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Podcast Notes: The Rest Is Entertainment - Episode: The Prince Andrew Newsmageddon
Podcast Overview Title: The Rest Is Entertainment Hosts: Richard Osman & Marina Hyde Description: The podcast provides insider knowledge on TV, movies, and pop culture, discussing industry secrets, media gossip, and cultural trends.
Episode Summary In this episode, Richard Osman and Marina Hyde engage in a Q&A session centered around several topics, primarily focusing on former Prince Andrew, photography in the media, ice skating, and cultural commentary.
Key Topics Discussed
- The Prince Andrew Photograph
- Significance of the Photograph:
- A photograph of Prince Andrew taken by Phil Noble emerged as a pivotal news image, capturing him slumped in a car.
- The hosts discuss how impactful images become news staples and the mechanics behind their circulation.
- Photographer's Insight:
- Phil Noble, working for Reuters, had a tip-off that led him to capture the iconic image.
- The process of gaining exclusive rights to photos and how news agencies operate was elaborated upon.
- Cultural Comparisons:
- The photograph's composition was compared to famous paintings, indicating how such images can transcend their immediate context to become cultural icons.
- Royal Crisis Comparisons
- Osman and Hyde draw parallels between the current situation involving Prince Andrew and historical royal crises, particularly the abdication crisis.
- They discuss public perceptions of monarchy and how crises can amplify or diminish public interest.
- Ice Skating and Music Licensing
- The conversation shifts to figure skating, specifically regarding the use of pop music in performances.
- Changes in Regulations:
- Prior to 2014, skaters were restricted to classical music; this changed, allowing modern songs to enhance performances.
- The logistics of music licensing for competitions and the challenges skaters face in this regard were discussed.
- Cultural Commentary on Documentaries
- The hosts critique the rapid production of documentaries surrounding current events, noting how immediate reactions can lack depth.
- They emphasize the importance of waiting for narratives to develop before producing content to allow for more thoughtful storytelling.
- Writing and Research in TV Shows
- A discussion around the accuracy of illegal activities portrayed in shows like *Breaking Bad* and how writers consult with experts to ensure realism.
- Richard outlines how Vince Gilligan collaborated with chemistry experts to ensure the technical aspects of the show were credible.
- Book Recommendations
- Richard's mother provided book recommendations, highlighting a novel by Elizabeth George titled *What Came Before He Shot Her*, which deals with themes of class and societal issues.
Key Takeaways
- Visual Storytelling: Iconic images, like Phil Noble's photograph of Prince Andrew, can shape public discourse and media narratives.
- Public Interest vs. Elite Opinion: Historical parallels reveal how public fascination can differ from elite concerns during royal crises.
- Modernizing Traditions: The shift to allow contemporary music in ice skating reflects broader cultural changes and indicates a desire for dynamism in traditional sports.
- Documentary Production: There is a growing urge to produce content rapidly, which can sometimes compromise the quality of storytelling.
- Importance of Expert Consultation: Accuracy in storytelling, especially regarding illegal activities, is crucial for maintaining credibility in drama.
Conclusion This episode of *The Rest Is Entertainment* offers a reflective look at media dynamics, cultural phenomena, and the intersection of entertainment with real-world events, all while highlighting the hosts' wit and insight.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOThe Importance of Awards Season
0:03 to 0:44
Discussion on the efforts and campaigns behind winning awards.
“Everyone is wondering who's going to clean up.”
Questions About Prince Andrew
1:18 to 1:49
Hosts discuss the public's curiosity around Prince Andrew and a specific question from a listener.
“We had so many questions about Prince Andrew and various aspects of the...”
The Iconic Photograph of Prince Andrew
1:49 to 3:05
Exploration of Phil Noble's famous photograph of Prince Andrew leaving a police station.
“How did he get the shot and how much would he get paid for it?”
The Challenges of News Photography
3:05 to 6:29
Discussion on the difficulties faced by news photographers in capturing pivotal moments.
“But they also have deals with Reuters that are like long term, you know, they can use.”
Historical Parallels and Public Reaction
6:29 to 11:27
Comparing current events with historical incidents, particularly the abdication crisis.
“So anyway, you have to get the shot at the time.”
The Role of Royal Family in Media
11:27 to 14:01
Discussion on how the royal family manages their image and the media narrative.
“chosen to be part of Mass Observation, which was recording the voices of ordinary people and what they felt about all sorts of things.”
The Royally Complicated Documentary Landscape
14:01 to 21:17
Explore the complexities of royal documentaries and their impact on public perception.
“And it actually has, of course, become a soap opera where they've got a no contact son.”
The Evolution of Ice Skating Music
21:35 to 28:03
Learn how the choice of music in ice skating has transformed over the years, especially with pop culture influences.
“The Winter Olympics is tragically over, but was brilliant.”
Breaking Bad's Science Advisor
28:03 to 29:50
Learn how the science of meth production was portrayed accurately in Breaking Bad.
“So she kind of managed to get in touch with the magazine and said, can you just give my details to him?”
