Full Show Podcast: 07 September 2025

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks EDB.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
It's Sunday. You know what that means.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
It's the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin and Wickles for
the best Election of Great Reeds Us Talks EDB.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
Good morning and welcome to the Sunday Session. Happy Father's
Day to all the dads out there. Good to have
you with us today on the show. I am joined
by three long term members of the cast at Downton Abbey.
The third and final film is released this week and
it's fabulous. It's a very fitting, satisfying and sentimental end
to this franchise. It's lasted fifteen years. We are very

(00:50):
fortunate to have on the show today Lady Edith Pellham
played by Laura Carmichael, Lady Mary Crawley played by Michelle Dockery,
and Anna Bates played by Joanne Frogett. They are with
me after ten after eleven, I am joined by author
Andrew Loney, who has written an explosive new book, Prince
Andrew and the Duchess of York. Sarah ferguson this joint
biography called entitled draws on years of research and interviews

(01:13):
with over one hundred people who have never spoken before,
and once you've read it, you will be stunned that
it took until twenty twenty two before the Royal Family
addressed Prince Andrew's behavior. Andrew Loney on Prince Andrew, his
contribution as a member of the Royal family and how
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and of course is always You're most welcome to text

(01:34):
throughout the morning on ninety two, ninety two.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
The Sunday Session.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
Growing up, my mother used to say that life is
ninety five percent anticipation. It's in the wait, the build up,
and the preparation where the joy is often found. Sometimes
the actual event is a let down. That was not
how I felt at nine pm last night. Well done
to the All Blacks, but I loved the lead up
to last night's when at Eden Park, I was excited.

(02:04):
When I got up yesterday morning, I felt like a
bit of a I found myself looking for things to
do to help make the day go faster. Even for
those who aren't fans, surely there was a little curiosity
about how things were going to turn out. At the
Fortress last night. It was the most anticipated All Blacks
game of the season, a battle against our greatest and

(02:24):
most respected foe at a venue with an impressive legacy.
The All Blacks in the Spring Box were playing for
the Rugby Championship, but as the general sense of excitement
around the country indicated, there is so much more than that.
It's about so much more than that. There is I
think that this is probably one of the greatest rivalries
in sport, and we heard all about it, didn't we

(02:45):
last week? Ardie Savier is one hundredth tests and all
the stats around Eden Park's history, and as much as
John Corwin was right the team should focus on the
match in front of them and forget the history, there's
no doubt the All Blacks were invigorated by everything that
came with the occasion. And in just a moment we'll
talk to anstorm about the game and the All Blacks performance.
But one of the best things about sport like last

(03:09):
night is it it's a distraction. Twenty twenty five hasn't
quite been the cracker we'd hoped it would be, and
the spring weathers packed up a bit. We needed a
good night of entertainment. There's nothing like a game of
sport to united community or country. It's a good feeling, right.
We all sort of come together behind something. The Toy
de France got me through the short days of winter.

(03:31):
Over the last few weeks, the US Tennis Open has
got me dreaming I can still play tennis. The Warriors, Gosh,
they just keep us guessing week after week, don't they?
And the whole family has an opinion on f one
at the dinner table. I've come to realize I generally
love sport more than who wins or loses. If the
game is good and fair and it gives us a thrill,

(03:52):
then I'm happy with that. It's just a smidgeon better
when it's a Kiwi team.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Who wins the Sunday session.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
So, as I mentioned in just a moment, we're going
to talk to answeror about the game. But go on,
give me your opinion of it. Is this the best
you've seen the All Blacks year to this year? I
see some commentators are saying the All Blacks were blow
the best, and look, it did get a little close
there near the end, didn't it. But I thought that
they were far more disciplined and precise and focused than
the spring box. But let me know your thoughts on

(04:20):
the game. You're most welcome to text on ninety two
ninety two and look, the anticipation is already already building
for next week. It is eleven past nine. You're with
News News Talks eDV.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
A Sunday with Style the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin
and Winkles for the best selection of great reeds.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
News Talks VY.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
So that was more like it from the All Blacks
last night, wasn't it?

Speaker 4 (04:49):
And how A stands?

Speaker 5 (04:51):
And the All Blacks Stephen the Fortress twenty four to
seventeen and at all time chess match between these two nations,
the All Blacks wotted by seven and claim that their
fifty first match unbeaten at their homes.

Speaker 3 (05:14):
With his thoughts on the game, former All Black Aunt
Strawn drawns me, now, good morning and morning.

Speaker 6 (05:20):
Take CHESSA how are you. I'm on the top of
a beautiful Mount Hobson.

Speaker 7 (05:23):
I love it.

Speaker 3 (05:25):
I loved the win, and but I was just saying
I really loved the anticipation in the build up to
the game. It's good as a country to get excited
about something isn't it. I mean, how many times were
you asked last week who you thought would win?

Speaker 8 (05:37):
Wow?

Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yeah, you did right.

Speaker 6 (05:38):
It was a test for the ages, wasn't it. I mean,
we've had some really iconic matches over the years between
the All Blacks and South Africa. But that's why I
had so much spice to it, and I think some
concern over the country about how this All Black team
would front up. So the interest across the world really,
but also obviously in New Zealand wasn't mean just straight
for our game, because you want to keep promoting the

(05:58):
high level product, which it.

Speaker 3 (06:00):
Is now your colleague news talks, he'd bees. Elliott Smith
told me last week that he had a feeling that
the All Black would win. Were you feeling confident?

Speaker 6 (06:09):
Yeah, pretty confidently. I wrote a column in The Herald
during the week and just said, if the All Blacks
can fund up in that first twenty minutes and get
a little bit of a lead, it'll be a tough game,
but I think they can hold on and win. So
quietly confident, but I wasn't overtly confident.

Speaker 3 (06:25):
You can always tell with you All Blacks, I reckon
within the first ten minutes whether they're on or not.

Speaker 6 (06:30):
Yeah, I think you're right, And it was great to
see a lot of these young men playing. You know,
they haven't played a lot of matches. We had some
experience all Blacks out there yet, you know, Scott Robinson
in his second year of his All Black tenure. You know,
lots of things at stake, you know, and pressure and
in the expectation. Obviously with winning record at Eden Park,
South Africa having lost since nineteen thirty seven.

Speaker 9 (06:51):
Et cetera.

Speaker 6 (06:52):
I mean it was massive and for them to front
up and deliver was impressive.

Speaker 3 (06:56):
What did you like about the performance?

Speaker 6 (06:59):
Well, obviously the start was good and I think also
they just took their opportunities early on. Sometimes they just
don't stick those opportunities, you don't take them and it's
like three or all or whatever coming into halftime. But
they created a little bit of a buffer, and I
mean across the park there were some really really good moments.
It wasn't the perfect test match probably technically and technically
to be honest, but each player contributed, either an offensive

(07:21):
thing or a defensive thing, just sort of turned the
tables a little bit. And that's the South African team.
They roared back in the second half. They didn't give
up at all, so they had to hold onto this one.
And so you know, number of players at Slavia was
immense one hundred games, such a wonderful All Black and
a wonderful person and for him to create those couple
of big opportunities late in the game, arguably one in

(07:43):
the test match, so he was a standout for me.

Speaker 3 (07:46):
As you mentioned a Springboks were not the usual clinical
selves last night. What do you think happened there?

Speaker 6 (07:52):
Well, you know, if you think about the expectation on
this All Black team, think about the South African team too,
because number one in the world. A lot of talk
around them being able to match us physically, Tony Brown
new back coach, offensive coach, new things, new pictures for them,
and I think their country and obviously the South Africans
living in New Zealand, we're very high in terms of
their expectation of a victory. So maybe the way that

(08:15):
that pressure didn't help too much. And also just some
players are not quite probably at their best for this
particular game. The top five weeks, maybe the loose Forts
didn't win as productive as as always, And of course
I didn't use the ball a lot. It was a
kicking game, let's be honest, throughout the match, so we
didn't see a lot of their offensive stuff. As I
say that Tony Brown's implemented.

Speaker 3 (08:37):
It looked and sounded like there was a large contingent
of South African supporters there last night. Is there something
about the atmosphere at Eden Park which is hard to
deal with for the South Africans I'm talking about.

Speaker 6 (08:50):
Yeah, Well, I've called most games at eden Park All
Black Test matches is twenty eleven and every single Test
match has something about the mystique I suppose of Eden Park.
The All Blacks loved to play there. You know, it's
arguably the home of New Zealand rugby. A lot of
supporters in the city and as you mentioned, I mean
they were quite balanced. There were a number of South

(09:11):
Africans obviously living in New Zealand, but also probably that
traveled and they created an atmosphere supportive atmosphere for the
South Africans too. So yeah, I can't quite put my
finger on why we keep winning an eating park, but
it's a special place that we hold and let's hope
that the recle continues.

Speaker 3 (09:28):
What do the all Blacks need to focus on before
this coming weekend.

Speaker 6 (09:33):
I think overall just need to be a little bit
more clinical. This Chrima was under pressure early on. Their
lineouts went down impressive in the first part. So we
always talk about set peace and being so important to
win that battle. That certainly needs some work and also
I just to get times. We'd probably just pushed the
envelope a little bit with the ball, and of course
we made a few errors that created some some turnovers

(09:55):
as well. So yeah, I mean, I think it's a
it's a general statement, but I think across the ball,
each player, each player just working on the bull roll
positional rope, getting that right and obviously can collecttively then
putting in a better performance. Because the South Africans will
come back better, we know that, and of course they've
got a pretty record in wanting to too, so they've
got the odds in their favor there.

Speaker 3 (10:15):
Oh, I'm pretty sure the spring Box will not be
happy with the way things went last night and they're
going to come back. I think next week could be explosive.

Speaker 6 (10:23):
Yeah, look again, it just keeps adding value to the
wonderful game, you know. I mean, there's lots of sports. Now,
the black fans are going so well, the league in
this country is growing just just in general, the oval
ball and New Zealand's you know, pretty good right now.
And you just got to keep delivering and you know,
fulfilling what the public wants to see. And of course

(10:44):
they love the black jersey. And again just another chest match,
more pressure and of course it's all black fists, sell averga.

Speaker 9 (10:49):
It doesn't get.

Speaker 6 (10:50):
Any better than that.

Speaker 3 (10:50):
Well do you think that the razor was pretty relieved
with the result last night and that the whole coaching
team will have been I imagine, well.

Speaker 6 (10:58):
Look, he probably didn't see it too much. He's quite
emotional when you see him. They pan up into the box,
massive relief. I mean, it was a litmus test for
him and his coaching crew and you know they deliver it.
As I say, it wasn't a perfect test match, but
it doesn't matter. You often hear the old cliche you
know you've got it, you've got to win ugly, and uh,
you know, in some respects it was a bit like that.

(11:20):
But yes, so much relief. I'm very proud of him actually,
because you know it's been under under the bunk a
little bit and he's lost a few Test matches, lost
the first Test Test and just the other week, so
for him to get up and uh and when it
was great, it was great to see.

Speaker 3 (11:34):
Uh, are you I don't know you across the All
Blacks and how they've kind of pulled up after that game?
Are there any more injury woes?

Speaker 6 (11:41):
I haven't heard any, but I'll tell you what. It
was brutal and you'll you'll expect nothing less against South
African team. They'll played for the eightieth minute and they
want to hurt you physically. I mean, it's it's just
one of those things that it's a It's a gladiatorial sport,
isn't it rugby and the two biggest teams going head
to head like two big bulls. To be honest, there's

(12:02):
going to be some sore bodies today, so the recovery
is critical and obviously just look out the body's ahead
of this weekend's Test match.

Speaker 3 (12:08):
So when you're sitting in the stands or you're calling
a game, man, do you ever thinking, gosh, I wish
I was down there on that field and amongst.

Speaker 10 (12:13):
This excuse my friends, but shit, though, that's way too
physical for me. Back in the day we played pretty
physical game too. Well, I tell you what, the size
of the players now, the profile, the collision, Yeah, it's ferocious,
and yeah I'm not I think the commentary box is
the best place for me, Francesca.

Speaker 9 (12:31):
Look.

Speaker 3 (12:32):
Also, a great game between Australia and Argentina. Australia claimed
the victory in the last play of the game. Isn't
it great? How close these contests are and the unpredictability
around the rugby Championship.

Speaker 6 (12:46):
Yeah, I think that also adds. I mean that the
Test nets last night wasn't really about the Rugby Championship,
but of course all of these test matches and the
evolution of Argentina, the resurgence of this Australian team after
and that's on the back of an Episoude, wonderful coach
and Joe Schmidt. He is leaving at the end of
the year, but I tell you what, he's just providing
a completely new direction for that Wallaby team and they're

(13:07):
going to be hard to beat when they come to
New Zealand and vice versa. And like you're saying, you know,
these clothes testaments, it's what we want. We don't want
to go to Eden Park and watch as sixty to
ten win. Do we we want close all the way
through lots of nuances and things that happened with throughout
the game that keep us interested. And yeah it's great
and at the moment the semiship is red hot.

Speaker 3 (13:29):
Ant Strawn, get on with your walk, enjoy the rest
of your walk. Thank you very much for your time
this morning. Appreciate it called the Sunday session. A couple
of texts here I was there last night. Awesome atmosphere
and awesome crowd, so many South African and all Blacks
fans getting on enjoying the game. Great Camarerie and beware

(13:50):
the wounded spring box. Caketon can be a graveyard for
the all Blacks in the past, I know. But you
see this is the great thing as except you. We've
now got a whole week to anticipate this new game,
to look forward to it. Life is ninety five percent anticipation.
There we go, right, of course, you say we had
the Tammackie Mikado by election or any cay pater easily

(14:11):
won this beating Labor's Here is Henri conceding, But it
would appear that.

