July 3, 2025 • 34 mins
In this episode of First Look Gnomes, we explore the stunning transformation of Battersea Power Station in London and break down the biggest announcements from Google I/O 2025 — including AI, Android 15, and Gemini updates.
- Battersea Power Station redevelopment
- Google I/O 2025 announcements
- AI features from Google
- Things to do near Battersea
Google I/O 2025, Battersea Power Station, London architecture, tech news, AI, Android 15
We explore Battersea Power Station's impressive transformation into a high-end shopping destination with historical features preserved and Google's revolutionary technological advancements at their I/O 2025 keynote.
• Battersea Power Station has been revamped into a luxury shopping mall while preserving original architectural elements
• The Power Station includes over 150 shops, bars, restaurants, and entertainment venues
• One of the chimneys houses a glass viewing deck offering panoramic views of London
• Google Beam creates 3D video calls with multiple camera angles for more immersive conversations
• Google's AI filmmaking tool can generate professional-quality videos from simple prompts and images
• Gemini 2.5 Pro with Deep Think offers enhanced reasoning capabilities for more accurate responses
• Google's smart glasses can provide real-time translation during conversations
• Our podcast mysteriously ranks #2 for "tropical fruits" searches on Spotify and Apple Podcasts
This episode's Pints and First Bites ; https://brewyork.co.uk/product/juice-forsyth/
We've gained new listeners from Sierra Leone, Vietnam, Basingstoke, and Brent. Don't forget to send in your feedback to firstlookgnomes@outlook.com!
Click here via your Mobile Device to send us a message!
Please Subscribe , leave a 5* Review, Follow, Like and Share this Podcast to show your support for more episodes.
Help grow the show !
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Walliams (00:00):
First Look Battersea Power Station Revamp plus Google
I-0-2025 Highlights.
Mr Hodgkiss (00:05):
Welcome to First Look Gnomes.
Walliams (00:07):
Your go-to podcast for dads doing silly things.
Mr Hodgkiss (00:11):
But, most importantly, we're here to share
our first looks.
Walliams (00:14):
Don't forget to send in your feedback to our fish
bond of feedback.
Mr Hodgkiss (00:18):
And share your thoughts, questions and own
first looks with us atfirstlookgnomesatoutlookcom
known first looks with us atfirst.
Walliams (00:26):
Look gnomes at outlookcom.
Yo, listen up.
Here's a story about a littlegnome that lives in a two world
and all day and all night andeverything he sees is episode
two.
Like him inside and outside.
Number two is his house withthe two little windows and two
(00:46):
corvettes, and everything is intwo for him and himself and
everybody around, because heain't got nobody to listen to
series four episode two.
Mr Hodgkiss (01:06):
I've got to admit when he started that, when he
went yo, I thought I was goingto do a vanilla ice wrap Yo
collaborate and listen.
No, no, I wasn't expecting itto go to iPool.
Walliams (01:18):
Is it iPool 65, iPool 95,?
Their?
Mr Hodgkiss (01:20):
version of Blue.
Walliams (01:22):
That's one of the signs of success if you actually
know what it was Todab-a-dee-dab-a-dee, their
version of Blue.
Mr Hodgkiss (01:25):
That's always a sign of success if you actually
know what it was.
Walliams (01:26):
So um to dabba, dee, dabba yeah dabba dee or for the
for the younger listeners outthere, uh, calvin Harris
probably isn't it oh, did he?
Mr Hodgkiss (01:34):
he sampled that recently, didn't he?
Yeah?
Walliams (01:36):
yeah, but nobody knew that it was a well.
The youngsters didn't know itwas a An original song that was
taken from the 90s.
By the French?
Was it the French?
Mr Hodgkiss (01:45):
Eiffel, 65.
Walliams (01:46):
Eiffel would probably give it away, I should presume.
Mr Hodgkiss (01:50):
You would imagine so.
Good effort, william, goodeffort.
Walliams (01:54):
How are your two weeks ?
Mr Hodgkiss (01:55):
It's been more chaos, more craziness, more
chaos.
But I'm still here.
Walliams (02:01):
More Fortnite playing, I'm still standing.
Mr Hodgkiss (02:02):
Oh, too much Fortnite playing Too.
I'm still here.
More Fortnite playing.
I'm still standing.
Oh, too much Fortnite playing.
Too much Fortnite playing.
Arguments about Fortnite,discussions about.
Walliams (02:08):
Fortnite oh dear.
Mr Hodgkiss (02:10):
It's actually made our house quite angry.
It needs to stop.
It needs to stop, I just wantmy child to reverse his age.
He's getting older.
I want him to get younger, notolder.
I don't like older kids.
Walliams (02:25):
They make it challenging.
As we found out on the lastepisode, the firsty-firsts are
no more at the bottom of thepond.
We've got firsty.
We've got first bites Pints andfirst bites Pints and first
bites Pints give me a pee Pintsand first bites Pints and first
bites Pints, Pints.
Give me a P Pints and firstbites, and I brought a beer, so
(02:50):
I'm going to go in.
I wasn't going to do thisoriginally, but I'm going to do
the beer.
I think that might be myfavourite kind of introduction
to anything, because we all saidit Pints and first bites Pints
and first bites Pints and firstbites.
And on today's Pints and firstbites Pints and first bites
(03:13):
Pints and first bites we havethis is a Brew York juice
forsyth Ooh, and it's got alittle image there of may he
rest in peace, Bruce Forsyth forthe silhouette of Bruce Forsyth
there.
Brie York 5% Pineapple Forsyth,Pineapple mango tropical fruit
(03:34):
explosion.
Yeah, no, thank you.
There you go, and there's alittle diagram at the back and
it's there you go.
You've got your rating of hotfruit, sweet, mouthfeel, bitter
and malt and it's more fruit andsweet there you go alright so
(03:57):
another.
Oh dear pints and fuzz bags.
Mr Hodgkiss (04:02):
Pints and fuzz so listeners, if you miss firsty
firsts.
Walliams (04:06):
Please write in and I'll happily replace pints and
first bites with firsty firsts.
The listeners didn't wantfirsty firsts anymore, so we've
now got pints and first bites.
Mr Hodgkiss (04:20):
He's such an idiot, there we go Brew York juice
Forsyth.
Walliams (04:27):
it's a fruited IPA Juice.
Mr Hodgkiss (04:28):
Forsyth Sure, then give us the verdict Cheers.
Walliams (04:34):
It smells.
Mr Hodgkiss (04:35):
It smells Just what you want when you're beer.
Walliams (04:38):
Yeah, it smells.
It smells like you know whenyou get that drain back draft
sometimes.
Mr Hodgkiss (04:47):
See, I'm telling you, Williams, avoid all these
fruity, crappy beers.
Like you know, the Fruit rots.
I'm not sure what it says.
Walliams (04:57):
Good game, good game.
Do you want to go higher?
Then enjoy this juicy, bonusfruited IPA that combines
Cascade, citra, columbus andMosaic hops with Mootshox,
pineapple and Mango for atropical explosion as bold and
juicy as a legendary entertainer.
This salutes Nice to see you,to see you.
Mr Hodgkiss (05:18):
And just to repeat what one of them said when he
opened it it smells.
So you know, that's probablyall we need to know about that
one.
Walliams (05:24):
I'm sure my breath does so.
The wife of my wife is a luckylady.
When I finish this podcast,Absolutely.
Pints of us bites.
Pints of us bites.
Mr Hodgkiss (05:35):
Moving on.
Where are we going next, Matt?
Where are we going next?
Walliams (05:37):
We're going next.
We're going sorry, so we'regoing to grab your rod.
I'm not going to grab your rod,to grab your rod.
Mr Hodgkiss (05:44):
I'm not going to grab your rod.
Walliams (05:45):
You can.
We're not going to grab anyrods.
Mr Hodgkiss (05:47):
We're grabbing each other's rods.
Walliams (05:48):
We'll grab our own rods.
Mr Hodgkiss (05:49):
Okay.
Walliams (05:50):
And we're going to swing it into the pond.
Okay, and see if we've got anyfeedback.
Mr Hodgkiss (05:55):
Let's go.
Walliams (05:59):
Let's go Fish.
Pond of feedback.
Mr Hodgkiss (06:00):
Feedback Not as good as pints and first bites.
Walliams (06:08):
A little update.
So I found out, got a littleupdate from the.
So, in terms of search engineoptimization, not much going on
with the website because wedon't have one.
Mr Hodgkiss (06:20):
There is no website .
Yeah, it's being built.
Walliams (06:24):
I have had some stats updates with a little peek on um
apple podcasts or spotify, sothis is when people will
specifically search on podcastsas opposed to google or whatever
yeah, um, maybe I'll give youthree guesses.
