Episode 118 - Takin' Over the Asylum (1994) - The Culture Swally

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hello and welcome to the Culture Swally, a podcast dedicated to Scottish News and Pop

(00:21):
Culture.
It is our first proper episode of 2025.
My name is Nicky and I'm joined as always by the man who I've
spent many a night with, drinking half and half and talking about our penises.
It's Greg, how are you today, buddy?
Very well, very well.
I feel like the new year, we would have said them for the January

(00:42):
Day, we're recording all of them.
It seems like a really, really, really long time ago, like two years, if so, it does.
When's the cutoff for wishing someone a happy new year?
It's past now, surely.
I think it's a week, isn't it?
I think it's probably past.
I mean, if it's somebody, I think if it's somebody that you know that you just
haven't spoken to in all that time, I think it's all right to say, oh, this
and by the way, the ability to happen new year, if you're meeting somebody for the

(01:05):
first time, it's cool.
Yeah, that would be cool.
Yeah, it's a bit off then, yeah.
Yeah, well, it happened a year to all of our listeners.
Thank you for sticking with us and I hope you enjoyed 2024 and look forward to
bringing lots of good stuff in 2025.
How was your new year?
Did you do anything exciting?
No, not really.
It was sort of stayed in my daughter's boyfriend, was with us, the ever-present boyfriend.

(01:32):
So we had a couple of drinks.
We went up in the roof, managed to see some, like, a drone show from our house roof in Dubai.
And that was it.
That was it, really?
Yeah, just sort of, just sort of quite a lot's happened in the other days.
So it's like, I feel like it was really a long time ago, just the sort of trials and

(01:52):
tribulations of having two teenage daughters, you know, and a boyfriend.
One with a boyfriend.
Honestly, living in my house, right, let me paint a picture for you and our listeners.
A figurative picture, right?
So my wife and I are plucky, formerly plucky British tommies that are elbowing our way across

(02:14):
No Man's Land, when the first world war in the Somme and the pitch black.
From me and listed, it seemed like a good idea, right?
We'll be sent up.
Now we're lying in the muds up to our nose and fucking mudden blood, wondering how we're
still alive.
Elbowing our way across towards the enemy in the dark, like one wrong move, we'll see

(02:34):
as cut to pieces by machine gunfire.
And that is like breakfast time in our house.
That's like, just asking an obvious question, like, "What do you got on at school today?"
Or "Do you want some breakfast?"
Or "Just leave it all right, you can see you absolutely eviscerated by enemy fire for nothing."
So yeah, it's been a good start to the year.

(02:57):
Excellent, excellent.
Just reminding me, I've got a cracking story to tell you, but I'll tell you off here, because
it's definitely not for public consumption.
I'll tell you that.
Oh wow, well that sounds like you've had a hell of a time then, for the first 11 years,
but it'll get better.
The first 11 days?
Yeah, it's fine.
I've got a few things coming up this year.
I'm going to be flying on a private plane for the first time in my life in a couple of weeks.

(03:22):
My youngest daughter did remind me that private planes are the ones that crash the most.
So, just to make sure that forward to that, and I've got another trip to New York coming
up in March.
So a few things going on, oh, work related, living quietly for the first half of the year,
to try and refill the the Greg coffers that were depleted over our trip to Scotland for

(03:45):
Christmas and Christmas presents and air being bees and flights and trains and planes and
automobiles.
So yeah, looking forward to just digging right in and having a good natter about Scottish
news and pop culture.
And loodies later on.
Yeah, talent.
It's a perfect tonic to get over the start of the year.

(04:06):
Fantastic.
Sure.
Wonderful.
So, you were Christmas in New York, obviously here in Dubai.
We were our ships passed very briefly the day before I was gone.
We got to catch up very quickly.
Yeah, it was good.
Yeah, it was good.
Do you know what I'm like?
I hardly left the house.
Had.
Yeah.
Just a really good time, really good time.

(04:27):
Just staying in with my sister and nieces and nice brothers and law.
It was brilliant to catch up.
Really, really had a wonderful time because I didn't leave the house very often.
I think it was the last night we went out for dinner.
And that was the first time that I was there and I was like, yeah, this is why I look
quite, I hate this place so much.
What did you go for dinner?
Somewhere on the palm.

(04:48):
So it was, yeah, I don't know, about walkway a bit with all the pink neon signs and stuff.
It was, yeah, on the beach.
On the restaurant there.
Yeah, yeah.
So, it was, West Beach, I think it's called.
That's it, West Beach, yeah.
Yeah, that was like, oh, this is ruined my holiday.
But never.
But, say, out of that, it was lovely because I didn't really leave the house that much.

(05:11):
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, I had a wonderful time.
So, no, it was all good.
Came back for a new year and just had quite evening.
Stayed in, yeah, with my friend and watched the fireworks and stuff.
And yeah, had a nice evening, introduced her to some Scottish music.
So there was a lot of proclaimers and decomblue, decomblue, simple minds.

(05:31):
Very fast, then.
No, it was, we went with, because she asked, like, what would you be?
Listen to New Year's Eve.
And I don't think as much as balance the bass, you know, one of my favorite bands of all
time, they're not really New Year's Eve kind of banned, are they?
No, no, I guess not.
No, can it see the whole thing?
You want to listen to, um, uh, um, uh, Diggie McLean, Caledonia, was put on.

(05:53):
Right.
She said that was one of them was beautiful songs she'd ever heard.
Oh, well, I'll say.
Okay.
So, yeah, yeah.
And I still got it.
Hold Diggie.
Yeah, certainly does.
Good for Diggie.
And then I, then we had to watch the tenants advert, but that didn't go down quite as well,
because obviously, I think you have to be Scottish to understand that.
Which, uh, which tenants advert?
Which one?
Uh, the one with Caledonia, the one, of course, where the, um, guys in the, the London bank

(06:17):
and throws his past down and, but that's the, the Frankie Miller cover, isn't it?
Yeah.
So Frankie Miller, too.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But, um, but, yeah, still, but I think you, you have to probably be Scottish to understand
that advert, really, and how much it means.
But yeah, I said it was beautiful and like, to, you know, for a country to be so proud and
to swell your heart and, yeah, um, yeah, then stuck on a bit of the hootin' Annie, but then,

(06:40):
yeah, then it was, yeah, too late of it.
Nacquered by the end of the year, so like, okay.
So nevermind.
Okay, well, shall we have a look at what has been happening in Scotland in the first
11 days of 2025?
Cure the Jenga.

(07:02):
Hello.
This is the out there heavily broadcasting conversation.
And here is what's been going on in the new.
Oh, okay, Greg.
What have you seen?
To kick us off for our first story of 2025.
Well, there was a, there was a story that I was going to do that.
I'm not going to do any more, but it was about, obviously, one of the big, one of the

(07:24):
sporting, but the big sort of pieces of, I suppose, British sporting news and,
I think, 25 already was the young, dark champion, Luke that there.
Yeah.
There was a story in a day that I heard about a couple of kids who beat that there when
he was a bit younger and I saw a Scotland v England team game.

(07:46):
But this story is not all that funny, but it did remind me of, you were, we mentioned,
one of Scotland's greatest ever athletes just probably started recording Jockey Wilson.
Yes.
Out there on a champion, dark player.
And I was reading as a podcast called The Upshot.
I think I sent you there, Twitter thread on this sort of golden age of darts, but they

(08:10):
obviously mentioned Jockey Wilson, obviously.
And apparently he never brushed his teeth because his granny told him that the English poison
the water, right?
I've heard this.
Yes.
I remember hearing this before.
So once, once he got, once became quite famous like when ITV had the darts and the darts

(08:33):
became like huge in the sort of 70s and 80s, ITV bought him a pair of false teeth, which
he kept.
At night, he kept them in a glass of phanta by his bed.
I can only assume so they'd taste nice when they popped in the morning.
I have heard that story before.