The Role of Law Enforcement in Crime Storytelling
29:50 to 31:43
Discover how crime writers collaborate with law enforcement for authenticity.
“and also how to handle the equipment, which was very, very important because they thought if all of it was really, it's a little bit like the wire or something.”
Show all 12 chapters
Book Recommendations from Richard's Mum
31:43 to 34:28
Hear Richard's mum's favorite book suggestions and insights into her reading tastes.
“But Donna Nelson would, you know, she'd go, she's a bright woman, she'd go, oh, okay.”
Family Dynamics and Podcasting
34:28 to 35:31
Explore the humorous and candid discussion about featuring family on a podcast.
“I don't want her to be contained at all.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Richard Osman:This episode is brought to you by Octopus Energy.
0:03Marina Hyde:Now, it is awards season. Everyone is wondering who's going to clean up. And we tend to think awards are about that one big moment, like, oh, my goodness, that one night, that speech. I can't believe I've won.
0:12Richard Osman:But the effort that goes into winning an award.
0:15Marina Hyde:Everyone going for one of those big movie awards. It's not a coincidence that Academy members or whatever are saying, oh, did you see that thing? Yeah, I did. It was really good. there is a remorseless many months campaign and there are tens of people working on every single film's awards campaign.
0:32Richard Osman:I thought you were going to say tens of thousands.
0:33Marina Hyde:No, no. But there are tens. Yeah, there are tens. But that's quite a lot when you think of like one, and it's a full-time job.
0:40Richard Osman:We mention this only because we are announcing our presenting partnership with the lovely people at Octopus Energy who have just won the Witch Recommended Provider of the Year for the ninth time in a row. And that is not something you get just by year.
0:53Marina Hyde:Which is hard to win.
0:54Richard Osman:Which is hard to win. Which is hard to win. Which is hard to win. But nine in a row, I would say that makes Octopus Energy the Meryl Streep of the business.
1:02Marina Hyde:Oh, yeah. They're the Meryl.
1:04Richard Osman:They're the absolute Meryl. I call them Meryl Energy. That's what I call them.
1:12Marina Hyde:Hello, and welcome to this episode of Restors Entertainment, questions and answers edition. I'm Marina Hyde.
1:17Richard Osman:And I'm Richard Osman. Hello, Marina.
1:19Marina Hyde:Hello, Richard. How are you?
1:20Richard Osman:I'm very, very well. We had so many questions about Prince Andrew and various aspects of the...
1:25Marina Hyde:Artists formerly known as.
1:26Richard Osman:Artists formerly known as Prince Andrew, Andrew Mountbatten, Windsor, but so many. So should we just pick one and sort of talk around it?
1:35Marina Hyde:Talk around it, yeah.
1:35Richard Osman:That might be the way to do it. Steve Lloyd, you've been chosen. Well done, Steve. Because he's come in via the photograph, which I think is interesting. Oh my God, the photograph is epic. But thank you, everyone, for all your questions. So this is the one we will use as representative. Steve says, how did Phil Noble's photograph of Andrew Mountbatten, Windsor, leaving the police station, end up on the front page of every newspaper the next morning? How did he get the shot and how much would he get paid for it?
2:00Marina Hyde:Yeah, it's one of the all times of great news images. I love great news images. I've got so many books of them. I've got great one of National Enquirer famous images. This is absolutely up there with all of them. Phil Noble at Reuters took it. He works for a news agency, Reuters. So to answer the first bit first, he is contracted to Reuters. That was always going to be sold around the world. But if it had been an individual publications snapper, then they would have been their exclusive picture, which would have been one of the great exclusives.
2:31Richard Osman:But again, if it was, say, a Daily Mail photographer, would the Daily Mail then be able to license it around the world? Yes, of course. They'd be making the money. And they would.
2:39Marina Hyde:But there's something amazing about that first image, and they would have kept it to themselves at the start. But it's very difficult now when everyone can just kind of scrape it off online and people are just going to unauthorizedly steal it anyway. It's not like it used to be where you think like, OK, that photo is on the front of the sun or whatever, and you're going to buy the paper because that's the only place you can see it.
2:56Richard Osman:Yeah. But ostensibly, every single time you see it in any normal news organization online or anywhere, they have had to pay. They paid Reuters.
3:05Marina Hyde:But they also have deals with Reuters that are like long term, you know, they can use. but it's a bit like the Associated Press or any of those news agencies where you have a kind of overall deal with them that you take that content. It's very clever how he got it, Phil Noble. It's really difficult, this. It's fine if you know a celebrity is going to come out of a nightclub and all the snappers are standing outside there waiting for it to happen. The whole point of this arrest was they didn't give anyone advance notice of it because they thought it would become a complete feeding frenzy, which it obviously would have done.
3:34Marina Hyde:It's in Norfolk, which everything's quite spread out and there were about 20 different police stations he could have been taken to
3:42Richard Osman:yes so they didn't say exactly where he'd gone just he'd gone to a local station they never would
3:46Marina Hyde:tell you that because they would say you might get a confirmation if it's the met like a central london police station but they knew it was somewhere in norfolk he had a tip-off phil noble and you can read about this he's talked about it now and some of the reuters people will went to ailsham and there are only like three of them there and they waited all day and they waited and waited and waited and then they just thought nothing doing here this by the way this is like
4:06Richard Osman:about an hour from Sandringham as well. So this is not the local police station by any manner of means. So presumably...