So there's two words, a phrase,not a phrase.
(06:48):
Two words that people searchthat we've actually appeared as
number two.
Oh, so, when people put thesetwo words in at the same time,
not separately.
So these two words, uh-uh, wecome up as number two on the
Spotify and Apple or podcastsokay, so it's gotta be gnomes,
(07:13):
right?
Mr Hodgkiss (07:14):
no, you'd imagine, like first gnomes, that's the
only way people can find us notwo idiots.
I don't really understand howit all works.
Okay, so is Two idiots.
Walliams (07:23):
I don't really understand how it all works, but
Okay, so is it.
Mr Hodgkiss (07:26):
Two idiots, dad, stupid dads.
No, thirsty first, you're notgoing to get it.
You're not going to get it.
So.
Walliams (07:37):
Tropical fruits so.
Mr Hodgkiss (07:39):
What?
Because you're a bloody beer,isn't it?
Because you're a tropical,shitty beer.
Walliams (07:44):
Well, maybe actually Of course it is.
Mr Hodgkiss (07:47):
You just opened a can of Brew Forsyth.
Yeah, actually I did Tropicalfruits tropical fruits, beer,
fruit, tropical fruits.
Walliams (07:55):
So a few weeks ago, if someone typed in tropical
fruits on Apple Podcasts orSpotify, we would come up as
number two on the list.
Mr Hodgkiss (08:02):
Interesting.
Walliams (08:04):
There you go.
Come up as number two on thelist.
Interesting, there you go.
Uh, also, um, we came up asnumber two someone typed in
agriculture in asia, of course,obviously and apparently result
number four.
Mr Hodgkiss (08:18):
Someone typed in children's television well, I
mean well children's tv, yeah Ican get that one.
And on the last episode we diddiscuss matcha, matcha, kit kats
, you know yeah, that's notreleased yet.
So well, it is now, but itwasn't that point of recording
oh, possibly, yeah, all right,well, who knows, who knows, the
internet works in mysteriousways it does.
Walliams (08:39):
They're always listening.
Mr Hodgkiss (08:40):
Yeah, so that means our listeners are people that
are probably looking fortropical fruits, agriculture in
asia or children's television sowe do have a spoiler alert
there that we don't have awebsite, but we also, so I
should have done this.
My working pattern has changedslightly, so I should have more
time, and I will.
I will get the website builtthis year, that is the goal get
(09:02):
some blogs going get somepictures of kit kats
blogs about agriculture in asiadad jokes we can, we can
actually do it.
We can actually do a marketingplan by it's.
How are we going to take?
Walliams (09:12):
over this podcast.
We could.
We've almost succeeded in laosalmost next.
Mr Hodgkiss (09:18):
Yeah, where next is right, we'll decide.
The moon we're still going forthe moon.
We didn't.
We're still.
We didn't hit the.
Walliams (09:23):
We're still going for the moon.
We didn't hit that, didn't we?
No, we didn't hit the moon, sowe're still going for that.
Mr Hodgkiss (09:25):
We should have spent, but that brings us on to
new listeners.
Walliams (09:30):
So in series one or two, probably two, we yeah,
probably series two we never hadany listeners from Africa.
I mean, we didn't have anylisteners at all, but we had
listeners.
We had at least one listener ineach continent apart from
africa.
But then we did and sees three,we've got a listener in cairo
(09:54):
and then we've had a few sincethen and we've had another one
today.
So we've got a new listenerfrom freetown western area in
sierra leone oh very good, sowelcome new listener from there.
Another new listener frombasingstoke, hampshire nice
another new listener from brentand another new listener from ho
chi minh city oh very goodwelcome, and that's vietnam, so
(10:19):
good morning good morning.
Mr Hodgkiss (10:20):
More people in vietnam, we are, we're big.
We're big in Nam.
Walliams (10:23):
Oh, and that's it.
No one's written in, so pleasewrite in to firstsandnomescom or
DM on the Instagram or howeverelse you want to get in contact.
Mr Hodgkiss (10:36):
Plenty of ways.
Once we get the website up,we're going to take over the
world.
Once we get the website down.
Walliams (10:39):
Yeah exactly, First looks, Mr Oshkiss.
Okay, yeah, exactly.
Mr Hodgkiss (10:42):
First looks for Trogkos.
Okay, so I do have.
Well, I have a.
You know what I was struggling?
I was like, right, I've got somany different things.
Since we last recorded, so manydifferent things have happened.
So I got a few looks.
I did this last year.
I did talk about the ChelseaFlower Show, which is always a
highlight of the year for usgardeners and us horticultural
(11:03):
people.
We just had a little look at.
We went to a John Williamsnight.
We took Brayden to his firstorchestra.
I sound very posh.
Walliams (11:15):
Yes, yes, talk about a show.
Mr Hodgkiss (11:16):
We went to the orchestra, but we took him to
see the music of John Williamsat the theatre, so like saw the
Jurassic Park and the Supermantheme His first experience with
an orchestra, which was pretty,would like say anyone who who
has ever um, anyone who's a fanof movie, music like the star
(11:36):
wars theme the harry pottermusic I mean john williams, he's
got to be the best in terms ofabsolute legend.
Walliams (11:42):
Yeah, like legend.
Mr Hodgkiss (11:43):
Yeah, so like the whole orchestra.
There was a big orchestra like60, 70 people in the orchestra
playing like the Superman theme,the Indiana Jones theme, the
Jurassic Park music, the HarryPotter music and it was just
incredible.
Star Wars, star Wars I boughtthese tickets months ago so we
were like in the third row,which was great.
So you're like right at thefoot of the orchestra and it's
(12:05):
just brilliant and brain lovedit.
So that was good.
Um, so go and see your localorchestra.
You get like tickets was cheap.
We got like brain steel waslike a tenner or something.
It was dirt cheap yeah, good socheap good night out, um, but
yeah, we went to.
We went out to london recently,london town london town, yeah,
yeah.
So I'm going to do a first lookat new areas of London.
(12:26):
So back in the day the wife andI met in London.
We used to live in London.
We now don't.
But it's always nice going backbecause there's that feeling of
nostalgia and familiarity.
But when I went for a friend's40th birthday surprise 40th
birthday party, but on theFriday, so we said we spent some
(12:51):
time, um, we lived.
I lived in streatham and we didclapham for a bit and we did
when the wife and I got together, we lived in wilmington for a
bit.
So we're kind of in that southarea of london, um, and they
were.
They were regeneratingbattersea power station, so we
went to explore.
Now it's all finished.
We went went to exploreBattersea Power Station and what
(13:16):
it's got to offer, so I'm goingto just open up what does that
offer?
Discover London's most excitingnew shopping and leisure
destination at the iconic GreatTwo List in Battersea Power
Station.
This legendary London landmarkand surrounding area has been
brought back to life as one ofthe most exciting and innovative
mixed-use neighborhoods in theworld.
A place for locals, touristsand residents to enjoy a unique
(13:37):
blend of over 150 shops, bars,restaurants, leisure and
entertainment venues, parks andhistorical spaces.
A place to shop, eat, drink,live, work and play.
Life here doesn't feel ordinary, it feels extraordinary.
So we were like, let's go andcheck it out.
Um, so we went and I've written, I've made some notes while I
was thinking about the thing.
So we left our hotel and do youknow the first thing we saw?
(13:59):
So our hotel was by the ovalcricket ground and the first
thing we saw Claire Balding.
Oh, and I can't stand ClaireBalding.
So the wife said is that ClaireBalding?
Walliams (14:11):
I was like yes, it is no.
Mr Hodgkiss (14:15):
Leslie Anne was like yes, it is selfie.
No, I don't, leslie.
I was like why don't you go andtell her what you think of?
Walliams (14:18):
her.
I was like yeah, don't like you, claire, balding if she came up
to you or said hello, you'd belike, oh yeah, love your work,
love your way no, I would haveabsolutely said I don't really
think very much of you.
Mr Hodgkiss (14:29):
You're a poor man's hazel irvine um.
Walliams (14:33):
I've got your love of Hazel.
Mr Hodgkiss (14:34):
Irvine.
Hazel's a proper, proper sportsreporter.
But for some reason ClaireBoulding and Gabby Logan get all
the love.
Two women I can't stand, butHazel, what a proper sports
reporter.
Oh, gabby's all right.
No, she's annoying, as anyway.
Subjectively, she annoys theannoys the snot out.
The noise is not out of me, butso does clear boarding.
So we went, we headed from theKia Oval over to Battersea Power
(14:58):
Station and I'm telling you itwas like wow, this is incredible
.
So it reminded me of likeVancouver and Chicago and like
those kind of American kind ofareas.
