Is Shakespeare Overrated?

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I'm going to hand you back to Richard and Marina in a sec, but I just wanted wanted to tell you about a thriller I've written.

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Hello and welcome to this episode of the Wrestlers Entertainment Questions and Answers Edition.

I'm Marina High.

And I'm Richard Osman.

Hello Marina.

Hello Richard, how are you?

I'm all right.

Can I start with some any other business?

Yeah, of course.

The last couple of weeks we've had the continuing saga of who recorded their Christmas show first.

Catchphrasers recorded theirs in May.

QI got in touch to say we recorded ours in March and no one could beat that.

I then said about the time that on Deal I I No Deal, we recorded a year in advance, we recorded two at the same time.

So that was a year.

But we hear from Kevin Shanahan now.

Hello, Kevin, who has been on the 1% Club, which record next to House of Games in Manchester.

So I've been on the set.

Anyone who's got questions about 1% Club, send them in because I literally...

I've got a couple.

The lovely thing about doing this podcast is I get to ask.

anyone anything.

Everyone tells me everything.

But Kevin says, I can beat the record for the longest record between programme and air date.

I was a contestant on the Christmas edition of the 1% Club.

We recorded on Wednesday the 18th of October 2023 to be aired on Thursday the 26th of December 2024, a wait of 14 months.

And the person who won had to wait all that time to finally get their money.

Lee Mac made a joke about all of us behaving for the year so the show did not get cancelled.

So Kevin.

Thank you, Kevin.

I think you've QI'd QI.

Well, I already QI'd QI, to be fair, with Dino No Deal.

Kevin has QI'd me.

I'm about to QI Kevin again because I got a call through the other day from someone who had been taping of a big ITV

show which recorded next year's Christmas show.

Which recorded next year's Christmas show last week.

So they did this year's Christmas show and next year's Christmas show, which is 18 months ahead of schedule.

I can't say what the show is to protect my sources, but we've got an 18 months.

I love how committed you are.

Yeah, an 18 month.

If anyone wants to QI that, very, very best of luck.

We can't go further than 18 months, surely, for the earliest Christmas record.

God, I mean,

you are a slight hostage to a number of fortunes, though, I think.

Yes, we are, but no one's slipped up yet.

I've never heard of one of these things that has had to be cancelled.

I can't wait for one of your guests to get completely cancelled for something absolutely grotesque.

Wow, you can't wait for that.

Yeah, so you have to don your Christmas jumper for real, Richard, and do the show right here.

Do a live episode of it.

I did what?

Have you ever done a live episode of it?

If Mel Gedroytz gets cancelled between now and Christmas, I will give you £20,000.

That is not going to happen.

Have we done a live House of Games?

No.

No.

I mean, it's one of the few shows you could do live.

There's no recording breaks or this, that, or the other.

You could do it.

It's all up there on the screen.

It's all up there on the screen.

Anyone, the BBC listening,

let's do it.

But, you know, I mean, it only takes us 40 minutes anyway.

Can I come on that one?

Of course you can.

I mean, listen, you have an open invitation onto House of Games.

You know,

you have, you have, oh, no, I can't.

I was just thinking I could say something unsuitable and get myself cancelled in the live exhibit.

That's such a great idea.

Then you can't come back and do the podcast.

You can't do your column anymore.

It's just something I thought off the top of my head, would you believe?

And I might retract the offer.

I can believe that.

Should we do some questions?

Yes, shall we?

Even answers.

Okay, I would ask you a question from Scott McKinnon.

Scott says, my girlfriend and I have watched Love Island together for several years, and both of us have felt like the quality of recent seasons has dipped dramatically year on year, a feeling that seems to be backed by falling ratings and discussion online.

Your task, Marina, is to save Love Island.

You have an unlimited budget.

What do you do?

Unlimited budget.

Okay, that's okay.

Say I have a limited budget.

For the love of God, don't give Marina an unlimited budget.

Just pay people to watch it is the best way to save Love Island.

But no, it is a bit of a bore now, isn't it?