Speaker 11 (14:21):
Times up on the counternight. So I just wanted to say,
first of all, I'm really proud of the campaign Reran.
At the start of this campaign it will take all
of us. I don't care may make part your mate.
The number one opposition in this campaign was this terrible government.

Speaker 2 (14:45):
We made it clear.

Speaker 11 (14:46):
From the start then it would take all of us
to beat them. And guess what, we've still got an
opportunity to do that.

Speaker 3 (14:53):
And speaking shortly afterwards, his or any capatter.

Speaker 12 (14:57):
Nothing changes in terms of my love, my respect, my
utmost admiration for you. That actually my gratitude and this
word has been a very very.

Speaker 13 (15:12):
Rapid I wouldn't say recognized, but learning through for me
and the rest of your tan and your siblings and
your mates who are here supporting me.

Speaker 14 (15:25):
Ye ken, it's what we want to know. Cawp Brook guy,
babies Forfaro Papa, and I'm looking forward to fighting a
good fight alongside you, Marta mar all our Mali MPs,

(15:45):
especially especially my duto waan my own waka departing Mali.
Thank you Tamaki Makoto for giving me and us the
mandate that you entrusted.

Speaker 12 (15:58):
Takuda. Thank you for seeing and me who legacy being
upheld and carried alongside LAWI fight dear menor Hanalazi and
of course how beautiful Hayley inspect.

Speaker 3 (16:15):
We did invite already on the show this morning, which
she was busy elsewhere. But there are a couple of
things that interesting about the election. Carpara got six thousand
and thirty one votes, Henrie got three thousand and ninety
three votes. Were they got the majority of the votes,
but that is quite a decisive win and the blow
to labor. The other interesting thing was the voting statistics.
In the general election of the twenty seven thousand, just

(16:36):
under twenty eight thousand people voted in this Mari electorate.
It was about a seventy sixty five percent turnout, which
is not terrible. In the by election it was just
under twelve thousand people turned up to vote, so that's
estimated to be a twenty seven point one percent of
the forty four than two hundred and sixty nine enrolled

(16:58):
and eligible to vote. The other interesting thing was just
under sixty percent of votes were cast in advance excluding
special votes. There were about eighty four voting booths open.
Look the other it's pretty low, isn't it, but voting
does tend to be low for by elections, which is

(17:19):
really disappointing because we have to do them, but they
are time consuming and quite costly. But if you take
a look at Portway Cuto by election in November and
twenty twenty three, it was a thirty five point nine
percent turnout and then of course there was the Hamilton
West by election in twenty twenty two only thirty one
point four percent turnout as well. So as I said,
we have to do these things, but we do surely

(17:40):
want a better turnout than that. More on this by
election with Adam Pearce. That's coming up next. It is
twenty seven past nine. You're with News Talks ATB.

Speaker 1 (17:52):
It's the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin on News Talks ATB.

Speaker 3 (17:58):
New Zealand Herald Deputy Political Editor Adam Pearce is with me. Now,
good morning here you good I. We have been talking
about the Tamachi Mikado by election. What does Alreainy Coye
Parter bring to Parliament do you think.

Speaker 7 (18:12):
Well, not a lot of experience really in terms of
the political field, which I think has probably shocked a
few people with respect to the result in the by
election last night. I think there would be many who
would have expected Penny Henadi, which is who is an
old hand, you know, someone who has held that seat
for a long time, is fairly well known, very popular,

(18:34):
but was overtaken and in a strong way by Orderiny Kipitter.
Obviously she has a background in journalism, she's not foreign
to the political world, but I mean even she recognizes
the experience that she has in politics, and yeah, it'll
be interesting to see what she does bring to Parliament

(18:54):
when she does enter.

Speaker 3 (18:56):
Twenty seven point one percent of the just over forty
four thousand people enrolled in that electorate voted yesterday. What
do you think of the turnout.

Speaker 7 (19:06):
It's low and I don't think anyone was expecting anything else.
By elections are typically low turnouts, you know, especially when
we have local body elections going on at the same time.
I think Penny Hennery was the one to acknowledge that
some people had come up to him and ask him
whether he was running for mayor, so you know, you
get these kind of perhaps confusing campaigns and people not

(19:29):
really engaged in the politics, and I think that's how
these things are quite hard to predict when you have
such a low turnout, you have a lot of campaigning
on social media not as much on the ground, So
you know, I think that's probably why there were a
few people last night and waking up today that would
have been a bit surprised at last night's result.

Speaker 3 (19:50):
Adam, youre has been on the weekend that New Zealand
First Conference in Palmerston North, Anything interesting sort of taken
place up till now or are you're really just waiting
to hear Winston Peters speak atwo o'clock to day.

Speaker 8 (20:03):
Oh?

Speaker 7 (20:03):
Look, it's always always interesting attending in New Zealand First Conference.
I think this is my fourth and this one certainly
hasn't disappointed yesterday it was much of a Shane Jones show.

Speaker 8 (20:14):
Really, although we did have.

Speaker 7 (20:18):
Would we call it a surprise Stuart Nash declaring his
allegiance to New Zealand person and making all the right
sounds in terms of becoming a New Zealand first MP.
We didn't get confirmation of that, obviously, there's a process
to go through the party has yet to confirm its
candidate list for twenty twenty six.

Speaker 8 (20:38):
But you know, when you.

Speaker 7 (20:39):
Have Suitt Nash, the former Labor Cabinet minister of course,
standing next to New Zealand First leader Winston Peters and
both of them making pretty positive noises about it. It's
hard hard to believe it won't happen, So yeah, that
was interesting to see him there. Obviously we had the
former National MP.

Speaker 8 (20:56):
Hippangla as well.

Speaker 7 (20:58):
She was perhaps more understated in her presence at the
conference today and will be yes and yesterday of course,
but she is exploring her options who she said she's
had a look and listen.

Speaker 8 (21:11):
Whether she will be an MP obviously again that's up
to the party.

Speaker 7 (21:15):
But as you note, today is the big day we'll
have Winston Peters making his address.

Speaker 8 (21:20):
It will be a public meeting.

Speaker 7 (21:21):
They're expecting the party anyways, expecting as many as a
thousand people to turn up, which would be an impressive
site to see.

Speaker 8 (21:30):
There'll be a government announcement it sounds like, and there.

Speaker 7 (21:32):
Will also be a lot of talk on an immigration
policy from New Zealand First. You know when sim Peters
doesn't hold back at these things, so it'll certainly be
quite an event.

Speaker 3 (21:41):
And of course the we can collective here on Newstalks
B will be across that this afternoon. Adam, the Prime
Minister is after Solomon Islands for the Pacific Island Forum
Leaders Meeting. Now, normally this is attended obviously by members
and states of this region, but also they have what
they call these Dialogue Partners. They have representatives from China, France,
United States, United Kingdom, Japan, I want and places to attend,

(22:04):
and this year they have been blocked. Is that going
to have an impact do you think on this Forum
Leaders Meeting?

Speaker 2 (22:12):
Oh?

Speaker 7 (22:12):
Certainly, well, it's been one of the major talking points
going into the meeting, which is the preminent kind of
collection for the permanent event for Pacific leaders all come together,
they go off as part of the schedules, All the
leaders go off and they basically just sit in a
room and talk by themselves and come up with plans
how they want to advance the Pacific. But yes, the

(22:34):
absence of the Dialogue partners, and that comes over a
disagreement over Taiwan. Obviously, China believes that Taiwan is part
of China, doesn't recognize it as a country on its own.
You have some members in the Pacific Islands Forum who.

Speaker 8 (22:48):
Do recognize Taiwan.

Speaker 7 (22:49):
So that's the disagreement where we have and given the
Solomon Islands link to China, obviously Solomon Islands is where
this year's IF.

Speaker 8 (22:58):
Is being held.

Speaker 7 (22:59):
They've decided no dialogue partners, and that means you don't
get the likes of the US and others from Europe
coming in and when it's comes to the Pacific, that's
key for funding for funding development in the region, and
if you don't have those dialog partners there, that obviously
threatens the ability for those dialogue partners, for those bigger
nations to come in look at the projects and say yeah,

(23:21):
we'll fund that, We'll put a bit of money towards that.
So I think there's there will be people in the
New Zealand government and looking at the absence of those
dialogue partners and saying, well, we may have to fit
more of the bill now that those partners aren't going
to be there.

Speaker 8 (23:35):
But obviously it'll be interesting to see how it goes
on the ground.

Speaker 7 (23:38):
We'll be heading over there with the Prime Minister in
the coming days and we'll have to see and wait
and see how it goes.

Speaker 3 (23:45):
Thank you so much, Adam. As I mentioned, Adam is
at the New Zealand first conference. So if you keep
it eye on the Herald as well today the New
Zealand Herald, he'll be letting us know what Winston Peters
has to say at two pm. Hey, don't forget that,
I've got the Crawlies with us. After Tim, We've got
Mary and Edith from Downton Abbey. They've also brought along
Annabate with them too, very exciting, So we're going to

(24:05):
talk down to Abbey the grand finale filming without day
Maggie Smith. We can treat the amazing costumes of why
it's been such a big success. Up next, though, John
Campbell joins us to talk Destiny Church. It is twenty three.

Speaker 1 (24:18):
To ten so Sunday Session full show podcast on iHeartRadio
powered by News Talks ab.

Speaker 9 (24:26):
ED.

Speaker 3 (24:27):
Has been four months since John Campbell's first investigation into
Destiny's Church was made public. It was released as a
five part series called Under His Command. Since that series aired,
more people have come forward to share their story about
Destiny Church with John. Part two of his Under His
Command is coming to TV and Z plus tomorrow and
John Campbell is with me now. Good morning, John, love

(24:48):
you to have you with us.

Speaker 9 (24:50):
That's so nice thanks for having me. I'm very grateful.

Speaker 3 (24:54):
Now, look, did you feel a responsibility to continue this
story after the first season.

Speaker 9 (25:00):
The first season was hard because I think it's the
same terms of world views. Certainly, the more conservative members
of Destiny Church and I don't have terribly much in common.
So when I was phoning them up, there was an
initial resistance. Some people would just hang up and others
took a long, long, long time, men in many conversations

(25:23):
to feel that they were able to talk to me.
And I think a lot of people don't really understand
how Telly works. So if you're having a conversation with
someone on the phone that's not going to go on TV,
you know, you need to turn up and film them
and all that kind of stuff. So I spent a
lot of time talking to people who in the end
didn't want to appear. They just told me things. And
then when the first series went away, a lot of

(25:45):
people watched it and thought, okay, that was fair and
reasonable and actually he honored his commitments to you know,
to protect people and all that kind of stuff. So
a lot of people kind of tracked me down, and
they were different people. There was more men tracking me
down the first time around, I spoke mostly to women,
a lot of whom are kind of unhappily in the
church because theirs are in at this time, men, particularly

(26:09):
from Men Up, came to me and wanted to talk
about what that organization's become. So it wasn't my intention
to keep going. It's just that people sort of came
into them and sought me out.

Speaker 15 (26:19):
John.

Speaker 3 (26:20):
Why didn't they want to talk to you? What was
stopping them or preventing them sharing with you?

Speaker 9 (26:27):
Yeah, some people were genuinely scared, and I don't want
to get I think it's really important that I'm fear
about what they were scared about. And I think there's
a continuum there. Some people I think were concerned for
their physical safety. Others were worried that Actually, when you're
in it and some people listening will be in a
will belong to a group of people who are very tired,

(26:50):
and it might not be any evangelical or pentecostal gychu
it might be something else. But if your life is
invested in that, and if that feels like your fauna,
you know your family, and if they're the people you
talk to, that are the people you canfide and that
are people you look forward to seeing, and that are
people whose worldview it's really hard to leave. It's really
hard to leave Destiny. I think one of the guys

(27:11):
who was one of the founding members, Wayne, one of
the founding members, and the man I told me it's
the hardest thing he's ever done, was leave Disney Church.
So I think they were scared about losing family, losing identity,
losing place. And I think some of them, particularly the
women I spoke to in the first series, were scared
of a physical response from their partners, their husbands, which
was terrifying. I had one moment when, quite late on

(27:34):
a Saturday night, a sift a phone call for a
woman I've been talking to a lot, including earlier that day,
but it was just terrified of anyone knowing she'd spoken
to me. And I was quite late, and I thought,
oh okay, so I immediately called her back, but she
bundled me and in the background I just heard this
voice saying, who's that calling so late? You know, and
you just think, oh my god, you know, what have
I done here? And so there was a lot of

(27:56):
that kind of precariousness.

Speaker 3 (27:58):
I guess how has Destiny church received the attention that
you're giving them.

Speaker 9 (28:05):
Well, I don't know, Brode Tomekie want to talk to
me is never give him an interview, And I always
say to him or you know, I want to say
to people, I'm really happy to run the interviews exactly
as you're running this one now Francisco, which is just
uncart So you can't put words in my mouth. You
can answer, you can ask me ques, you can ask
me loaded questions or whatever, but if I still get

(28:26):
the right to answer them. But he won't even do that,
and so and I'm also I don't know how many
of your listeners saw that march down Queen Street in
June when they were ripping up the flags of churches
and ripping up rainbow flags and putting a tire hear
through the throat of just Sindra a Durna and stuff.
I mean, it's part of me that thinks that Bryan
Tomaky feels any publicity is good publicity, and that he

(28:47):
won't be overwhelmingly unhappy with this because you know, TV
one is looking at him, but he won't he won't
participate in it, and and that kind of troubles me.
He's responded to me in sermons. So he's spoken in
Sherman's about the first series and being reasonably critical of it,
which is entirely his right. But you know, but I
do wish I really wish he'd give me an interview.

(29:09):
I really wish he would.