(08:56):
It's fucking brilliant.
Oh my God.
Oh, a glass of phanta.
It must have been like neon teeth.
It must have been transparent teeth.
Anyway.
So, yeah, so well done to look little there, but I think these young Scottish boys are, I've
got their eye on you for your championship in the future, but I'll get, I'll start my

(09:17):
proper, my first story, proper story.
This comes from Glasgow Live on the 9th of January this year.
And it's very reminiscent of some of our earliest stories on this valley.
I mean, this is, we're going into our fifth year of the culture spot this year.
And this one is very, very, very evocative of some of our first stories.

(09:40):
So that by means Greg Superfan who eats four sausage rolls at once.
Oh my God.
Get a 200 pound sausage roll tattoo.
This is Matthew McAroll.
A Greg Superfan who has forked out 1,600 pounds on sausage rolls has got himself a tattoo of
the Savory Pastry On his arm.

(10:01):
Matthew McAroll has spent the last seven years visiting the bakery giant after work on
a Friday and scoffing four sausage rolls in one go before heading home for an app.
The council groundsman who concedes that he's not the best eater in the world has been
chomping on the pastry since he was a kid describing the chain sausage rolls as his favourite
food.

(10:21):
Intribute the 31 year old went under the needle to get a six inch inking of the sausage
roll, peeping out of the branded packaging with a hable like orange goblow around it
on his right arm.
Matthew Quipt that he now looks like an advertising board for Greg's and he hoped the chain
might acknowledge his body art after scoffing 1,456 of the snacks during his afterwork visits.

(10:47):
He had hoped he might get something out of the 200 pound tattoo like a t-shirt or something
from the brand.
It's got to be the shitest tattoo I've ever seen them all day.
The sausage roll fan originally had a 200 pound tattoo done in July by Amber Naomi at Celesteel
Tattoo in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire and he had it touched up on December 14th.

(11:11):
Matthew from Blanttire said, "Amber had done McDonald's designs and I said, 'If you design
one of these as a Greg's, I'll get it.'
I've had Greg's sausage roll since I was a wane.
I'm not the best eater in the world, but I knew I liked sausage rolls so it was something
I would fall back on as I got older."
My routine on a Friday afterwork is I go straight to Greg's, then I go for an app.

(11:35):
It's brilliant, it started seven years ago.
My usual order is four sausage rolls.
I eat them in one go after my shift.
Saussage rolls are just one of my favourite foods and we've got a tattoo in my arm, but
I've never thought about it this deeply.
They're just nice and I like the taste of them.
Amber did it as an amber that had designed that I liked.
The orange around it looked like a hail and I got it.

(11:58):
After going under the window for three hours, what was originally done, Matthew had it touched
up to make the vibrant colours pop.
He said, "It went fine.
Amber's good at her job.
We were joking that I thought they could advertise in board."
The dream is, if Greg sees it, it would be great to get something that acknowledges that
I've got it.
Maybe a t-shirt?
Should they acknowledge itself that he's got it?
Because the sun is on.

(12:19):
So I'm going to just snap a picture of this and send it over to you because I don't
know how this took three hours.
I really don't.
The one I've got in my left arm, which has got a bit of detail in it.
I've got more detail that would say than this thing, but I'm about to share with you.
Did not take three hours.

(12:41):
I sent it over.
Fascinating podcasting here.
Have I looked at this?
Oh my God.
That's fucking...
Oh my God.
You know what?
It's not, I mean, yes, the orange glow is bad.
As a kind of cartoonie tattoo, it would look a lot better if it was just all one colour.

(13:01):
If it had been black or something, I guess you have to have the colour for the sausage roll.
Yeah, it does look shit, actually.
Never think about it.
Should I take three hours to do that?
Should I?
No.
Maybe she stopped for a sausage roll.
Do we push it?
It's a pop out.
Get one.
Ah, wow.
That's a life choice.

(13:22):
And that is...
He has obviously thought I'm going to get someone out of this.
A bit is tweeted Gregson't asked for something, and they've just ignored him.
A bit he goes into Gregson with his sleeve rolled up now.
And the assistant's buying the counter.
Could not give less of a fuck.
That...
It's a Friday afternoon.
It's the last of the sausage rolls that probably saved four for him.

(13:45):
Give him the shite ones.
And they couldn't care less.
Or sausage rolls in one sitting, though.
That's too many.
He has to go for a fucking sleep after him.
That's too many, right?
But the thing is, if you...
Because Gregson don't keep things hot, you know?
So...
No.
So if you're going in there late in the afternoon, I imagine that's when things start to
slow down a little bit for Gregson.

(14:06):
So those sausages also be fucking stone cold, surely.
I can't...
I can't give a nice way to say this, so I'm just going to say it.
I mean, judging by the photo, obviously, can only see his upper arm and a little bit
of his torso.
He doesn't look like a fat bastard.
He's not.
Yeah, that's incredible then, four sausage rolls.
Yeah, go for a sleep.
That's quite a strange tradition, or...

(14:27):
Yeah.
...finish a work week, right?
Time for the rolls.
And we nap, get up in time for Friday night, I don't know what's on.
I don't know.
I don't know what's on, but it's a big brother, but that's not on anymore.
I have no idea what's on, right?
The Traitors.
The Traitors at the moment, yeah?
The Traitors at the moment, yeah?
Yeah, the Traitors.
I mean, enjoying that.
And the first one was that after working at Friday, you would look forward to a couple of

(14:50):
paints.
Yeah, of course.
Yeah, not four sausage rolls.
Straight to the pub, a few beers, and then you'd be home, and then either you go out,
or you'd just sit and watch, because Friday night, Tilly was always good, like, you know,
on Channel 4, in particular, had a good comedy run, you know, friends, if you were into
that, but in Frazier, and then laterally stuff like Peep Show and Viro Ted and Euro Trash.

(15:14):
Euro Trash, the word.
Yes.
Although I wasn't going to the pub before I was watching the word.
Unfortunately, I was too young for that.
The girl they show.
The girl they show.
Yes.
No alcohol, maybe we hand shandy to the girl they show, but no alcohols can suit the Friday.
We talked back to the girl they show.

(15:34):
Well, yeah, well, we'll fare a play to him if he's happy with it.
And he enjoys his tattoo, but yeah, it's a brave choice to have an urr.
But hey, it's something that he obviously adores and he loves and he just wants to show how
proud he is of Greg's.
But yeah, we never get a brand tattooed on me or anything like that.

(15:56):
That's just asking for trouble.
No, indeed.
Anyway, that was my first story of the year, of a retro style culture swally story, which
you're first story, which year?
I'm going to shock you, Greg.
I'm going to go for a royal story for my first story of the year.
And it is about our possible, not our possible, but the possible future king, Prince William.

