset the table. Where's Martin, I asked.

25:52Parking the car. We went upstairs to the bar and quickly worked our way through a bottle of champagne. Noel was fidgety, not as funny as usual, and kept looking out of the window anxiously onto Garrick Street. We embarked on a second bottle of champagne. There was no sign of Martin. At 9.30, the head waiter appeared to press us to take our table for dinner. We did as we were told. Conversation was desultory, but the drinking was steady. Noel had ordered some fine wines, a petit chablis to get us started, followed by an outstanding chambol musigny. At about 10.40, as we were silently draining our glasses, Martin suddenly appeared.

26:37Noel barely acknowledged the boy as he sat down at our table. Instead, Noel managed to catch the eye of Laurence Olivier. Yes, Laurence Olivier, looking quite shrunken and frail, was sitting at the head of the communal club table in the centre of the room. Noel nodded to his lordship and then blew him a kiss. Olivier smiled sweetly and raised his hand to catch the kiss. He clasped it between his palms and brought it briefly to his mouth. He opened his hands and gently blew the kiss back to Noel. A glass of port, I think, don't you? said Noel. We got to our feet. Noel led the way, taking my arm, ignoring Martin entirely.

27:24He signed the bill and took me into the hallway. We found our place in the snug beneath the stairs. We sat side by side on the leather sofa, drinking port, while Martin stood silently looking on. Noel was now back on song, but performing entirely for my benefit. As we sat there, we watched the passing scene. Familiar faces came and went. Noel addressed warm words to them all. Martin he continued to ignore. At one stage, he potted off to find a club servant to recharge our glasses while I went to the loo. As I returned, Noel caught me by the sleeve and pulled me across the hallway. Advancing towards us were two familiar figures in evening dress, Sir Richard Attenborough and Earl Mountbatten of Burma.

28:09Yes, breathed Noel happily, "'the two dickies together at last.' "'He pulled me across the great men's bath "'and effected an elaborate introduction. "'May I present Mr Giles Brandreth, "'who has contributed so much to charity in this country?' "'The two dickies shook my hand and moved on. "'Noel was suddenly elated. "'We're going dancing,' he announced, "'and together we tripped down the stairs of the Garrick Club, "'where, as we reached the street, a huge limousine appeared. "'As we reached the bottom step, the doors of the limousine swung open and out of the car stepped Yule Brinner. At once, without a moment's hesitation, Noel fell to his knees on the pavement, yanking me down with him, offered a deep salaam and cried, Welcome to England, O King of Siam.

28:59We ended the evening in a nightclub called Heaven. It is under the arches at Charing Cross, opposite the Players Theatre. The boy waiters wore make-up, silk shorts, roller skates and nothing else. Eventually, I don't quite know when, I found a taxi and came home. I had the hiccups. I climbed the stairs and fell onto the bed fully clothed. I did not sleep well. I have no idea what happened to Martin. Ooh, what a night, Giles. And I think it's the only time in my life I remember being drunk. I mean, that is crazy. It was a crazy evening. But it was a memorable night. So why was he so cross with Martin?

29:42Because Martin was his new boyfriend. Martin said he was parking the car. Martin didn't show up for a couple of hours. So where'd Martin gone? Oh. Exactly. Good point. Exactly. Had Martin been offered a bit of cruising through Soho? This was a little love match between Noel and young Martin. So Noel was wanting to show off Martin. Martin didn't appear. So, but anyway, an exciting night. Laurence Olivier, Earl Mountbatten of Burma, Sir Richard Attenborough and Yul Brynner, all in one night. Crumbs. And then going off to a gay nightclub. Gosh. With all the waiters. Yeah. With just boys in little silk shorts.

30:14Wow. It's all the makings of a classic Charles Brandreth story. Tuesday, the 12th of June, 1979. John Wayne has died aged 72. Pa says he will die at 71. He says it because that's what a fortune teller told him years ago on the front at Margate. I wish she hadn't. These things can become self-fulfilling prophecies. I'm now giving the parents£100 per month. Hope it helps. Oh, that's good, Giles. We had a very jolly dinner with George and Sophie Brown tonight. It was the usual stuff. George Brown had been a foreign secretary under Harold Wilson in his government. It was the usual stuff. Wilson was a schemer.