Speaker 3 (29:11):
You mentioned that protest much there, John, which I mean
everybody you know takes a load, you know, gets a copping,
don't they. But so much hate and so much fair.
I mean, is this what you'd expect from a church?
Is this a church?

Speaker 9 (29:28):
I don't know. I think a lot of your listeners
will think it's not. You know, I grew up in
a fairly soft Anglican church in Wellington. It certainly wasn't
that church. It's not the churches I know. You know,
my son and daughter both went to Catholic schools. You know,
they're not their experience of the church. I think some
of that stuff on Queen Street and June was just extraordinary.

(29:52):
The vision that people get to see it, The vision
is really confronting. And I think he used the word hate.
It feels hateful to me. And I think, you know,
I was seeing to a pastor of the Rugby last night,
just as delightful man. Oh I started talking because he
was just heckling so brilliantly. He was just so funny,
and I said to what do you do and he said, ah,
he said, I'm a pastor, which and we started talking

(30:15):
about it. He started talking about Jesus, you know, he's
a good past that he was proselytizing even at the rugby.
But you know, I don't remember Jesus being homophobic, you know,
I don't remember Jesus, you know, dealing and hate. And
I feel like it's certainly not my understanding of Christianity,
and it's not my experience of it. But it almost

(30:36):
feels to me like this isn't really a Christian curty
long although he uses the language of Christianity, he's able
to quote the scriptures, you know that, it feels like
something different. Now they're dealing and are really profound hated xenophobia,
it's transphobia, it's homophobic, it's Islamophobic, it's you name it.
Really he's got it into them, and I don't. It's
starting to feel more like an extreme right wing organization,

(30:59):
almost straying towards the kind of neo fascist spaces that
we're sort of seeing in the UK, but now and
in fact he's starting to associate with Tommy Robinson. You
know that's for me, that's the space he's occupying John.

Speaker 3 (31:11):
The second season drops tomorrow. There is a focus on
the Man Up program. We've heard some of the success stories,
but there's another story. What is this program? How does
it work? What does it stand for?

Speaker 9 (31:23):
Actually, Ratiska, thank you for making that point. On behalf
of Manup. You know both, I've got two men, so
I spoke to lots of men and setting up the season,
but two men who are actually in it, who physically
appear on camera, and you know, they both had great
experiences of Manup. So Man Up is a place where
you go and share It's about mail anger, it's about
male violence. And I think, you know, we need to

(31:44):
remind ourselves what we learned from the Royal Commission of
Abuse in care Right, that there are a lot of
people in this country who were profoundly damaged during their childhoods.
You know, they were abandoned and betrayed and hurt and
they carry that with them and I think Manup was
one of those places where you would go and talk
that through and be surrounded by like minded people. I

(32:06):
think a lot of people in Man, not all, but
a lot came out of pretty damaged environment. So you
sort of tried to overcome and express and understand your
anger and deal with and there's a lot to be
said for that. But now, of course, you know when
when they're sort of storming the Taatatu library or libraries
and Gisbon or you know, closing down Rainbow story Time

(32:28):
or doing these really angry hark ams, a lot of
anger about the appropriation of Hakker for this point, for
this purpose, you know, in front of the Pride parade.
That's men up too, and a lot of people that
I spoke to, and these two men both said it
on camera, sees we thought we were about dealing with
anger and overcoming it, not going public with an expression

(32:48):
of it. And remember these aren't you know, liberal uppities
like me. These are conservative Christian people. And one of
them say, I just don't understand why we need to
go and be angry at gain people like what and
you know, kind of almost violently angry. And there's seven
people facing charges not proven yet absolutely not proven out
of that Cheatitude library of Vent. You know, that's not

(33:10):
dealing with anger, that's overcoming it, that's expressing it. I
think people feel really Yeah, one of the founding members
of mantup Ispoken Me said he just feelsn't devastated by that.

Speaker 3 (33:23):
Gosh, it's a really interesting series, John, I thank you
so much for doing it. Are people trying to take
people involved because they want to take action against the church?

Speaker 9 (33:37):
You know, what.

Speaker 3 (33:40):
Do they want their outcome to be?

Speaker 9 (33:42):
You know, sometimes Francesca, you think, did I did I
want to be here? You know, you sit out on
life and and then you know, it's the old frog
in the water scenario, isn't it. You think, O, that
water's hot now and I hadn't quite noticed it getting there.
And I think if you go back to Lake City Church,
which is the precursor to Destiny, so that's Frietomach out
of Rota in the nineties, that was essentially a pretty happy,

(34:04):
clappy evangelical church, you know, just bog stand at Pentecostal
hands in the year stuff and I think probably a
good natured place to be. Sometime earlier the century he
started doing the enough is Enough thing, and I think
he saw a gap in the market for kind of
homophobia and all that kind of stuff. But there are
people in their church who are just good people and

(34:24):
they don't they don't like where they've ended up. And
I don't think they want to go and storm a
library or you know, go and shout at gay people
having their you know, their pride march down Ponsonby Road
or through Central Wellian. I just don't think that's where
they intended to be, and it's very hard to speak
out against it in the church. There's very little tolerance

(34:45):
feeding criticism of Briant McKey within the church, So I
think that's why so many of them have come to
somebody who's probably an unlikely person for them to talk to.

Speaker 3 (34:58):
Yeah, oh look, John, I really appreciate your time this morning,
Thank you so much. Season two of Under His Command
is available on TV and Z Plus from tomorrow. The
first season is also on TVNZ Plus. If you missed it.
It is ten to.

Speaker 1 (35:10):
Ten putting the tough questions to the newsmakers, the mic
asking breakfast.

Speaker 16 (35:15):
Is it of course the Ukraine by our Defense Minister
Judith Collins. Just out of that meeting, Macron said of
the thirty five that were in the meeting, of twenty
six have committed to troops.

Speaker 9 (35:23):
Are we one of them?

Speaker 17 (35:24):
Well, I wasn't in the meeting, and primacy need experiently
that any such thatment would need to go through Camp
Up and it's the one street CAMPAUP.

Speaker 16 (35:32):
What's your sense of what you saw? Is this thing
grinding on forever or is something material going to happen soon?

Speaker 18 (35:38):
Well?

Speaker 17 (35:39):
I think the fact that in three and a half
years and to what Russia thought was a three day
war tells you that Ukraine's are not giving them They do, however, want.

Speaker 16 (35:48):
To see Star back tomorrow at six am the Mic
Hosking Breakfast with Avida, News Talk ZEDB keep.

Speaker 2 (35:55):
It's simple, It's Sunday the Sunday.

Speaker 1 (35:57):
Session with Francesca Rudge and Wiggles for the best selection
of great breedings.

Speaker 2 (36:02):
News Talk ZEDB.

Speaker 3 (36:06):
Is thank you so much for your text in response
to John Campbell. Somebody text to say, probably better than
the gangs. Have a watch of the series. You might
be surprised to find how members of Disney Church who
have also been in gangs make comparisons between the two

(36:26):
and the similarities that there are. The choir that's saying
our national anthem were the best that have ever sung
God defend news m and they are amazing, so great
to listen to. Another text reads. I hope they perform
again next week. It was very emotional listen to them
while done to whoever organized them to perform set the
tone for the game. I've never heard the crowd join
in with such gusto. I agreed, jan I thought the
choir was fantastic. And we've also been talking about the

(36:49):
Tammacky Mikodo by election and the turnout and Bob said,
Francisco for is less than a fifty one percent turnout
put a manager in a low show, and a no
confidence vote is a no confidence vote in itself. Hey,
new episode of The Little Things was released yesterday, the
podcast I did with my friend Lyoud. We were really
fortunate to have Laura Riley join us yesterday, and of

(37:10):
course she joins us here on the Sunday session occasionally
on the panel. She is the Coast daytime host. But
she joined us to talk about life after divorce, and
she was really open and honest that, Yep, a midlife
separation is hard and it's heartbreaking, but you can still
build a good life on the other side. And she
shares sort of the financial side of it, sharing custody

(37:30):
with kids, counseling or so dating. What it's like to,
you know, go on those dates. Lots of really great
tips too as to how you can manage all that
so the little things. Check it out at iHeart or
wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 1 (37:46):
The Sunday Session Full show podcast on my Heart Radio
powered by News Talks FB.

Speaker 3 (37:53):
Right up next, we're going to celebrate and farewell fifteen
years of Downton Abbey with Laura Carmichael, Michelle Dockery and
Joanne Froget. Such a treat to have all three long
time cast members with us. We're going to talk about
Maggie Smith, what it's like being part of such a
long running show, and the pros and cons are wearing
amazing costumes. We're going to finish the hour with the

(38:14):
music from Lady Gaga. This is her latest single, The
Dead Dance. She's just released the video, which was a
creative collaboration with the director Tim Burton. It's worth taking
a look at. It is Street Tenure with News Talks Every.

Speaker 1 (39:06):
Sunday with Style The Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin and
Winkles for the best selection of Greg Reeds.

Speaker 2 (39:14):
Here's talk Sevy.

Speaker 3 (39:27):
It is seven past ten. This is a Sunday session.
Good to have you with us, Downton Abbey fans. After
fifteen years, the end is nigh. Six seasons, fifty two episodes,
two films to date, but this week the third film,
Downton Abbey, the Grand Finale, hit cinemas and spells the
final chapter for this worldwide phenomenon. Ahead of the release,

(39:48):
I'm excited to talk to three longtime cast members joining
me Lady Edith Pellham, Lady Mary Crawley and Anna Bates.
These wonderful characters played by Laura Carmichael, Michelle Dockery and
Joanne Frogett. Ladies, welcome, thank thank you, thanks for having us. Michelle.
Can I start with you, Lady Mary? How to ford
to be sentimental? But I felt very sentimental watching this film.

(40:11):
I laughed and I cried, and I thought it was
an incredibly fitting ending to an era. How did it
feel for you wrapping this film?

Speaker 19 (40:19):
It felt really poignyant this film because we all knew
it was the last one, So I felt like I
really tried to relish every moment, you know, every scene
that we did the last time we were at High Clear,
the last time we were doing scenes together, it felt
like I really wanted to soak up every moment, and

(40:39):
I think Julian did such a brilliant job of wrapping
up every single storyline for every character.

Speaker 20 (40:47):
And really it is.

Speaker 19 (40:50):
It's for the fans. You know, it's a beautiful tribute
to Maggie, but it really is, it's for the fans
out there, and that was just just felt so good
to kind of give that one last story to everybody
out there.

Speaker 3 (41:04):
It's interesting you mentioned Meggie, because Laura probably the last
thing I thought just as I was walking into this
to see this film was about day Maggie Smith, and
the film does an incredibly beautiful job of paying tribute
to both her and Violet Crawley. Was her absence missed
on set?

Speaker 21 (41:25):
Yeah?

Speaker 15 (41:26):
Yeah, I mean we were thinking of her and talking
about her every day. Really, I mean, I've said this,
but I feel like we will spend the rest of
our lives telling brilliant Maggie Smith's stories. So and you
know that was true. As we were filming this film,
we were reminiscing on the funny things she said and

(41:48):
how brilliantly she played that part, and Julian wrote the
script very much with Violet. They're looking over it and yeah,
as you've seen the movie, I think it does do
a fitting farewell to all of these characters, and it
was very special for us to have that.

Speaker 3 (42:10):
How formulative has Downton Abby being for your career, Joan.

Speaker 21 (42:17):
Oh, Well, it's hard to say, isn't it, because I
suppose I don't know what would have happened if I
wasn't in Dowbton. So but I mean it's certainly not
done it any harm, for sure. No, it's been incredible.
It's been amazing to be on such a success and

(42:40):
with such an amazing group of people. I've been working
professionally for twelve years before I got down in and
then I think down and came at such a wonderful
time in my career. This sort of show came in
and swept everyone off their feet, and we.

Speaker 18 (42:56):
Were all swept along with it.

Speaker 21 (42:57):
And it was a wonderful experience to be a part
of something that was internationally such a big hit, and
to get to play a character I just love. I
wanted to I always relished going back to play her
every season, and I felt challenged as an actor, and
I felt joy as an actor to be able to

(43:19):
go and play her every year, and that's just incredible.

Speaker 3 (43:22):
Really, what did you love about her?

Speaker 21 (43:25):
I loved that her sense of right and wrong. I
loved her genuine nature. I loved that she was a
good person in the absolute true sense, and that no
one could sway her from that. She was a strong person,
but a good person. I wanted to make her a

(43:46):
strong character because I think you do have to be
strong to be a good person, in some ways, much
stronger than you do to not be a good person.
So I, you know, I felt like often the nice
characters are depicted is a bit weak or you know,
sort of less dynamic in some way, and I didn't
want her to be any of those things, and I

(44:07):
don't think she was, so I'm really proud of her
for that.

Speaker 3 (44:12):
Joanne, you mentioned been able to come back to Downton
and things, and you've all been so busy in between
Downton episodes. I've been We've been absolutely loving you in Mobland.
Is it easy to come and go from a character
when there is so much else hitpening in between?

Speaker 9 (44:29):
I think.

Speaker 21 (44:31):
That first day back on set is always kind of
oh okay, we're back, We're doing this character again, and
you sort of go with Anna.

Speaker 17 (44:38):
It was very much.

Speaker 21 (44:39):
I keep saying this, but I put on Anna's shoes
and I'd be like, Oh, there she is, there she is.

Speaker 20 (44:43):
I've found her again.

Speaker 21 (44:45):
I'm very excited to be going back to do season
two of Mobland in a few weeks we start, and
I am so looking forward to it again. I know
with that character, I wanted Jan to be a character
that I wanted to go back and play, and I
can't wait to go back and play her. And for me,
it is very much about costume and makeup. Actually, I
think once you've got the costume on, even if it's
a modern costume, you feel different. You know, you feel

(45:07):
different to yourself and you can kind of look at
yourself in the mirror fleetingly walking out of the makeup
trainer and go, okay, right, I've got her, I've got
her back.