(16:20):
This is from the Scottish Sun today and the headline reads, "Wicked Willy."
Prince William was banned from his local video shot, "Wastit Uni, for not paying his fines."
It has been claimed.
The Royal Undergraduate's favorite movie was said to be "Sosy Comedy, boat trip" which
has scantily clad Swedish actress Victoria Stead writing an outsized banana on the

(16:43):
front cover.
A former video shop assistant said that the heir to the throne enjoyed multiple viewings
of the 2002 DVD which tells of two friends who accidentally end up on a gay cruise.
At the time, William, now a 42-year-old father of three, I love the way they just casually,
it's not like, you know, who's about to be the king, but no, William, now a 42-year-old

(17:08):
father of three, was studying at the University of St. Andrews and Five along with his future
wife Kate Middleton.
The assistant, named only as Zoe, claimed that the young geography student was often seen
browsing the aisles but was eventually banned for returning DVDs late.
She said, "We used to serve Prince William quite regularly in the video shop at St Andrews
before everything went digital."

(17:29):
As DVDs were always late and his bodyguards would never want a paid off fines, we would end
up because it was just part of it.
We're hit to ban Prince William until he paid up, which he always did in the end.
He's very nice.
She revealed that his favourite film was Boat Trip, which stars former playboy, Senator
Full Victoria, as a bikini model called Inga.

(17:50):
Zoe said that the movie, which also stars Cuba, in junior, was terrible.
Adding, "It's got a very scantly, clad lady in a bu bikini, riding a banana."
Evened that a couple of times at least.
It is unclear whether Kate also watched the film.
That's the couple lived together at the Scottish University from two things, but the feature

(18:14):
king, his previous said, that he's also a fan of the Lord of the Rings films.
Yeah, Boat Trip.
I remember Boat Trip coming out.
Have we seen who else is in it?
Cuba, good in junior.
Shaft himself, Richard Rojormur.
Yes, I mean, Roger Moore has surely been employed for his name for Boat Trip.

(18:37):
Well, that a dick.
We're setting a sexable party.
Let's have Shaft, isn't it?
The cover doesn't scream to me gay cruise, but maybe, don't know.
I remember Boat Trip coming out, actually, because I worked at Blockbuster at the time, and
it reminded me of time that I worked at Blockbuster.

(18:58):
I was doing my master's, so I did sometimes do the day shift.
It would just be me in the shop, and I'd stick on whatever I wanted.
You're supposed to play the video that was on a loop, but after you'd heard that about
30 times, like, you would do your tits in.
Was that the kind of pee-poo video?
Yeah, it was like 30 minutes long.
So if you're doing an eight hour shift, you heard it 16 times, and over the course of a

(19:22):
week, I still can't watch men in black too, because that trailer just repeated so often
in my fucking head.
And it was great, because you would always get these weird, so there was one guy in particular
I remember coming in one day, and he was just milling around the shop.
Must have been in his late 30s, early 40s, and he's picking up DVDs and looking at stuff,
and then he finally, obviously, worked up the bottle, and he comes up to me, and he goes,

(19:47):
"Got a porn."
I was like, "Eh, no, mate."
I was like, "We're a family video shop."
"It's Blockbuster.
We don't have any porn."
I was like, "We've got this in recently."
There was a trend at that time, there would be like erotic films, and they all seem to
be based around, like, Lord of the Rings, or something like that.

(20:10):
Like, it was like a scan to they clad elf on the front.
And he's like, "Have you seen it?"
And I'm like, "No."
But as I can tell you, there's no, it'll be, it won't even be softcore.
Like, you might see some boobs, but that's all you're going to see.
And he's like, "I was looking for someone a bit harder."
I'm like, "No, not in Blockbuster, mate."
I'm really sorry.

(20:30):
Like, "Is it a shop on George's, do you think?"
It might help, but then, "No, definitely not here."
And he's like, "Okay, all right, well thanks anyway."
And then, I think he rented Tigerland or something and then went on his merry way.
But yeah, just always maybe laugh, just got a porn.
But yeah, I don't know if Prince William asked for porn, but he rented boat trip multiple

(20:51):
times.
So I guess that was as close as he got.
There was a load of film and say that, wasn't there?
There was a boat trip, there was road trip.
They all sort of spun off the American pie, genre of like, sexed up teens, get on that
king.
They were great.
I loved American pie, and I liked road trip as well.
I never watched boat trip because by that point, I'm like, "This just looks fucking terrible."

(21:14):
Not even Shaft can save this.
Oh, I've never really liked Cuba Good and Junior as an actor, like, I mean, the first thing
I saw, I remember, was probably boys in the hood.
And you kept, I didn't really root for them in boys in the hood, you know what I mean?
I like him very much, and then obviously, I think his big thing, the thing that sort of
set his wave going for a while was Jeremy Glyar, wasn't it?

(21:34):
And then, yeah.
Now apparently he's been cancelled for being inappropriate, maybe?
Yes.
As his experience on boat trip perhaps has turned him into a monster.
Just think Roger Murrow complained about him on the set.
Or Roger Murrow showed him some tips before he did.
They got him cancelled, yeah.
This is what you could get away with in the 70s and the 60s.

(21:58):
Anyway, so yeah, that's my first story.
Prince William used to be a dirty bastard when he was, he probably still is, to be fair.
But we don't know.
That's allegedly, don't know, but Zoe from the used to work in the shop, so blame her, not
awesome.
Anyway, yeah.
Did you have a film that you would rent over and over again?

(22:19):
I really would tell you if it was a film that I wanted that I knew I'd watch more than
one, so we'd probably just buy it.
So it seemed like it's a false economy to rent the same film multiple times if it was available
to buy.
I mean, I try to think, like, nearly two thousands, but then I think probably the training
day was one that I watched quite a lot.

(22:39):
The denser Washington one, fake club probably got watched quite a lot back there, even though
it's a couple of years old by then.
Snatch was another one that got watched probably more than it probably deserved to be.
Yeah, probably.
I mean, I don't know, because films would sort of be in for a while, wouldn't they?
And would about the three of us would be into them.
We'd talk about more of the time and stuff, and then one of us would find something else

(23:00):
and we'd move on quite quickly.
Yeah, no, same as you.
I think I didn't, I was the same, I'd rather buy something.
If I rented it and I really liked it, then I would buy it.
Yeah.
I never did.
And then I ran about 2001 when Willie was renting a boat trip.
That was a roundabout the time that I bought a DVD burner.
So, just rented stuff once and never had to rent it again, because I had my own copy.

(23:26):
Oh, no, I love Lee.
No, I know, but I'd be having a disc.
You gave me a few before you moved to Dubai.
I think you gave me, catch me if you can.
That came from you.
Yeah.
There was another few as well, but I can't remember.
I remember that one specifically, because I don't think I'd seen it.
I remember my wife and I, waking up home over one Sunday morning and rattling out of bed.

(23:47):
We just stuck that on and had a bit of breakfast and dead and much catch me if you can.
Then went for a nap.
That was obviously before we had children.
I was wondering, so I imagine that William probably has a DVD collection.
He doesn't strike me to sort of person who's gone completely digital yet.
Yeah.
So, I wonder what?

(24:08):
Yeah, I'm just wondering what other, Bodysix comedies they might have.
And he's quite a bit stash for when Kate's in the hospital or away on Prince of Wales business.
That means it's a similar age to us.
I imagine I remember buying on video, "Oh fuck, what was it?"
She had two films.
It was, "Oh God, how are you?"