So the power station itself,it's quite impressive when
you're close to it.
And they've turned inside ofthe power station into like a
(15:18):
high-end shopping mall, so lotsof really quite nice brands, but
they've kept a lot of thehistorical features of it.
So you've got this big, big-assshopping mall full of lovely
things and great architectureand it's just like.
It's quite like wow, it's justlike.
It's quite like wow, this it'sjust really impressive, really
impressive when you go in there.
Um, and they've got, um, theybuilt all new flats around it,
(15:43):
so there's loads of restaurantsand bars and in one of the
chimneys.
So if you don't know aboutsuperstation, it's an old power
station and in the four chimneysone of the chimneys they've got
like um, a viewing deck so youcan go up the chimney and it
takes you to the top of thechimney where there's like a
glass aren't you a bit funny ofheights?
oh, I'm terrified of heights,yeah, but it's still there.
(16:05):
You can go and do it.
Walliams (16:06):
I just refused to do it.
No, no, I didn't, I refused to.
Mr Hodgkiss (16:10):
Let's now want to do it and I was like nope, not
for me but it's, it's an amazingthing that you can do so we.
We looked at it from down thebottom and I was just like I
don't like the look of that atall.
So you go up the chimney andinside of the chimney there's
all lights and this stuff andyou go like up, um, I think it's
like 100 and something oddmeters and there's just a glass
ring.
So we could see people doing itfrom down below and I just
(16:33):
thought that looks really odd,but still magnificent and cool,
like we went to where we can geton it and we're looking at.
I was like that looks brilliant.
And, leslie, I was like no, Idon't want to go up there if
you're gonna have a panic attack, um, and I watched one of the
youtube videos of someone doingit.
I was like nope, not for me,but if you're into that kind of
thing, all very good.
Uh, but we did.
Walliams (16:51):
We went and got some food I'm not gonna go up there
if you're gonna have a panicattack it was yes.
Mr Hodgkiss (16:56):
She was like I don't really want to go up there
and you not enjoy it.
That was more of what she wassaying but like we tried a few
things, so like we went to apoke house, which was pretty
cool, and got some food, wetried house like a poke house to
get like a poke bowl.
Have you seen these things?
a poke house to get a poke bowlyeah, like it's a no, not, it's
just call it a poke.
It's like you can get, likeit's like rice and salmon and
(17:18):
edamame okay, it's just.
It's just a very fancy saladkind of bowl, but it was really
nice.
We tried blank street coffee,which I've heard about, lots
about, and it was rubbish.
I was massively disappointedwith blank street coffee.
Um, the coffee was street,blank street coffee.
Yeah, the coffee was street,blank street coffee.
Yeah, the service was terrible.
The people in there were all Idon't know, just not my type of
(17:41):
people no and, uh, the coffeewas really not very nice.
We did go to vinci ice cream andleslie ann said it was the best
haze on ice cream she's had inher life.
I've never been to vent.
She, uh, I didn't have any, butleslie ann did and she was
blown away.
Um, but then one of the thingsI did do, which was right on my
knee, went to the batterseabrewery.
(18:02):
So they did a brewery there andI did a couple of those taster
bowls I had like pints and bites.
Walliams (18:09):
I tried those bites.
Mr Hodgkiss (18:10):
I did right, I I rate I ranked.
I had eight different beers andranked them all and I thought
I'm not going to bore everybodywith it, but they were mostly
nice.
Walliams (18:19):
Right, because it's just a recording.
She got the old voice notes out.
Mr Hodgkiss (18:22):
Well, I took some pictures for the website that
we're going to do, and one oftheir stouts.
Walliams (18:27):
I look forward to seeing those in 2040.
Mr Hodgkiss (18:30):
Their stout was incredible, and it just so
happened as well, williams, thatthis was the same day we were
in Battersea, the same in London, the same day as the Empire
Strips back, hey, which you hadtold us about before.
Yes, sadly we ran out of timeso I was unable to attend.
Walliams (18:51):
The Empire Strips back .
Mr Hodgkiss (18:52):
Yeah, we were going to go, but we just thought
better not.
Walliams (18:55):
It's getting good reviews apparently Is it so?
Mr Hodgkiss (18:59):
Williams, Is it getting?
Walliams (19:00):
good reviews, is it so , have my mate told me?
How would you know?
Are you looking up the reviews?
Mr Hodgkiss (19:06):
So a friend of mine told me yeah, Jabba the cock,
but no Battersea Power.
Walliams (19:14):
Station.
Mr Hodgkiss (19:14):
London was just like I was.
I was very impressed, so wellworth a visit.
So Battersea Power Station inLondon.
Battersea Power Station andLondon's just still fun.
It's such a great day, yeah sothat was my first look at
Williams.
What about yourself?
What have you got for us today?
Obviously I prepare for these,these recordings but the weeks
you spent preparing for thesepodcasts.
Walliams (19:36):
Today was the first before, but I just reminded
myself of the.
So I looked at the keynote.
This is a bit geeky.
I looked at the keynotespeaking event of Google IO.
So Google basically announcedall the good, crazy things
(19:58):
they're doing and it blew mymind.
It blew my mind was to archKiss.
Mr Hodgkiss (20:03):
Okay, you blown away by some of that happened in
2020, 12 by Google.
Walliams (20:08):
Well, yes, yes, I've, I'm only just getting used to
the Google mic search, aslisteners will know.
So Google they today.
Um, you know a big, you know abig announcement, as they do.
Um, these are the amazingthings that we've got in the,
the pipeline and etc.
(20:28):
Etc.
Um, so a few things they've got.
So Google Beam.
Mr Hodgkiss (20:34):
Oh, what's this?
Walliams (20:35):
Google Beam.
So it is a revolutionary 3Dvideo cause.
So, basically, with your webcam, rather than one webcam, your
special monitors you have willhave webcams on the left, right
(20:58):
and center, et cetera, so itgets basically camera views from
all angles and then it justmakes you as a more 3d version
of yourself to the person.
So when you're actually talkingto yourself um well, you're not
talking to yourself, talking tothe other person um, it's like
they're actually in the room abit more so it's, you know, a
(21:18):
bit more 3d involved.
Um, I'm sure at some pointthey'll hologram it in depth,
yeah, but more depth.
Um, which I was like oh, wow.
And then putnam was like quiteoften I wear like unironed
shirts to webcam things and Ican get away with it because the
webcam is here.
(21:38):
It's not fully high definition,I can get away with it, you
know.
Um, it's not in person, whereasyou know this google beam is
going to make things a lot morerealistic.
So it's going to be like you'reactually having meetings with
people in the room okay so yougot that going on.
Um, then you've got acombination of uh, what they
(21:59):
called um vo3, video generationand flow.
So basically, ai filmmakingtool okay um, and what I saw?
ah, this next level sort ofstuff.
So with this tool, right,you've got a photo of a crazy
(22:19):
old man, you've got a photo of anice looking car, old car.
Upload these photos, stick in aprompt Crazy old man driving a
car down a desert towards theGrand Canyon Video creation of
this happening.
Add a prompt our man driving acar down a desert towards a
grand canyon video creation ofthis happening.
(22:40):
Add a prompt oh, a 15 foot sizechickens in the back bomb
chicken.
Add some music.
There's a I can't remember whatit was called now, but there's
another google music creationthing.
Add some atmospheric music,john Williams style, and it just
created this whole sort ofvideo three minute video of this
(23:05):
man that gets in his car.
That is created with a chickenand it flies off in the canyon.
The chicken takes his car offand it's just a good.
You know you could aprofessional advert that you
would see now you could createin like two minutes.
Mr Hodgkiss (23:24):
So, like the John Lewis Christmas advert is
usually budgeted between likefour and seven million and it
takes six months to produce, ifyou've now got the right idea
you're saying you couldeffectively make a john lewis
christmas advert in ii on yourown in a couple of days.
Walliams (23:39):
I mean it did.
It did go from two professionallooking photos.
So it depends, I suppose, whereyou get those photos from it's
crazy, crazy world.
And then, um uh, a mixture.
So there's gemini, the GoogleGemini AI business going on.
Mr Hodgkiss (23:55):
Gemini 2.5.
Walliams (23:58):
Pro with deep think, so basically, enhance reasoning
mode for more accurate responses.
And they were shown examples of.
You know this woman using the,the camera on a phone and, yeah,
videoing her shadow, and ask,gemini, there's someone
following me, what's going on?
And then the Gemini just goesnope, that is your shadow.
(24:21):
Or pointing towards, oh, what'sthis new sports car?
And it goes nope, that's thegarbage truck, wow, or rubbish
truck, as it would be in England.