4:11Marina Hyde:There were 20 potential.
4:13Richard Osman:Presumably there were photographers outside pretty much every single one of those. And some people would have gone to the nearest one. Some people would have gone to the biggest one.
4:20Marina Hyde:And because it's so spread out, you've got to call it. You're not going to hear, oh, he's just driven out and then make hay away over there. That's done. You've missed it. There's nothing you can do apart from take a partner. You've got to be directly outside that one. But he had a tip off. So it's proper sort of quite old fashioned stuff. They think, okay, nothing doing here. Let's just check into a hotel. and say about tomorrow. Sorry, so I interrupted.
4:37Richard Osman:So they're outside Aylsham Police Station.
4:39Marina Hyde:Yeah.
4:40Richard Osman:They've had the tip off and they're getting to the stage like in a movie where they go... Well, it's been dark for a few hours now. I think this is bum information.
4:46Marina Hyde:Yeah, but they think they'll check into a hotel and he was actually walking on the way down to the hotel, which is wherever it was local. It must have been some sort of pub or something. And he got a phone call saying some cars are coming out. Because he's an experienced photographer, he knows that the first car will contain the police officers and the second car will also have police officers, the security officers, but will have the target in this case, Andrew.
5:13Richard Osman:The principal.
5:13Marina Hyde:So therefore, he doesn't take anything in the first car. He gets six shots, all of which are out of focus, apart from that one, which is incredible, which I hardly need to describe to everyone because it's already iconic of him leaning back. The red eye somehow makes it even better.
5:27Richard Osman:But isn't it like you just think, oh, that's annoying, this red eye on this. If that came back from Boots in the day, it would have a little sticker on it.
5:34Marina Hyde:Yeah, it would, exactly. Do you want to not tell us to tell you what you want to do? Yeah, I know what I did wrong. But well, it's great. And I've already seen things comparing it to so many sort of great historical paintings. For me, it is very like the Francis Bacon, the Pope. But there are many other ones. Yeah, really like dark. And, you know, I've spent a lot of, I've worked at the Sun at the start of my career. And I used to deal with the pictures for a little bit. And it's so interesting talking to those kind of photographers who, in those days, it was really hard. Remember, it was all negatives.
6:06Marina Hyde:And so if they missed it in any other way, there was a community, as there always is with PAX or anything, whether it's the lobby or the sports press or whatever, and they used to say to each other, give us an egg. Because you'd be in so much trouble if you missed, not if you missed that shot. That's too difficult. And you're like, fine, you picked the right police patient. You're amazing. Well done. And you'd be lionized for that, of course. And we already know what the photograph of the year is. So anyway, you have to get the shot at the time. And you'll see sometimes, one of the things you'll see snappers do when someone say someone's been convicted of some awful crime that everyone has talked about you'll see them just holding the camera right above their head in order to get it into the prison van because those prison vans with the black windows if you have the ultra flash on you sometimes just by pure luck of getting your camera against it might get something inside and you might and there are certain famous ones um sort of child murderers and things which they managed to get inside that shot interested me while i was away last week and i was saying to my children oh because it's head-on that's hard yeah think about getting the head-on shot i have spoken to a lot of photographers who've been carried on the bonnets of cars before because you're literally hanging on to a wing mirror and put and just clicking through the front window and hoping some of it's usable to me it's fascinating this because what he must you wouldn't do that i don't think actually even now given how far he's fallen you're still not going to be doing that and people don't necessarily behave in that same way as they used to and also it's not the 80s or the 90s anymore but people did do that he's got highly trained security operatives with him yeah and who knows what's going to happen to you so but he would have reached across because you're you can see the angle of the picture that the angle of the picture is not from the side of the road the angle of the picture is sticking your your hand right out it's really i mean it's amazing he got the shot it's one of the great ones and i love that
Read the full transcript
7:51Richard Osman:Also fascinating that because you clearly see from inside the car that there was a photographer there, the whole shot is made by the fact that Andrew is just scooching down in his seat so he can't be seen. Too late. And it just makes him look, it was perfect. It's a perfect encapsulation of what we think of him and a perfect encapsulation of him being caught in this. And as you say, the red eye adds to it as well. The only thing I saw about Phil Noble I thought was extra interesting. Russell T. Davis was saying that, I think Russell T. Davis used to produce Why Don't You? You know, the kids' Saturday morning.
8:27Richard Osman:I'm aware of Why Don't You. The kids' summer TV programme. And Phil Noble was one of the kids on Why Don't You that Russell T. Davis cast.
8:35Marina Hyde:Oh, my God. That's so cool.
8:37Richard Osman:And look at him now.
8:38Marina Hyde:Look at him now.
8:39Richard Osman:Why don't you take a photograph?