I mean, look, sometimes formats just get tired and other things overtake them in the culture.

And, you know, it has been superseded in lots of ways by all those Chris Colin shows, things like Perfect Match and Love is Blind and all those sort of shows somehow seem sort of more outrageous and more kind of near the knuckle than this did.

Okay, but you've given me a challenge and I quite like things like this.

And so I just think what I would throw at it is I would try and go really high concept.

I would bring in all the bullshit of the modern world.

I would have like astrology on all the contestants.

I would have all sorts of psychology.

I would have friendship groups like that you could be joining a WhatsApp group and just watch their friends talking about what was happening on screen.

I would have, I'd like to have to have 360 things like that and anything to create more drama and to make it more of a sort of weird social experiment, but to make it kind of across all sorts of different platforms.

And yeah, I like the idea of being added to a WhatsApp group and watching people's friends just talk about what they're doing.

All the friends would be co-opted.

Bear in mind, I've got a sort of semi-limit, unlimited budget.

Yes, I would have astrologers, ridiculous stuff, totally overblown.

Because the thing about the shows that are those Chris Colin shows that I was saying, they're so high concept.

You know, you don't know the person you're marrying or you can't see them in the pods and whatever.

Watching people talking around in their bikinis and it's quite boring now.

So I think it just has to sort of bring in all the kind of weird woo-woo of the modern era.

That's what I would do with it, I think.

What would you well?

First of you, I'd give an enormous hat tip to Love Island for how they've kept it at the heart of the conversation for so many years, which is very, very difficult.

As you say, they're in a very, very crowded marketplace now.

And a lot of these new shows are sort of built on the back of Love Island, you know, Married at First Sight, all of these things.

You know, they have this big hook in the middle of them, which Love Island doesn't particularly have because you didn't need big hooks in the olden days because just putting a lot of sort of fit young singles on an island seemed to be a hook big enough.

How naive we were.

It's a big brand for ITB.

So, i imagine that people behind the scenes are working on how they might revamp it in various different ways it is a revamp in itself let's not forget that originally it was that's why i took off my hat because it ran for a few seasons he had celebrity love island and actually they were like first dates funny enough they turned it into something completely different and turned it from a slightly moribund franchise into into this huge hit that was at the center of the conversation so they've done an amazing job with it and i wouldn't rule them out doing one again a show we pitched years ago and i've always thought there's something in it because because all these shows, there's some married at first sight and all these things are great, but they're always about attracting a sexual partner.

And we talked about that thing about how men find it difficult, very difficult to make friends.

You know, there's certain groups of men who find it quite hard to form male friendships.

So we had a sort of a dating show, but for platonic male friendship.

That's so cool.

It's cute, right?

Which is men who sort of...

don't quite know where they can meet other men to go and sort of watch a sporting event with or to just talk about their day at work.

Just not, they don't want to join a fight club.

exactly like, please, not another fight club.

Love is not a fighters' club, yeah.

And so it's but friendship, but you know, you get the same, you know, acceptance, rejection stuff that you would get in the Love Island, but from men who are opening themselves out and being vulnerable about being lonely and needing friends.

And then other people kind of go, actually, I'm going to be his friend, not your friend.

I think it might be the most melancholy, but it really is

all time.

I've literally just thought of a name for it, which is Bruv Island.

Oh, please.

Hi, you're just throwing your pearls before Swine here.

I get it.

I would love to see that.

Come on, Kevin.

Let me go.

As I say, I did like, what was that thing with Davine and My Mum, Your Dad?

The thing I liked about that, the reason I was saying it'd be good to see their friends talking about it because about what they're like.

And My Mum, Your Dad, when you saw the kids of people who are trying to sort of matchmake their parents, that felt quite unusual.

And I enjoyed those bits the most of it.

So all of those sort of things, bringing other people in feels to me interesting.

But yes, it's a revival to start with.

And Love Island could be revived.

But I think it sort of needs to be now.

I agree.

Yeah, but there's great people on it.

