July 27, 2025 • 12 mins
FIRST WITH YESTERDAY'S NEWS (highlights from the weekend on Newstalk ZB) Losing Faith in Democracy/The Problem with Rugby/Bikes Are Surprisingly Complicated/Playing the Person You Don't Look Like/How To Blow Up Your Life
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from news Talk said Bee
follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
Used Talk said, be you Talk.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Hello, my beautiful beanies, and welcome to the Bean of
the Weekend edition. First with yesterday's news, I am Glen Hart,
and we're looking back at Sunday and Saturday. I think
that are the two most important days when it comes
to constructing a weekend. The Lions versus Australia controversial. Ending
to that game, pick down into that. The Tour de
(00:45):
France is finishing as I speak. We'll talk to a
guy who makes the buck go. Dame Harriet Walter is
playing Margaret Thatcher a new thing, even though she's nothing
like her. And let's put a bow on the kiss
can thing. Wrap that up once and for all. But
(01:06):
before any of that, this whole law reform thing has
got David Seymour in hot water for referring to some
of the electorate as drop kicks.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
What was the chief mischief that you were trying to
address with this reform.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
It's very important that the electoral role was established and
published ahead of time, because that allows people who are
campaigning to actually know who they're campaigning to and critically,
it actually allows people, if they want to, to check
that the role is correct and that the people rarely exist.
And in the past people have actually gone around with
(01:45):
the copy of the electoral role, knocked on doors and
found that actually lots of people that were said to
exist at a particular address worn't there. That's happened in
our not too distant past here in New Zealand, and
I think it's really critical that we actually have a
published role that everyone can see, so our elections are transparent,
(02:08):
to have integrity, because it's not so long ago. But
you know, we had a great democracy the United States
where significant numbers of Americans believe that the election is
not legitimate. You look at what's happened at the Mariah
in Auckland here. You know, these kinds of things erode
(02:29):
our faith in our electoral system and we can't afford
that too many people have fought too hard to have it.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Do people still have faith in our electoral system? Wow,
that's news to me. So youah, no room for dropkicks
in politics. Apparently that's news to me as well.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
News talk Z been.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Right crazy stuff. At the end of the Lions Wallabies match.
Apparently I actually have no idea what happened, but this
guy certainly sounds like he knows what he's talking about.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Let's start at the end.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Was it a legal clean out?
Speaker 5 (03:12):
It didn't look great, I'll say that up up front,
but having looked at it a few more times, it's
certainly it wasn't clear. I didn't think and I know
Joe Schmidt teed off post match about protecting welfare of
players and things like that, but it kind of, I
don't know, on a few viewings afterwards, it kind of
(03:32):
looked like he's probably come down on back of shoulders
and maybe neck and so you know, maybe that's where
maybe maybe it's the maybe that that makes it a
makes it makes it a still a highly contentious moment.
But it always felt like, in particularly in those last
(03:53):
five minutes, it was going to come down to a
big decision like that, and it was just a matter
of where's it going to come on, which part of
the field, who's in possession. You know how much time
lists on the clock, and you know, there we were
eightieth minute and it all happened. And the feeling the
next morning, mate, I've got to say is still every
(04:15):
bit is gutting and deflating as it was to try
and come back to the hotel and you know, wind
out last night. It's just one of those real, real
gut punches that just hits you.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
It's great, isn't it, when again, that the whole country's
watching has decided in a way that nobody really understands.
That's people wonder what's wrong with rugby?
Speaker 5 (04:41):
You talk?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Zib I still can't get over how many people watch
and get excited about the Two de France, given that
just about everybody who's either cycled in it is usually
revealed to be a drug cheat at some stage later on.
Seems to happen more often than not over the years.
Maybe it's only because I don't really follow it and
(05:02):
only the one day to hear about a drug cheats. Anyway,
this guy isn't one. He just works on the bikes.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
What does a mechanic for a team in the Tour
de France have to do?
Speaker 6 (05:14):
Basically, we look after all the car as we have.
I think we have about nine team cars here. We
have a bus and a truck. We take care of those.
We wash the bikes every day, then we prepare them
all and make sure that every all the gear ratios
are correct for the particular stage that they're doing. Next
(05:35):
that the blikes are all working, are in proper condition,
and yeah, we and then we follow the race during
the day, and then afterwards we do a transfer to
the next hotel and then we do the whole process
over again.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Gosh, rinse and repeat, and for a Grand Tour as well.
It's a pretty exhausting process. I'm going to ask you about,
you know, how things kind of change over the course
of an event like the Tour de France in a
few minutes, But how does how does a person go
about getting a job like this? How do you become
a mechanic in the Tour de France.