8:42Marina Hyde:And there is something painterly and epic when you see an image like that. And the reason that everyone said like, oh, it's like a Francis Bacon. where it's like, you know, chrono seating is, you know, there's so many things that people say it looks like the scream or whatever it is, is because it immediately becomes, in the truest sense of the world, iconic. It's an icon photo.
9:00Richard Osman:And is there good money in that for Phil Noble or would that be covered by his... I hope there's a good bonus in it for him. But he wouldn't, ordinarily, he'd be covered by his Reuters contract. Yes, I don't know the details.
9:10Marina Hyde:And people have different types of contracts and sometimes there's a sort of commission thing on the top of it. I wouldn't know the details of that. but in general it's because the reason it was instantly everywhere two reasons in this day and age it's quite hard for things not to be but if you do scrape things they will come after you and say yeah you've done this you've broken our copyright and you will get the money eventually but but that sense that you can have an exclusive and hang on to it but it's come because it's come from a news agency you expect to get a significant number of the pictures used in your um news publication on any given day from leuters or the associated press or whatever it is i think
9:45Richard Osman:there's there's also the idea of we talked about weirdly pokemon cards on tuesday show that idea of scarcity because ordinarily if someone's been driven out of a prison or a trial or something like that there's 50 photographers and everyone gets slightly different angles of the same thing but one is the best but this is he is literally the only person there you're trying
10:05Marina Hyde:to be where the ball is going to land rather than where it's which happens so rarely these days People keep saying it's the biggest crisis since the abdication, which, as you know, I think that's when they all went wrong with the abdication. But we won't go over that old ground today. No, go on. Let's do a tight turn on that. No, it all went wrong in the abdication when he should never have abdicated. However, it's interesting in that the same sorts of things are happening. People say it doesn't repeat itself, history, but it rhymes, okay? Everyone, ordinary people, loved the abdication. Sorry, everybody, but they did.
10:39Marina Hyde:They thought it was a huge amount of doubt. The people in the creative, and we know this because we have lots and lots of diaries to rely on at the time. People in what we've now called the creative industries, but I don't think Virginia Wool referred to herself as being in them. She was a content creator.
10:53Richard Osman:She was a content creator. She was an influencer.
10:55Marina Hyde:Yeah. She did, feels like live streaming a lot of what she did. Anyway, for them, they said it was like melodrama, better than a novel. Virginia Wool said, oh, it was an electric atmosphere. The people who we, they began in mass observation when they started like recording the voices of ordinary people. Nella Last, they started doing it just after the war, but she was able, you know, that's Housewife 49. Nella Last's War is a really good book if you've never read it, which is the stories of all her kind of memories of things. And Victoria Wood played her on television as well in a thing called Housewife 49.
11:24Marina Hyde:Tell me more about her. Nella Last was just one of the people who was, you know, chosen to be part of Mass Observation, which was recording the voices of ordinary people and what they felt about all sorts of things. And it's an amazing project. And so we know much more. people afterwards will always tell you that you know like the application was a huge crisis and whatever it's like i don't know she nella last was one of those people who thought of course and this was a very popular sort of working class view at the time that he'd done it all for love he was really popular edward the eighth he'd done it all for love bear in mind this is before he tottered into the embrace of the nazis um afterwards you know so um but there's this so what we're dealing with now and by the way and all the elite diarists of the time the sort of Chips Channers, the Howard Nicholson's or whatever, thought it was all dreadful for the monarchy.
12:13Marina Hyde:And even someone like Cecil Beaton, the great photographer, who was a terrible sort of snob, thought, oh, this is all so vulgar. It's disgusting. It's blah, blah, blah. Which is actually very similar to what's happening now. You'll hear all these elite people saying, oh, this is dreadful. There's a crisis of monarchy. But honestly, lots of ordinary people are really enjoying this. I appreciate that this isn't like someone's done something for love. This is a much less savoury story, although not as unsavoury as Nazis. So it's interesting. And watching all the politicians jump on the bandwagon, I find amazing.
12:45Marina Hyde:This is exactly what happened in the abdication. Exactly the same thing. I saw Tom de Hoogenhart, I mean, God, he rushing towards the camera to say, well, we might have to reopen all of the 700-year-old treason laws and there should be a special committee. It's like, oh, and you'll be on it, I bet. They're loving it as well. Loving it. Stanley Baldwin, the great political survivor, was drunk on the abdication. Okay, there's a thing. He grabs Harold Nicholson because Harold Nicholson puts this in his diary. He's an MP who writes diaries at the time. And he grabs Harold Nicholson after he's done the abdication address in the House of Commons saying that the king is going to abdicate, saying, I had success, my dear Nicholson, at the moment I most needed it.
13:23Marina Hyde:And Harold Nicholson says, no man had dominated the House as Baldwin did tonight, and he knows it. Now, all the politicians that you hear now are hoping for something similar. You don't think if it goes wrong for Kemi Badenoch in the May elections, spoiler, it's going to, that Tom Tugendhat isn't going to have yet another crack at the leadership. You know, they're all using this thing because it's the same as it always was.