So I suspect it will be.

But don't forget that if you are setting up one of these big new shows, you steal people from those shows.

So, you know, you do sort of take up some of the founds on the foundations of long-running shows sometimes.

If someone's done five seasons of Love Island and gets an offer to show run a new flashy thing with a big budget because it's on a streamer, of course you go.

And then the next generation of people who've worked on that show have to take it over.

And the same with the, you know, Big Brother has been through so many generations of people who've started working on it, went somewhere else, came back.

And, you know, those shows have a long tail, I would say.

I suspect Love Island will be with us in various iterations for a long time to come.

Speaking of very long time to come, Vince Patton has asked, what is the longest running show in entertainment history?

Is it Desert Island Discs?

It is not Desert Island Discs.

It's a good question.

There's lots of definitive answers in various different things.

Like the longest-running theatre show ever is The Mousetrap.

I saw that last week.

You saw it last week?

I'd seen it before, but my daughter went for her birthday.

She's obsessed with Agatha Christian.

She was 11, and we went to see it.

She absolutely loved it.

It's fun, right?

I saw it for the first time because we're doing a Thursday Murder Club play.

I went to see it just because I wanted to see, you know, what was what and why it was quite so successful.

You can see why it was successful.

Yeah, they saw it out.

I saw it with some Americans a couple of decades ago, and then it was very sort of tired.

They've really shished it up since I last saw it.

And you see all the kind of big promotional posters for it around the West End, and there was the movie See How It They Run, which was sort of

like an homage.

Yeah, like an homage to it.

Exactly.

So anyway, sorry, that's that's longest theater.

Yeah, that started in 1952.

So what's that?

70, 73 years, 30,000 performances.

God, there's a quote where they're sort of showing, God, no one knows anything, do they?

Because they said to Agatha Christie, what do you think about this?

And she goes, No, I'll give it eight months.

You think eight months is a non-I was about to say, eight months is a grey run in the West.

Yeah, she's not saying, Yeah, God, I'll give it eight months.

That's that's not someone being pessimistic.

That's someone going.

It really sounds like a quote that the internet's come up with as well, because I don't imagine Agatha Christie saying things like, I'll give it eight months.

I don't think she taught like that.

Sorry, I'm calling bullshit on that quote, but anyway.

yes you say i wonder i'm hoping that's for the last eight months and if it does i shall be absolutely like a pig in shit that'll be uh the money that's going to bring in the diamonds i'm going to buy with that yes i doubt that very much but in terms of radio shows so um desert island discs started in 1942

so that's what 80 83 years old you would think wouldn't you 83 years old that would be the longest running radio show of all time But no, the longest running radio show of all time.

160 years.

There was a radio show.

The front door.

What is this?

160 years old, almost twice as old as Desert Island Discs.

It first went out before radio, really.

First went out on via Telegraph.

The longest running show in the world.

Still got the same title.

Still got the same name.

Is it the shipping forecast?

Shipping Forecast is exactly right.

Shipping Forecast first went out in 1867.

It's been running a minimum of twice a day ever since, every single day.

First delivered via Telegraph.

Switched to radio in 1924 so it's been over 100 years actually on the radio but 160 years in all by far the longest running format in entertainment history that's radio television anything that you want the shipping forecast it was switched off during the second world war so in a way they're cheating uh that's when desert island discs came in but on v e day it was immediately resumed along with the weather because both of those weren't on during the war i think to not give uh the enemy any sort of uh advantage knowing atmospheric conditions and only one day since then they failed to broadcast it.

That was the 30th of May 2014.

BBC Radio 4 failed to broadcast it because staff at Broadcasting Units did read it out, but someone forgot to hit the red button to transmit.

And that's the only day apart from the only two things.

They've lost their minds about that.

Yeah.

The only two things that have ever stopped it in 160 years are Hitler and somebody forgetting to press a red button and that and that show business.

Yeah.

160 years though, eh?

That's unbelievable.

I thought it's a bona fide a hit, Richard, isn't it?