Speaker 6 (06:07):
I think became one by accident. I used to be
a mechanic and my parents' bike shop and rot and
I want I was keen cyclist back then, and I
came across to Europe to watch, to watch all the
big races and and race a little bit myself. And
I just happened to be in the right spot at
(06:28):
the moment where a smaller professional team needed a mechanic
and they couldn't find anybody else, and they asked if
I could go along and help them. So I did,
and they were quite happy with my work, and they
kept asking and then I eventually, after a couple of months,
became full time with them and it just went from there.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Deceitp have been complicated things, aren't they? Bikes? I thought
that was supposed to be one of the most straightforward,
simple machines that we've ever come up with. But I mean,
have you ever seen one of those bike maintenance things,
you know, on a on a cycleway. Yeah, they have
a stand and there's a pop pump that you can
pump upthetize with, and then there's all these tools hanging off.
(07:13):
And when I say tools hanging off it obviously I
mean and chains or cables with no tools on the
end of them because all the tools have been stolen.
But you know, I understand what the idea was, right.
I think we love it when they dramatize history and
somebody has to play somebody who we know what they
(07:35):
look like and sound like, so we can make the comparison.
Dame Harriet Walter is playing Margaret Thatcher, but apparently.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Doesn't look us out anything like her. According to her,
You have said you were surprised to be asked to
play Margaret Thatcher.
Speaker 5 (07:52):
Why was that?
Speaker 7 (07:53):
Well, if your readers and listeners could see me, No,
I don't look anything like it. I'm very dark, and
I don't have any features in common with her. I
don't think I sound very like and I my politics
are completely in the opposite direction to her. So yeah,
(08:15):
that's that's about why.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
And then we see you on screen and you're absolutely
brilliant as her.
Speaker 7 (08:22):
Well, that's very very kind of you to say thank you.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
What was it about the role that made you accept
the offer to play her? Well, you have things to
play her.
Speaker 7 (08:34):
I was, but I think I remember saying because the
team was so wonderful. I mean you've got James Graham,
You've got Stephen Freres, you've got Steve Coogan. I mean,
what a team. So I just, you know, I thought
I want to work with this team, but I wish
(08:54):
it wasn't this person that I have to play. Can
it be anything else? Please? You know, write a film
about someone else and I'll do it. But you know,
that's the thing. People ask you what roles you want
to play, But with me, it's who do you want
to work with? And that was what led me through.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Really, I'm just trying to think who I could play
and a biopic, because apparently it doesn't matter if you
don't look or sound anything like the person. There aren't
that many. Actually, I was going to say, there aren't
that many people I look like. There are heaps of
people who I look like, but none of us are famous.
(09:34):
We're just aging all fat geees with classes. It's amazing
how few of those people end up to be influential
public figures. It must be something out there somewhere news
talk has it been. We're going to finish up talking
(09:55):
kiss Cam here, I think because Jack Tame's the only
one who hasn't had to say on it.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
But what if it meant a fifth of the world's
population found out at the same time. What if it
meant every student at your kids' school knew what had
happened and would bring it up for the next twenty years,
you might feel slightly differently. Again, I'm not being miserable
and saying it wasn't funny. It was funny, Okay. My
(10:19):
point is that once a moment like this hits the Internet,
there's just no controlling it. There's like a little sliver
of this whole saga that has felt a little bit
black mirror to me. It's funny. A few years ago
I read that amazing book by John Ronson, So You've
been publicly Shamed. It's called and it had some extraordinary
(10:42):
examples of people who had gone viral for saying or
doing really dumb, offensive things. But it also articulated something primal,
something a bit ugly, a hunger in us as a
species to kind of hunt as a pack, and the
kind of collective glee we take in casting someone aside
(11:05):
and making an example of them in public. There is
no policy, There is no force on earth that can
stop a viral moment. It just has to burn out, right,
there's no firebreak, there's no finger in the dike. That
video will have been viewed by eyeballs in every country
(11:26):
and on every continent. But while it's said a lot
about human nature, arguably it's spread around the world has
said just as much. Are you not entertained?
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Basically, I think it's a good reason to never set
foot outside your house ever.
Speaker 5 (11:43):
Again.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
I think that you don't want your personal life being broadcast,
not just to an entire stadium full of people, but
also all around the world, and the only way really
to avoid that is to stay inside and turn the
Internet off. So maybe that's what I'm going to do.