13:46Richard Osman:This is like the royal family for politicians are like the Beckhams are for us.
13:50Marina Hyde:Yes, but the Queen chose a way to be. She chose to create, you know, she was the original person of a documentary where she's the executive producer of it all. That's what they did with that documentary where she decided to turn it into a sort of family show and to allow the, you know, unscripted, whatever, unscripted drama. And it actually has, of course, become a soap opera where they've got a no contact son. They've got dirty and dodgy uncle, allegedly, who knows, but he's difficult. And actually, in lots of ways, it's become something much more like that. But the royals were the original executive producers of their own documentaries, and it doesn't always work well.
14:27Richard Osman:Yeah, but whenever I see, oh, this is a nightmare for the royals, it feels like Andrew exists in a slightly different sphere, which is he's found himself in a different group of people. He's not seen as part of that kind of, you know, he's seen as like a weird adjunct. But number one on Amazon all week, I'm delighted to say, is Virginia Dufresne's biography. and talking about her life and how great that all just seeing him again and again and again and again is sending people to that and hearing her truth and hearing her story you know the whole thing there's something hopefully cleansing about the thing there's something in the news media that feels uh quite cleansing but yeah i'm i'm with you i don't can i also say though i think something
15:17Marina Hyde:that's interesting because since we're to return to the sort of entertainment related aspect of it
15:23Richard Osman:we're really not answering steve's question here we have done that we have done that so now we're
15:27Marina Hyde:answering everyone else's question the insta documentaries that are already being announced you know channel five announced one i can't remember who asked our tv have announced one they're all doing again this is something that i feel it speaks to the sort of ridiculous churn of our culture don't forget there were two documentaries sorry two dramas about the documentary itself, one based on the Booker's book and one based on Emily Maitlis'. But I have to say, it's always better to wait. I hope we're only on act two of this, with this development in the story. And I think there could still be an act three, we don't know.
16:02Marina Hyde:But everyone goes so early nowadays. This never used to happen. And I've also talked a lot about on the podcast about the erosion of the very idea of documentary, where essentially it's just become a very quick kind of cuts job. There's never any real form of perspective to lots of these documentaries. They're made to order and they're kind of instant. There is something to be said for not doing it at the exact moment of requirement and waiting a bit because it becomes something much more interesting if you can allow the story to develop in a certain way. And of course, we'll have it all over again.
16:34Marina Hyde:But there's something about waiting a little bit, but nothing on our culture wants to wait. So you're going to have, you know, 10 mushroom poisoning documentaries or you're going to have lots of documentaries about and there'll be lots of documentaries about this even though there's very little extra we can say and you've seen it all just now on the news I do think there's something worth waiting for both drama and documentary and thinking hang on a second what about if the interview is just the end of act one one of the
16:59Richard Osman:fascinating things though I think that when I'm talking about the interview I'm talking about the news and I should have made that clear one of the interesting things I think is this which is although of course you cannot you can't talk directly about the allegations and about the investigation all those things um what this being on our sort of new cycle for 24 hours a day means is you can start talking to people who worked with andrew or worked for andrew or have been in his orbit and they can tell their stories about their personal view of him no which is the absolute i But there's a point before someone is arrested where actually you can't.
17:37Richard Osman:You sort of feel it's a disloyalty or that people won't believe you or anything like that. And actually now the floodgates have opened and you see a whole group of people. There's that amazing clip of the guy on Australian TV saying, I mean, we did have a nickname for him. And they're going, what was the nickname? And he goes, well, he had a codename with the Secret Service and he was like Purple 51 or something. He said, oh, no, but he said he had a nickname. So I said, I sort of can't really say, you wouldn't be able to broadcast it. And they're going, oh, just tell us. Couldn't have done this before this was all on the news.
18:09Richard Osman:And they go, tell us, tell us. He goes, well, we used to call him the c**t. And you just think that is something you could not have put on the news. And that is one of those things. We talked about open secrets before. You talk to anyone in the last 5, 10, 20 years who'd worked for him, and they would give you stories like that. But it's not something, there's not a place for that in the middle of our culture. there's not a sort of place to tell that story. Lots of people have sort of, you know, done kind of blogs or tweeted about it, but it can't be reported. Whereas now, all of that stuff, the stuff that is not subdued to see, the stuff that is not to do with a court case or an investigation, everyone can tell you their stories about it.
18:48Marina Hyde:Well, yes, but I would say that this is also a failure of the UK media, and I really do think that because I can assure you, I can't remember how long I've been doing this story for, but it's a long time now, like a decade, decade and a half. and nobody really bothered very much with it at all. It was not – the stories, the multiples of stories about Meghan compared to multiples of stories about this. Yes, that's true. After he had been pictured with Epstein, after all of these things, which was ages and ages ago, and they all knew off the sort of record and what people said about him, and yet the obsession was still with Meghan.