But

I think it's a hit and it's still series one.

It's amazing, isn't it?

But also, all those catchphrases, Tyne, Dogger,

all that stuff.

A lot of characters' names come from the names of the different, whatever, what are they called?

Lines?

Shipping areas.

Shipping areas.

Lines.

Lines.

You know what I mean?

German bite.

North at Seara, South at Seara.

What's your favourite?

I think North at Seara is my favourite.

It's gone out of my head now, even though I've listened to it one billion times.

I can't think I just, it's so soothing.

I think it puts me to sleep.

You You just got doggo going around here.

Yeah.

So thank you very much for that question.

160 years is the longest entertainment franchise of all time.

Right.

I think the time has come for us to go to a break.

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Honey punches devotes to all

para sabermas.

Welcome back, everyone.

Lovely to have you back.

Here's a question for you, Marina.

Now, our producer Neil writes down these questions and he puts headings on each of them.

And just so you know, this is under the heading Hitler's Head.

Okay.

Very promising.

Exactly.

We've done the shipping forecast.

Yeah.

Now we have to do Hitler's Head.

And Abigail Knowles has this question.

Do games companies need to ask for permission to use the likeness of Hitler and Mussolini?

And does anyone get paid for this?

They don't don't get paid for this.

First of all, can I really be talking about Hitler's image rights?

But here we all are.

We've talked about work.

Once it's over 80 years, you're out of copyright as a.

Hitler's out of copyright.

Hitler's out of copyright.

So it does even over, say, someone who isn't Hitler or Mussolini, someone who might have had some sort of rights to images.

Let's say Emmeline Pankhurst.

Emmeline Pankhurst, yeah.

So she's now out of copyright.

Emmeline Pankhurst is out of copyright.

Having said that, there are cases which are more relevant to this case, and we'll come to one of them.

In German German games actually you weren't allowed in you weren't allowed to depict senior Nazis and there were certain versions of different games in the game.

It should be pointed out the lots of sort of war type games that do have you know you'll see Hitler you'll see Mussolini you'll see kind of

Saddam Hussein Noriego all sorts of people well yeah Hitler's face was dark in certain games because

in order for it to be sold in Germany it was just a few years ago and they've stopped saying that you can't use any likeness of Nazis are going to consider it on individual basis.

You can now see Hitler because it's been judged to have sort of artistic merit and to be worth it.

I mean, if you couldn't show Nazis these days, you couldn't show anyone, could you?

No.

No, you're quite right.

There's a really funny case, actually,

which relates specifically to games.

In one of the Call of Duty games, which were made by Activision, in, I think it's Black Ops 2, they have General Noriega, Emmanuel Noriega, who was the Panamanian dictator.

He was behind bars and still alive at the stage.

He's now dead.

And he tried to sue Activision.

He said his right to publicity was violated because he was being depicted as a kidnapper, murderer, and enemy of the state.

Where's the lie manuel?

But anyway, he said it was damaging to his reputation.

He was in a prison cell when he did this.

Imagine, by the way, imagine getting that email.

Yeah.

Imagine the lawyer at Activision and you have to just go into the CEO, just go,

and the CEO goes, okay, guys, I think we're done.

Everyone, any other business, anyone?

And the lawyer just goes, yeah.

Do you know what?

i did just get an email from general manuel noriega threatening to sue us well he managed to get a lawyer to take his case and do you know who the lawyer who took activision's case was oh who rudy giuliani really yeah anyway it was heard in an la court and it was thrown out on grounds of free speech but giuliani who obviously went on to slightly besmirch his own reputation he fought this and said this is first of all it's ridiculous it's ridiculous he didn't say what i would have said which if you see the footage of noriega in this game it's like, mate, you're way thinner and your skin looks great, which let's face it was not your selling point.

Take the win.

But anyway, he was fussy about it, Noriega.

But Giuliani argued that just because you've been in history, if you've been in history, if you're such a significant figure that you're in history, you don't own history.

All leaders essentially forfeit their right to sort of

saying, oh, I own my image.