Speaker 8 (45:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (45:17):
So, Michelle and Laura, how much did the costumes and
the things play a role and you finding your characters?
I mean they are it's so leavish, it's so exquisite
to look at.

Speaker 19 (45:28):
Yeah, I mean, so many of those costumes really inform
your posture and the way that you move. And you know,
although they've evolved over the you know, fifteen years of
Downton and they've become much more comfortable. We're not in
corsets anymore, it's still you know, kind of gives you
this kind of elegance and the way that you walk

(45:48):
and you hold yourself, and they've just I think they've
just got better and better as each you know, series
went on, and the three films, and I really think
that this last one does feel like the finale when
it comes to the costumes. Actually it's just Anna Robins,
oh brilliant, talented costume designer, just really went for it

(46:09):
for this last one, and the particularly the ballroom gowns. Yeah,
the red dress and your beautiful blue and red dress.
They were just so wonderful to wear.

Speaker 3 (46:20):
Do you ever feel like you miss out a little bit,
Joanna with your sensible Anna shoes?

Speaker 21 (46:25):
Well, I think it was sort of fake, maybe on
because I love fashional clothes, so maybe like at first
I was like because I was like I love that dress,
I still do it.

Speaker 18 (46:34):
I love that or I love that, but I do
that all the time.

Speaker 21 (46:36):
Anyway, I'll literally stop someone on the tube and say
where did you get that bag from? But I loved
Anna's clothes, Like I say, you want them to be
right for your character. And actually the practicality of Anna's
clothes in the long running series was absolutely dreamy because
the ladies here had to wear, you know, especially early on,

(46:59):
lots of fabrics that were original, very very delicate, had
to go for hours and hours and hours of coss
and fittings.

Speaker 18 (47:07):
I do one fitting for a couple of hours at
the start of series.

Speaker 21 (47:10):
My costume was made for me, but in obviously the
period style, so it's much more wearable, durable. So I could,
you know, lay down and have a cheeky snooze if
I had five hours in between scenes or something, and
wake up completely uncreased and ready to go, whereas the
girls would have to get changed and take a courset off.
And so it was it was Anna was comfortable, not

(47:35):
the corsets, but yeah, I was comfortable in her clothes.

Speaker 3 (47:39):
And also so much of that was within the story.

Speaker 19 (47:43):
So between Anna and Mary, you know, so many of
those scenes were in Mary's bedroom preparing Mary's cot Jess
and you know, and there was always a you know,
obviously a rehearsal between us of what Anna was putting out?
Was it her stockings? She was laying out the glove,
the gloves, what would you put on first? And it

(48:03):
was sometimes I would sit there and just be like, Ah,
I just actually quite envy Joe just in a very
simple black dress.

Speaker 3 (48:12):
There's no fuss, Yeah, Laura, Lady Edith is a character
who has evolved a lot over the fifteen years, and
I might not have actually realized how much she hated
until I watched this final film. What have you loved
about playing her?

Speaker 2 (48:28):
Oh?

Speaker 15 (48:28):
I have loved that character revolution really, I think you know,
she started at the beginning of the series, probably the
most traditional of the three girls. You know, she would
have been very happy to marry well and live a
life like her grandmother's in a big house, you know,
but it didn't go that way for her. And in

(48:51):
that sort of heartbreak and humiliation of being jilted, that
was a kind of catalyst really for her finding her
voice and using it and writing a letter to the
Times and finding that she could be a writer, which
I loved for her, and I kind of love as

(49:13):
this sort of message from Julian that in those moments
that can be the making of you. And you know
how much more exciting a life she's lived because of those.

Speaker 3 (49:24):
Moments, Michelle. In this film, Lady Mary has to navigate
the social disgrace of divorce in the nineteen thirties. This
is something that Downtown's always done really well, hasn't it.
It doesn't ignore the fact that life is missy and
things don't go brilliantly for everybody, and that's just kind
of life. We can relate to what everyone's going through
withhetherir upstels or downstairs.

Speaker 18 (49:46):
Absolutely.

Speaker 19 (49:47):
I think that's one of the things that people love
about the shows that it's so human and even though
it is a time, you know that we don't necessarily recognize,
it's still the characters still kind of go through these
sort of trials and tribulations, ups and downs that people
can really relate to. And I've always loved Mary for that.

(50:07):
You know, she's sort of been on this roller coaster
throughout the series and the three films, and even the
last movie. There's one last challenge for her and that's
kind of navigating this.

Speaker 22 (50:21):
This attitude towards her being divorced and.

Speaker 19 (50:23):
Pushed out society, and you know it then kind of
shows all of the characters vulnerabilities and flaws and and
I think that's what people love, is that they love
seeing these very human characters. And that's real credit to Julian.

Speaker 3 (50:39):
Thank you all so much, wonderful as I see a
wonderful finale to an amazing era. It's been just wonderful
to follow you all. Thank you so much for your time.

Speaker 18 (50:48):
Thank you my pleasure, thank you.

Speaker 3 (50:51):
That was the Ladies of Downton, Ebby Vie. As I mentioned,
I've been very lucky to see the film all really,
it really is. I loved it. I laughed and I cried.
I think if you're a down to Ebbie Fenn, you're
gonna love it as well. Down to Ebbie. The Grend
finale is cinemas this Thursday. Write More on Entertainment with
Steve Ne'll next and guess where The White Lotus is

(51:13):
off to for its next c season. No, it's not
here anyway, More on that in a minute. It's nineteen
past ten.

Speaker 2 (51:21):
Relax, it's still the weekend.

Speaker 1 (51:23):
It's a Sunday session with Francesca Rudgan and Whiggles for
the best selection of great reads.

Speaker 2 (51:29):
Us talk z'd be.

Speaker 3 (51:31):
Father's Day is here, and if you haven't yet managed
to find the perfect gift for Dad, look no further
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(51:53):
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(52:15):
With books, games, puzzles, toys, gorgeous stationary, a great selection
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at wick Calls.

Speaker 2 (52:23):
The Sunday Session.

Speaker 3 (52:25):
Mister, it's time to talk entertainment now and I'm joined
by Steve Nel, editor at flexstt Co dot in Z. Hello,
good morning, good morning, we're going to start today by
talking about a new series which has hit Disney.

Speaker 23 (52:46):
Plus it is That's where it's hanging out.

Speaker 3 (52:49):
Yeah, it is creepy Alien Earth, and I think I
might have done a little of service. I got a
couple of EPs in and I kind of lost interest
a little bit.

Speaker 23 (52:59):
I get it, I think, particularly with so much sort
of IP revival and unnecessary sequel requeills spin off series
of existing properties it does, you could lump it in
with it sort of category.

Speaker 4 (53:12):
But Alien Earth.

Speaker 23 (53:13):
I had a bit of trepidation about this. I kind
of tend to not like prequels the things I already like,
and being a big fan of the particularly the first
two Alien movies, didn't love the idea of like another
attempt to sort of explain what's going on in these movies.
That's not what makes them scary. What makes them scary
is that we don't know what's going on. I think
Alien like discovering that big spaceship, not knowing what that

(53:34):
weird creature was that was pilot. That's what's weird and
trippy for humans out there in the universe, not you know,
sort of tight legs exactly. But five episodes in and
there has not been that present in the show really,
So it's set two years before the events of Alien.
A ship has crashed, has been crashed onto Earth, hence

(53:54):
the title. It's been out collecting various specimens. They include
the titular Alien, but also some new kind of creepy friends.

Speaker 3 (54:02):
And good They're inventive and quite clever.

Speaker 23 (54:04):
While Alien, I'm digging this kind of these alien parasites
and creepy crawleys that have found their way back back home.

Speaker 3 (54:13):
Maybe I'm a little immune because I have watched so
much Alien, and you are familiar with the Alien. I
just didn't want to get stuck on this one spacecraft
that we were on.

Speaker 23 (54:23):
Yeah, and I think you know, a big part of
what makes the Alien films work is the haunted house
in space element like that. Claustrophobia is a big part
of them. Yeah, but you can't just spend you can't
spend a whole season of expensive television running around some
steamy corridors. And there is a good sort of home
base for the show as well. So there's While there's

(54:44):
a crash ship, there's also a self described boy genius
corporate inventor, but kind of tech bro type guy he's
got an island retreat. He's working on weird tech there,
and he's got he's quite interested in getting a hold
of these alien life forms to exploit for whatever way
he can. But what it's kind of pointing to is
that without explaining necessarily how people found out about the

(55:08):
alien eggs or where they live, whatever, that there has
been a kind of interest in these alien species. And
I hope with three episodes remaining, we don't get any
sort of things tied in nice, neat little bows, and
we're left with that sort of unexploited charactory.

Speaker 9 (55:22):
I will give it.

Speaker 3 (55:23):
I will give it another go, do you know what
it is? One thing I do like is because this
is the origin story in a sense, they don't know
what they're dealing with, but we do. And I quite
love the way they're a bit blase and quite relaxed
in this environment where I want to say to them,
oh no, don't stand next to that nesting.

Speaker 23 (55:39):
Absolutely there is an episode, the fifth episode of the
season is a sort of minor flashback episode, and it
kind of shows what happened on the ship before it
crashed on Earth, and it's very much there are very
familiar beats from the first Alien film. The other thing
I'd note that's really cool is in twenty twenty five
they've nailed this mix of technology where it feels like

(56:00):
it's got the technology of the seventies films. So there's
lots of cathode ra ATVs, there's lots of like blinking lightnuters,
not a hell of a lot of screens, but you
still believe it's still possible that people could travel from
planet to planet, even though even though the computers are just.

Speaker 3 (56:15):
Like, okay, so it's worth doing. We shouldn't just as
you say, sometimes I think that some franchises, franchises should
just be left that they are.

Speaker 23 (56:26):
There have been cynical franchise exploitation entrance in the Alien
franchise already, so but this is not one of them.
It made me think a lot about Alien Romulus, which
was the most recent cinema version, and that that film's
kind of diminished in my mind a little bit because
of the show. The show is better, So there we go.

Speaker 8 (56:44):
That's your reference point, so you.

Speaker 3 (56:45):
Can check that out on Disney now. Of course, very
popular show is The White Lotus, and they do tend
to pick a lovely, sunny, warm tropical often close to
a beach kind of location. I know what a tough ria, no,

(57:05):
very tough location to go and work in. Where do
you think Season four is going.

Speaker 9 (57:09):
To end up?

Speaker 23 (57:10):
There are some limitations So while this isn't kind of
carston Stone, HBO has a marketing partnership with the Four
Seasons hotel chain, so it will be out of four
Seasons as the previous seasons have all been and deadline
the Hollywood Traders reporting that France is going to be
the setting and to Europe. Yeah, and as they as

(57:31):
they discussed the different Four Seasons hotels, that might be
a possibility. So there had been some talk that it
would be good to change the setting, but maybe move
it away from the beach, go to a ski resort.
But apparently Mike White hates the cold, the guy that
runs the show, so he won't. He won't, but he
won't do that. He doesn't like being cold, so it
will always be allegedly in a warm locale. Based on that,

(57:52):
and based on the availability periods of the different Four
Seasons hotels, it looks like the French Rivy Era is
probably the most likely destination, which is kind of you know,
can adjacent Hollywood. Hollywood loves that part of France.

Speaker 4 (58:04):
Okay, so what do we do?

Speaker 7 (58:05):
We did?

Speaker 3 (58:05):
We did Hawaii, Italy, Thailand, didn't we?

Speaker 9 (58:09):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (58:09):
Okay, yeah not for young I can see it going
back to France.

Speaker 23 (58:13):
No word on anything else other than this reported story
that it's going to France. Don't know when it's being made,
don't know who's in it, don't.

Speaker 3 (58:19):
Know when, don't know anything else except the location, which
is quite important interestingly, of course, when they go and
shoot their oft and they're not just using that one location,
even knowing that sort of is the center. And I
think I think it was the Italian one that made
it look maybe you think it was the Italian one
whereby it made it look like it was sort of
the hotel was on the beach, but apparently it was
nowhere near it. And so they have they have to

(58:41):
find somewhere where they can pull a couple of locations
together to make it work.

Speaker 23 (58:45):
And also the ridiculous amount of time they spend shooting
the show, seasons will seasons will pass while they filmed
this show, so it has to be also a location
where you could were winter.

Speaker 8 (58:57):
Kind of looks like summer.

Speaker 3 (58:59):
So I know that you said we've got an idea
of cast and things like that, but do we have
any idea when they're planning on starting on shooting this
next season. No, I okay, so we're just getting hil.

Speaker 23 (59:08):
This is some big advanced news we're probably going to
be in this country.

Speaker 3 (59:14):
France, that we've potentially got the country. But that's it
at the moment. Okay, Well, we'll walk that we've.

Speaker 23 (59:20):
Got an unconfirmed country and that's entertainment news.

Speaker 3 (59:22):
We might leave it another year before we get too excited,
but I love it. Thank you so much, Steve.

Speaker 9 (59:27):
Right.

Speaker 3 (59:28):
If you're an egg lover but you're bit worried about cholesterol,
well eggs are off the hook. A new study clears
them of cholesterol blame. Michelle Dickinson explains more. Next, it's
ten thirty.

Speaker 1 (59:43):
It's the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin on News Talks. B.

Speaker 3 (59:49):
I don't know how you like to start the day,
but I love to start the day with an egg.
And of course, you know, eggs have a good reputation.
Sometimes they get a bit of a bad reputation when
it comes to high cholesterol. But doctor Michelle Dickinson is
with us, and I think you've got some pretty good
news for me when it comes to ours. Ain't study
of the week any egg good news for egg lovers.
Poor eggs just get beat up all the time.