(24:29):
The Spada's pamla and it was snapped dragon.
Bad wire.
No, it was before bar wire.
There was snap dragon.
I always remember that one.
And there was another one that did the rounds at our school because, let's just say, she
got undressed in it.
Oh fuck, it's going to annoy me.
I'm not going to leak that up, though.
It was like a crime, it was like a basic thing, like the four basic things, like it was

(24:55):
a shit film, but it was very popular because, well, basically, yeah, because she got undressed
in it.
Yeah.
Pamla Anderson, "Coverier."
Why is her filmography?
Um, snap dragon.
Is that a phallagybis, no, it's a...
She is, yeah.
Maybe it was just snap dragon.
Where's the cover for it?

(25:16):
Yeah, I think it was snap dragon.
Yeah, because then after that, the next one is like bar wire.
Yeah, it must have been snap dragon.
I did remember that one.
I remember her playboy video getting passed around when I was at college and it was basically
just little sort of sketches of Pamla Anderson taking her clothes off and, you know, sort of
seducing men, although there was no sex in it.

(25:37):
I have no real sex.
I'm not even any pretend sex, really.
It was just, it was all the lead up.
But I remember enjoying it a lot when I was like 1780.
Yeah, I can imagine you did, yeah.
So I reckon that William's got...
Well, he's obviously got like the director's cut, like steel book of boat trip on Blurry.
He's got this steel book, a boat trip.

(25:59):
Um, maybe road trip.
I might even can pie one, two, three in the spin-offs.
And then that reunion one they did a few years ago, that I actually quite enjoyed.
That when they were all filmed.
Yeah, it was good.
Pretty good.
It was really on films, probably, and we probably nicked them out of these Uncle Andrews room
before he got evicted from the palace.
Do you think he goes back to like the classics, like "Porkies"?

(26:24):
Porkeys?
Maybe, maybe a bit too sophisticated for them.
Um, "Porkies" is too sophisticated for, like in Prince William, do you think?
Yeah, "Porkies".
"Porkies" one and two.
A manual, all the manual films, including "Carrion and Manual".
"Porkies" loves a sex romp, "Dispirance" William, loves a sex romp.

(26:46):
But, just to be clear, we have no idea if Kate watched, I don't know why I went all
Yorkshire, they're up in no idea.
Um, yeah, we have no idea if Kate watched boat trips, so we can't scandalise her with that,
with that.
Because we like Kate, but we're not like Keenan.
Yeah, kind of.
Yeah.

(27:07):
Anyway, Greg.
Um, what is your second story this week?
Uh, so my second story is much more wholesome than your disgusting boat trip story.
Um, it comes from Edden.
Wait till my next story comes from Edden, the Edinburgh live on the 7th of January.
Um, and it's about Olympic skateboarding legend, Andy Mcdonald, who I'm sure you're familiar

(27:29):
with.
He was very impressed by his visit to West Lothian Skate Park, Andy Mcdonald, who represented
team GB at the Paris Olympics at the age of 51, journey to Scotland with skateboard GB.
Um, his Scottish retreat was documented for YouTube, and he seemed quite taken by the
skate park, but not so keen on his Iron Brew breakfast.

(27:52):
You know, it's supposed to drink it, this supposed to have Iron Brew breakfast time, that's
probably why.
No.
Andy, who is the oldest skateboarder, sorry, the oldest Olympic skateboarder in history,
has roots in Scotland with his family hailing from them frees.
He said his visit to Livingston was a bucket list destination, I mean there can't be many
people.
No offense to the good people at Livingston, but there can't be many people who have a

(28:17):
lily on their bucket list.
In the YouTube clip, Andy starts off, we're in Scotland, we're at lily, it's two degrees,
it's eight o'clock in the morning.
I've never been to lily, we're about to check it out.
This place is legendary.
I told Tony Hawk I was coming to Scotland, and he was like, "You've got a buy me this
scotch and you've got to go skate at lily."

(28:40):
I don't know, Tony Hawk had been there.
In the video, Andy arrives and he's impressed by the park although he's wavy of the icy
conditions.
He continues, "My granddad is from Dumfries.
This is my first trip to Scotland.
I called my dad and asked about any relatives."
He said, "My granddad is probably buried at Dumfries.

(29:01):
How does he not know where he's dad's buried?"
Fuck's sake, I was shocking.
To get in touch with my heritage, I thought it'd have a Scottish breakfast.
He then pulls out shortbread and I enbrew, neither of which have breakfast items, to enjoy
before skating.
He adds, "I've never done anything like it."
That aftertaste is a little rough.
I wouldn't describe it as the best thing I've ever tasted, but I'm sure you get used to

(29:23):
it.
You have to go out in the lash, Andy.
You have to go out in the lash and drink at least ten pints of tenets, have a fish
supper on your way home and then make up in the morning and tell us what I enbrew tastes
like then because that tastes like absolute nectar.
Andy says, "You have seen the Livingston spot many times in clips, but he's very happy to

(29:44):
have finally skated the park himself."
He said, "They've only known it through video footage, but now I'm here.
You can never really understand it until you're there in real life at certain of the case
here."
This feels like a bucket list destination.
So there we go, all this limpic skater in history and the McDonald's visit in Livingston,
a bucket list destination apparently.
Maybe he's talking about the skate park, maybe that skate park is a bucket list-faced

(30:08):
esquites if you're skating enthusiast like him.
Yeah, Livingston is a bucket list destination.
Yeah, it's a bit bizarre, but I guess if you're family or from there and you think your
heritage is there, then of course it will be.
Yeah, exactly.
So yeah, so that's Old Andy.
I remember I seem to be when I was younger.
Although I was never very good at it, I was quite enthusiastic about skateboarding.

(30:29):
And when I say not very good at it, I mean, really not very good at it, but I used to buy
the magazines and stuff, and I can remember Andy McDonald's and the bone, then not that
he skated for them, but the bones brigade and all that back in the sort of very, very late
80s and early 90s magazines like Rad and skateboard, and if I had enough money, Pratrasher.

(30:49):
And I really just like looking at the pictures of these guys like, absolutely like defying
gravity on their boards.
Were you laughing at it?
Yeah, because they thrashed us.
Because they sound like Jazz Magnet.
What is skateboard?
Well, no, no, but like Rad and Thrashher, like, come on, that's better names than Escort
and Fiesta, she would think.

(31:10):
Actually, like Rad, because it was all, you used to quite often get freestickers because
sticking your skateboard to the Rad.
But yeah, I was never really very good at skateboarding.
I know that you, like some of the, and continue to like some of the fashions around the culture
and stuff, but did you ever skate yourself?

(31:31):
I did when I was very younger and didn't again, and then randomly when I moved to Dubai,
I took up snowboarding, and I used to snowboard most weeks when I went away in a few snowboarding
trips as well.
I still have, in fact, behind me in the corner, I have two snowboards, which haven't
touched snow in years.

(31:53):
I keep meaning to do that again.
In early lockdown, 2020, I bought a skateboard.
That's right, sweetest.
Used it about three times down in the car park of the building I lived, and yeah, just never
picked it up again.
I think I was just too scared that I would end up breaking something.
And obviously, it takes a long time to heal when you get to our age, so it's the the

(32:16):
feed of that.
I mean, of course, we are big skateboarding enthusiasts because, of course, we have a
sponsor at Doris' skateboards.
Absolutely.
So we need to promote them, but yeah, I keep meaning I still have the skateboard, and I bought
a helmet and pads and stuff, and I keep meaning to every time to try and pick it up again,
and I don't know Greg, I'll be 44 next month, so I'm too old for it now, I'm sure.