Or what's this, what's this newbuilding?
and they go nope, that's a lightpole or a lamppost yeah, the
(24:42):
reasoning is getting quicker andit's just, and it's just like
yeah, just, isn't it correctsthe person going nope, so here's
the question, though walsh,right, so we, we've used I use
ai a fair bit.
Now you know it's, it's becomepart of my routine, my daily
routine I can see it the wayit's going, what we're doing now
(25:07):
, there's still basic level towhat it could be.
Mr Hodgkiss (25:10):
Yeah, well it's gonna just keep going and going
in it, you know yeah, but it'sgonna well that's, you know like
the whole terminate to yourthing in Skynet and ends up
destroying all humans.
You know that's, that's gonnabe the race, isn't it?
You know?
How do you, how do you use thistechnology to help you make
decision, important, criticaldecisions as a tool.
Walliams (25:32):
It as a tool, um, it's a bit like uh, what's that film
called?
jennifer lopez did a filmrecently yeah, but basically, ai
is like a co-pilot not to stealthe microsoft version of it,
but you use it as a tool asopposed to it's doing stuff on
its own, so it's as a but?
Um, there's another thing fromthe google.
(25:54):
Um, io keynote thing was, uh,what's it called?
Uh, android xr.
So basically with the smartglasses.
So the smart glasses, oh yeah,the gemini powered um to do live
translation.
So you wear these glasses andyou could go abroad somewhere
and someone else.
With these android glasses, youcan have a conversation in your
(26:15):
own language.
Mr Hodgkiss (26:17):
But it just translates, explained, it says
it translates the whole lot.
Walliams (26:21):
That's crazy, um.
And then also, you know you'vegot your google maps but you've
got your glasses on.
You can go.
I'd like to go to the coffeeshop in lovely and you can walk
along with these glasses andit's just taking you to the
place and they won't be longbefore you know.
Those glasses link up with your, your gemini 2.5 pro deep think
(26:42):
stuff, and it's like you couldjust ask questions and stuff, go
what is?
Yeah, what is that?
And just have a conversationwith the eyes.
Yeah, it's.
We're not far away from somereally crazy stuff well, we use
like at home.
Mr Hodgkiss (26:57):
So let me go because we use chat, gbt, but I
know, gemini is getting betterand better, and I've got
gemini's free as well, like Ipay to use chat gbt, but like
today.
So me and brain were talking tochat gbt.
Let me go.
What did we ask you?
Here's an example.
Goes back to a previous podcastabout fortnite.
Brain purchased a skin infortnite and it's no longer in
his locker.
So fortnight, brain purchase askin in fortnight and it's no
(27:18):
longer in his locker.
So I said we're both skinningfortnight and I've changed my
skin and my old one's not there,but I paid for it.
How do we use it?
So we talked to it.
He said gave us a perfectexample of what we need to do
and he just used it as like okay, I've got a problem, what do?
What's the best thing to do?
And like it's.
It's mad really how quickly youcan find the answer.
(27:39):
I use it with like web designand stuff and that's all.
Walliams (27:41):
That's all text-based.
But this new Gemini pro stufflinked with now, this was voice
based, so this is me liketalking, like you know, having a
conversation with it yeah as it, and they've always voice base
can convert text base, but nowit's a visual based which can
link to yeah you can literallypoint camera, stuff it knows
that's your shadow and you canask a question about that image,
(28:05):
and that image converts to text, that converts to code, that
converts to it's crazy isn't itso?
Mr Hodgkiss (28:15):
is it the end of humanity, williams?
Walliams (28:17):
no, is it going to help us?
At the moment, it's still justa very fancy google search tool.
It's google mic search, but inmore complicated fashion.
It's not actually.
That's the thing.
It's not AI, it's just a fancyname for a computer.
It's not AI, it's just a fancyname for a computer now, yeah,
(28:37):
it's not actually artificialintelligence.
Yet Artificial intelligence iswhen it actually has a mind of
its own.
Mr Hodgkiss (28:43):
Yes, which we're not there yet.
It's thinking outside of ourcontrol.
Yeah, yeah, we do still controlthat, I guess.
Yeah, I don't know.
I'm just going to smile and nodand be like everything's fine,
everything's fine um that'sinteresting.
Walliams (29:02):
I got a postcard from google beam vao to an old school
postcard.
Mr Hodgkiss (29:08):
Um, yeah, I got a postcard.
Walliams (29:10):
Lovely, the know-it-all-know who's on his
travels.
On his tour, his wisdom islonely.
Lose yourself.
Mr Hodgkiss (29:16):
Tour isn't it his his willy tour?
Yeah, he, no, he did.
He sent me a voice noteactually about he was using
because he wanted to documentthis and he used the hashtag
willy.
But when he then looked at, youknow what came up?
When you did hashtag willy, hewas shocked, and so he knows
(29:38):
it's the.
It's not necessarily what Iwanted, but I'm gonna send you
what he said.
I'm gonna send you thetranscript of his postcard and,
if you could read it out to thelisteners.
A transcript of his postcardWell yeah, because he wrote it
in his handwriting, so I'll justsend it to you now.
Walliams (29:57):
Okay, oh my gosh.
I mean, it's a big postcard.
Mr Hodgkiss (30:01):
It was.
It was a double-sided postcardwith a big stamp.
Walliams (30:04):
Yeah To Mr Hodgkiss and Mr Williams.
Greetings from Laos.
You wouldn't believe the thingsI've experienced over here.
On my willy tour, I visited thekwangsi falls, the serene
buddha park and the historicwhat zhang, thongs, thongs
(30:27):
that's what it's called,apparently.
Mr Hodgkiss (30:29):
What's young thongs ?
Walliams (30:30):
it's a wonderful country.
Last tuesday I was samplingsome sticky rice and a riverboat
tour when I met an expat calledBarry who said he only listens
to two things whale song soundsand first look names.
Oh wow.
I felt oddly famous.
And apparently he listens toKeep His Geckos Calm during
(30:54):
monsoon season the only setterwhen they hear the calm, dulcet
tones of Mr Walliams singing hisintros, Apparently so.
Before visiting Laos, I poppedover to Thailand in search of a
little romance.
My heart is open and my beardis brushed, Would you believe.
In Phuket I met a charming ladygnome called Miss Boom Boom.
(31:19):
She was graceful, mysteriousand wearing the most dazzling
hat.
We shared a coconut, a tuk-tukride and a beautiful sunset.
Oh it's lovely, isn't it?
But all wasn't as it seemed,and my romance took a plot twist
.
She wasn't a lady gnome at all.
(31:40):
She was in fact a sprightlychap with excellent contouring
and a penchant for mischief.
It turned out his fishing rodwas bigger than mine.
Oh, how he laughed.
I've learned that love is weirdand it comes in all shapes and
sizes.
I'll never forget my nightDoing this boom, boom, and I'm
(32:03):
thankful for her tips Onmoisturising in the heat.
Next I'm going down under Tosee if love is waiting for me In
Bondi Beach.
Until then, take care, lovethat know it all-all-know.
Oh, wow, lovely to hear fromhim.
Mr Hodgkiss (32:19):
He's having a good time by the sound of it.
Walliams (32:21):
Lovely, well, well.
Mr Hodgkiss (32:24):
That would have been a bit of a surprise with
Miss Boom Boom.
Walliams (32:26):
Well, yes.
Mr Hodgkiss (32:27):
He's wise, luckily, so I'm sure he would have been
able to deal with itrespectfully.
Walliams (32:32):
It sounds like he enjoyed himself regardless.
He knows it all.
It sounds like he enjoyedhimself regardless.
Mr Hodgkiss (32:38):
He knows it all anyway.
That's it, a nice bit of wisdomfrom him still.
Saying that love comes in allshapes and sizes.
It's very true, isn't it Verytrue?
Walliams (32:45):
To end the episode on a bad joke.
Oh, yes, please.
I'm a bit confused because thisepisode hasn't taken quite as
long to record as the firstepisode.
Mr Hodgkiss (32:53):
I wonder why that is.
I'm sure it'd be in the samelength um in the end.
So we had a lot of chaos in thefirst episode this episode's
been a lot calmer we did.
Walliams (33:08):
We did.
Um, it's about jokes.
Go for it.
You can tell the difference.
This might be a british joke.
Actually, you can tell thedifference between a crocodile
and an alligator by payingattention to whether the animal
says see you later say thatagain no, that was it's too bad
(33:35):
you can tell the differencebetween a crocodile and an
alligator.
By paying attention to whetherthe animal sees you later.
Mr Hodgkiss (33:42):
I don't get it.
Walliams (33:44):
Because you see in a wild crocodile, see a alligator.
Mr Hodgkiss (33:48):
Oh, yes, okay yes, sorry, that's two episodes in a
row where I've missed the joke.