30:57Mary Wilson is lovely. The Kennedys were my friends. I should have been prime minister. We all know that from George. Oh, George, do shut up, from Sophie. It was the usual stuff, except that George was on the wagon and wouldn't be put off his stride. I'm not the only one who says I should have been Prime Minister, he insisted. That's what the people think. Remember the other night at that dinner at the Gallic Club when a complete stranger came up to me and said, Out of the blue, you are the best Prime Minister we never had. Sophie scoffed. The man was drunk, George, and so was his friend. I saw them both in the street afterwards, sprawled out on the pavement, completely drunk, the pair of them.

31:37It was me and Noel. Clearly, she had no idea. And, of course, I said nothing. The daughter Pat was there. It was a cosy evening. George wasn't drinking, but he made sure everybody else was, trundling round the sitting room, serving champagne or gin and tonic from her little drinks trolley. It amuses me how bourgeois are the lives of my socialist friends. I'm doing a book on great oratory with George we're calling it The Voice of History of those he's heard he ranks Churchill and Anaran Bevan as the most formidable Macmillan, he says, was a complete phony all histrionics and ham acting he says the single most brilliant speaker of his lifetime was Professor Harold Lasky who was an academic and I think he was the chairman of the Labour Party just after the Second World War.

32:30Anyway, he says the single most brilliant speaker of his lifetime was Professor Harold Lasky, who broke all the rules of public speaking, delivering every address as a lecture. With the minimum of movement, one hand fixed on his lapel, the other locked in his jacket pocket, the voice grating almost monotonous, but the content, logic, wit and presentation overwhelming. Lasky sounds to me to be in the same tradition as Enoch Powell. How interesting. I showed George something intriguing I'd come across. The Times correspondent's reaction to Abraham Lincoln's Great Gettysburg Address. The ceremony was rendered ludicrous by some of the sallies of that poor President Lincoln.

33:15Anything more dull and commonplace, it wouldn't be easy to imagine. Isn't that intriguing? It's one of the great speeches of all time. And the man from the Times thought it dull and commonplace. And I put here in brackets in my diary, I don't think journalists realise how much they are despised, and not just by politicians. Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation. It's matchless, but intriguingly, even Lincoln was disappointed at the time. His immediate verdict, that speech fell on the audience like a wet blanket. it. I am distressed about it.

33:57I ought to have prepared it with more care. That is extraordinary because it was, it is, one of the great speeches, reckoned to be, of all time. But is it only a great speech in retrospect? And maybe when you see it in print. Well, clearly it wasn't a great speech at the time. The newspapers didn't think much of it, or at least one didn't, and the orator himself didn't. But there's a film called Ruggles of Red Gap in which Charles Lawton, a 1930s film, performs the whole speech. And it is mesmerising. It's wonderful. So it was a good speech. Oh, combination of words and ideas. Wednesday, the 20th of June, 1979.

34:36A happy day, sunny and busy. We have acquired rights in Popeye, Flash Gordon and Felix the Cat. I was then running, Harriet, business with Michelle, my wife, where we were doing publishing and inventing games and acquiring rights and characters to exploit in different ways. I spent the morning devising interesting ways in which to exploit them, puzzle books, diaries and so on. I then went off to the evening standard lunch at the Hyde Park Hotel. This was the hotel where, as a child with Pa, I saw Randolph Churchill climbing up the steps. Well, today I sat with another of the Churchill offspring, Mary Soames, Churchill's daughter.

35:17She was charming and very happy to talk about her parents. Her father was clearly her great hero. Even when he was an old man, she loved to sit and listen to him talk. He hated having to go to bed. After dinner, Churchill would sit at the dining room table late into the evening, lighting another cigar, demanding another brandy, and telling another story from his long and incredible life. Mary, his daughter, would sit enraptured. Her mother would look reprovingly at the clock and say, Winston, it's gone midnight. Churchill would then eye the clock himself and rumble, Command the moment to remain.