The examples he were giving at the time with George Bush or Obama, they can't own

their rights because you're part of history and you don't own history.

Anyway, and they'll try.

They'll try.

I don't know what, I mean, you have no idea what side of what case Giuliani would argue now, but it might not be the winning one.

But at the time, he would end up.

He'd be in the game now.

I'm afraid he would be in the game, probably looking great with a forehead of black hair that doesn't drip down the side of his face at any point.

Genuinely, a dictator did try to sue over their image rights and it was thrown out of court.

But we were saved by Rudy Giuliani.

We were saved by Rudy Giuliani.

Which means we are allowed to portray portray Hitler.

Yeah.

Thanks, Rudy.

Richard, this is one view.

We may have differing views on this.

Alexander Andrews asks: In an interview, Brett Goldstein said that he thinks Shakespeare is terrible and that the plots are ridiculous.

Do you agree?

Or does the continued influence of Shakespeare on contemporary media justify the fact that all kids still have to learn about his works?

Listen, I haven't seen Brett's full interview.

I imagine it was more nuanced than that.

I can't imagine Brett going, yeah, Shakespeare is terrible.

Listen, I mean, the thing we know about Shakespeare is that it's no Ted Lasso, Brett.

We know that.

Okay, listen, we're going to get your take on it.

I see that, of course, a lot of the great plots of history are present in the works of Shakespeare, but a lot of the great plots in history were there before Shakespeare started.

And

the language is extraordinary.

Is that a useful thing to be able to teach to kids?

I think sometimes you do slightly more harm than good teaching Shakespeare because I certainly didn't understand what it was that I was reading at that that point and it put me off delving into Shakespeare for many, many, many years because I thought, well, yeah, I've seen this and it was boring.

So I don't need to look at that again.

I don't think my brain was at the place it needed to be when Shakespeare was introduced to me.

Now I look at it and you kind of see Shakespearean productions and you can just absolutely revel in the beauty of the language.

But yeah, I think in terms of, you know, the continued influence of Shakespeare, I don't think there is one.

I think that the great plots of history that Shakespeare absolutely used and did great versions of are in our culture anyway.

And that's what actually informs our culture rather than Shakespeare himself.

I'm amazed you don't think of it as like the most successful entertainment format.

I absolutely think that.

And I think the fact that it's British, I think, is great.

I think, you know, if the greatest playwright in the world, probably if you were to take a fair poll across the whole world, Shakespeare might be the one that is remembered.

It makes me feel incredibly happy.

The idea that he might come back now and see how he is still looked at in the TARDIS yes in the TARDIS exactly like the Van Gogh episode but you know as as so often there have been many amazing playwrights but but our culture likes to channel everything into one place one lightning rod and to say this is the thing this is theatre this is how you do it everyone else was

true everyone else is terrible Shakespeare's the

but we do because Shakespeare is the banger and people will go will turn out and watch the plays and they love them and there's a reason they are hits Richard

yeah he's got a great brand yeah tell you what william shakespeare's got a great brand and he's made a lot of hits and that's why people will turn up but people go and see all sorts of other things as well um what from from that era maybe no no they don't go and see like lots of christopher marlow no but that's what i'm saying he has subsumed every single thing that happened in the 200 years before him and probably in the 150 years after him everything gets sucked into the into which is not his fault by the way he was just good at writing but everything gets sucked into the shakespearean vortex so that is representative of what theatre was and what culture was at that time.

That's all I'm saying is there's a lot of people in his shadow who might have written stuff that we go, actually, this is, this is a, it's like when you listen to there's nobody anywhere near as good as him.

He is a genius of completely, you know, a category of one.

Yes.

Yes.

In theater, yes.

Because he was so prolific and yet brilliant.

Yes, and because he was so accessible and because it was funny and

deep and all sorts of, and he wrote so many different kinds of things.

I mean, funny's a stretch.

Oh, no, don't be silly.

It is funny.

It was funny to them.

They laughed a lot.