Walliams (33:54):
Yeah, but this is actually a bad joke, so it's
meant to be bad.
No, it was just bad.
Mr Hodgkiss (33:56):
Yeah, but this is actually a bad joke, so it's
meant to be bad.
No, that was just bad.
Yeah, that was Bad.
Jokes are usually funny.
That was just terrible.
Walliams (34:01):
Dad jokes are less absurd.
This is bad jokes Anyways right.
Sleep at night time I plan onreading a book about lampposts
and torches.
Some light reading before bed.
Mr Hodgkiss (34:16):
That's more like it Williams.
That's the kind of stupid humorwe've come to know and love.
Walliams (34:21):
See you in a couple of weeks, everyone.
Mr Hodgkiss (34:23):
Bye everybody, good night, Bye, bye-bye, bye-bye.
Say that again.
First Look Battersea Power Station Revamp plus Google
I-0-2025 Highlights.
Mr Hodgkiss (00:05):
Welcome to First Look Gnomes.
Walliams (00:07):
Your go-to podcast for dads doing silly things.
Mr Hodgkiss (00:11):
But, most importantly, we're here to share
our first looks.
Walliams (00:14):
Don't forget to send in your feedback to our fish
bond of feedback.
Mr Hodgkiss (00:18):
And share your thoughts, questions and own
first looks with us atfirstlookgnomesatoutlookcom
known first looks with us atfirst.
Walliams (00:26):
Look gnomes at outlookcom.
Yo, listen up.
Here's a story about a littlegnome that lives in a two world
and all day and all night andeverything he sees is episode
two.
Like him inside and outside.
Number two is his house withthe two little windows and two
(00:46):
corvettes, and everything is intwo for him and himself and
everybody around, because heain't got nobody to listen to
series four episode two.
Mr Hodgkiss (01:06):
I've got to admit when he started that, when he
went yo, I thought I was goingto do a vanilla ice wrap Yo
collaborate and listen.
No, no, I wasn't expecting itto go to iPool.
Walliams (01:18):
Is it iPool 65, iPool 95,?
Their?
Mr Hodgkiss (01:20):
version of Blue.
Walliams (01:22):
That's one of the signs of success if you actually
know what it was Todab-a-dee-dab-a-dee, their
version of Blue.
Mr Hodgkiss (01:25):
That's always a sign of success if you actually
know what it was.
Walliams (01:26):
So um to dabba, dee, dabba yeah dabba dee or for the
for the younger listeners outthere, uh, calvin Harris
probably isn't it oh, did he?
Mr Hodgkiss (01:34):
he sampled that recently, didn't he?
Yeah?
Walliams (01:36):
yeah, but nobody knew that it was a well.
The youngsters didn't know itwas a An original song that was
taken from the 90s.
By the French?
Was it the French?
Mr Hodgkiss (01:45):
Eiffel, 65.
Walliams (01:46):
Eiffel would probably give it away, I should presume.
Mr Hodgkiss (01:50):
You would imagine so.
Good effort, william, goodeffort.
Walliams (01:54):
How are your two weeks ?
Mr Hodgkiss (01:55):
It's been more chaos, more craziness, more
chaos.
But I'm still here.
Walliams (02:01):
More Fortnite playing, I'm still standing.
Mr Hodgkiss (02:02):
Oh, too much Fortnite playing Too.
I'm still here.
More Fortnite playing.
I'm still standing.
Oh, too much Fortnite playing.
Too much Fortnite playing.
Arguments about Fortnite,discussions about.
Walliams (02:08):
Fortnite oh dear.
Mr Hodgkiss (02:10):
It's actually made our house quite angry.
It needs to stop.
It needs to stop, I just wantmy child to reverse his age.
He's getting older.
I want him to get younger, notolder.
I don't like older kids.
Walliams (02:25):
They make it challenging.
As we found out on the lastepisode, the firsty-firsts are
no more at the bottom of thepond.
We've got firsty.
We've got first bites Pints andfirst bites Pints and first
bites Pints give me a pee Pintsand first bites Pints and first
bites Pints, Pints.
Give me a P Pints and firstbites, and I brought a beer, so
(02:50):
I'm going to go in.
I wasn't going to do thisoriginally, but I'm going to do
the beer.
I think that might be myfavourite kind of introduction
to anything, because we all saidit Pints and first bites Pints
and first bites Pints and firstbites.
And on today's Pints and firstbites Pints and first bites
(03:13):
Pints and first bites we havethis is a Brew York juice
forsyth Ooh, and it's got alittle image there of may he
rest in peace, Bruce Forsyth forthe silhouette of Bruce Forsyth
there.
Brie York 5% Pineapple Forsyth,Pineapple mango tropical fruit
(03:34):
explosion.
Yeah, no, thank you.
There you go, and there's alittle diagram at the back and
it's there you go.
You've got your rating of hotfruit, sweet, mouthfeel, bitter
and malt and it's more fruit andsweet there you go alright so
(03:57):
another.
Oh dear pints and fuzz bags.
Mr Hodgkiss (04:02):
Pints and fuzz so listeners, if you miss firsty
firsts.
Walliams (04:06):
Please write in and I'll happily replace pints and
first bites with firsty firsts.
The listeners didn't wantfirsty firsts anymore, so we've
now got pints and first bites.
Mr Hodgkiss (04:20):
He's such an idiot, there we go Brew York juice
Forsyth.
Walliams (04:27):
it's a fruited IPA Juice.
Mr Hodgkiss (04:28):
Forsyth Sure, then give us the verdict Cheers.
Walliams (04:34):
It smells.
Mr Hodgkiss (04:35):
It smells Just what you want when you're beer.
Walliams (04:38):
Yeah, it smells.
It smells like you know whenyou get that drain back draft
sometimes.
Mr Hodgkiss (04:47):
See, I'm telling you, Williams, avoid all these
fruity, crappy beers.
Like you know, the Fruit rots.
I'm not sure what it says.
Walliams (04:57):
Good game, good game.
Do you want to go higher?
Then enjoy this juicy, bonusfruited IPA that combines
Cascade, citra, columbus andMosaic hops with Mootshox,
pineapple and Mango for atropical explosion as bold and
juicy as a legendary entertainer.
This salutes Nice to see you,to see you.
Mr Hodgkiss (05:18):
And just to repeat what one of them said when he
opened it it smells.
So you know, that's probablyall we need to know about that
one.
Walliams (05:24):
I'm sure my breath does so.
The wife of my wife is a luckylady.
When I finish this podcast,Absolutely.
Pints of us bites.
Pints of us bites.
Mr Hodgkiss (05:35):
Moving on.
Where are we going next, Matt?
Where are we going next?
Walliams (05:37):
We're going next.
We're going sorry, so we'regoing to grab your rod.
I'm not going to grab your rod,to grab your rod.
Mr Hodgkiss (05:44):
I'm not going to grab your rod.
Walliams (05:45):
You can.
We're not going to grab anyrods.
Mr Hodgkiss (05:47):
We're grabbing each other's rods.
Walliams (05:48):
We'll grab our own rods.
Mr Hodgkiss (05:49):
Okay.
Walliams (05:50):
And we're going to swing it into the pond.
Okay, and see if we've got anyfeedback.
Mr Hodgkiss (05:55):
Let's go.
Walliams (05:59):
Let's go Fish.
Pond of feedback.
Mr Hodgkiss (06:00):
Feedback Not as good as pints and first bites.
Walliams (06:08):
A little update.
So I found out, got a littleupdate from the.
So, in terms of search engineoptimization, not much going on
with the website because wedon't have one.
Mr Hodgkiss (06:20):
There is no website .
Yeah, it's being built.
Walliams (06:24):
I have had some stats updates with a little peek on um
apple podcasts or spotify, sothis is when people will
specifically search on podcastsas opposed to google or whatever
yeah, um, maybe I'll give youthree guesses.
So there's two words, a phrase,not a phrase.
(06:48):
Two words that people searchthat we've actually appeared as
number two.
Oh, so, when people put thesetwo words in at the same time,
not separately.
So these two words, uh-uh, wecome up as number two on the
Spotify and Apple or podcastsokay, so it's gotta be gnomes,
(07:13):
right?
Mr Hodgkiss (07:14):
no, you'd imagine, like first gnomes, that's the
only way people can find us notwo idiots.
I don't really understand howit all works.
Okay, so is Two idiots.
Walliams (07:23):
I don't really understand how it all works, but
Okay, so is it.
Mr Hodgkiss (07:26):
Two idiots, dad, stupid dads.
No, thirsty first, you're notgoing to get it.
You're not going to get it.
So.
Walliams (07:37):
Tropical fruits so.