35:57Mary told me that her mother had owned a marble cast of her father's hand made after his death. His hand was quite small and delicate, surprisingly so. She said that her mother cherished the cast. It meant that she could go on holding his hand even after he had gone. Also at our table, Christopher Soames, genial, large, jowls wobbling, and Victor Matthews and Jocelyn Stevens, chief executive and managing director of The Standard and The Express. These two, one rough, one smooth, were wonderful to watch. Their self-confidence, the sense that they owned all that they surveyed, that they were masters of everything, especially things the rest of us knew nothing of, was breathtaking.

36:43Thought for the Day Sent to me by Emlyn Williams I seem to spend many of my days and most of my evenings avoiding the temptation to take Saki's perilous advice. The art of social behaviour is to know exactly where to stop and to go a bit further. It's not always easy. Well, I was leading a pretty privileged life, wasn't I? Sitting with the children of Winston Churchill. And I'm still leading a pretty privileged life because the grandson of Winston Churchill, the actual son of Mary and Christopher Soames, Nicholas Soames, was on Rosebud. I know. And can I say that that quotation of Winston Churchill that he says at the dinner table, command the moment to remain.

37:30It's a great line, isn't it? I think that's one of the most beautiful... I don't know why it's really resonated with me. I love it. I think about it a lot. And it's made me feel as if Winston Churchill is a real person who I'd love to have met. And I love that idea of spending time after dinner, not rushing, not letting the table be cleared too quickly. We always make the mistake in my family of clearing the table too quickly. Leon is a terrible one for clearing the table. before I have had a chance to... You even finish your mouthful? Yeah, and to just sit and be. And my parents are good sitters and beers at the dinner table.

38:11They sometimes sit at the dinner table for three hours. We want the candle guttering. We want another glass of wine. So they sit and then they do the quick crossword. This is why my daughter Belle loves going there so much because after dinner, my dad, who she knows as Papa, gets the Guardian quick crossword. not a difficult one just the quick one and they do it as a family and bell always knows lots of the answers and papa affects to be incredibly impressed i think he is impressed but he says things like bell you're so clever you know and bell loves that because it makes her feel a million dollars and they do this for an hour and then they do the word search or you know the simple puzzles but they have fun and it goes on till 10 o 'clock and then they all go to bed and I love that and I want to try and make it happen in my house but I never seem to be able to and I should just say command the moment to remain you should clearly you remember that phrase because I must have told you this story before you have yeah and you mentioned it in the interview with Nicholas Soames too oh yeah and I love it I think it's very evocative and I think over the years at home I have said it when an evening seems to be coming to the end.

39:27In the old days, we used to give proper dinner parties. We haven't done so much recently, but, you know, with 8, 12, sometimes more people around the table with people telling stories or playing games. And you do want it not to stop. Command the moment to remain. Okay, Monday the 9th of July, 1979. Lunch with Kenneth Williams at the Pomme d 'Amour. He is so funny, if not totally easy. He arrived all demure and buttoned up, keeping himself to himself, hiding under a hat so as not to be recognised. Then, over lunch, he began telling stories so loudly that no one in the restaurant, or possibly within one mile of the restaurant, could have had any doubt as to who was there.

40:12He has agreed to do the book. He loves my title, Acid Drops. He thinks it's entirely right for him. It is, and it'll be fun to do. I like him, despite the non-stop smoking. He's obsessed with his health, his bowels mostly, and money, his lack of it, and the amount of tax he has to pay on the little he does earn. The maximum he got for any of the Carry On films was£5 ,000. He has a small cast of characters who people his stories, Baxter, Stanley Baxter, Gordon, Gordon Jackson, and Mags, Maggie Smith. He doesn't explain who these people are. He just launches into a story and expects you to catch up.

40:55I can't believe there is a funnier anecdotalist in the land. Oh, wonderful. Lucky you, Giles. Yeah, lucky me to have that friendship. Yeah. Nina, our former nanny, is coming to tea. We're slightly dreading it, but we know it's the right thing to do. Hmm. Monday the 27th of August, 1979. We return today from Corfu to the news of the murder of Lord Mountbatten. Horrible. Corfu was wonderful. We'll do it again. I thought four weeks would be too long, but it worked. Got better and better. Somerset Maugham, C.P. Snow, Anthony Trollope, and William Makepeace Thackeray were our good companions. I am bronzed.