You don't have to love it now.

To the question, and what Brett is saying there, I think, about teaching it to kids specifically is that does it do more harm than good?

Is what I would say.

I didn't understand what it was that I was reading or seeing when I was.

What did your mum not say to you?

My mum.

My mum was not looking at Shakespeare.

No.

Yeah.

She was reading Jackie Collins, you know, and Jackie Collins, now we're talking.

She's a teacher.

Jackie Collins?

No.

Yeah, she was a teacher.

There were different things.

But she asked me all her books that went around my school.

But listen,

but did your mum not think,

did she have views about it being taught in school?

Well, my mum was a primary school teacher.

Yeah, okay, so.

So, yes, they were not doing an awful lot of Shakespeare.

My mum was a bit more of the very hungry caterpillar than the two gentlemen of Verona.

What is your view on, do you think it turns generations off?

It depends on your teacher, doesn't it?

I loved it most at university, because I read English at university.

I loved it most at university, but I loved it through school.

And they started us off.

We got started off on things like Midsummer Night's Dream, which is sort of fun.

And, you know, it does depend what you start off on.

As always, these things depend on a teacher and depend on someone bringing it alive in a fun and contemporary way and just helping you, like,

you know, it's a little bit like, I don't know, anything to which there's a knack, anything that requires practice or anything, you know, and there's things in sport, there's learning how to do kind of mildly cryptic crosswords.

If someone helps you in,

learning how to watch cricket, for example, if you

help you in and helps you and doesn't act like a great big gatekeeper and

lets you get lots of stuff wrong, then I think those are the people you want as your kind of spirit.

I mean,

I'm not sure.

I know lots of teachers listen to this.

So if you are an English teacher, I'd be fascinated on your take because I'm not sure they have the time in the curriculum to actually do that anymore and to kind of have an open lesson where we just sort of find our way into Shakespeare.

So

my view is slightly he has done a disservice, but then I don't know what do we do?

Like like national service when we're all 22, when we all have to do a Shakespearean play there.

I was in.

I'd love it if that was British national service.

You just got to do some Amdram.

That would be really actually a very civilised mark of a very civilized nation.

You've got to do an Amdram Shakespeare play.

Yeah, and watch the whole of Blackadder.

BTS have had to do military service, you know.

I mean, all we have to do is

watch 12th Night.

I was in 12th Night when I was at school.

So

I was the Duke of Sino.

Were you?

Yes, if music be the food of love, play on, give me the assist of it.

That's surfeiting the appetite, may sicken, and so die.

So I won't do the whole play.

Imagine.

Why is the podcast today two and a half hours long?

I think, yeah, Richard Tessie, he did the whole of 12th Night.

His party trick.

I love writing.

I love words.

I love plot.

As you say, I love brands that are enormously successful.

I don't think I've ever quite climbed the mountain of Shakespeare.

And I think a lot of it goes back to when it was introduced to me.

It was not introduced in a way that I was comfortable with.

teachable moment yeah I don't think it was I mean I look back in the 15 year old me I don't think you could I don't think I had any teachable moments about anything apart from you know like maybe the 1985 FA Cup final that's probably about it so I think that yeah maybe if I'd if I'd found Shakespeare slightly later on I might have found a bit more in it we're a greedy is a banger we're absolutely agreed there we're a greedy is a huge franchise um i spent last summer in stratford upon avon they love the dude there um and you know it's very meaningful that uh you know this incredible talent is British.

But, yeah, I have some empathy with Brett.

I think it's very important the order in which you introduce children to literature and to theater and stuff like that, especially kids whose hearts are not open to reading, particularly at that stage.

I think it's very, very easy to put people off very early.

If there are English teachers listening to this, you will know far more about it than us.

I'd be fascinated to know your take on, you know, how it works, why it works.

If you turn one kid onto it, he would never have been turned onto it.