(32:37):
I don't know.
Okay, Andy McDonald and Tony Hawk must be in his late 50s by now, surely, and he's still,
and Steve Caballero as well.
One thing is weird to things that you will always remember and you'll never forget, and I remember
being out a fuck, we were at, went to Riley's one, but I ended up, yeah, right, and I ended

(33:00):
up back in a flat with the girl I was seeing at the time, and her flatmate worked in Riley's,
and a mutual acquaintance of ours was seeing her flatmate.
It was, it was Dave Pittig, right?
The four of us ended up back at their flat, they were students, so they were in theirs, and
we were watching ITV at like three o'clock in the morning, and they were showing, I can't

(33:26):
remember what games it was, but, actually, we watched, maybe it was the X Games, but it was
the event that Tony Hawk did, the 180, for the first time, and we sat watching it, and
like, holy fuck, and it's funny the things that just never forget, and I will always remember,
sitting in their kitchen on a portable TV watching Tony Hawk do this, bizarre.

(33:51):
That is cool.
I mean, I, I am, when we lived in Barrow and Furnace, my neighbour for his birthday got a skateboard,
and it was something that I'd never considered, he got a turbo too, which was like a British
like, discount, there was, there was no kind of concave in it, or anything, it was completely
flat board, and so from, from my birthday, I asked for a skateboard, and I got one, and

(34:15):
my board was called a Jack the Ripper, and it had a, it had a big, the big union jack on the
belly of it, and it was a brilliant.
Yeah, I don't know why, but we think, sort of the, the words, Jack the Ripper, sort of down
the middle of it, and it did have a bit of a curve in it, and I mean, we would, this

(34:35):
should, because we would have next to like a cult, but that, so, next to a cult, this
act, which was in the hill, so we would sort of skate down the hill, and we would try
and do like, we could do like, like, little wallies and stuff like that, and like, very, very,
very, very, very, very basic stuff, but I remember, they built, um, barrel in the public park,
they built a half pipe, and we went down there one day, and we were the only ones there,

(34:57):
thankfully, and we, so, we, we sort of started on the flat, but, and kind of tried to get
a little bit up and down, and then I, I thought, I was going to, I'm going to try and drop
in, and, uh, I didn't hurt myself, but maybe, maybe a little, maybe a couple of
bruises, I would bet it was a humiliation, because, uh, the bike, the board went one day,

(35:17):
went one way, and my body would straight down, and, uh, yeah, it was a humiliation, I'm
so glad it was just me, my neighbor there, like, but, I mean, not my neighbor, ever let
me forget it, but if there had been like, a group of like, cool, skater guys there, then
that would have been too much to bear.
So in that instance, heaven wasn't a half pipe, everybody certainly wasn't, but we used

(35:38):
to go down, I mean, we'd go down and watch the guys that were good skate, you know what I mean,
that was quite good, they'd go down and sort of sit and watch the M and things, and, uh,
it just sort of, the more I watched them do it, the more I was convinced that I would never
be able to do that.
Then what would you do then, just go home and pull yourself over the pages of thrasher?

(35:58):
Yes, actually.
Go home and go home and cut out images of the death box team, uh, doing hand, uh, doing
handplants and 720s and stuff like that.
And my vision is sheet wear t-shirt that was too small for me after like about six months.
I mean, handplants and 720s does also sound like something that should be an apporn
background.
I'm sure I've seen those categories online.

(36:22):
A fakie.
Anyway, oh, that's brilliant.
I'm glad you made it to Livy though and I was able to make the pilgrimage.
That's lovely to hear in terms of, you know, getting in terms, getting in terms, getting
in touch with his roots and going back to, to where he, you know, thinks is spiritual home.
Yeah, I love hearing stuff like that.

(36:42):
That's really nice.
Yeah.
Anyway, enough skateboarding chats.
What's your, uh, next story this week?
My next story is also another celebrity story, um, and it is from the daily record this
week.
I'm a celebrity star.
Stopped at Scott's airport after security mistake.
Black pudding for a bomb.
I'm a celebrity star.
Now I never watched I'm a celebrity, but I know you did.

(37:03):
So we'll come on to that and I want to hear your thoughts on it.
A reverent Richard Coles who of course is from the communards was, uh, stopped at Scott's
Island airport after security staff mistook his black pudding for a bomb.
The star had been visiting the out of Hebrides and headed out to Stornerway on January 3rd
with plans to attend a local church.

(37:23):
But the 62-year-old landed himself in hot water when a security scanner flagged his souvenir
black pudding as a potential explosive and as a picture of Richard with his black pudding
and it is a wallpaper, um, you can insert your own joke there.
Um, sharing details of the mix up, he wrote on social media, "Want to trick our emergency
response going through Lewis security?

(37:43):
Simply purchase some black pudding from the island of Stornerway."
Which looks the scatter like semtex.
It tastes much nicer.
On his new trip to Scotland, he revealed he sampled some of the renowned cuisine from the
island of Lewis has to offer and fell in love with his Stornerway black pudding.
He also visited the historic church of a team-Paul Mula at the most northern point of the island.

(38:07):
A Highlands and Island airports-limited spokesman said, "We were pleased to welcome the
Reverend Richard Cole Stornerway airport.
It's great to see he was such a huge fan of one of the region's delicacies.
We hope to see him back to the island of Lewis soon."
The priest was an unlikely entrant on I'm a celebrity game here.
He built up a cult following.
Is that the best thing to say about a priest?

(38:28):
Well, among viewers, despite not walking away with the crown of thorns, the priest came away
with an unlikely friendship with loose women star Grace G.K. Barry, never heard of her,
but your about to tell me all about her.
Their dynamic head of yours and hysterics a lot of the time, any call from to have their
own show on the outside world.
At the end of last year, Delighted fans saw G.K. and Richard reunite on screen when he

(38:51):
appeared on loose women to discuss his time on the programme.
And you and Ralph need to go on Google Box, one fan wrote Grace gave us some of the best
conversations with Richard.
I need to select Google Box episode with the two of them as I'm going to miss them.
So that is Richard Cole's trying to smuggle same text black pudding out of the island.

(39:14):
Yeah, obviously I'm aware of Richard Cole's because of the communards.
I'm aware of him because of TV stuff he's done.
I haven't really seen anything.
You watched him, was he good?
He was good entertainment.
He was good.
I didn't know anything about him, other than the fact that I can know that he had been
able to come in as obviously, but I didn't know anything about his career as a reverend.

(39:38):
And he seems that you really sound, got to be honest, he seems like a really, really nice
fellow.
I think a few of the people in there were, they were at Shure at first because obviously
he's a reverend, you know, in there, but he very, very down the earth.
That GK Barry, I'd never heard of her before watching MS Liberty.
Apparently she built quite a big career as a podcaster first and that has opened up into

(40:05):
the kind of wider career and a TV and stuff.
She's, I found her very funny.
I got to be honest and then she should have a conversation with him because he's homosexual
and she's, they're both homosexual and should have a conversation with him about sizzling
any of Jesus.
And you know, as a, as a homosexual man and man of the cloth, he had never heard of, he

(40:26):
had never heard of sizzling.
So I find that hard to believe.
Well, he certainly, he certainly said he had an heard of it and, you know, I know reason
not to believe him, but that led to her having to describe it to him in whatever detail
she could get away with for an ITV 9 o'clock at night show.