41:39Michelle is beautiful. The children are content. The post awaiting us is horrendous So much to be dealt with And too few checks The sun in Corfu was dazzling Here it's sunny And our house is lovely But it all feels a bit cramped and dark After our island idyll And the news from Ireland is truly terrible That was horrific Oh my gosh Well India Hicks told us about that Yes, it's true And you're going to Corfu quite soon Only for a week, though, not a month. I notice you give yourself a month's holiday back in those days. No such luxuries allowed. We're moving on to that because I want people to know that part of our New Year regime at Rosebud is proper working hours and proper holidays.

42:30A month. I'm lobbying for that. I love a month. The month is guaranteed. You have a guaranteed month of holiday this year, Harriet. I want you to enjoy it. All in one go. Oh, all in one go if you want it? Yeah. then you're having five weeks because you're already booked in this week in Corfu. So five weeks of holiday have been guaranteed to Harriet. You can monitor this. I want you to know good working practices are very much part and parcel of the Rosebud ethos.

43:24We'll be right back. or more. Labor Day deals are on now at Lowe's. In-store and online. Valid through 916. While supplies last. Selection varies by location. See Lowe's.com for more details. This episode is sponsored by Aerie. If you know me, you know that my philosophy is all about looking good and feeling good every single day. And that honestly comes down to the first layer. I'm talking about bras. If your bra is digging into your shoulder, or maybe it's riding up in the back or you are dying to take it off at the end of the day, then that bra is not the right fit. And what I love about Aerie is that they have 59 different sizes in really soft fabrics and really good fits.

44:04Because at the end of the day, your bra should hold you in and not hold you back. Visit Aerie.com to find the right bra and your perfect fit. Hi guys, it's Paige from Giggly Squad and oh my god, I've been binging the funniest TV show. FX's Adults, it's about five roommates living in New York. I mean, who would ever live in a house without many roommates. They're leaning on each other to navigate love, work, friendship, and family. Not relatable to me and Hannah at all. While tackling pressing questions of your 20s like, what if the person who inherited your fake ID is cooler than you ever were?

44:37Why does being around your family make you regress into your worst self? And how do you tell your roommates that you have other friends? FX's Adults, all episodes now streaming on Hulu.

44:51Monday the 10th of September 1979. An amusing lunch with the engaging Dr Magnus Pike. Does that name ring a bell? It does. I think you've met him before, yeah. He was a nutritionist, a scientist, and he was a big media personality. I mean, over the years I created books for so many people. I mean, Magnus Pike, one, Richard Bryars, Michael Caine, Henry Cooper, Charlie Drake, John Inman, Frankie Hyde, Larry Grayson. People of that generation, you know, Spike Milligan, Dudley Moore, Patrick Moore, Derek Nimmo, Leonard Rossiter, you name it. I did books with them. Ned Sherin, Donald Sinden, Tommy Steele, Richard Wydley, Barbara Windsor, Mike Yarwood.

45:27So we pioneered this idea of the celebrity book, the company that Michelle and I ran, which was fun. Was Magnus Pike a sort of Michael Moseley figure? He was, well, he was more a crazy scientist. Oh, yeah. He had waving arms like a windmill. Oh, yes, I remember. He has come up before, yeah. I went to his house in St. Peter's Square, W2. It is airy and full of clocks. He was reading Pride and Prejudice. He re-reads Jane Austen every year. I've reached that age. He told me not to worry about insomnia. You won't die of it. People don't. If you can't sleep, get up and do something. You'll fall asleep eventually.

46:06We went round the corner for an Indian meal. In the street, as we walked, he waved his arms about exactly as he does on television, but possibly a little more ostentatiously. I think he likes to be recognised. Michelle asks, why doesn't he get his teeth fixed? Wednesday, the 26th of September, 1979. I went by train to Poole in Dorset to the Arts Centre to see Kenneth Williams in The Undertaking, a lugubrious, wordy and largely unintelligible play by Kenneth Baxter. It's set in a morgue and the atmosphere on stage and in the auditorium is appropriately funereal. Kenneth can't decide whether it's a profound work of genius or a load of old copplers.