Speaker 20 (01:00:08):
Gosh, cagapasini start the day. So this is new research
published in the Journal of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
And I don't know where the advice came from, but
I know that my parents gave me this advice, which is, oh,
don't eat too many eggs because a high in cholesterol,
and as if that's going to increase your cholesterol. And
so I think a lot of us have avoided eating

(01:00:29):
eggs all the time because I'm like, oh, maybe the
oaks to a hand cholesterol. Maybe it's gonna been.

Speaker 3 (01:00:33):
I'm going to return that I was a here of
the curve, and I was an early adopter, and you know,
my thinking was really advanced here and I just paid
no attention to all there.

Speaker 20 (01:00:40):
Well, if you've been avoiding eggs because you're about your cholesterol,
it's good news.

Speaker 3 (01:00:44):
You can eat all the eggs that you want.

Speaker 20 (01:00:45):
Well, at least in this study, you can eat two
eggs a day for five days a week, which is
a lot of eggs. And so this study investigated the
independent effects of dietary cholesterol and saturated fest on LDL
cholesterol levels, which is the ones that we measure in
our blood. And the results say that it's not the
cholesterol in the eggs that's a problem. It's the saturated

(01:01:06):
and the other parts of our diet, like the bacon
and the sausages that you tend to have around your eggs.
So they basically took some volunteers, sixty one adults, and
they split them into three groups, and they put them
on a five week dit. One of the diets was
high cholesterol, high saturated fat, but they could only eat
one egg a week. One of the diets was high cholesterol,
low saturated fat, but they got two eggs a day

(01:01:27):
every day. And then they had an egg free diet,
which is low cholesterol, high saturated fat, but sadly no eggs.
And what they found actually is what we all wanted
to hear, which is two eggs a day, five days
a week, actually improved cholesterol levels even though the egg
is high in cholesterol.

Speaker 3 (01:01:46):
And what, yeah, like, well, how does that work?

Speaker 20 (01:01:49):
How does something high in cholesterol actually reduce your bodies
cholesterol levels. And what they found is it's not about
the cholesterol that you eke. So eggs have about one
hundred and sixty one hundred and eighty milligrams of cholesterol
per yolk, which is why people raised alarms about it.
But eggs a very low and saturated fat, and saturated

(01:02:10):
fats actually are the things found in processed meats, butter
fry foods are actually what they found to be the
driver of increase LDL cholesterol. So it's not about the
cholesterol that you eat that raises your cholesterol. It's about
the saturated fat that you eat that raises cholesterol. And
because we're only just learning about this previously people said, well,

(01:02:30):
obviously if you eat more cholesterol, your cholesterol will go up.
Not true, thankfully. So basically this study said you can
eat couple eggs to day, it's totally fine. But if
you're gonna eat your couple of eggs around bacon, sausages
and buttered toast, then it's not fine. So if you
are worried about cholesterol, eat your eggs, don't stress about it,
even though they are a high cholesterol product, but try

(01:02:51):
and cut down your saturated fat. And that's gonna help
with U show cholesterol. So basically, eggs are off the hook.
If you're ever feeling guilty CERs some dietary advice from
the past said don't eat eggs. Don't listen to it anymore.
New science are showing that eggs are good.

Speaker 3 (01:03:02):
It is really amazing though the and I don't Yeah,
maybe myths isn't quite the right word, but the myths
around food that we're told which can last for decades
and decades until find her someone.

Speaker 20 (01:03:12):
Goes hang on a minute totally, and it's generation from
because yeah, my knowledge of high cholesterol and eggs came
from my parents who were told by I don't.

Speaker 3 (01:03:19):
Know who food pyramid exactly.

Speaker 20 (01:03:21):
So yeah, basically, eat your eggs, enjoy them.

Speaker 3 (01:03:24):
Excellent. There we go. I shall guilt free. I think
if your texts. Sandra said, we're watching down to an
abby series all over again. Just love it. I know
quite a few people who have just started as well.
Kerry Woodham said to me during the week she's got
a mother onto it and we're one epp in and
she said, it's just wonderful to think that we've got,
you know, another fifty fifty one to go. My producer
did make a comment she's taking her mum to see

(01:03:46):
the film. It is a lovely one to go with
your mum. And she said, but look, I've never really
watched any of the series. They are quite good with
the way they make these films. You don't if you've
never sort of seen any down and Abby, you're not
hugely familiar with who everyone is. You can still get
the gist of it and follow it. It works as
a stand alone film as well, is what I am

(01:04:08):
trying to say. But as I said, if you are
a fan, I do think you are going to love it.
It is really gorgeous. And I think this as I
meant we're talking about in an interview. I think they've
stepped it up a bit. I think the costumes, everything
just feels like it's elevated. They have done the best
work that they possibly can to finish on right, it
is twenty two to eleven. Up next, we've got the

(01:04:29):
Father's Day treat for you from our resident chef, Mike
vander Elsen. He's got a little recipe that if you're
going to cook for Dad tonight, you might want to
whip up Bang Shorty.

Speaker 1 (01:04:41):
The Sunday Session full show podcast on iHeartRadio powered by
News Talks AB.

Speaker 3 (01:04:48):
Joining me now is Mike vander Ellson, our resident chef.
Happy Father's Day, Thank.

Speaker 9 (01:04:53):
You very much.

Speaker 24 (01:04:54):
Isn't it a great day?

Speaker 3 (01:04:56):
A great day for all the dads out there? Caregivers?
Your girls are normally pretty lovely to you, aren't they
on Father's Day? Take care of everything memory. They might
leave you with a bit of a clean up. But
they do something, don't they.

Speaker 24 (01:05:13):
It depends on how hard we have to push them
to actually do anything. No, don't, probably don't make me
breakfast this morning. Hopefully maybe some lunch, and you never don't,
might get a little dessert later.

Speaker 3 (01:05:25):
Brilliant, brilliant. So what have you got for us today
that you think Dad might like?

Speaker 9 (01:05:32):
I was thinking, I was.

Speaker 2 (01:05:33):
I was kind of like, what a real great dish
with Dad?

Speaker 24 (01:05:36):
And you can't, you can't go past the decent steak?
So what do you have with a decent steak? And
I was like drawn back to my days when I
was were quite young. I think it was around two thousand.
We went to New York and we're in Manhattan and
we went to the great late or the late great
Anthony Bourdain's restaurant called lath House, and that was in Manhattan,

(01:06:00):
as I said, and we had his absolute classic dish,
which was sake with caf Fada Perry butter, and shoe
string fries.

Speaker 3 (01:06:09):
Perfect, perfect.

Speaker 24 (01:06:12):
I thought I'd replicate that, hopefully better, because I cast
my mind back. The piece of steak was so thin
it was like a piece of paper. The fries were overcooked,
the Cafe to Perry butter on top was like totally
gone all over the plate, and it was really expensive.

Speaker 3 (01:06:32):
Take us through the recipe and help us do a
better job.

Speaker 24 (01:06:36):
Okay, so it's called Father's Day beef with Cafe to
Perry butter. So first up, just get some get some steaks,
but a surlined the scotch, but a rump doesn't really
matter as long as it's a nice little piece of steak.
Then we make up the all important butter. So we
got one hundred fifty grams of unsalted butter. Just cut
that up into small little dice, pop that into a bowl,
and then to that.

Speaker 16 (01:06:56):
This seems like a.

Speaker 24 (01:06:57):
Tremendous amounts of ingredients, but trust me when I say
they are all there for a reason. So into there
we add one tablespoons of tomato ketchup, one tablespoon or
Dijon mustard. One tablespoon of capers that have been chopped
quarter like a quarter of an onion, just a small
amount of onion that speaks as finely dice as you
possibly can. Quarter of a couple of parsa it has

(01:07:18):
been chopped up. Tablespoon of time leaves, two garlic clothes
that have crushed. Two anchovy filets optional. Half a tablespoon
of brandy optional, Half a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, half
a teaspoon or pup rica powder, half a teaspoon or
curry powder, and then a little bit of salt and
some cracked pepper. Does that seem like a lot?

Speaker 3 (01:07:39):
We got there?

Speaker 24 (01:07:40):
We got there again. Mix all that together. That creates
your amazing cafe. The ferry butter, and then what I
do is I just spread it out on this little
piece of graspberry paper and then roll it up and
clean film into a tight little cylinder, Pop that into
the fridge and allow the butter to harden. Once that's done,
you're good to go. Season your steak up. When you're
ready to go, pop your shoe string fries into the oven.

(01:08:02):
Once your steak's done, pull it out, serve it. Don't
get to rest your steak, and then take your cafe
to prairie butter out of the fridge, slice a decent
like round cylinder off it, peel off the wrapping, and
then pop that on top of your steak. And if
you want to be super fancy, you can either use
a Brunet torch and just torture very quickly, or just
pop it under the grill just so that top of

(01:08:23):
the layer of the cafe to prairie butter just starts
to mount and just start to ooze into that steak
and serve with the shoe string price.

Speaker 3 (01:08:30):
Yeah sounds amazing. And maybe a little bit of watercrease.

Speaker 25 (01:08:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 24 (01:08:34):
Look, I put a little bit of greens on there,
just as the sake and put into the greens on there.
But I don't expect them to be eaten.

Speaker 3 (01:08:42):
But they do look good.

Speaker 1 (01:08:44):
It does.

Speaker 3 (01:08:45):
It does look good. That is a fantastic recipe. Thank
you so much, Mike. Enjoy the rest of your day.
If you would like to grab that recipe, you can
find it a good from scratch dot cot dot inzid
or of course you can hear the newstalk zib dot
co dot inzid forward slash Sunday.

Speaker 2 (01:09:00):
There's no better way to start your Sunday.

Speaker 1 (01:09:03):
It's a Sunday session with Francesca Rudger and Wiggles for
the best selection of great breaths use talks.

Speaker 6 (01:09:10):
That'd be.

Speaker 11 (01:09:13):
Love.

Speaker 3 (01:09:24):
Aaron O'Hara joins us now to talk wellness. Good morning,
Good morning. You're going to talk about sarc obesity, which
is something which is a little new to me.

Speaker 26 (01:09:34):
Yeah, it might seem like a new sort of term,
but it's actually something that is that coiled between sycopenia,
which is the loss of lean muscle mass and obesity.
And this is actually a common thing with obesity, is
that drop and lean muscle mass and higher percentage of
body fat, which has a huge impact on your metabolic

(01:09:55):
health because we rarely need that muscle tissue to increase
your metabolism and that's what actually helps you stay lean
as well.

Speaker 3 (01:10:02):
So the idea being that you lose a lot of
weight quite quickly and you lose that muscle mass. Yeah,
so it can happen people them.

Speaker 26 (01:10:12):
Yeah, it can happen when people are losing weight, especially
if they're not being really careful around keeping up their
lean muscle mass. So if they are dropping calories quite quickly,
whether they're just doing it by crash diety or maybe
using the GLP one type of injection medications, these obviously
allow us to drop our calorie intake. However, that impact

(01:10:33):
if we're not kind of preserving our muscle mass is
that we then drop muscle mass and lean muscle mass
in the body, and we end up with a different
proportion in our body lean body mass, which means we've
got higher amount of fat tissue and less lean muscle mass,
which means if we are stopping these types of medication,
then that can be a problem because then we have

(01:10:54):
more body fat on our body, less lean muscle mass,
and then it's actually easier to put back the weight
on that we may have lost through this process.

Speaker 3 (01:11:02):
Okay, so what impact does it have then on our
metabolic health if we've got diminished muscle mass increased fat.

Speaker 26 (01:11:09):
Yes, So if you think about your muscle mass really
helping your metabolism, so it makes your muscle, your muscle
really helps you burn calories, so you really want to
preserve it, so you don't really want to drop that
when you're trying to lose weight, because otherwise then your
metabolism slow and you actually have to eat less. So
you really want to keep that lean muscle mass up.
And when we do have a higher amount of fat tissue,

(01:11:31):
it also can cause insulin resistance as well, which then
can lead on to type two diabetes, which obviously then
has more serious health complications as well. So if we're
trying to maintain that lean muscle mass, it's actually going
to keep us healthier overall, helps us manage inflammation, and
then also we'll just keep our resting metabolic rate up,

(01:11:53):
so when we're sitting restin maybe watching TV, we've actually
got a faster metabolism. When we have more lean muscle
mass on our body.

Speaker 3 (01:12:01):
We're burning through it. Okay, so how does low muscle
mass calls that impaired mobility?

Speaker 26 (01:12:09):
Yeah, So if you think about as we age, like
sycopenia or loss of lean muscle mass is actually really
common as we age, and so all we want to
do is as we're aging, we want to preserve the
lean muscle mass. But it's even worse when we're trying
to lose weight, especially if we're crash dieting and dropping
a lot of lean muscle mass, and we need that

(01:12:29):
for mobility, so literally just getting in and out of
a chair, moving around. We want to keep moving our
body because if we don't move our body, we lose
our lean muscle mass. So keeping up with some resistance
training is really helpful, whether you're doing some sort of
diet or even if you are using these types of
GLP one medications. Is for a weight loss tool, is

(01:12:52):
actually keeping up with some weight training or resistance training
to really preserve your lean muscle mass, which will keep
the metabolism going, especially when you stop those types of
medications or when you kind of get to the point
where you're at your weight that you want to get
to a few just done it through diet alone, that
you're actually going to have a good body composition at
the end.

Speaker 3 (01:13:11):
We hear people talking about the long term effects of
using these semigl tides, these weight loss drugs and things
like that, and we're still learning an awful lot. We've
learned a lot about how to use them for diabetes
and other things, but this is still an area where
there's quite a lot of research needs to happen. Is
this kind of one of those long term effects that
people could be aware of.