19:26Marina Hyde:And I remember doing this in 2019 and just thinking this is absolutely bizarre. They're obsessed with the fact that Meghan and Harry have gone on a private jet to Ibiza. Look the other way. Why is the Queen just driven to Balmoral for these incredibly presentational events, always to church at Balmoral with him sitting next to her in the car? But they wouldn't say anything. The media is part of the establishment. And the establishment has now decided that cutting him loose is a more protective stance than doing what they did before, which was not properly interrogating at all. And the media is part of that to some extent.
20:01Marina Hyde:I can't characterize the whole media as one thing. I wouldn't begin to. But I will say that as someone who wrote about this for a very long time, there was a long, long period when they were far more interested in covering Meghan than looking into any of this stuff, even though large aspects of it were in the public domain. And there is one journalist I would absolutely love to give a big shout out to because I have followed her for such a long time. And that's Julie K. Brown, who works for the Miami Herald and who did the original, who eventually went back and was able to piece together the whole Epstein story, as much as possible of it, because so much of it had been sealed by this dreadful bargain he made back in 2008 or 2009.
20:42Marina Hyde:And she was able to piece together so many of the stories of the victims and police talking to her off the record. That is an absolutely stellar piece of journalism. and I think they've made a sort of dedicated area on their website where you can go and have a look at it. She's called Julie K. Brown and she is really an absolute kind of linchpin in this whole story.
21:00Richard Osman:And we've covered so many different questions that people wrote in there. No, because lots of people did ask things. We'll leave it to next week. Someone asked a question about Sarah Ferguson's book sales, which I have some information about. We'll do that next week. Okay, next week, next week. We've enough Andrew, Matt Batten, Windsor. Now, shall we go to some adverts? Yes, I think we've asked that. And some non-Andrew related questions after that.
21:21Marina Hyde:Yes, we will do.
21:34Marina Hyde:Welcome back, everybody. The Winter Olympics is tragically over, but was brilliant. I've got a question about the ice skating from Catherine, who says, with the winter olympics in milan figure skating feels more pop and camp than ever with madonna spice girls backstreet boys medleys everywhere how does the music actually work do skaters need to license these tracks and how are the medleys cleared and edited well it's interesting with
21:59Richard Osman:winter olympics because we only see it once every four years and so that sometimes there'll be seismic changes in sports and we don't know so i think a lot of people are slightly taken aback when they're watching the um ice dancing and more people watch ice dancing this year because of lila fear and lewis gibson we had we're british contenders in it so i think a lot a lot of people watched it and yeah we are very very used to watching figure skating to classical music essentially and that's because i think until 2014 in fact so there's been a couple of winter olympics till 2014 you couldn't dance to anything that had words in it so you had to have which is largely why people just dance to classical music also because you don't have to get any you know all of that suffers out of copyright you can just play whatever you want 2014 they said no let's well we're going to modernize our sport a little bit you can now dance to um tracks with uh with words in it which of course opens up a huge can of worms because you are then everyone wants to dance to pop music because everyone wants to dance to something that's going to get everyone in the stands interested and you know it just it gives slightly more energy to your uh performance you know of course it has different beats and this sort of the other um but yeah they absolutely you have to get the permission of the artist there was a big story just before the winter olympics the spanish uh skater was dancing to a medley from minions and he realized just before the olympics started that that had not been cleared and the process was taking quite a long time in the end sort of went online did a big social media campaign uh and sony were made aware of it and sped it up and so it was fine in the end so yeah it's it's it's completely changed so Lila Fear and Lewis Gibson danced to a Spice Girls attendance dance to a Backstreet Boys medley because my wife Ingrid was an ice skater in her youth like a really really how did I not know this and so she was like oh my god they're dancing like honestly ice dance and Backstreet Boys at the same time she was like suddenly oh sport okay count me in she was excited by that there was Lenny Kravitz you know there's Madonna as the question said Ricky Martin, three different countries danced to Ricky Martin.
24:07Richard Osman:Finland, Sweden, and one of the Spanish bears danced to Ricky Martin. So, yeah, it's completely changed. You can dance to whatever you want. You do definitely have to get permission. There are also, of course, competitions between the dancers to get songs that they want. You know, when Torvin and Di did Bolero, there was not a lot of competition for that. but the big new thing now because if you want to you know if you can't get permission and you know you want to do classical music uh and this is what the czech republic did or czechia uh is ai music and so uh czechia uh danced to an ai version sort of sounded like acdc but wasn't acdc because they didn't have the rights to do that and sort of had some samples from new radicals as well which they didn't have the rights to so you can now what's happened are they in trouble for it no no no Everyone seems fine.
24:59Richard Osman:It's the Winter Olympics, isn't it? I mean, you know, we've moved on.
25:03Marina Hyde:In the world cinema classic Blades of Glory, where they're obviously not competing at Winter Olympics because it's so heavily copyrighted. I don't think you can even say Winter Games. I can't remember what the competition they're competing at, but they do everything to things with lyrics. Will Arnett and Amy Perlow, who are still married at the time, who played the Fairchilds, Von Fairchilds. there's one point where they're doing something to like urban music that is, I strongly recommend a watch.