46:51His performance is very mannered. Cheeks sucked in, buttocks held tight, paragraphs spat out like machine gun fire, with an incredibly elongated vowel thrown in every now and then for no good reason. The audience, hoping for carry-on hearse, is sorely disappointed. Kenneth seems resigned to the play being a failure. All I do now is flops. His mood swings are quite exhausting. Tomorrow I'm seeing Barbara Windsor. Kenneth loves Barbara and Barbara loves Kenny. I love him to bits. The joy with Barbara is that she is always the same, jolly. And she sees the best in everyone. We were driving back together from Norwich once and we came into London through the East End and we passed the Blind Beggar, the Cray Twins pub.

47:38They wasn't bad boys, Charles, not really. They loved their mum. But weren't they murderers, Barbara? Didn't they kill people? Oh, you'd be quite safe with them, darling. They only ever killed their own. Wednesday, the 3rd of October, 1979. I've come to Yorkshire, where the Yorkshire police have just launched a£1 million campaign to find the Yorkshire Ripper. He claimed his tenth victim here in Bradford a month ago. At lunch, the Archbishop of York, Stuart Blanche, doesn't give a lot away, said a prayer for the victims. After lunch, I made them laugh. But James Herriot it was who made them smile.

48:18Do you remember James Herriot? Oh, of course. All creatures great and smell. He made them feel good about themselves. There is a lesson here. I didn't find him that interesting or remarkable, but the audience loved him. There are just some folk who are loved. The last of these literary lunches I did was with David Attenborough. They love him too. warmed him and respect him in a way they never will with his brother Richard, for example. That's interesting. And it is interesting. Here we are, 50 and more years later, and David Attenborough is still loved. But he was loved then. I think it's got to do with, among other things, authenticity.

49:04That's what people want, Charles. They got that from James Herriot? Yeah, I imagine you do. Yeah, because he's someone with real expertise, who's speaking with genuine knowledge, passion and from the heart about what he knows, being a vet. And also he's speaking to his people, isn't he? Because he's in Yorkshire and he's a Yorkshire vet. Yeah. And I just made them laugh. No, no, I think you have authenticity. That's very sweet. You're a national treasure, Giles. What more can you ask? Moving swiftly on. Moving swiftly on, darling. Wednesday, the 10th of October, 1979. Reginald Bosinket has resigned from ITN.

49:38What a name. Yeah. He was a journalist, best known as a newsreader for ITN, and you'll see the next line gives it all away. The drink has finally got to him. We shall all miss the slurring and the skew-whiffed toupee. Coffee with Leonard Rossiter. Aren't I lucky? The life I'm bleeding. Coffee with Leonard Rossiter at his little house in Billing Road, SW10. He crackles with tension. His nervous energy is alarming. We're going to do a book with him on sarcasm. All he has to do is appear on the cover and cash the cheque. I think he's happy about that. I left him preparing for a game of squash. I would not have wanted to be his opponent.

50:18Sorry, can I just interrupt? What was he like? I mean, I think he's a fabulous actor. He is one of the greatest actors. To watch Rising Damp, that still works today. It's amazing. Reginald Perry. So was he like that? He was like that. That tension in the air, that energy, that nervous energy, that are about to break through the sense of danger. Like it could snap at any moment. Absolutely. And he played those sorts on stage. He played those sorts of parts as well. John Cleese has that energy too, doesn't he? But it's a bit different. But oh my goodness, I love Rigsby in Rising Down. I think this eventually killed him, you know.

50:56It would have done, especially if he's playing squash as well. Heart Attack City. He was Heart Attack City. Yeah. And you felt you might catch the heart attack just being with him. Yeah. Gosh, how amazing. So you wrote a book with him. Oh, you'd write the book and he'd put his name on it. I basically, the sarcasm book, I don't think he even looked at it. No. Great idea for a book. What was it about? Well, it was about the art and craft of sarcasm and how to use it. I'm trying to remember what the title was. I'll have to look that up. The Lowest Form of Wit. That was the title. Ah, it wasn't. That was the title.