Speaker 26 (01:13:33):
I think it's one of the main respectors to really
be watching up for it, because if you have had
success with losing weight, you obviously then want to move
into a maintenance phase and you can't stay on those
types of medications, So you really kind of want to
combine still looking at not just using those types of
medications for a weight loss strategy, but actually put in

(01:13:54):
healthy eating, making sure you're getting enough protein in your diet,
put in the resistance or weight training, and keeping up
with your movement and exercise, because these will help you
have a better balance through that weight loss and maintaining
it long term, which is really what you want to do.

Speaker 3 (01:14:10):
But even if you're not losing weight and you're not
getting old walking too old just yet, it's probably important
that we have good muscle mass at all times. If
you're not, if you're like you know, if you're not
planning on losing weight or anything like that, how do
we make sure that we've got good muscle mass and
reduce that's the body fat, and it can be anyone,

(01:14:31):
like it's not just.

Speaker 26 (01:14:32):
Overwheat, but weight people that can have this imbalance between
lean muscle mass and fat tissue. You can actually have
skinny fat, which means that you're a skinny person, but
you've got a high amount of body fat, and that
actually happens as well. So some tools that can help
you keep up your body composition, particularly your lean muscle mass,
is putting in regular resistance training or weight training a

(01:14:53):
couple of times a week, so maybe two or three
sessions a week. Don't necessarily need to join a gym.
You could do things at home that use your own
lean body mass to like use it for resistance. Also,
keeping up your protein intake, which I know protein's been
such a big thing through lots of social media and
it's been the main thing that people A'm focusing on,

(01:15:13):
But actually, if you are wanting to maintain lean muscle mass,
protein is your best friend.

Speaker 3 (01:15:19):
We're moving out to five and now we're moving on
to other things, but we need to eat.

Speaker 26 (01:15:23):
Our protein protein to keep like, especially if you've done
the resistance training, what do you need for a pair
You need those amino acids which are in your protein
to knit the muscle tissue back together to keep your
lean muscle really high. And then also just general nutrients
is actually all your other nutrients are actually helpful for
muscle health and maintaining a healthy, active lifestyle. So that

(01:15:45):
can be making sure you've also got enough fruits and
vegetables for those phyto nutrients that we're getting in through
our foods, and that will help you maintain your lean
muscle mass and your bone tissue as well, which is
super important.

Speaker 3 (01:15:58):
Erin O'Hara, thank you so much, appreciate it. It is
six to.

Speaker 1 (01:16:01):
Eleven the Sunday Session Full Show podcast on iHeart powered
by News Talks I'd be.

Speaker 3 (01:16:11):
Coming up next is author Andrew Loney. His latest book
is called entitled and it's a joint memoir on the
Duke and Duchess of York. He covers off their early years.
He charts Andrew's record in the Falklands, He investigates his
business activities and reveals how much the two have been
able to sustain their extravagant lifestyles, sometimes thanks to the

(01:16:33):
taxpayers dime. We know of some of their sex and
financial scandals, but there is so much more revealed in
this book. Andrew believes the royal family is still covering
up Prince Andrew's behavior and look, if you had any
sympathy for Andrew. If you went, oh, look he's the
second son, he's had no real identity and he hasn't
had a role in the family, then Andrew Loney has
absolutely no time for this excuse, and he will explain

(01:16:56):
why next. All right, we're going to finish that hour
ah with a legend who returns Shaka can't got on
stage with Jua Lipa just recently to sing this song together.
Ain't no body we're gonna go out with you just
on her. Oh he's a bit of Shaka Khan's.

Speaker 1 (01:17:17):
No Welcome to the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin and

(01:18:01):
Wiggles for the best selection of great reeds used to be.

Speaker 3 (01:18:12):
Coming up this hour. Jason Pine on the All Blacks.
Joan has a new book by Kiwi author Doug Gold,
and Megan has a travel hack for us if our
flight is disrupted or canceled.

Speaker 2 (01:18:25):
For Sunday Session.

Speaker 3 (01:18:27):
So now to the book that is predicted to be
the final nail on the coffin of Prince Andrew, ending
any chance of royal return and cementing his unflattering reputation.
The book is called Entitle To the Rise and Fall
of the House of York by best selling biographer Andrew Loney.
Andrew spent four years researching and interviewing hundreds of people
to bring us what is an extraordinary account of the

(01:18:48):
Duke and Duchess, a book full of scandal. Andrew Loney
is with me now. Good morning, Andrew, Good morning. I
wonder whether my reaction to this book will be the
common reaction, and that is that I knew a lot
about the Duke and Duchess of York's scandals. But having
the final angel and the sexual scandals that went on
over decades presented to you in one book, it is

(01:19:11):
quite overwhelming. I'm sort of taken back that it took
until twenty twenty two before the royal family sort of
took a little bit of action on Andrew.

Speaker 22 (01:19:22):
Yes, it is extraordinary. I mean he was protected. I
mean there is new material there. I talked to three
hundred people who hadn't talked before, and I think particularly
that the financial corruption is all new. But you're right
some of those sexual scandals who knew about. But I
think that the line of the royal families basically to
sit on the fence and stick their head in the
sand and help the problem will go away, never explain,
never complain, and the news agenda will move on. And

(01:19:46):
I hope maybe this will make people realize, you know,
just how protected these people being. And actually it's not
just about Andrew and Fergie, it's about the whole institution.

Speaker 1 (01:19:58):
You know.

Speaker 22 (01:19:58):
The factor is the Queen protected him. The complaints were
made about him, nothing was ever done, and indeed people
who did complain are penalized. So ambassadors who who put
bad reports were suddenly sent off to Nigeria. Protection officers
who complained suddenly found themselves back on the beat in
South London, you know. And so the institution itself needs

(01:20:21):
to pull itself together because these guys are pull are
going to destroy it. You know, they must feel very annoyed,
people like William, that they're doing their best with their
public duties and here are two grifters who are undermining
all the good work they do.

Speaker 3 (01:20:36):
You mentioned in the book that Prince William dislikes Prince
Andrew even more than his father, so that might have
a bit of an impact, do you think in times?

Speaker 22 (01:20:45):
Absolutely. I think the interesting thing is, you know, if
William comes the throne very soon, then I think Andrew
is toast and he's going to lose his dukedom. He's
going to, you know, be encouraged to go into exile.
But if Charles, who's a kindly old chap, lasts a
bit longer, then you know, maybe everyone will just forget
about Andrew. There'll be another it's some other story Andrew.

Speaker 3 (01:21:08):
Did the Queen know what was going on or at
times was she keeped in the dock and protected by
her staff.

Speaker 22 (01:21:14):
No, I think the Queen knew. I think that that's
the shocking thing. I know that the things were brought
to her problems with him as a trade envoy, some
of the Epstein material. And I thought she was as
an old woman, just didn't want to know and kind
of said, you know, don't bother me with us. But
she actually colluded with him. She actually supported some of
his business ventures, particularly places like Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. You know,

(01:21:40):
she entertained these people. And the Queen was very very
well briefed. I mean, she had the police protection officers
would would tell her what was going on. Members of
her staff traditionally taken from the intelligence services. She would
have known exactly what was happening. And in see, there
are plenty of occurrencies where you know, basically they tried

(01:22:01):
to shut down the story and not just the comms team,
you know, the most famous being Amy robe back at
ABC Television that had actually the whole story of Virginia,
Jeffrey and Andrew years before it broke, and the television
station was threatened with lack of access. And that's how
they operate. They it's a Karen stick.

Speaker 4 (01:22:20):
You know.

Speaker 22 (01:22:20):
If you go along with our agenda, then we'll make
life easy for you and give you a little tipbits,
and if you're difficult, then we'll cut off all access.
So all the people who are the journalists and the
writers basically play this game. It's the lobby system, and
it needs outsiders like me to come in and say, well,
we're not playing those games. We're going to, you know,

(01:22:40):
talk to other people, perhaps you know, slightly further out,
but who are prepared to speak more openly.

Speaker 3 (01:22:46):
Why does the royal family feel the need to continue
to protect them, Why don't they just tack them away
in a corner of inverness.

Speaker 22 (01:22:55):
Well exactly, I mean that would be the obvious thing,
to stick them inval moral. I mean they have done
that with some of their you know, mentally ill relations
lock them away, and he could. He's got a little
palace in Abu Dhabi. They could send them there. But
I think the problem is that it's not just him,
as I say, it operated with the connivance of all
of them. A lot of others are doing the same thing.

(01:23:16):
I mean, not necessarily for their own personal gain, but
for their charities. You know, the King Charles has been
caught with money from various people and cash for honors
and stuff and plastic bags. So the thing is, once
one of them falls, I think that they feel the
rest of them fall and the domino effect. Whereas my
argument is if you clean the stables out, then there's

(01:23:37):
no problem.

Speaker 3 (01:23:39):
Andrew, how did you get this book published and passed
the lawyers? Because there is so much fascinating and very
damaging information in this book. I can only imagine what
might have had to be taken out.

Speaker 22 (01:23:51):
Yeah, about twenty pages have been taken out. We had
eighteen proofs, of which two were editorial and sixteen were lawyers,
and we continue to revise things and take things out.
Everything was done, you know, I had to get sign
offs from people. I had to try and get double
sources the fact that I'm not a sort of tabloid journalist,
I think helps that people did talk to me, and

(01:24:13):
I think people trust me because my books, you know,
have always been regarded as being well researched.

Speaker 9 (01:24:21):
You know, we have.

Speaker 22 (01:24:22):
I mean, there was stuff I was surprised that they
let through, but that's great and fun enough. We haven't
been challenged on that. I mean, we've often had things
come from left field, but I think because it's all
to be honest, it's all true. I haven't made anything up.
I mean, but there is a lot of stuff that
we took out very frustratingly that I would like to
have there funny enough stuff that's coming out now, for example,

(01:24:44):
the relation with Epstein with the British Ambassador in America,
Peter Mandelson. There's stuff about the length of the relationship
that they had with Epstein. They claimed it finished in
twenty ten. Evidence has now come out to twenty fifteen,
which I had. So there's gonna be a lot of
new stuff in the paperback. And so these new disclosures

(01:25:04):
have helped me, and I do see it as a
broad investigation that it's not just me that other people,
you know, should be picking holes at their story.

Speaker 3 (01:25:13):
The one thing that strikes you in this book, which
as you say, is very well researched, is the lack
of response from the royal family and the government. Why
couldn't you get hold of the information that you needed.
I know, for example, that you put in many freedom
of information requests and they were denied.

Speaker 22 (01:25:31):
Yes, I think one of the most important things is
the ten years. But when he was a trade envoy
in twenty one to eleven, all those papers, and most
of those papers should be in the National Archives. He
was a taxpayer funded civil servant, and yet I haven't
in four years of requests and literally, you know, probably
two hundred requests got at anything. They use every exemption

(01:25:52):
possible to prevent one getting access to this material. The
Foreign Office taught people not to talk to me. They themselves,
the Yorks, taught people not to talk to me. So
there has been this huge cover up by the government.
They don't want this to come out, and you know,
I think it's a shame because but of course I
understand it. It would explain who he was taking on
these trips, which included Epstein and a lot of his

(01:26:15):
personal business contacts. It would show who was seeing and
what he was doing.

Speaker 3 (01:26:21):
What did he achieve in his role as a Special
Representative to UK Trade and Investment.

Speaker 22 (01:26:26):
Well, I mean, you know, there are some stories that
he was effective, particularly in the Middle East. It's always
very difficult because you know, you've got nothing to judge
it against. The fact is he wasn't replaced. The fact
is that most of the ambassadors I talked to said
that he was counter productive, that they had to clean
up the mess afterwards. He was incredibly expensive. I mean
everything was private jet and it is very difficult to

(01:26:50):
do an audit to work out what he achieved at
the end. And in fact, most of the ambassadors said
to me, you know, we like you know, this is
work that we do over many years. We don't want
someone just coming in who hasn't read as brief, thinks
he knows how it operates and actually makes it more difficult.
So yeah, I think it was a waste of time.
I mean, he sometimes wondered what he was doing that before,

(01:27:10):
and office kind of to trade couldn't quite work out
why they were sending him there, and the ambassadors couldn't
work it out. So it was just to keep him
occupied because he got as far as he could go
in the navy. He'd been promoted as far as he
could be, and they needed to do something with him.
But he would be better being being the steward up
at bell Moral than this, because he, you know, caused

(01:27:33):
all sorts of diplomatic instance. He was trying to flog
his house and he was trying to cage money off
some of these people he made. You know, he didn't
understand their cultures. You know, he was a disaster.

Speaker 3 (01:27:46):
Throughout the book we hear about how both the Duke
and Duchess leveraged their status to make money or you know,
then they seemed to be gifted a lot of money.
To me, it looks like a complete lack of dignity
to make to take money from anyone and everyone to
live on. How did they see it, Well, I.

Speaker 22 (01:28:03):
Think entitled it sums it up. I think, you know,
they got onto the gravy train and they were going
to take advantage. If people were foolish enough to upgrade them,
or to give them presents and jewels and pay them
large sums of money to promote the cranberry juice, then
let's take it. They're very greedy. They like to live
the jet set life. This was easy money, and they've
actually taught their children to do exactly the same. So

(01:28:27):
there were no moral boundaries there. I mean, I have
to say the Queen was a pretty negligent mother, and
Sarah Ferguson's parents were griftis as well, so always getting
into debt always. You know, they were supposed to be posh,
but they were all pretty vulgar and there was no
control of them. I mean, that's this extraordinary thing. No

(01:28:49):
one actually sort of tried to rein them in and
said this is not appropriate. You know, you can't sell
pictures of the queen's grandchildren in the bath just to
make some money.

Speaker 3 (01:29:01):
Oh my goodness. You have to sort of explain there
how Andrew's got himself into this mess he's got himself into.
But also does it kind of come down to being
that second son. Did he just struggle to find his
role in his identity within the family.