(12:08):
Don't worry, I'll come back to work and tinue it
on again tomorrow. I'll be here tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
I'll see your name us Talking Talking sid Beam For
more from News Talk set B listen live on air
or online, and keep our shows with you wherever you
go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to a podcast from news Talk said Bee
follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
Used Talk said, be you Talk.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Hello, my beautiful beanies, and welcome to the Bean of
the Weekend edition. First with yesterday's news, I am Glen Hart,
and we're looking back at Sunday and Saturday. I think
that are the two most important days when it comes
to constructing a weekend. The Lions versus Australia controversial. Ending
to that game, pick down into that. The Tour de
(00:45):
France is finishing as I speak. We'll talk to a
guy who makes the buck go. Dame Harriet Walter is
playing Margaret Thatcher a new thing, even though she's nothing
like her. And let's put a bow on the kiss
can thing. Wrap that up once and for all. But
(01:06):
before any of that, this whole law reform thing has
got David Seymour in hot water for referring to some
of the electorate as drop kicks.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
What was the chief mischief that you were trying to
address with this reform.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
It's very important that the electoral role was established and
published ahead of time, because that allows people who are
campaigning to actually know who they're campaigning to and critically,
it actually allows people, if they want to, to check
that the role is correct and that the people rarely exist.
And in the past people have actually gone around with
(01:45):
the copy of the electoral role, knocked on doors and
found that actually lots of people that were said to
exist at a particular address worn't there. That's happened in
our not too distant past here in New Zealand, and
I think it's really critical that we actually have a
published role that everyone can see, so our elections are transparent,
(02:08):
to have integrity, because it's not so long ago. But
you know, we had a great democracy the United States
where significant numbers of Americans believe that the election is
not legitimate. You look at what's happened at the Mariah
in Auckland here. You know, these kinds of things erode
(02:29):
our faith in our electoral system and we can't afford
that too many people have fought too hard to have it.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Do people still have faith in our electoral system? Wow,
that's news to me. So youah, no room for dropkicks
in politics. Apparently that's news to me as well.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
News talk Z been.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Right crazy stuff. At the end of the Lions Wallabies match.
Apparently I actually have no idea what happened, but this
guy certainly sounds like he knows what he's talking about.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Let's start at the end.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Was it a legal clean out?
Speaker 5 (03:12):
It didn't look great, I'll say that up up front,
but having looked at it a few more times, it's
certainly it wasn't clear. I didn't think and I know
Joe Schmidt teed off post match about protecting welfare of
players and things like that, but it kind of, I
don't know, on a few viewings afterwards, it kind of
(03:32):
looked like he's probably come down on back of shoulders
and maybe neck and so you know, maybe that's where
maybe maybe it's the maybe that that makes it a
makes it makes it a still a highly contentious moment.
But it always felt like, in particularly in those last
(03:53):
five minutes, it was going to come down to a
big decision like that, and it was just a matter
of where's it going to come on, which part of
the field, who's in possession. You know how much time
lists on the clock, and you know, there we were
eightieth minute and it all happened. And the feeling the
next morning, mate, I've got to say is still every
(04:15):
bit is gutting and deflating as it was to try
and come back to the hotel and you know, wind
out last night. It's just one of those real, real
gut punches that just hits you.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
It's great, isn't it, when again, that the whole country's
watching has decided in a way that nobody really understands.
That's people wonder what's wrong with rugby?
Speaker 5 (04:41):
You talk?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Zib I still can't get over how many people watch
and get excited about the Two de France, given that
just about everybody who's either cycled in it is usually
revealed to be a drug cheat at some stage later on.
Seems to happen more often than not over the years.
Maybe it's only because I don't really follow it and
(05:02):
only the one day to hear about a drug cheats. Anyway,
this guy isn't one. He just works on the bikes.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
What does a mechanic for a team in the Tour
de France have to do?
Speaker 6 (05:14):
Basically, we look after all the car as we have.
I think we have about nine team cars here. We
have a bus and a truck. We take care of those.
We wash the bikes every day, then we prepare them
all and make sure that every all the gear ratios
are correct for the particular stage that they're doing. Next
(05:35):
that the blikes are all working, are in proper condition,
and yeah, we and then we follow the race during
the day, and then afterwards we do a transfer to
the next hotel and then we do the whole process
over again.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Gosh, rinse and repeat, and for a Grand Tour as well.
It's a pretty exhausting process. I'm going to ask you about,
you know, how things kind of change over the course
of an event like the Tour de France in a
few minutes, But how does how does a person go
about getting a job like this? How do you become
a mechanic in the Tour de France.