51:30Oh, come on, Giles. No, that was the title. You would think we could have done better than that. No, I think it was called The Lowest Form of Wit. I have to say, if you were running this publishing company now, you'd be straight on the phone to me saying, Harriet, can you run this publishing company for me? I would be. And I'd be there and I'd just be churning out these titles. Instead, I was on the phone. The Lowest Form of Wit. There you go. Done, Giles. We did a lot of those books. I have to say, I love a bit of sarcasm. I think it's my only form of humour. Let's begin our next diary session with a sarcasm slam.

52:03Okay. Because you are the mistress of sarcasm. I now can't think how to do it. Now you've said this, I can't think what to start with. Well, it's sort of, it's being sort of deprecating, isn't it? Dry put-downs. Yeah, it is, basically dry put-downs. It is the lowest form of wit. And it is. I left him preparing for a game of squash. I would not have wanted to be his opponent. Spent the rest of the day with Kenneth Williams, working on acid drops. Clive, who is one of our editors, has prepared a load of raw material, and Kenneth and I are now going through it, quote by quote. Kenneth retelling the stories in his own words and adding some extras along the way.

52:38One he came up with that I hadn't heard before. Bernard Shaw and a fellow music critic at a concert. The friend says of the string quartet, these four have been playing together for 12 years. Shaw, surely we've been here longer than that. I love that. That's a good quip, isn't it? I love it. Yeah. Kenneth smoked a complete packet of cigarettes and then went out to buy some more and he doesn't want to have lunch and when I do, he gets ratty and says don't you want to work then? He wasn't always easy, I have to tell you, Harriet but he was very funny Sunday the 28th of October 1979 a quite wonderful evening followed by a quite ghastly morning last night we went to see the Peter Schaffer play Amadeus at the National Theatre It is as good as everybody says.

53:29Intelligent, moving, beautifully staged by Peter Hall. This morning, I've been taking part in a ludicrous football match organised by Jonathan Rouse. He was a person who presented something called Candid Camera when I was a child. Oh yeah, I know that show. To promote his book of Queen Victoria paintings. He had personalities, vaguely known, barely known suckers like me. This is actually, by the way, before the word celebrity was used. People were known as personalities. You were a TV or a radio personality. I remember that. You weren't a celebrity. He had personalities, vaguely known, barely known suckers like me and friends of his dressed as Queen Victoria.

54:09And in a corner of Hyde Park, we kicked a football about for the benefit of a very small band of press photographers. I took Bennett and kept him on my shoulders throughout the game for comfort and security. Why did I go? People think I'm garrulous, but I'm not. I don't like parties. I like going to the theatre to see an intelligent play and then having supper adieu with my wife. As a child, from one of my favourite books, the Faber book of comic verse, I learnt this poem. I never understood it properly until today. I wish I loved the human race. I wish I loved its silly face. I wish I liked the way it walks.

54:53I wish I liked the way it talks. And when I'm introduced to one, I wish I thought, what jolly fun. Well, Giles, that may be a rare insight into your true personality. Is that an example of sarcasm? No, no, no. I'm serious. So is that true of you now? No, I don't think it is. I don't think it is. I think I was awkward in company. And actually we have many people on Rosebud who are like this, particularly performers who we discover on Rosebud, essentially reasonably shy, reticent people, and use performance stories as a kind of catapace to protect themselves. And I suppose I, like a lot of people, would a bit like that.

55:45I just felt cross with myself that day. that I'd been lulled into going to help somebody with a publicity stunt. I didn't really know them very well. I felt I was making a need of myself. Well, and you hate sport. So playing football is quite confronting and challenging for you. And that's why you put Bennett on your shoulders. But, I mean, it's interesting to me that you are saying you don't like being in a group because you clearly do like having dinner parties and hearing people tell funny stories and joining in. I think I have changed. But you clearly did back then, I think. We loved dinner parties because we had people that we knew in a setting that was congenial.

56:24But I think throwing myself into a crowd became challenging. Maybe it became easier as the years went by and I was appearing on television much more when people already knew who I was. You didn't have to prove yourself. You didn't need to introduce yourself either. You could say, hello, I'm Charles, and they'd say, oh, I know. Yeah. But actually, when I became an MP, I spent all my time meeting strangers. And you get better at it. Yeah, you do get better at it. And also, at this stage, I think I'm already working a bit with the Duke of Edinburgh. And I observed him, the late Duke of Edinburgh, being so good with people, just going up and just saying something.