Mr Hodgkiss (07:39):
What?
Because you're a bloody beer,isn't it?
Because you're a tropical,shitty beer.
Walliams (07:44):
Well, maybe actually Of course it is.
Mr Hodgkiss (07:47):
You just opened a can of Brew Forsyth.
Yeah, actually I did Tropicalfruits tropical fruits, beer,
fruit, tropical fruits.
Walliams (07:55):
So a few weeks ago, if someone typed in tropical
fruits on Apple Podcasts orSpotify, we would come up as
number two on the list.
Mr Hodgkiss (08:02):
Interesting.
Walliams (08:04):
There you go.
Come up as number two on thelist.
Interesting, there you go.
Uh, also, um, we came up asnumber two someone typed in
agriculture in asia, of course,obviously and apparently result
number four.
Mr Hodgkiss (08:18):
Someone typed in children's television well, I
mean well children's tv, yeah Ican get that one.
And on the last episode we diddiscuss matcha, matcha, kit kats
, you know yeah, that's notreleased yet.
So well, it is now, but itwasn't that point of recording
oh, possibly, yeah, all right,well, who knows, who knows, the
internet works in mysteriousways it does.
Walliams (08:39):
They're always listening.
Mr Hodgkiss (08:40):
Yeah, so that means our listeners are people that
are probably looking fortropical fruits, agriculture in
asia or children's television sowe do have a spoiler alert
there that we don't have awebsite, but we also, so I
should have done this.
My working pattern has changedslightly, so I should have more
time, and I will.
I will get the website builtthis year, that is the goal get
(09:02):
some blogs going get somepictures of kit kats
blogs about agriculture in asiadad jokes we can, we can
actually do it.
We can actually do a marketingplan by it's.
How are we going to take?
Walliams (09:12):
over this podcast.
We could.
We've almost succeeded in laosalmost next.
Mr Hodgkiss (09:18):
Yeah, where next is right, we'll decide.
The moon we're still going forthe moon.
We didn't.
We're still.
We didn't hit the.
Walliams (09:23):
We're still going for the moon.
We didn't hit that, didn't we?
No, we didn't hit the moon, sowe're still going for that.
Mr Hodgkiss (09:25):
We should have spent, but that brings us on to
new listeners.
Walliams (09:30):
So in series one or two, probably two, we yeah,
probably series two we never hadany listeners from Africa.
I mean, we didn't have anylisteners at all, but we had
listeners.
We had at least one listener ineach continent apart from
africa.
But then we did and sees three,we've got a listener in cairo
(09:54):
and then we've had a few sincethen and we've had another one
today.
So we've got a new listenerfrom freetown western area in
sierra leone oh very good, sowelcome new listener from there.
Another new listener frombasingstoke, hampshire nice
another new listener from brentand another new listener from ho
chi minh city oh very goodwelcome, and that's vietnam, so
(10:19):
good morning good morning.
Mr Hodgkiss (10:20):
More people in vietnam, we are, we're big.
We're big in Nam.
Walliams (10:23):
Oh, and that's it.
No one's written in, so pleasewrite in to firstsandnomescom or
DM on the Instagram or howeverelse you want to get in contact.
Mr Hodgkiss (10:36):
Plenty of ways.
Once we get the website up,we're going to take over the
world.
Once we get the website down.
Walliams (10:39):
Yeah exactly, First looks, Mr Oshkiss.
Okay, yeah, exactly.
Mr Hodgkiss (10:42):
First looks for Trogkos.
Okay, so I do have.
Well, I have a.
You know what I was struggling?
I was like, right, I've got somany different things.
Since we last recorded, so manydifferent things have happened.
So I got a few looks.
I did this last year.
I did talk about the ChelseaFlower Show, which is always a
highlight of the year for usgardeners and us horticultural
(11:03):
people.
We just had a little look at.
We went to a John Williamsnight.
We took Brayden to his firstorchestra.
I sound very posh.
Walliams (11:15):
Yes, yes, talk about a show.
Mr Hodgkiss (11:16):
We went to the orchestra, but we took him to
see the music of John Williamsat the theatre, so like saw the
Jurassic Park and the Supermantheme His first experience with
an orchestra, which was pretty,would like say anyone who who
has ever um, anyone who's a fanof movie, music like the star
(11:36):
wars theme the harry pottermusic I mean john williams, he's
got to be the best in terms ofabsolute legend.
Walliams (11:42):
Yeah, like legend.
Mr Hodgkiss (11:43):
Yeah, so like the whole orchestra.
There was a big orchestra like60, 70 people in the orchestra
playing like the Superman theme,the Indiana Jones theme, the
Jurassic Park music, the HarryPotter music and it was just
incredible.
Star Wars, star Wars I boughtthese tickets months ago so we
were like in the third row,which was great.
So you're like right at thefoot of the orchestra and it's
(12:05):
just brilliant and brain lovedit.
So that was good.
Um, so go and see your localorchestra.
You get like tickets was cheap.
We got like brain steel waslike a tenner or something.
It was dirt cheap yeah, good socheap good night out, um, but
yeah, we went to.
We went out to london recently,london town london town, yeah,
yeah.
So I'm going to do a first lookat new areas of London.
(12:26):
So back in the day the wife andI met in London.
We used to live in London.
We now don't.
But it's always nice going backbecause there's that feeling of
nostalgia and familiarity.
But when I went for a friend's40th birthday surprise 40th
birthday party, but on theFriday, so we said we spent some
(12:51):
time, um, we lived.
I lived in streatham and we didclapham for a bit and we did
when the wife and I got together, we lived in wilmington for a
bit.
So we're kind of in that southarea of london, um, and they
were.
They were regeneratingbattersea power station, so we
went to explore.
Now it's all finished.
We went went to exploreBattersea Power Station and what
(13:16):
it's got to offer, so I'm goingto just open up what does that
offer?
Discover London's most excitingnew shopping and leisure
destination at the iconic GreatTwo List in Battersea Power
Station.
This legendary London landmarkand surrounding area has been
brought back to life as one ofthe most exciting and innovative
mixed-use neighborhoods in theworld.
A place for locals, touristsand residents to enjoy a unique
(13:37):
blend of over 150 shops, bars,restaurants, leisure and
entertainment venues, parks andhistorical spaces.
A place to shop, eat, drink,live, work and play.
Life here doesn't feel ordinary, it feels extraordinary.
So we were like, let's go andcheck it out.
Um, so we went and I've written, I've made some notes while I
was thinking about the thing.
So we left our hotel and do youknow the first thing we saw?
(13:59):
So our hotel was by the ovalcricket ground and the first
thing we saw Claire Balding.
Oh, and I can't stand ClaireBalding.
So the wife said is that ClaireBalding?
Walliams (14:11):
I was like yes, it is no.
Mr Hodgkiss (14:15):
Leslie Anne was like yes, it is selfie.
No, I don't, leslie.
I was like why don't you go andtell her what you think of?
Walliams (14:18):
her.
I was like yeah, don't like you, claire, balding if she came up
to you or said hello, you'd belike, oh yeah, love your work,
love your way no, I would haveabsolutely said I don't really
think very much of you.
Mr Hodgkiss (14:29):
You're a poor man's hazel irvine um.
Walliams (14:33):
I've got your love of Hazel.
Mr Hodgkiss (14:34):
Irvine.
Hazel's a proper, proper sportsreporter.
But for some reason ClaireBoulding and Gabby Logan get all
the love.
Two women I can't stand, butHazel, what a proper sports
reporter.
Oh, gabby's all right.
No, she's annoying, as anyway.
Subjectively, she annoys theannoys the snot out.
The noise is not out of me, butso does clear boarding.
So we went, we headed from theKia Oval over to Battersea Power
(14:58):
Station and I'm telling you itwas like wow, this is incredible
.
So it reminded me of likeVancouver and Chicago and like
those kind of American kind ofareas.
So the power station itself,it's quite impressive when
you're close to it.
And they've turned inside ofthe power station into like a
(15:18):
high-end shopping mall, so lotsof really quite nice brands, but
they've kept a lot of thehistorical features of it.
So you've got this big, big-assshopping mall full of lovely
things and great architectureand it's just like.
It's quite like wow, it's justlike.
It's quite like wow, this it'sjust really impressive, really
impressive when you go in there.
Um, and they've got, um, theybuilt all new flats around it,
(15:43):
so there's loads of restaurantsand bars and in one of the
chimneys.
So if you don't know aboutsuperstation, it's an old power
station and in the four chimneysone of the chimneys they've got
like um, a viewing deck so youcan go up the chimney and it
takes you to the top of thechimney where there's like a
glass aren't you a bit funny ofheights?
oh, I'm terrified of heights,yeah, but it's still there.