And there's always kids where it just hits them you know there'll be a scene or there'll even be a line and the kid just goes hold on sorry the world can be this you know we can tell that story and we can use words in that way then it's sort of worth it but to turn a whole generation of kids off of the greatest playwright I think sometimes is the effect but I am not the expert final question for you Marina from Tim Kennington he says I just went to see 28 years later and there's a scene that takes place in an overgrown happy eater oh happy eater oh i loved happy eaters Beside being a huge nostalgic hit, always my favourite roadside eatery, as it had a play area inside, it got me wondering whether people still own the rights to defunct places and brands and how you go about getting permission to use them.

Is there a group that owns a load of discontinued businesses, or is it more of a Wild West?

So, this is like Hitler's Head, but for Happy Eater.

It's a little bit of both, actually.

Happy Eater was like a roadside cafe, and they would give you, I had the Happy Eater badge for miniature, which I loved.

And you've got a little lollipop if you finish your plate.

That might have been Little Chef.

Oh, yeah, Little Chief, as my sister always used to think.

One of my sisters used to think it's called Little Chief.

And they actually merged.

Have you been used to Little Chef?

I didn't know that.

Yeah.

Well, they closed in 1993 because they merged with Little Chef.

And that's now also closed.

Apparently, a Kuwaiti company, Kaut or Coot Food Group, owns both of those brands.

And they continue to update them with the intellectual property office in the UK.

So you do actually have to ask.

I don't think it would be terrible, by the way.

There were a lot of brands in Stranger Things.

You know, because a huge, well, we've talked so much before about how you use brands in your books for world building.

Stranger Things used so many brands from that specific period in America, you know, and they're funny sort of little in-jokes like New Coke

when Coke relaunched or Eggos, which, you know, the waffles, the frozen waffles that 11 really likes.

Some of them they didn't ask and they just used them.

Often brands, if you try and ask them, can we be involved?

It's almost, it is one of those things like it's, you know, better to beg for forgiveness than to ask for permission because they say, well, no, how are we being used?

It's just like, by the the way, shut up, you're a happy eater, okay?

You're not even around anything anymore.

Okay, I get it if it's you know, you're in a James Bond movie and you know, are we the villain or whatever it is?

But this is something

does Scaramanga run a happy eater on the A23?

Actually, his island would have been a great location for one.

You would have loved to have come around the corner on one of those and thought, oh, thank God, we're going to have the pancakes with the fake maple syrup and it's going to be delicious.

Faithful syrup.

Do you remember when they had the maul in Stranger Things and they had so many brands in that?

And they had like a Dairy Queen Orange Julius.

I don't think they were absolutely thrilled, anyone who was in that, because you're on the most popular show on Netflix and you've done really well.

And by the way, I will say, because we'll finish up here, but one of my favorite museums in West London is the Museum of Brands.

My favourite museum.

I absolutely love going.

And this has made me want to visit again because it's, I also take my children.

I think you haven't accrued enough time in your lives yet to be nostalgic about these things.

Whereas I can't walk around without going, oh my God, that kicked that.

If people haven't been, if you are in London, yeah, it's sort of like in a little muse in Nottinghill, it's a museum of brands, you can look it up, and it's not massive, but it essentially takes you through the last kind of 150 years via packaging, via kind of, you know, you see like Twix wrappers from the 1920s.

And, you know,

it's really, really.

And you'd always get to the decade that you were born.

And suddenly, like, your heart just flips.

Yeah.

And you go, oh, my God, I recognize it.

It's so evocative.

Brands are such a huge part of world building.

So it's very cool that I haven't seen 28 Years Later, but I'm going to see it this week.

But it's very cool that's got an overgrown happy eater in.

Thank you, Danny Boyle.

Yeah, thank you.

Danny Boyle's had a few happy eaters in its time as well.

He knows.

He knows.

I think that's us done, Marina.

It is.

Well, we will see you next Tuesday, but we also have a bonus episode.

If you are a member of our club, which you can join at the restasentertainment.com, this week is about summer hits.

Summer hits, the sound of the summer.

Infuriating but catchy.

Other than that, we'll see you next Tuesday.

See you next Tuesday.

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