25:32Richard Osman:Also, have you listened to the episode of Smartless where Amy Poehler comes on? Yes. Because, you know, often on that show they don't know. Sometimes they know who the person is, but Will Arnett is certainly surprised that his ex-wife is the guest that week. So, yeah, you can absolutely see why they've done it. It makes skating much, much more kind of modern and current. But it is a can of worms. But yeah, when I was looking into all the different stories in it, the AI thing, Czechia finished 17th in the end, so it didn't do them a huge amount of good. But yeah, that's I think the first AI Winter Olympics story I've seen.
26:08Marina Hyde:Well, I obviously think everyone should just green light everything for use because it's so funny to see what they do with it.
26:13Richard Osman:Yeah, exactly. Come on.
26:14Marina Hyde:It's not going to ruin the minions as a property.
26:18Richard Osman:Yeah. I mean, when you wrote that song.
26:19Marina Hyde:Take the money and shut up.
26:20Richard Osman:In your bedroom, you weren't thinking you were going to have two Latvians doing triple axles to it.
26:27Marina Hyde:But just also maybe don't do the whole routine and just then be waiting for some horrible Hollywood lawyer to clear it for you. Because they won't. Make it clear first.
26:36Richard Osman:Marina, George Griffey has a question. He says, you recently answered a question about how writers get things like scientific accuracy in books by speaking to professionals in that field. That lovely Hannah Fry answered that for us. George has a more specific question. how do writers get such in-depth information about illegal activity for example and something like breaking bad it feels so specific i can't imagine the writers just google that sort of info so how
27:00Marina Hyde:do we how do we find out about illegal things writers do want to get that right and they just all mostly as you've said i think before they want the thing that they want to happen to be made right in some way by an expert but breaking bad is particularly interesting because of course it is quite technical in terms of the chemistry of cooking crystal meth and tell me about it and And well, funnily enough, Vince Gilligan, when they started that, you obviously don't know that it's going to become one of the biggest TV series of all time. And they didn't have a huge budget at the start. And they got a lot of the first series off Google.
27:35Marina Hyde:But he then, because it became a huge thing pretty quickly, he did an interview. I can't remember where. It's literally like an entertainment magazine saying, I'd actually really welcome some input from the chemistry community. And a woman who later became chair of the American Chemical Society, eminent chemistry professor, Donna Nelson, read this and thought, well, I would like to help.
28:03Richard Osman:Fancy a bit of this. Yeah.
28:04Marina Hyde:So she kind of managed to get in touch with the magazine and said, can you just give my details to him? And they did actually pass it all on. And she became the science advisor on Breaking Bad. They were always very careful because they never, although you can look up on the internet how to cook meth from start to finish, they didn't ever want to provide an exact sort of manual of how to do it. And so they would always omit key steps, but they taught the actors exactly how to do it so that they always knew what they would be doing at any one time. And there are certain things that are not accurate, Like if, you know, he has this famous product, his blue meth, that's really amazing.
28:45Marina Hyde:And it's really sort of extra pure because it's got this sort of ethereal color. They actually got that, I think, from a sweet shop somewhere in Albuquerque. It's probably just some sherbet or something. But if it were that color, it would be impure. So there were certain things like that that aren't strictly accurate. Anyway, Donna Nelson then began to properly consult and it becomes very technical. She always knew that scientists get annoyed if people get things wrong, as all people who are experts in their field do if they think Teli gets it wrong. but she was stunned by the whole kind of breakout community of novice scientists talking about the show in a really really essentially chemical way and she really loved it so she thought gosh i mean the level of depth and the whatever they also in terms of the crime stuff on that they did have dea you know drug enforcement agency representatives advising them because they want to say okay when you raid a lab what do they look like inside what are the you You know, they don't have pictures of real life meth labs normally online, or maybe they'd have a few more now, but they certainly didn't back when Vince Gilliam was writing this.
29:43Marina Hyde:And so they would say, OK, how does it actually look? How would you run a raid? And so they're able to say all of those things because and they had a guy from a DEA lab in Dallas, a guy called Victor Bravenick, and he advised them on that sort of thing. and also how to handle the equipment, which was very, very important because they thought if all of it was really, it's a little bit like the wire or something. Well, David Simon did the wire because he'd been a crime reporter for how long. So he knew about how all these things happened, how you got a wire going, all the sort of permits you need to make it happen.
30:19Marina Hyde:If you're doing an actual crime procedural or something like Breaking Bad, which isn't, but it has procedural elements to it, you really do need specialist advice on things like that to make it part of the world.
30:31Richard Osman:The interesting thing about, if we're talking strictly about illegal things, so we're talking about, you know, do you have, you know, because lots of crime writers will talk to police officers, lots of crime writers will talk to people in the security services. So the question is, do lots of crime writers talk to criminals? I would say it's much less common. I mean, there are plenty of people around who will, you know, who've done things in the past and who are available to talk to. But the truth is, if you have good contacts with the police, say, or the serious fraud officer, whatever it is, they tend to know what criminals do.
31:05Marina Hyde:And they love to talk, by the way, off the record.