Speaker 6 (06:07):
I think became one by accident. I used to be
a mechanic and my parents' bike shop and rot and
I want I was keen cyclist back then, and I
came across to Europe to watch, to watch all the
big races and and race a little bit myself. And
I just happened to be in the right spot at
(06:28):
the moment where a smaller professional team needed a mechanic
and they couldn't find anybody else, and they asked if
I could go along and help them. So I did,
and they were quite happy with my work, and they
kept asking and then I eventually, after a couple of months,
became full time with them and it just went from there.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Deceitp have been complicated things, aren't they? Bikes? I thought
that was supposed to be one of the most straightforward,
simple machines that we've ever come up with. But I mean,
have you ever seen one of those bike maintenance things,
you know, on a on a cycleway. Yeah, they have
a stand and there's a pop pump that you can
pump upthetize with, and then there's all these tools hanging off.
(07:13):
And when I say tools hanging off it obviously I
mean and chains or cables with no tools on the
end of them because all the tools have been stolen.
But you know, I understand what the idea was, right.
I think we love it when they dramatize history and
somebody has to play somebody who we know what they
(07:35):
look like and sound like, so we can make the comparison.
Dame Harriet Walter is playing Margaret Thatcher, but apparently.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Doesn't look us out anything like her. According to her,
You have said you were surprised to be asked to
play Margaret Thatcher.
Speaker 5 (07:52):
Why was that?
Speaker 7 (07:53):
Well, if your readers and listeners could see me, No,
I don't look anything like it. I'm very dark, and
I don't have any features in common with her. I
don't think I sound very like and I my politics
are completely in the opposite direction to her. So yeah,
(08:15):
that's that's about why.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
And then we see you on screen and you're absolutely
brilliant as her.
Speaker 7 (08:22):
Well, that's very very kind of you to say thank you.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
What was it about the role that made you accept
the offer to play her? Well, you have things to
play her.
Speaker 7 (08:34):
I was, but I think I remember saying because the
team was so wonderful. I mean you've got James Graham,
You've got Stephen Freres, you've got Steve Coogan. I mean,
what a team. So I just, you know, I thought
I want to work with this team, but I wish
(08:54):
it wasn't this person that I have to play. Can
it be anything else? Please? You know, write a film
about someone else and I'll do it. But you know,
that's the thing. People ask you what roles you want
to play, But with me, it's who do you want
to work with? And that was what led me through.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Really, I'm just trying to think who I could play
and a biopic, because apparently it doesn't matter if you
don't look or sound anything like the person. There aren't
that many. Actually, I was going to say, there aren't
that many people I look like. There are heaps of
people who I look like, but none of us are famous.
(09:34):
We're just aging all fat geees with classes. It's amazing
how few of those people end up to be influential
public figures. It must be something out there somewhere news
talk has it been. We're going to finish up talking
(09:55):
kiss Cam here, I think because Jack Tame's the only
one who hasn't had to say on it.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
But what if it meant a fifth of the world's
population found out at the same time. What if it
meant every student at your kids' school knew what had
happened and would bring it up for the next twenty years,
you might feel slightly differently. Again, I'm not being miserable
and saying it wasn't funny. It was funny, Okay. My
(10:19):
point is that once a moment like this hits the Internet,
there's just no controlling it. There's like a little sliver
of this whole saga that has felt a little bit
black mirror to me. It's funny. A few years ago
I read that amazing book by John Ronson, So You've
been publicly Shamed. It's called and it had some extraordinary
(10:42):
examples of people who had gone viral for saying or
doing really dumb, offensive things. But it also articulated something primal,
something a bit ugly, a hunger in us as a
species to kind of hunt as a pack, and the
kind of collective glee we take in casting someone aside
(11:05):
and making an example of them in public. There is
no policy, There is no force on earth that can
stop a viral moment. It just has to burn out, right,
there's no firebreak, there's no finger in the dike. That
video will have been viewed by eyeballs in every country
(11:26):
and on every continent. But while it's said a lot
about human nature, arguably it's spread around the world has
said just as much. Are you not entertained?
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Basically, I think it's a good reason to never set
foot outside your house ever.
Speaker 5 (11:43):
Again.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
I think that you don't want your personal life being broadcast,
not just to an entire stadium full of people, but
also all around the world, and the only way really
to avoid that is to stay inside and turn the
Internet off. So maybe that's what I'm going to do.
(12:08):
Don't worry, I'll come back to work and tinue it
on again tomorrow. I'll be here tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
I'll see your name us Talking Talking sid Beam For
more from News Talk set B listen live on air
or online, and keep our shows with you wherever you
go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio.
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