57:04Yeah. And being less self-conscious and more interested in other people. Yeah. But this gives you a flavour of how I was at the beginning of my 30s. Nice. Very interesting. Nearly at the end of the year. Just a few more entries. Thursday, the 1st of November, 1979. The Old House, Wickham, Hampshire. The government has announced£3 ,500 million in spending cuts and increased prescription charges. Our new Prime Minister, Mrs Thatcher, means business. And we mean to come here to the Old House again, and to keep up our practice of taking just two glasses of champagne before dinner. We got the idea from a novel by C.P.

57:47Snow. Last night, when we were having dinner, Mr. Skipwith, the proprietor of the Old House Hotel, came to our table and said, There's a young gentleman to see you. Bennett had come downstairs, starkers, and presented himself at reception. This is a lovely hotel. The Skipwiths are lovely people, and the Pommes Dauphinoises are a reason for living. Another reason for living. Last night, after our picnic in the New Forest, we took the children to Salisbury and parked in the cathedral close. They were exhausted and lay higgledy-piggledy fast asleep on the back seat, but we were wide awake. Shh. Ah, dearie me.

58:32but we were wide awake and saw the sun setting on the honey-coloured stone of Salisbury Cathedral. I don't believe I've ever seen anything more beautiful. Tuesday, the 6th of November, 1979. The advent of Margaret Thatcher has been wonderful for everyone, whether they realise it or not, except for one man, and he voted for her. I had lunch today with Mike Yarwood, the Impressionist. He's very sweet, but shy and rather dull, and he has a problem. He can't do Mrs Thatcher. He's Edward Heath, he's Harold Wilson, he's Dennis Healy, all masterly, but all now yesterday's men. He's really concerned that Mrs T's success will be his undoing.

59:19I tried to persuade him to do some of his characters for me at lunch, because sorry to say, when he's himself, it's as if no one's there. Oh. Oh my. That's a funny note on which to end the year. Yeah. Well, bear in mind that these aren't the totality of my diaries. These are just edited highlights, golden moments, including clearly, and I found it quite affecting, a very golden moment. I'd forgotten that. If I was taking part in Rosebud and you were asking me the questions and you got to the moment of joy, if I'd remembered this, which I didn't until I read it in the diary, I think this would have been a moment of joy.

59:59Back in November 1979, in Salisbury Cathedral Close, the children, higgledy-biggledy, fast asleep on the back street, and Michelle and me watching the sun setting on Salisbury Cathedral, which I still often visit, and which is still wonderful. Beautiful, yeah. Did you ever have a hotel in your life that you and Leon went to, where there was perfect Pommes Dauphinoises, or a sort of magical place? We went to this place several years running. Oh, right. no I don't think we've we have had a place that we go to a lot in Suffolk but it's not a hotel it's a place owned by our friends and it and it's a you know a place that you self-cater but no I do love hotels but I haven't gone back to a hotel a lot a lot of times um but I'd love to yeah I love hotels yeah love um Pomme Dauphinoise as well yeah it's not going on my low-carb diet oh no I've got to start that again.

1:00:56It's not healthy for you. Harriet, I've got to start that again. Well, there you are. That's the end of 1979. We're going to move now into the 1980s. It's almost contemporaneous. Love the 80s. Do you start wearing shoulder pads? Maybe I do. Is it the decade of dynasty and all of that? Oh, yeah. Well, I think I do it at the beginning. But the 1980s does change everything for me because I then begin appearing on television very regularly. So we've got to the end of the 70s, the beginning of the era of Margaret Thatcher. Wow. There was a time before Margaret Thatcher. Yeah. It's interesting how still she arouses such, I mean, it's 50 years ago.

1:01:33And people still feel, oh, Margaret Thatcher makes them feel something. It's odd to be one of those people, isn't it? Yeah, she was a real change maker, wasn't she? Yeah. Aside from Churchill, she was probably the big one of the 20th century. And she will become eventually a person who appears in the diaries. Woo-hoo! And eventually in the diaries, I think I get to shake the hand of Churchill because I go for tea with Mary Soames. And she produces that cast of her father's hand. So it's the life of a lucky person. You didn't know me then because you weren't really born then. What do you make of me from reading these diaries?