(40:47):
And a couple of episodes later, like when they were whittling down the celebrities that
were still left in the camp, the ones that were left were treated to a surprise visit by
like relatives, you know, partners, whatever.
And GK Barry's mum turned up.
She KB Barry's always was really happy to see her mum and then she remembers that she's

(41:09):
been talking about, about sizzling, about sizzling to reach her calls on the TV and turn mother
will have watched it, her mum watched it.
Her mum seems quite cool as well.
So no, I, yeah, I mean, would I, would I tune in every year for I'm a celebrity?
I think it would rest heavily on who the celebrity is where.

(41:32):
I think this year they had quite a good bunch, you know, they had your man from McFly who
ended up winning it, they had that, obviously the two were just mentioned, but Barry McWiggin
who is just cool as fuck, who else can remember?
Who else was in there?
Like, I don't, I have a few other people that I didn't know that I came to like, Jane Moore,
the journalist, she was pretty good as well.
And the only one that I didn't like was that young Irish DJ of Radio One, what a fucking

(41:56):
pain in the RC was.
Oh, yeah, I can't remember his name now, but I know who you mean.
He was a panelist on, because although I don't watch I'm a celebrity, I was a big brother
who's not obsessed if he was off and on the, the spin-off show.
I know who you mean.
Yeah, he's a pain.
It's quite good value on that, is it?
Yeah.
Yeah.
T'Lisa from Endobbs was on there, she was quite good as well.

(42:18):
Yeah, no, I, and now what, my daughter liked it, so her and I made a point of watching it.
Ah, in fact, I listened to a podcast, just yesterday, I listened to the, the football podcast,
the rest is football or this is football with them, is the one or the overlap?
It's the one with Gary Neville and Roy Keane and Roy and stuff.

(42:38):
And then they had Colleen Runeon as a guest.
Oh, she was on there, so yeah, so she was speaking about her time in the jungle and stuff
and the experience of it and stuff, so I thought that was, and it was quite interesting
because Jill Scott also presents and she won it a few years ago.
Right.
Ian Wright's been in the jungle and stuff and so yeah, we're asking and it was good and

(43:00):
they asked like, Roy, would you ever do it?
He's like, fuck, no.
He'd be great in our time.
Yeah.
Yeah, but I can, I think it would, it would have to find himself in serious financial problems
I think before you agree to go on that programme.
So Colleen Runeon was good on it.

(43:20):
I didn't really see much of her, much of her, like, I've seen like images over because she
was in the paper a lot, like when we lived in New York.
Okay, but I never asked the sceneer being interviewed or anything and she's actually, seems
really sound and she's obviously like, obviously like, I'm not sure if she's going to
take a bit of a hard nut as well, you know what I mean?
Yeah.
Sort of unflappable even when she was getting like guts and spiders and crickets and all

(43:42):
sorts of shit dumped on her, you know?
No, so yeah, no, I enjoyed it.
As I said, I don't know if I'd watch it all the time.
The pen was in it, I think.
Well Richard obviously missed his black pudding in the jungle.
So he was able to pick one up, but yeah, thankfully it wasn't SIMTX.
So he was able to pass through with his black pudding and yeah, we got the oldies

(44:03):
blood sausage on my list.
Yeah, I do, I miss black pudding, I really do.
This isn't gonna be hard, this isn't gonna be hard burn.
No, it doesn't actually, strangely enough.
No, strangely enough it doesn't.
You know what, I do miss.
Actually, he just reminded me the whole time that I was at my mother's over Christmas.
She did do a fry up once.
She's a complaint.
She's a complaint.
She would be an opportunity to feed back for them.

(44:42):
Normally, she would do one, like, one more layer, you know what?
Yeah.
The only time that I got a fry up when I was there was the helping in the way back, because
we stayed at the helping and glass going the way back, and they do a good breakfast at that

(45:05):
helping and breakfast buffet.
So, I go back to my mum would normally do as a fry up when we were there, I can't do it once.
It's shocking Greg.
My cheed.
How many, there was about 12 of you though.
So, everybody has to eat naked.
I think I would draw the line of that, I feel like fuck that.
It's not yourself, so fucking, you can fry up for 12 people.

(45:28):
I don't help that people got up in stages.
You know what I mean?
I think everybody was up at the same time.
You know what I mean?
I was like a sort of staggered, a sort of staggered wake up.
Yeah, because there's a few young children, like very young children, teenagers and adults.
And especially I know about you, you're very similar to me in terms of time difference,

(45:49):
you're awake, like it.
I'm up early, yeah, yeah.
Up early anyway, but then especially if you're back in the UK, with the time difference,
you're getting up at like, fucking four or five o'clock in the morning.
Yeah, yeah, the first few days were there.
I mean, I managed to see a little bit later after a few days, but we're still talking
like six.
Not that much later, yeah.
Well, there's a little bit of feedback for Greg's mum.

(46:09):
You can fry up next time, please love.
Not that you've listened to this podcast, at least a fucking hope you don't.
Yeah, I've heard that.
Um, I hope she doesn't.
(laughs)
Uh, okay.
Have you seen anything else this week, Greg?
Eh, no, that's all.
That's all for this first episode of 2025 that I have.
Wonderful.
Right, well, before we go into what we're going to be talking about today, let's have a

(46:29):
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(48:01):
15% off.
And as DorickSkateboards.com, link in the description of this episode.
So, the first choice of the new year was yours, Nicky.
So I don't you introduce this week's subject.
Thank you very much, Craig.
So I thought I would take advantage of us having a little bit of a break, and we could
cover something that was a little bit longer, because I know sometimes time can't be an

(48:24):
issue for us.
So we are covering a six-part series of one hour episodes, so six hours in total.
And before I go into this, if you haven't seen this, it is available on YouTube if you want
to go and watch it.
So I would highly recommend you watch it before we talk about it, because we're going to
spoil the shit out of this.
We are, of course, talking about taking over the Scylam, which is a six-part BBC Scotland

(48:47):
television drama about a hospital radio station set in a Glasgow psychiatric hospital.
This show was written by Donna Francis Child, produced by Chris Par, and directed by David
Blair.
The broadcast in September 1994, the show follows a double glazing salesman, Ready Eddie
McKenna, played by the wonderful Ken Stott, who's reestablishes a hospital radio station

(49:12):
at St. Jude's, a psychiatric hospital in Glasgow, with patients as its presenters and volunteers,
notably Campbell, played by a very young and I think his second role, David Tennant, and
a supporting cast of the incredible Katie Murphy, the wonderful Angus McFadden, the man who
is everywhere, Mark Costello, Gavin Mitchell, and the witch from Simon and the witch Elizabeth

(49:34):
Spricks.
Greg, we mentioned on the last episode, the last proper episode that we spoke about.
When I mentioned this, you said you didn't think you'd ever seen this.
I remember watching it when it went out in '94, but had very vague memories of it.
So it was almost like watching it for the first time of me watching this.

(49:55):
Was it the first time you'd seen this?
Yeah, I would say so.
I mean, I might have seen snippets of it when it went out at the time.
I feel like it was on a Sunday night, maybe something like that.
Might have been, yeah, I think so.
Possibly, yeah.
And, yeah, I mean, I, I don't know, wasn't a Sunday night because I read when I was doing

(50:16):
a research that the first episode was up against European football in BBC One.
I showed us how long ago it was on BBC One showing the football in Soldier Soldier on ITV.
So it must have been a Wednesday or a Thursday there, I think.
Yeah, if it was up against, I think Soldier Soldier was on, I would say a Thursday, but maybe
it was a Wednesday.
So it must have been a Wednesday or a Thursday, definitely.