(16:05):
You can go and do it.
Walliams (16:06):
I just refused to do it.
No, no, I didn't, I refused to.
Mr Hodgkiss (16:10):
Let's now want to do it and I was like nope, not
for me but it's, it's an amazingthing that you can do so we.
We looked at it from down thebottom and I was just like I
don't like the look of that atall.
So you go up the chimney andinside of the chimney there's
all lights and this stuff andyou go like up, um, I think it's
like 100 and something oddmeters and there's just a glass
ring.
So we could see people doing itfrom down below and I just
(16:33):
thought that looks really odd,but still magnificent and cool,
like we went to where we can geton it and we're looking at.
I was like that looks brilliant.
And, leslie, I was like no, Idon't want to go up there if
you're gonna have a panic attack, um, and I watched one of the
youtube videos of someone doingit.
I was like nope, not for me,but if you're into that kind of
thing, all very good.
Uh, but we did.
Walliams (16:51):
We went and got some food I'm not gonna go up there
if you're gonna have a panicattack it was yes.
Mr Hodgkiss (16:56):
She was like I don't really want to go up there
and you not enjoy it.
That was more of what she wassaying but like we tried a few
things, so like we went to apoke house, which was pretty
cool, and got some food, wetried house like a poke house to
get like a poke bowl.
Have you seen these things?
a poke house to get a poke bowlyeah, like it's a no, not, it's
just call it a poke.
It's like you can get, likeit's like rice and salmon and
(17:18):
edamame okay, it's just.
It's just a very fancy saladkind of bowl, but it was really
nice.
We tried blank street coffee,which I've heard about, lots
about, and it was rubbish.
I was massively disappointedwith blank street coffee.
Um, the coffee was street,blank street coffee.
Yeah, the coffee was street,blank street coffee.
Yeah, the service was terrible.
The people in there were all Idon't know, just not my type of
(17:41):
people no and, uh, the coffeewas really not very nice.
We did go to vinci ice cream andleslie ann said it was the best
haze on ice cream she's had inher life.
I've never been to vent.
She, uh, I didn't have any, butleslie ann did and she was
blown away.
Um, but then one of the thingsI did do, which was right on my
knee, went to the batterseabrewery.
(18:02):
So they did a brewery there andI did a couple of those taster
bowls I had like pints and bites.
Walliams (18:09):
I tried those bites.
Mr Hodgkiss (18:10):
I did right, I I rate I ranked.
I had eight different beers andranked them all and I thought
I'm not going to bore everybodywith it, but they were mostly
nice.
Walliams (18:19):
Right, because it's just a recording.
She got the old voice notes out.
Mr Hodgkiss (18:22):
Well, I took some pictures for the website that
we're going to do, and one oftheir stouts.
Walliams (18:27):
I look forward to seeing those in 2040.
Mr Hodgkiss (18:30):
Their stout was incredible, and it just so
happened as well, williams, thatthis was the same day we were
in Battersea, the same in London, the same day as the Empire
Strips back, hey, which you hadtold us about before.
Yes, sadly we ran out of timeso I was unable to attend.
Walliams (18:51):
The Empire Strips back .
Mr Hodgkiss (18:52):
Yeah, we were going to go, but we just thought
better not.
Walliams (18:55):
It's getting good reviews apparently Is it so?
Mr Hodgkiss (18:59):
Williams, Is it getting?
Walliams (19:00):
good reviews, is it so , have my mate told me?
How would you know?
Are you looking up the reviews?
Mr Hodgkiss (19:06):
So a friend of mine told me yeah, Jabba the cock,
but no Battersea Power.
Walliams (19:14):
Station.
Mr Hodgkiss (19:14):
London was just like I was.
I was very impressed, so wellworth a visit.
So Battersea Power Station inLondon.
Battersea Power Station andLondon's just still fun.
It's such a great day, yeah sothat was my first look at
Williams.
What about yourself?
What have you got for us today?
Obviously I prepare for these,these recordings but the weeks
you spent preparing for thesepodcasts.
Walliams (19:36):
Today was the first before, but I just reminded
myself of the.
So I looked at the keynote.
This is a bit geeky.
I looked at the keynotespeaking event of Google IO.
So Google basically announcedall the good, crazy things
(19:58):
they're doing and it blew mymind.
It blew my mind was to archKiss.
Mr Hodgkiss (20:03):
Okay, you blown away by some of that happened in
2020, 12 by Google.
Walliams (20:08):
Well, yes, yes, I've, I'm only just getting used to
the Google mic search, aslisteners will know.
So Google they today.
Um, you know a big, you know abig announcement, as they do.
Um, these are the amazingthings that we've got in the,
the pipeline and etc.
(20:28):
Etc.
Um, so a few things they've got.
So Google Beam.
Mr Hodgkiss (20:34):
Oh, what's this?
Walliams (20:35):
Google Beam.
So it is a revolutionary 3Dvideo cause.
So, basically, with your webcam, rather than one webcam, your
special monitors you have willhave webcams on the left, right
(20:58):
and center, et cetera, so itgets basically camera views from
all angles and then it justmakes you as a more 3d version
of yourself to the person.
So when you're actually talkingto yourself um well, you're not
talking to yourself, talking tothe other person um, it's like
they're actually in the room abit more so it's, you know, a
(21:18):
bit more 3d involved.
Um, I'm sure at some pointthey'll hologram it in depth,
yeah, but more depth.
Um, which I was like oh, wow.
And then putnam was like quiteoften I wear like unironed
shirts to webcam things and Ican get away with it because the
webcam is here.
(21:38):
It's not fully high definition,I can get away with it, you
know.
Um, it's not in person, whereasyou know this google beam is
going to make things a lot morerealistic.
So it's going to be like you'reactually having meetings with
people in the room okay so yougot that going on.
Um, then you've got acombination of uh, what they
(21:59):
called um vo3, video generationand flow.
So basically, ai filmmakingtool okay um, and what I saw?
ah, this next level sort ofstuff.
So with this tool, right,you've got a photo of a crazy
(22:19):
old man, you've got a photo of anice looking car, old car.
Upload these photos, stick in aprompt Crazy old man driving a
car down a desert towards theGrand Canyon Video creation of
this happening.
Add a prompt our man driving acar down a desert towards a
grand canyon video creation ofthis happening.
(22:40):
Add a prompt oh, a 15 foot sizechickens in the back bomb
chicken.
Add some music.
There's a I can't remember whatit was called now, but there's
another google music creationthing.
Add some atmospheric music,john Williams style, and it just
created this whole sort ofvideo three minute video of this
(23:05):
man that gets in his car.
That is created with a chickenand it flies off in the canyon.
The chicken takes his car offand it's just a good.
You know you could aprofessional advert that you
would see now you could createin like two minutes.
Mr Hodgkiss (23:24):
So, like the John Lewis Christmas advert is
usually budgeted between likefour and seven million and it
takes six months to produce, ifyou've now got the right idea
you're saying you couldeffectively make a john lewis
christmas advert in ii on yourown in a couple of days.
Walliams (23:39):
I mean it did.
It did go from two professionallooking photos.
So it depends, I suppose, whereyou get those photos from it's
crazy, crazy world.
And then, um uh, a mixture.
So there's gemini, the GoogleGemini AI business going on.
Mr Hodgkiss (23:55):
Gemini 2.5.
Walliams (23:58):
Pro with deep think, so basically, enhance reasoning
mode for more accurate responses.
And they were shown examples of.
You know this woman using the,the camera on a phone and, yeah,
videoing her shadow, and ask,gemini, there's someone
following me, what's going on?
And then the Gemini just goesnope, that is your shadow.
(24:21):
Or pointing towards, oh, what'sthis new sports car?
And it goes nope, that's thegarbage truck, wow, or rubbish
truck, as it would be in England.
Or what's this, what's this newbuilding?
and they go nope, that's a lightpole or a lamppost yeah, the
(24:42):
reasoning is getting quicker andit's just, and it's just like
yeah, just, isn't it correctsthe person going nope, so here's
the question, though walsh,right, so we, we've used I use
ai a fair bit.
Now you know it's, it's becomepart of my routine, my daily
routine I can see it the wayit's going, what we're doing now
(25:07):
, there's still basic level towhat it could be.
Mr Hodgkiss (25:10):
Yeah, well it's gonna just keep going and going
in it, you know yeah, but it'sgonna well that's, you know like
the whole terminate to yourthing in Skynet and ends up
destroying all humans.
You know that's, that's gonnabe the race, isn't it?
You know?
How do you, how do you use thistechnology to help you make
decision, important, criticaldecisions as a tool.