Speaker 22 (01:29:17):
No, I don't believe that for a minute. I mean,
Edward and Anne are also of siblings. I mean they've
established roles, they're supporting acts, and they do a really
good job. You know, in some ways, he had all
the advantages. You know, he could pursue his career. He
was under the radar in terms of his private life.
He could have had a really good life, but because
he's greedy and naive, he wanted more.

Speaker 9 (01:29:42):
So.

Speaker 22 (01:29:43):
I mean, you know, of course he had these folly
de grandeur that he would become regent and he would
take over from Charles, he would give up and stuff.
But you know, he kind of always knew when he
was born that it was very unlikely he would be
king and he should have, you know, cut his cloth accordingly.

(01:30:03):
And in some ways, you know, Charles it's been a
bit of a a burden on him, you know, the
fact his life has been preordained. So I think Andrew
had every advantage and he basically blew every opportunity he
was given. There's a sort of self sabotage here. You know,
He's given opportunities and he kind of blows it.

Speaker 3 (01:30:20):
Do you think people in the UK feel Prince Andrew
has made a positive contribution?

Speaker 22 (01:30:25):
Well, there was a program on two nights ago in
which it was a sort of trial has he been
a liability through our family? And he was voted guilty there.
His approval ratings are pretty negative and they have been
for a long time. As of hers, you know, there's
no there's no evidence. In fact, there's plenty of efforts
to show that actually he's not an asset, for example,
to charities, he's actually a problem. Same with Sarah Ferguson.

(01:30:47):
So no, I mean, I think there's there's there's a
myth that's been sold to people that somehow, you know,
they do a good job. But when you start looking
at it and analyzing it, I mean, I've said that
you know, the lots of people who you know, my
king is right or wrong, and we can't criticize the monarchy.
And I think that and what I hope will change
is we'll now have, for example, a Royal Register of

(01:31:10):
Royal interests, will now have more parliamentary scrutiny of the worlds.
I hope we'll have a parliamentary inquiry into what went
wrong with him as Special Envoy. And twenty years ago
MPs were calling for the National Crime Agency to look
at his activities as Trade Envoy, and I think that
they should be looking at him again because there was
stuff that I took out for legal reasons which I'd

(01:31:33):
be very happy to pass the National Crime Agency, which
I think would lead to a criminal investigation.

Speaker 3 (01:31:38):
So do you think that this book has sealed Andrew's fate?
Do you think there is any way back for him
from here? As you mentioned, there seems to be so
much more to come.

Speaker 2 (01:31:48):
Yeah, yeah, I know.

Speaker 22 (01:31:49):
We've got Virginia Jeffrey's book, We've got possibly the Epstein
the files coming out. We've got possibly the victims speaking up.
We've got Chrace talking about him being in handcuffs. So,
I mean, you know, I'm part of I suppose a
mixture of pressures. I mean, I think he was pretty
finished beforehand. I think the interesting question is whether Sarah Ferguson,
who is the sort of comeback kid the resputing of

(01:32:11):
the royal family, whether she will manage to come back.
She's very good at inventing herself. I don't know how
often she comes to New Zealand, but she goes to
Australia quite a lot, and they all love her. They
all think she's a victim, as opposed to this person
who just constantly reinvents herself.

Speaker 3 (01:32:28):
Oh fascinating stuff. Andrew, thank you so much for your
time today and talking.

Speaker 20 (01:32:32):
Us through that.

Speaker 3 (01:32:32):
We shall watch this space very carefully.

Speaker 2 (01:32:36):
It's been a pleasure.

Speaker 3 (01:32:37):
That was biographer Andrew Loney. His book entitled The Rise
and Fall of the House of York is in stores now.
Panel is up next. You're the Sunday Session grad cover.

Speaker 1 (01:32:49):
It's the Sunday Session with Francesca Rutgotte and Wickles for
the best selection of gens U's talks.

Speaker 2 (01:32:55):
It'd be good to have you with us.

Speaker 3 (01:32:57):
It is time for the panel and to down the panel.
I am joined by journalist and TV producer Irene Gardener.
Good morning, Irene, good morning, thank you, and partner Free
and Hair Lawyers Liam here. Good morning Liam. Good to
have you both with me. Hey, look, we had the
Tamaki Mikado by election, and we've had a few by
elections in the last few years. One thing that we

(01:33:19):
seem to notice with these by elections is they have
very low turnout. I spoke to political reporter Adam ps
this morning. He said, look, mate, he said, I got
the impression that some people were a bit concerned about
this particular got a bit confused about this particular by
election that was taking place in Auckland for the Maori seat,
because some people were maybe for the local body elections

(01:33:40):
and things like that. Is that me any excuse, Irene
or did the by elections just not managed to grab people.

Speaker 27 (01:33:49):
I think it can vary from situation to situation. They
may have been some confusion with the song because of
the time and slightly colliding with local body things. I
think the by elections in actual central government that get
a big turnout sometimes when there's a particular moment we
you know, voters really want to show the government that

(01:34:11):
they love it or oppose it or whatever. And you know,
sometimes there's reasons like that where they do well. A
lot of the time they are a bit of a
sort of a nothing, And this one was kind of
unusual in that, you know, looking at it from a
Mardi voter perspective, I mean, you go to have Penny
Henry anyway, and you had an interesting new candidate for

(01:34:32):
twenty MAHLDI, So I can sort of see why it
went the way it did. In terms of the cost,
I always worry about the cost of things, you know,
when we are so tough for so many people. But
we live in a democracy and this is our system.
And if someone who is an electric size, then I
guess this is what we have to do. Unless we

(01:34:54):
can do it a different way, and we did have
with us a lawyer.

Speaker 3 (01:34:58):
Well, no, you raise an interesting point there, Irene, because
you're right, we do have to do it. There were
eighty four voting booths open, but just under sixty percent
of the votes were cast in advance, excluding special votes.
But it does cost thee to run these things, Liam,
I mean, I don't know if there is any other
way you can do it.

Speaker 4 (01:35:15):
You have to do it money, right, Yeah, well, well
there are alternatives that we know, and the one that
would work in New Zealand is to have a substitute
or a provision for an appointment when somebody passes away.
So like in Europe and South America, for example, they

(01:35:36):
often have sort of substitutes who are nominated to step
in you avoid the buy need for a by election
and the persons from the same party. In the United States,
so ten they often have for some things. So we'll
have appointments by governors and things like that. But you know,
my view was that you know, democracy costs the money,
like you know, all the things for scrimp and save

(01:35:57):
on which we should always be doing, the fact that
we have to hold elections from time to time isn't
isn't one.

Speaker 8 (01:36:02):
Of them and.

Speaker 9 (01:36:05):
Turn out slow.

Speaker 4 (01:36:05):
But you know that's always been tased outside of a
general election, especially when the governing parties don't have candidates
on the tickets, right, So by elections are often a
referendum on how the government's going, and probably quite widely
for the government, they didn't have anyone on the tickets.
So what was your motivation really? You know, so I'm

(01:36:27):
not surprised by any of it, and I'm not alarmed either.

Speaker 3 (01:36:31):
Okay, all right, then Trump has renamed what it has
been was reported on Thursday that the Trump administration plans
to change the Defense Department's name to the Department of
War to present a more aggressive image of its military
to the world. Does this concern you at all, Irene?
Does do you see this as sort of setting them
up to look like they're war mongering and it's a

(01:36:52):
threat to international stability? Or do you actually just think
it's attention seeking.

Speaker 27 (01:36:58):
I think most things that Trump does there sort of
in the attention seeking area. But it does worry me,
and that you know that is in the modern world,
that is not what the Department of Defense should be called.
You know, it should be about defense, not about war wondering.
I presume it's all a bit of a distraction because

(01:37:19):
you know, he said his ridiculous things about solving both
the Daza situation and the UU Ukraine situation, you know,
within twenty four hours of being and and of course
that's not turned out to be true. So yeah, I mean,
will it actually happen. I mean, I'm assuming there'll be
quite a few people who will oppose this because a

(01:37:39):
it'll cost money, and the just doesn't seem like a
very sensible thing to do. Globally.

Speaker 3 (01:37:45):
It felt like it was a response to sort of
the meeting that was taking place in China and China's
military parade and things.

Speaker 28 (01:37:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:37:52):
Maybe, but whatever the reason for it, I'm actually really
in favor of it. I think it's an honest naming, right.
It's the idea of having an apartment of defense or
a ministary defense of the euphimism the US has, I mean,
the last two years something of the Cold War, the
US has had more than tenridor and fifty military interventions.
They haven't all been defensive, if they most of them

(01:38:14):
haven't been defensive unless they're really torturing the word and
you know, like that's been called the War Department in
the past, and the UK they had a Ministry of
War and they're actually more honest thing about what it does.
So I think always in favor of calling things by
their proper name. And if you look at you know,
if you want to talk about all wealthy in names,
you know that the Ministry of Love, the Ministry of plenty,

(01:38:36):
and you know that sort of things. We're euphemisms that
disguised the true purpose. So you know, sometimes one of
the things about Trump is that he's you know, he's vulgar,
but there's sometimes an honesty in vulgarity. So I've long
thought that we should be calling things by their proper names,
including war departments should be called war departments.

Speaker 3 (01:38:54):
But do you think.

Speaker 27 (01:38:57):
Or is it a lack of after play?

Speaker 4 (01:39:00):
But the USA has invaded, has said it's invaded so
many countries and launch military under Obama and to under
Bush under quantum un Trump, you know, it's it's it's
not going to stop. And what they're doing is waging war.
And you know, so I do think it's more honest,
you know, But do you think that times you might
tell well whether or not whether or not it's good

(01:39:23):
or not it's what's happening.

Speaker 3 (01:39:24):
No, no, no, I was just going to ask, great
if if they're doing it because they want to, they
just want to be more transparent and look and be
more honest about it. Great, But do you think it
also reflects a change of mentality maybe that that could
be concerning.

Speaker 4 (01:39:37):
Well, I think that the mentality remains the same, which
is that the US will always push. So it's what
it considers this natural interest and it will always use force.
And that's that's not a great thing.

Speaker 13 (01:39:50):
But it is what it is.

Speaker 9 (01:39:51):
You know.

Speaker 4 (01:39:51):
It's just I said, a top clock is right twice
a day, and whatever the motivations that Trump has, actually
this is something Ice bored.

Speaker 3 (01:40:00):
And I know, look, as you mentioned, Iren, you do
worry about the cost. They're going to need to change
to feel department seals on more than seven hundred thousand
facilities in forty countries in all fifty states. Just imagine
that's going to cost anyway. Why, I'd love to move
on and get your thoughts very quickly. On Matthew Houghton's

(01:40:21):
article his opinion piece in The Herald at the end
of the week. He made the point that within weeks
Christopher Luxon could face the likelihood of some of his MPs,
you know, basically advising him that they've lost his you know,
they've lost confidence in him.

Speaker 24 (01:40:37):
Liam.

Speaker 3 (01:40:38):
Do you think that Matthew knows something we don't all know,
or do you think he is kind of putting these
things out there and waiting to see what happens.

Speaker 4 (01:40:48):
Well, Matthew, he has predicted seven of the last three
National Party leadership challenges and cous you know, the track
record of predicting cous is very long, and sometimes it's
come off. I'm never quite sure how much of it's coincidence.
At least time he had a hand in it at
least that didn't work out so well. Like it's you know,

(01:41:12):
like Matthew is very much on the outer of the
inside of National parties. So I think that if it's
got a genuine information that's coming from disgruntled people on
the back bench, which could be a real could be
a real thing, from his contacts in New Zealand fares
which are quite strong. But you know, I just you know,
and from you know, from the friends that I have

(01:41:33):
in the party. I just there's an alternative. I just
you know, you don't replace a leader unless you have
another leader lined up who's going to get as many
votes as plus one plus one more. And you know,
every time the National Polish try that without a very
clear successor in mind, be it chrispher Luxen taking over
from Collins, or Key taking over from Brash, or English

(01:41:57):
taking over from Key, it's been a disaster. So I
guess the time will tell, and it's going to be
the eighth prediction that you're going to say at thirty percent.

Speaker 3 (01:42:09):
So Irene, do you do you think he might be
onto something here? And I suppose if we were talking hypothetically,
Eric Stanford and Chris Bishop, the two you know that
he feels would be out for the role, probably the
two that you would.

Speaker 4 (01:42:21):
Turn to, or Nikola Willis.

Speaker 27 (01:42:25):
I seem to agree with Liam though that there, you know,
while it may be some thought that you know he's
not getting the cut through, there isn't really a big
obvious successor. If there was, you know, they'd probably grab
it that. I think they should do something really modern
and interesting and have co leaders, have Chris Bishop and

(01:42:48):
either Nichola Willis or ericas Jeffson, completely different.

Speaker 3 (01:42:52):
There we go throwing out something different. I love it Irene,
Thank you so much, Irene Gunner and Liam here. Jason
Pine is up next talking sport your news talks, there'd be.

Speaker 1 (01:43:05):
It's the Sunday with Francesca Rudkin on news Talks at be.

Speaker 3 (01:43:11):
Joining me now to talk sport as Jason Pink, Good morning.

Speaker 22 (01:43:14):
Good morning.

Speaker 3 (01:43:15):
Are you happy with the way things panned out last night?

Speaker 29 (01:43:17):
Very happy? Yep, very happy. Well for one main reason,
and that's that we won. You know, it sort of
came down really to win in any way that you can.
It was such a big Test match, so much hype
during the week, the Eden Park record, the lost to
Argentina Ardie Savier's one hundredth Test match in this long
history against South Africa, who were coming for us, really

(01:43:38):
they were, and you know, for the All Blacks to
get out to an early lead and then hold that
lead and hold their nerve in the second half and
and get home. I mean, look, it wasn't, certainly from
either side, the most technically proficient performance, but the win's
the thing, and the All Black's got.