(50:37):
No, my mum liked Soldier Soldier, so there was no way that I was wrestling, controlling
the TV away from her to watch this, unfortunately.
She liked Robson Jerome, but didn't like a fry up.
Sally.
Yeah, yeah, I think that, this might have been the year that I bought the Robson and Jerome
album for a Christmas.

(51:00):
I immediately regretted when it was swiftly put on John Christmas dinner and it was all
way heard for the next fucking, called, 'No, no, no, no'.
Do you still have flashbacks to hearing up on the roof?
Well, Robson and Jerome, I was like the brilliant top of the pops too, that they show on BBC
4.
It's not a top of the pops too, but on a Friday night, they show episodes of top of the

(51:24):
pops from different decades.
And I watched it.
Hibbily edited, I presume.
Possibly, but I watched one.
I think maybe it was a Christmas one in Robson and Jerome, they were posting it.
And I think it was the same year.
I think that after the day, almost get Christmas number one with Unchained Melody or something
like that, maybe.

(51:44):
It was something like that, yeah.
So, yeah, so there was no chance of the young Greg, 16-year-old Greg managing to get control
the TV to watch some sort of, some wonderful Scottish drama when my mother was watching,
'Soldier fucking soldier'.
So yeah, so I think this was the first time for me.

(52:08):
It sort of, it sort of, the events, I felt like I kind of knew the story for some reason.
There wasn't, there was some surprising events in it, but sort of the broader story seemed
quite familiar, but I really, really enjoyed it.
I have to say it.
It's one of the things I've enjoyed the most that will have done recently, actually.

(52:29):
I'm not saying that I've not enjoyed other things, but I think, maybe to rephrase, I think
it's one of my favourite things that were covered on the Swally in the last wee, wee
while, I would say.
I've got written down in my notes, Greg.
It's probably one of the favourite things we've ever covered, so I'm on the same page as
you.
I just, I just adored this.
Yeah, very, very good.

(52:51):
And just a great opportunity to see a lot of Scottish actors that, you know, we don't see
all that often.
Like John Mitchell, when he popped up in there, was like, 'Oh, brilliant.
Jake Darcy makes a very pretty 50 years as well, you know?'
And, you know, I've not, well, I don't think we've watched, I think maybe the last thing

(53:11):
we've covered with Ken Stott might have been the deck collector, but is that the last one?
Well, I can't think.
It might well have been, I'd need to double check, but I think you're right.
I think it might well have been.
Yeah.
I mean, yeah, this is my first time revisiting this.
And like I say, it was almost like watching it for the first time, and as soon as I settled
down and started it, I'm like, 'Oh, God, I love this so much.

(53:34):
This show is wonderful.
I think it's hugely important.
And it's genuine in one of my favourite things.
What did we've covered recently?
I think one of my favourite things we've ever covered.
Yeah.
It has everything, like as you said, a stellar cast.
It's so wonderful.
You know how much we've spoken at length about how much we love Ken Stott, David Tennant,
phenomenal, expert fadden.

(53:56):
As you say, just a little, there's so much talent that just pops up, but exactly as you
said, Jake Darcy, I was gutted that like in the second scene of basically the whole show,
we have Ron Donahee, and that's it.
Yeah.
And Ashley Jensen.
Yeah, well, you're Ashley Jensen, fantastic.
When you watch something like this and you are in absolutely tears of laughter one minute

(54:19):
and then tears of sadness the next, it's something that really just kind of hits you
and I'm not going to, I'm not ashamed to admit, I cried a couple of times watching this,
especially episodes like four, I think.
In fact, episode three, I was crying with tears of joy and then episode four just fucking
snatches it away from me.
And I think it's a, it's a, it's a very, I'll come onto this because I read quite a few interviews

(54:43):
with the creator and, I think the subject matter is something that is very difficult.
And but in watchiness, I think it is so, it's handled so carefully and you genuinely care
for all of the patients, like really care for them.
And it's a fucking masterstroke, you can do that to be able to craft characters that you

(55:04):
care so deeply about and you're really hoping they get okay and they, they can go out the other
side and you, you're identified with her struggle.
Like it, it's funny, you know, you have a character like Rosalie who always has her bottle
of debtor with her.
And it's a funny thing.
But fuck, when her last bottle of debtor drops on the floor, you're genuine like, oh fuck.
And when Campbell's like, it's okay, Eddie will go and get you a new one.

(55:27):
You know, Fergus will show you the late night shop.
Fergus like, I just escaped three times of range today.
Is there a limit?
Are you going to get in trouble for a fourth time?
Just, you care so much and just the chemistry between the actors is just, oh, it's so phenomenal.
I just, I absolutely loved this show.

(55:47):
And but some of the, the throwaway lines are just so funny and some of the randomness
and ridiculousness and the way they focus, I mean, the first episode, a lot of it is
focused on building things up and setting things up.
But a lot of it is around the character of Nana.
Yeah.
The reveal.
The reason she's called Nana is because she sings that he stends.

(56:09):
Her stinching.
Yeah.
Just had me in bits.
Well, that's a thing because like the writer is like, like, it's, some of that, the humor,
especially like that, that kind of joke.
It feels very sort of really quite a Scottish humor, but yet the writer, Donna Franceschelle
is American, but who, she was working, but she's been working and living in Scotland.

(56:33):
But she does something quite interesting with it because the first, the first episode feels
like it's almost like a pilot, right, for the rest of the series.
But the first three episodes have quite satisfying resolutions, you know what I mean?
So she sort of loves you into thinking, well, you know, it's going to be, they'll be like

(56:55):
a narrative that weaves its way through the whole six episodes, but each episode is going
to focus on a particular patient and it's going to be sort of contained.
And then with episode four, one of the, one of the main characters commit suicide at the
end.
And then, and then the, without getting too far ahead of ourselves, the last episode, it,

(57:16):
there's a little bit of resolution for that one character really, you know, his, his sort
of circles closed.
And, but the rest of the, like, the rest of the characters, you're just sort of left thinking
well, I quite like to know what happens to Eddie and Francine and Rosalie because we don't
get to find out, you know, Rosalie has like some kind of resolution in the sense that

(57:41):
she's in the shell in the accommodation, but that feels like the beginning of another
story arc.
Because, you know, with the, with the, the neighborhoods community people being against
the facility that she's in and her being ostracized, that felt like the beginning of a new story
arc.
But for Eddie, like Eddie is, you know, his, everything is gone wrong for him by the time

(58:02):
the credits roll in the last episode, you know what I mean?
Everything.
Well, it has, it hasn't, I have a different kind of opinion on that maybe, but we'll, we
will maybe come to that when we talk about the end.
But I agree a lot has gone shit, but then there's a couple of things that I think come to,
things are going to be okay for Eddie at the end, especially his, his last two lines.

(58:26):
Obviously.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Lead, lead from me to think that, you know, what he's admitted that he has a problem and,
you know, yeah, yeah, last time we can go better, it'll just take us time.
But we are, we'll come on to, to talk about the end and then what we think is, is going
to be happened into the characters.
So Eddie, obviously, is a double glazing salesman.
He has a gig, a hospital radio, which volunteers work and gets sacked by Ron Donahey.

(58:52):
Because as the Jensen, he, he, he, he, he, he, it's a lovely word, some can store about, patients
store, well, listen to rap music.
Yeah.
That, that, that, that, that.
recommends he goes to St. Jude's, which he obviously doesn't realize what it is because
it's not until he says to them, I've been promoted.
I'm going to be station manager at St. Jude's and like, it's, it's a, it's a loony bit.
Yeah.