31:07Richard Osman:But in the same way that they will tell you about how to investigate something, they'll also say, oh, yeah, we arrested this guy and this is what he had done and this is the techniques they use. These are the things they do that make them almost impossible to catch. These are the ways that they – So, weirdly, the context you would have to talk about investigating, talk about police work, would be the same context you would be able to tell you about the illegality. There'll always be a bit of colour you'll get from someone who's, you know, done dodgy things. But actually, law enforcement knows both sides of the coin in the same way that actually…
31:39Marina Hyde:Because bless Donna Nelson, who understood fully about how you would cook mess. She had no idea what one of the labs looked like when it was raided, and you have to go to law enforcement for that.
31:47Richard Osman:Yeah, exactly. But Donna Nelson would, you know, she'd go, she's a bright woman, she'd go, oh, okay. And if I were to do that, this is the way that I would do it. This is the way I would streamline that. This is the way I would, you know, I know for a fact that the lab would really have to be kept cool. So this is how I would air condition it, all of that stuff. It's once you get people on either side of that, they can pretty much tell you everyone's job.
32:09Marina Hyde:Well here's a question I've been dying to ask It's about your mum Richard Michelle Muldoon says I've just finished reading When the Cranes Fly South which I loved Richard Does your mum have any other reading recommendations?
32:21Richard Osman:That was my mum's recommendation which I recommended to you good listeners and everybody seems to have loved She just got sent through a poster by the publishers of that for a Mother's Day thing and it says as recommended by Richard Osmond's mum and you're like she was delighted by that I can imagine yeah she loved that so funny if I saw her this weekend I had a family weekend went to see my brother's band as we've discussed before and went to see Brenda and I said mum they're asking on the podcast about any other book recommendations I always forget with my mum I always say oh I don't I don't want to be too show busy and you know would you really want to sort of say something you know for the podcast and she's like oh my god yes yes brilliant okay let me tell you so I asked her to do two things three favourite books ever and then a book that we haven't heard of which she absolutely loves her three favourite books ever, she said Life After Life by Kate Atkinson which would be in my top three books ever as well I think, I love that she said A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving, she said no one else likes it but I do, so you take that on advisement and Fingersmith by Sarah Waters the three favourite books of all time so I said give me a book that people don't know.
33:37Richard Osman:And this is a great recommendation, I think. Elizabeth George, she's best known for writing the Inspector Lindley Mysteries. An amazing crime writer, but also a sort of social writer. You get lots of information about the world. She said one of her books, it's one of the Lindley books, funnily enough. She said, I think this will be taught in schools in 20 years' time, just showing us how the world was like, what the world was like. So this is her recommendation of a book you have not heard of. It's got a great name as well. So it's Elizabeth George, What Came Before He Shot Her.
34:10Marina Hyde:Ooh, okay.
34:11Richard Osman:What Came Before He Shot Her by Elizabeth George. It's a linearly novel, but it's about class. It's about all sorts of different things. But that's her lock of the week. That's Brenda's lock of the week. What Came Before He Shot Her by Elizabeth George.
34:26Marina Hyde:You should interview her on your series that we're apparently calling bookworms.
34:31Richard Osman:She would be unbearable. honestly I couldn't do it I could not do it there's only so much power you can give Brenda
34:39Marina Hyde:it's she you've given her just enough with that have you just she is you know what she's absolutely
34:45Richard Osman:good as gold up to a certain level there would come a point where I think she'd become uncontrollable that's what I think about my mum and I listen I love her but uh you know you have you have to you have to know your family right that's what that's what I think I now so want it to happen even more
35:01Marina Hyde:than I did two minutes ago.
35:02Richard Osman:She needs to be contained.
35:04Marina Hyde:Why?
35:04Richard Osman:That's all I think.
35:05Marina Hyde:I don't want her to be contained at all.
35:07Richard Osman:No, I know you don't want her to be contained. I know. It's different, isn't it? I'll tell you what we'll do. I will interview her for Bookworms if I can interview any member of your family who I choose.
35:18Marina Hyde:Mummy on your podcast. I don't know. I don't know. I'd like to... Oh, yeah, you're right. It's tricky, isn't it? Yeah. But I'd love...
35:27Richard Osman:Shall I tell you...
35:28Marina Hyde:Mummy to come on the podcast.
35:29Richard Osman:The best people in the world. Of course.
35:31Marina Hyde:mums yeah quite right let's agree on that always delightful and with that richard yeah thank you brenda thank you so much brenda i would like to hear more from you um tomorrow we will be doing um for our members um top gun is 40 years old amazed we've managed to get this it down into anything less than a 10 part series but okay if you want to join for ad-free listening and so on and these bonus episodes it's therestosentertainment.com but otherwise
36:00Richard Osman:see you next Tuesday
36:02Marina Hyde:see you next Tuesday
From the publisher
How much will the photographer that captured Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor slumped in the car have made off that single picture? How are figure skating fees worked out? Is Breaking Bad's crystal meth accurate?
Richard Osman and Marina Hyde chat about the former Prince Andrew, book recommendations and ice skating in another excellent QA episode.
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