1:02:11I think you would have been a really fun person to be with, Giles. and I could have beaten you at football and I would have enjoyed working with you in your publishing company and coming up with the titles of your books. I think, Harriet, you would have enjoyed being in the publishing company because, in a sense, it's a bit like how you started because when you were beginning, you know, X years ago with Graham Norton, rather as I was meeting the celebrities of the 70s, you were then meeting the turn-of-the-century celebrities in the same sort of way. Yeah, and actually my first job was for a publishing company.

1:02:44It was for Alan Davidson's publishing company, Prospect Books. Oh. So, yeah. But they were more serious books, weren't they? They were. They were about food history. But, you know, what I'm saying is I reckon I could fit in a publishing company. I think you could. Yeah. I think you could. Roseblood Publishing. I'm feeling this is getting me here. Oh, gosh. Don't start, Giles. Come on. No, we're doing enough already. Thank you. We're doing enough already. Yes, because this is a caring, compassionate business. We are publishing. We're just not publishing books. We're publishing podcasts. We're publishing podcasts.

1:03:14every Tuesday, every Friday. And if you want the extra, we're there on Sunday afternoons as well. If you want to find out more about that, you simply go to patreon.com forward slash Rosebud. You'll find all the details. Yes. Oh yeah, and we should say, I should have said when we read out that email from Darren at the beginning, he ended it by saying, please can you make more episodes every week because I'm getting to the end. I should have said then, are you a member of the rosebud family darren because if you are then you get three episodes a week and um that's a good reason to join if you if you don't find two episodes a week is enough then join the rosebud family for only five pounds a month that's about one pound fifty a week you can get an extra episode of rosebud no at six pounds a month four times one pound fifty oh I can't no but that's plus VAT that is right totally acceptable you're right about everything Harriet I want you to know that anyway gosh this is hard work I think I need another coffee I think we both need another coffee thank you as ever for your company we love having it do stick with us we love you lots of excitements to come this has been another Diary episode there'll be more in a fortnight from me and from Harriet it's goodbye and cue the music Thank you.

1:05:25That was more Rosebud with music by Phil Leppard, production by Harriet Jane, and in the chair, me, Charles Brandreth. Thank you for listening.

1:05:39Cha-ching! That's the sound of Lowe's Labor Day Savings. Get up to 45 % off select major appliances and save up to an additional$100 on select laundry pairs. Plus, get three bags of Miracle-Gro.75 cubic foot garden soil for just$10. Labor Day deals are on now at Lowe's. In-store and online. Valid through 9-9. While supplies last. Selection varies by location. See Lowe's.com for more details. Soil Offer excludes Alaska and Hawaii. Hey guys, it's Mary from Two Judgy Girls. This episode is sponsored by Aerie. If you're counting down the minutes until you take your bra off when you get home, it's probably the wrong bra.

1:06:18Or if the straps are digging into your shoulder or you're constantly adjusting throughout the day, it's definitely time to get a better fit. That's why we love Aerie. Their bras are designed to be the essential, effortless first layer with soft fabrics, great fits in up to 59 sizes. so you can find the one that's right for you. Your bra should be holding you in, not holding you back. Visit aerie.com to find the right bra for you. That's A-E-R-I-E dot com. I'm Jake Stouck, co-founder and CEO of Serval. We built Serval to automate the IT work that slows companies down. Onboarding, password resets, access to applications, my laptop stopped working.

1:07:01While employees wait for help, their real work is put on hold. IT desperately wants to automate this work, and that's why they need Serval. You just tell Serval what you want to automate in plain English, and it's built. No drag-and-drop workflows, no expensive consultants. Employees get unblocked, and IT teams go from drowning in tickets to building what actually matters. With Serval, IT becomes the AI engine powering the entire company. This is a new way to run IT. We guarantee you'll automate 50 % of all tickets and we'll prove it to you in a free four-week pilot. Go to serval.com slash tickets.

1:07:39That's S-E-R-V-A-L dot com slash tickets.