Walliams (25:32):
It as a tool, um, it's a bit like uh, what's that film
called?
jennifer lopez did a filmrecently yeah, but basically, ai
is like a co-pilot not to stealthe microsoft version of it,
but you use it as a tool asopposed to it's doing stuff on
its own, so it's as a but?
Um, there's another thing fromthe google.
(25:54):
Um, io keynote thing was, uh,what's it called?
Uh, android xr.
So basically with the smartglasses.
So the smart glasses, oh yeah,the gemini powered um to do live
translation.
So you wear these glasses andyou could go abroad somewhere
and someone else.
With these android glasses, youcan have a conversation in your
(26:15):
own language.
Mr Hodgkiss (26:17):
But it just translates, explained, it says
it translates the whole lot.
Walliams (26:21):
That's crazy, um.
And then also, you know you'vegot your google maps but you've
got your glasses on.
You can go.
I'd like to go to the coffeeshop in lovely and you can walk
along with these glasses andit's just taking you to the
place and they won't be longbefore you know.
Those glasses link up with your, your gemini 2.5 pro deep think
(26:42):
stuff, and it's like you couldjust ask questions and stuff, go
what is?
Yeah, what is that?
And just have a conversationwith the eyes.
Yeah, it's.
We're not far away from somereally crazy stuff well, we use
like at home.
Mr Hodgkiss (26:57):
So let me go because we use chat, gbt, but I
know, gemini is getting betterand better, and I've got
gemini's free as well, like Ipay to use chat gbt, but like
today.
So me and brain were talking tochat gbt.
Let me go.
What did we ask you?
Here's an example.
Goes back to a previous podcastabout fortnite.
Brain purchased a skin infortnite and it's no longer in
his locker.
So fortnight, brain purchase askin in fortnight and it's no
(27:18):
longer in his locker.
So I said we're both skinningfortnight and I've changed my
skin and my old one's not there,but I paid for it.
How do we use it?
So we talked to it.
He said gave us a perfectexample of what we need to do
and he just used it as like okay, I've got a problem, what do?
What's the best thing to do?
And like it's.
It's mad really how quickly youcan find the answer.
(27:39):
I use it with like web designand stuff and that's all.
Walliams (27:41):
That's all text-based.
But this new Gemini pro stufflinked with now, this was voice
based, so this is me liketalking, like you know, having a
conversation with it yeah as it, and they've always voice base
can convert text base, but nowit's a visual based which can
link to yeah you can literallypoint camera, stuff it knows
that's your shadow and you canask a question about that image,
(28:05):
and that image converts to text, that converts to code, that
converts to it's crazy isn't itso?
Mr Hodgkiss (28:15):
is it the end of humanity, williams?
Walliams (28:17):
no, is it going to help us?
At the moment, it's still justa very fancy google search tool.
It's google mic search, but inmore complicated fashion.
It's not actually.
That's the thing.
It's not AI, it's just a fancyname for a computer.
It's not AI, it's just a fancyname for a computer now, yeah,
(28:37):
it's not actually artificialintelligence.
Yet Artificial intelligence iswhen it actually has a mind of
its own.
Mr Hodgkiss (28:43):
Yes, which we're not there yet.
It's thinking outside of ourcontrol.
Yeah, yeah, we do still controlthat, I guess.
Yeah, I don't know.
I'm just going to smile and nodand be like everything's fine,
everything's fine um that'sinteresting.
Walliams (29:02):
I got a postcard from google beam vao to an old school
postcard.
Mr Hodgkiss (29:08):
Um, yeah, I got a postcard.
Walliams (29:10):
Lovely, the know-it-all-know who's on his
travels.
On his tour, his wisdom islonely.
Lose yourself.
Mr Hodgkiss (29:16):
Tour isn't it his his willy tour?
Yeah, he, no, he did.
He sent me a voice noteactually about he was using
because he wanted to documentthis and he used the hashtag
willy.
But when he then looked at, youknow what came up?
When you did hashtag willy, hewas shocked, and so he knows
(29:38):
it's the.
It's not necessarily what Iwanted, but I'm gonna send you
what he said.
I'm gonna send you thetranscript of his postcard and,
if you could read it out to thelisteners.
A transcript of his postcardWell yeah, because he wrote it
in his handwriting, so I'll justsend it to you now.
Walliams (29:57):
Okay, oh my gosh.
I mean, it's a big postcard.
Mr Hodgkiss (30:01):
It was.
It was a double-sided postcardwith a big stamp.
Walliams (30:04):
Yeah To Mr Hodgkiss and Mr Williams.
Greetings from Laos.
You wouldn't believe the thingsI've experienced over here.
On my willy tour, I visited thekwangsi falls, the serene
buddha park and the historicwhat zhang, thongs, thongs
(30:27):
that's what it's called,apparently.
Mr Hodgkiss (30:29):
What's young thongs ?
Walliams (30:30):
it's a wonderful country.
Last tuesday I was samplingsome sticky rice and a riverboat
tour when I met an expat calledBarry who said he only listens
to two things whale song soundsand first look names.
Oh wow.
I felt oddly famous.
And apparently he listens toKeep His Geckos Calm during
(30:54):
monsoon season the only setterwhen they hear the calm, dulcet
tones of Mr Walliams singing hisintros, Apparently so.
Before visiting Laos, I poppedover to Thailand in search of a
little romance.
My heart is open and my beardis brushed, Would you believe.
In Phuket I met a charming ladygnome called Miss Boom Boom.
(31:19):
She was graceful, mysteriousand wearing the most dazzling
hat.
We shared a coconut, a tuk-tukride and a beautiful sunset.
Oh it's lovely, isn't it?
But all wasn't as it seemed,and my romance took a plot twist
.
She wasn't a lady gnome at all.
(31:40):
She was in fact a sprightlychap with excellent contouring
and a penchant for mischief.
It turned out his fishing rodwas bigger than mine.
Oh, how he laughed.
I've learned that love is weirdand it comes in all shapes and
sizes.
I'll never forget my nightDoing this boom, boom, and I'm
(32:03):
thankful for her tips Onmoisturising in the heat.
Next I'm going down under Tosee if love is waiting for me In
Bondi Beach.
Until then, take care, lovethat know it all-all-know.
Oh, wow, lovely to hear fromhim.
Mr Hodgkiss (32:19):
He's having a good time by the sound of it.
Walliams (32:21):
Lovely, well, well.
Mr Hodgkiss (32:24):
That would have been a bit of a surprise with
Miss Boom Boom.
Walliams (32:26):
Well, yes.
Mr Hodgkiss (32:27):
He's wise, luckily, so I'm sure he would have been
able to deal with itrespectfully.
Walliams (32:32):
It sounds like he enjoyed himself regardless.
He knows it all.
It sounds like he enjoyedhimself regardless.
Mr Hodgkiss (32:38):
He knows it all anyway.
That's it, a nice bit of wisdomfrom him still.
Saying that love comes in allshapes and sizes.
It's very true, isn't it Verytrue?
Walliams (32:45):
To end the episode on a bad joke.
Oh, yes, please.
I'm a bit confused because thisepisode hasn't taken quite as
long to record as the firstepisode.
Mr Hodgkiss (32:53):
I wonder why that is.
I'm sure it'd be in the samelength um in the end.
So we had a lot of chaos in thefirst episode this episode's
been a lot calmer we did.
Walliams (33:08):
We did.
Um, it's about jokes.
Go for it.
You can tell the difference.
This might be a british joke.
Actually, you can tell thedifference between a crocodile
and an alligator by payingattention to whether the animal
says see you later say thatagain no, that was it's too bad
(33:35):
you can tell the differencebetween a crocodile and an
alligator.
By paying attention to whetherthe animal sees you later.
Mr Hodgkiss (33:42):
I don't get it.
Walliams (33:44):
Because you see in a wild crocodile, see a alligator.
Mr Hodgkiss (33:48):
Oh, yes, okay yes, sorry, that's two episodes in a
row where I've missed the joke.
Walliams (33:54):
Yeah, but this is actually a bad joke, so it's
meant to be bad.
No, it was just bad.
Mr Hodgkiss (33:56):
Yeah, but this is actually a bad joke, so it's
meant to be bad.
No, that was just bad.
Yeah, that was Bad.
Jokes are usually funny.
That was just terrible.
Walliams (34:01):
Dad jokes are less absurd.
This is bad jokes Anyways right.
Sleep at night time I plan onreading a book about lampposts
and torches.
Some light reading before bed.
Mr Hodgkiss (34:16):
That's more like it Williams.
That's the kind of stupid humorwe've come to know and love.
Walliams (34:21):
See you in a couple of weeks, everyone.
Mr Hodgkiss (34:23):
Bye everybody, good night, Bye, bye-bye, bye-bye.
Say that again.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.