Speaker 3 (01:43:53):
It pressure a bit of as you say that, there's
been an awful lot of anticipation around this game. It
feels that it did feel like the All Blacks so
held it together a little bit better than the Spring
Bok who were normal normally very clinical in the way
they play rugby totally and they were making a lot
of mistakes and things and it was just it did

(01:44:14):
It felt like the All Blacks. They came out, they
were amped up, they were ready to go. And you
can always tell I reckon in the first five minutes
of a game, whether they're on or whether it's going
to be a struggle to kind of you know, throw
a cohesive game together.

Speaker 29 (01:44:26):
Indeed, yeah, well that try and at the start for
in morning Nadawa, who then shortly have to have to
go off, was that was a shame. But the try
yes kind of set the scene, didn't and then Will
Jordan shortly after that it's all of a sudden, you're fourteen,
they'll up after twenty minutes you think, okay, we've got
that buffer, now we've started. Well it must be hard, though,
way with such a big test match to not play
the game before the game arrives. You know, all through
the week you must sort of sit there and contemplate

(01:44:48):
and think about what you have to do and what
you want to do, and all that sort of thing,
and it's only Tuesday. It must be what it's like
when you you know, when you have a it's probably
like when you get married. I can't remember this, but
you know you're wait and wait and wait for this
big occasion and you try and take every box and
then it arrives and it's all over in a flame.

Speaker 3 (01:45:05):
I said this morning, this morning and my editorial, my
mother told me, growing up life is ninety five percent anticipation.
That's are all the fun is right, And I cannot
wait until this weekend. I'm so luking no, because you
know that the spring Book, they're like the Night the
all Black. So I will not take what happened last
night lying down. They will be angry about it and
they will come out on Saturday and it's going to
be a hell of a game. Do we have any

(01:45:26):
injury concerns in morning? And Alaware is the only one
I can see that was the obvious one. He went
off with a knee to the ribs.

Speaker 29 (01:45:33):
Caleb Clark though, will come back into the squad and
also Leicester fighting onlooker was also in there, so they've
got cover out there. The other I mean the test
match man being sidelined Francesca. You just get an appreciation
of how hard these guys hit each other, you know,
and the tackles, and there will be a recovery time.
But they have to that's a last fourt They have

(01:45:53):
to be ready for six days time. So yeah, look,
they tacked a lot of boxes last night. They were
a lot of very happy and I must say a
few relieved coaches there. I could see on the grass
last night when they were all celebrating artist one hundred.

Speaker 3 (01:46:05):
I presume we're going to talk rugby. I'd like to
mid day weekend sports as you go.

Speaker 29 (01:46:10):
We got some some rugby league as well. The Warriors,
we know they're going to face the Panthers in a
knockout game in around. No, we don't know when we
know who. We don't know when. I've sort of seen
some mail around that it might be Sunday, which would
be good because then it avoids the All Blacks. But
whether the NRL care about that in their scheduling, I
don't know. But we know we're playing the Panthers. That's tough,

(01:46:32):
you know, full time defending champions off the back of
consecutive losses. I want to just assess some you know
where people think we are as far as that's concerned. Yeah,
a lot of rugby this afternoon, a little bit of
an airfol as well. We'll go stateside with the new
NFL season underway.

Speaker 3 (01:46:45):
Fantastic. Jason Pain will be back at midday with week.

Speaker 1 (01:46:49):
In Sports for Sunday session. Full show podcast on iHeartRadio
powered by News TALKSB.

Speaker 2 (01:46:57):
Travel with Windy Woo tours Where the World Is Yours
book Now.

Speaker 3 (01:47:01):
Meghan Singleton, good morning, Good morning. Right, you had a
bit of a hiccup at the airport with a bit
of fog this week.

Speaker 18 (01:47:10):
Yes, I did so, I flew down It was actually
last week.

Speaker 25 (01:47:13):
People might remember if they're from the Bay. I flew
down to Hawks Bay. Well, at least that's what I
tried to do from Auckland and there was this rolling
sea fog. It was quite apparently quite a strange day.
So we circled and circled a lake toldport and the
captain said, you know, we're not going to be able
to do this much longer. We might run out of
petrol where we kept circlear and we're like, he says,

(01:47:36):
we've got five minutes before we're going to have to
make the call, and we're all on board, going, oh
please put yourself and I had dinner at Craigie Range
to get to any who.

Speaker 18 (01:47:46):
No, we had to make the call. We came back
to Auckland. So everyone's like, you know, heads to the
back of their seats.

Speaker 25 (01:47:53):
So we come back to Auckland and then basically we're
just told all right, everyone made their way in to
collect your luggage, back off the carousel, line up at
desk one in the check in area.

Speaker 18 (01:48:06):
You'll be rebooked on other flights. And meanwhile, so here's
here's my hack for listeners.

Speaker 25 (01:48:12):
Meanwhile everyone's getting on their phones, staying to their friends
and family sorry or not making it.

Speaker 18 (01:48:17):
La la la, We're back in Auckland.

Speaker 25 (01:48:18):
I sent my mother a quick text and said back
in Auckland, be in touch. In a second, I jumped
onto my Air New Zealand app and I found that
they had booked me for six point thirty the next morning.

Speaker 18 (01:48:30):
That wasn't gonna work for Greggy Range, was it? So
this is my hack.

Speaker 25 (01:48:34):
I jumped into the Air New Zealand Help and Support
area on my app that opens an AI chat bot
called Oscar, so I requested chat with a human, So
I got a human and I said to Andy, I said,
is there any chance of getting me on a flight
later today?

Speaker 18 (01:48:54):
And they said, yep, once just come up at five
point fifty pm. Do you want it? We haven't even
taxi to the terminal yet I'm saying yes, please go
keep that one booked me on that. I was rebooked, And.

Speaker 25 (01:49:05):
Meanwhile down at Desk one, they were fifty people deep
trying to get rebooks.

Speaker 3 (01:49:10):
You went to the chet oscar, the chat box came up,
You requested to drip someone in particular, but you were
still talking to Andy via the chat box.

Speaker 18 (01:49:17):
By the chat is texting texting, so Andy Andy was
real and Andy Andrea.

Speaker 25 (01:49:22):
Andrea could see that there was a flight that came available,
and she just quickly put booked me on it as
soon as I said yes. So by the time I
even got off the plane, I knew i'd be down
there that same day. I still went to Desk one,
like really up to the Actually that shouldn't have because
those people were.

Speaker 18 (01:49:40):
Desperate just to see if I could get on a
wait list for it earlier. But absolutely there was no way.
But you know, the galling thing, of course is that.

Speaker 25 (01:49:48):
Why, like Mum texted and said, oh, FOG's gone now,
why couldn't we just refuel, turn around and get everyone
down there. The crew needed to be positioned down there
anyway and just arrive an hour late.

Speaker 18 (01:49:59):
But no, it doesn't work like that.

Speaker 3 (01:50:01):
And obviously Topore has an airport, but it's not big
enough to land there.

Speaker 25 (01:50:04):
And well, I don't know, maybe it was the year,
wait for how long the refueling, who knows what pilavas
that could have been, but yeah, that would have been ideal.

Speaker 18 (01:50:14):
We kind of all hoped for that, and you know,
you could even.

Speaker 25 (01:50:18):
Get a bus from there, but I suppose the logistics
of organizing anybody up from.

Speaker 3 (01:50:22):
There, yeah, yeah, okay, So but you mentioned that when
you when you landed and you went into your you
had they had actually already rebooked you on to flight
those so that's at least that was quite proactive. So
everybody on that plane, when they knew that it wasn't
going to land today, somebody had gone, let's rebook these people.

Speaker 9 (01:50:40):
Now.

Speaker 25 (01:50:41):
Now I don't know if that's everybody, okay, because otherwise
why would they be lining up at a desk one?

Speaker 3 (01:50:47):
And look, maybe they were feeling a little uppity Meagan
and wanted an earlier flight.

Speaker 2 (01:50:53):
No, they didn't know.

Speaker 18 (01:50:54):
God I'd done it and I didn't breathe a word.
So I've just thought of busted my chance of ever
doing this again.

Speaker 3 (01:51:00):
But that's really good advice, because I think we get
a bit lazy with the chat botch and things and
I think, oh, there's no point doing that. I'm not
going to get to talk to someone that's not gonna
solve my problem. But clearly it is. And good on
Andrea because I tell you, what, if you've had dinner
or lunch at Craigie Range, that is not something you
want to miss. That is quite spectacular that restaurant. So
I'm glad you made it, Meghan, thank you so much.

(01:51:20):
Of course you can read more from Meghan at blogger
at large dot com. My favorite, very quickly, my favorite
the travel story of the week was there was a
social media post about a gentleman who owns a large
warehouse building near Sydney Airport and he wrote on with
massive letters on the roof, welcome to Perth. And apparently
it's been causing quite a bit of distress to airline

(01:51:40):
passengers flying over who are looking down thinking, holy Moldy,
I'm in the complete wrong coast. Anyway, blessed the Aussies
and their sense of humor. We're going to talk books next.
It is eleven to twelve.

Speaker 2 (01:51:53):
Books with Wiggles for the best selection of Grape Reads.

Speaker 3 (01:51:58):
Joe McKenzie, Good morning, Good morning.

Speaker 12 (01:52:00):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (01:52:01):
We're going to start with a book from Patrick Ryan.

Speaker 28 (01:52:03):
Yes, I had not heard of him before, but he's
written a book called Buckeye, which I just adored. It's
a gentle, quiet little book about families and the secrets
within families. It's said in the state of Ohio, where
I believe that the plant the buckeye, is a state
symbol for ratio, and that's where the title of the
book comes from. And one of the characters has this

(01:52:25):
as their nickname. And it begins right at the end
of the Second World War when everybody's out on the
street celebrating victory and two people who are complete strangers
get caught up in the moment and have a very
brief romantic encounter which then has ramifications all the way
down through future generations. So you're in a very small
town where there are families with secrets and as those

(01:52:46):
secrets are gradually unfolded over time, things are revealed to
people who find that the world that they thought they
knew is actually quite different from what they had previously understood,
and it goes. It's not an epic book in the
scale that some big, fat books are, but it does
travel through generation, so that by the end of the book,
we're in the sixties and the Vietnam Wars going on,

(01:53:07):
and a couple of the kids who are descendants from
the original couple find that they're going to be caught
up to the draft. Or I do love small towns
and all its secrets. You know, you kin't know everything
about everyone, but you don't really, you know. We're sticking
with a bit of a theme today. You've got another
book for us which is also sort of set during
World War II. It's called Saving Ali by Doug Goldy's

(01:53:31):
Doug Gold's and his Zealand writer. This is his third book.
I think he came to prominence with the first one,
which was called The Note through the Wire, which was
based on his wife's family's experiences during the war. Well,
this one has characters who are not related to him,
but he's found an extraordinary World War story which has
resonance of Anne Franke.

Speaker 2 (01:53:49):
I guess.

Speaker 28 (01:53:50):
It's the story of a Jewish family living in Amsterdam
during the Nazi occupation and the father, Abraham's taken away
to a camp from which he never returns, and the
mother eventually realizes that her only hope of survival is
to abandon her two children and leave. And I don't
pass judgment on that, because what an extraordinarily tough decision.

(01:54:11):
But one of the two children was a daughter called Ali.
And there were a resistance couple who took Ali, who
I think was about the age of two, into their house.
They hid her in the ceiling, they found ways to
keep her from the German authorities. And it's an extraordinary
story of the bravery of these people set against the
brutality of what was going on in Amsterdam during that time.

(01:54:32):
And there is a New Zealand connection some generations later.
Towards the end of the book, there is a reunion
of some of these characters here in New Zealand.

Speaker 3 (01:54:42):
Oh, okay, so is this fictional nonfiction?

Speaker 28 (01:54:44):
It's nonfiction.

Speaker 3 (01:54:44):
It's nonfiction, okay.

Speaker 18 (01:54:46):
True.

Speaker 28 (01:54:46):
Doug God's done some extraordinary research and found the story
of this little girl who was taken in by people
who brought her up as their own for as long
as they possibly could.

Speaker 3 (01:54:56):
Thank you so much, Joan, that sounds very moving. Those
two books Saving Ali by Doug Gold and the first
book that Joan spoke about was Patrick Ryan with b Guy.

Speaker 1 (01:55:07):
The Sunday Session Full show podcast on iHeartRadio powered by
News Talks.

Speaker 9 (01:55:12):
I'd be.

Speaker 3 (01:55:14):
Thank you so much for joining us this morning on
the Sunday Session. Love you to have your company. Thank
you to Carrie for producing the show. Jason Pine is
up next with Weekend Sport and he is going to
be very keen to take your calls. Of course they're
going to be talking rugby amongst all sorts of other things.
But I'm sure you've got a few thoughts on how
the All Blacks and spring Box went last night, So
he'll be looking forward to talking to you hey next

(01:55:36):
week on the show. Al Brown is joining me. He
has got this absolutely gorgeous new book out. It's called
Learning to Fish. It's called Hooked, Hooked and Learning to Fish,
and it is absolutely gorgeous. It's it's aimed at younger,
give your kids, but actually flicks through what if your
good tips out of it myself anyway. So he is
going to join us, and also Dame Galen Preston and

(01:55:58):
Dame Robin White on their very special film Grace. They're
going to be in the studio with me as well.
Enjoy the rest of your sony, fathers. I hope you've
been well looked after out there today. I certainly hope
my children have remembered it's Father's Day. I shall go
home and make sure that has taken place. Enjoy your week.

(01:56:19):
I'll be back next Sunday.

Speaker 1 (01:56:42):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin. Listen
live to News Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.

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