(59:13):
And he turns up and you're kind of thinking, oh my God, what is, what is going to happen
here, especially when you meet Campbell for the first day of a ten, showing him around
and he doesn't realize he's a patient.
Yeah, for sure.
Um, the, the building, I think myself, what, what's that first episode?
So like, I know that building.
And when I, I deposit, because it was annoying me and do a quick Google and it's got what

(59:37):
hospital, which is near Garcosh, which is near where I used to live when I lived in St.
Jude's and Glasgow.
And I think that all that's left of the hospital is maybe like the tower and, as I, as
I knew, housing estate built around it.
But when I used to drive past, because it's out in the countryside, to some extent, well,
to a greater extent, it's going to need not too far from Easter house when you drive past

(59:59):
that at night or during the day, because it was all abandoned.
It's fucking creepy as fuck.
Yeah.
You can really, really creepy.
So to see it sort of, because then when I was reading the research, the hospital had closed
and before they filmed.
So the hospital had been closed for a year or two before they filmed in it.
But obviously through the magic of film and television production, it feels kind of populated

(01:00:24):
and it feels, it does feel, it has a look of, of an institution because it is, but it
feels like a bit more human because we see people living in the rooms and all that kind of
thing.
But I remember when they were building the houses around it, I remember who the developer
was, but they had the big sign up.
I was shouting past it, the wife and I was like, "Who the fuck is going to buy a house there?"

(01:00:48):
Next to that, creepy building.
I don't know where, but I guess there's, there's, there's somewhere for everybody.
I wouldn't mind that, except quite, quite into that.
Yeah, you would, because you don't like people.
But, um, yeah, that's straight, that's right.
But, you know, one of the things that I like about this, because obviously it's 31 years

(01:01:13):
old this programme now.
Over the last few years, mental health has been a huge point of discussion online and elsewhere,
but back then, I don't really remember it being something that one spoke about, you know,
so David Tenant's character Campbell, he's in there because he's, he's manic depressive,

(01:01:38):
that condition's been changed now, it's called bipolar and, you know, Rosalie with her
obsessive compulsive disorder, you know what, I mean, they, and they're, they do have a bit,
there is a little bit of fun that is had with the conditions, especially Rosalie's, but
you never feel like they're being mocked, you know, any of them, even, you know, Gavin Mitchell's

(01:02:00):
character, he's, he has quite a minor character in it.
He's probably the most sort of eccentric, like visibly eccentric, you know, with his
spoons and the way he's dressed, he's big thick NHS specs on and stuff.
But again, you never feel like he's, but like, they're taking the piss out of him, you know
what I mean?
Or out of somebody with those, with those challenges, and it was, it was quite refreshing,

(01:02:23):
because I'm pretty sure there would have been, there's been comedy and drama since this
came out, that is probably less sympathetic in how it portrays those types of disorders
and conditions.
A hundred percent, yeah, no, completely.
And I think you're right, they do treat it very carefully.
A Ferguson schizophrenic, and I hadn't thought about that until now, you're kind of like,

(01:02:44):
oh, they've ticked all the boxes there in terms of, right, you have a manic depressant,
someone with those CD schizophrenic, like, they're covering everything in the core group,
kind of thing, and Francine, who obviously is kind of depression after abuse and manic episodes
as well.
And I think, for this come out in 1984, it's very remarkable, you're right, this wasn't

(01:03:09):
a stigma back then.
And now, nowadays, it's no longer acceptable to like, portray people with mental health problems
as dangerous or poke fun at them and things like that.
Like even, you know, at EastEnders now, you'll have someone with bipolar or with Alzheimer's
or a CD and hardly raises an eyebrow because it's kind of a thing that nowadays is accepted

(01:03:31):
and it is part of life.
But for this in 1984, it was very different.
And that's what I'd read in terms of it did get an earring on, I think it was BBC 2, it
aired originally.
And it was meant to have an earring on BBC 1.
And it never actually got that.
It got replayed again on BBC 2 late at night.
And it was because Alan Yentop said who was controlled or a BBC 1 at the time, so he couldn't

(01:03:55):
put a show out that had the word asylum in the title because it had a bad connotation.
It's got old-fashioned, terrible.
Yeah.
And I guess he didn't want to have anything that had a negative connotation to the station
because asylum would be a negative term to have there.
And is that an excuse because he just didn't want to put a show on about people with mental
health issues?

(01:04:16):
Possibly.
But I imagine if it was going to go in BBC 1, then it might have been like a national broadcast
of it, you know, like so for England as well, maybe that was why.
And I suspect it's more because the thing is, I'm sure the first time I saw the movie
asylum, I watched it on BBC 2 one night, you know what I mean?

(01:04:37):
And that, you know, so you're going to say, "I'm never going to screen that film because
it's got the word, even though it's a fit, I guess it's a 50-year-old film by now, if
not older."
It's got the word asylum in it.
I suspect it was more just, it's probably just more him thinking, "Well, I'd be like,
"Nobody in England is going to want to watch a drama about a psychiatric hospital and

(01:05:00):
a hospital radio station, you know?"
Yeah, a bunch of Scottish loonies, effectively.
Yeah, well, yeah, potentially.
But the thing is, there were many other reasons by this kind of resonating a bit more with
me than other things that were done, is because when I was a little boy, my mum and dad both
worked at the Inx Castle Hospital, and then it's down at Saiglitz School.

(01:05:20):
And that was a psychiatric hospital.
It's now where the hospital was, it's now where Celtic, they're training ground, make
of that what you will, but it's close to Glasgow.
But my mum was a nurse there, and my dad was the switchboard operator.
So it was back in the old days when the phone, he would answer the phone, it would come in

(01:05:42):
and he had, I remember going into his office, they had a big desk with different wires that
he would, you know, so to put a call through, back then it wasn't a case of just sort of pressing
a number on the keypad, whatever he would have to sort of take and plug it into the switchboard
and all that kind of thing.
And I know, I didn't waste a living in the hospital houses, which were just outside of the hospital

(01:06:05):
campus, it was called the oval, and everyone who lived there worked or had something to do
with the castle.
And some of the patients were allowed to go out and walk up to the village and by fags
and the people or whatever, and they could walk in, they would sometimes walk round because
the house and a development was called the oval because it was, it was like an island of

(01:06:30):
pauses in the shape of, wait for it, an oval so they would walk round and when I was little,
I used to be really quite scared of them because sometimes they would be, you know, they
would be a bit unpredictable, they would never, ever, was I ever threatened or at risk,
but when you were a little kid and there's an old lady walking by talking to herself and

(01:06:54):
just sort of shouting weird and wonderful things, it was a bit frightening, but the reason
that when this was broadcast, the castle was closing and what they did with a lot of the
patients because it was a huge big sprawling campus, there was the hospital wards where
the patients who were a danger to themselves or potentially to other people would be kept

(01:07:19):
in the wards, a little bit like St Jude's on the programme, and then there were, there were sort of
kind of bungalows and stuff around the campus as well, where the patients who weren't deemed
to be a risk to themselves or others lived, and what happened was a lot of these, a lot of them
were put into care in the community projects and these facilities were all closed down, and I suppose

(01:07:42):
the patients who would have been the most sort of high risk were put into some other kind of
facility, and the ones who weren't were just sort of found places to live in the community, but
what my dad used to tell me was there was a lot of people who had been in the castle for like their
whole adult lives because when they were kids, they might have been hyperactive as we understand

(01:08:06):
them to be now, but then in the sort of 50s or 60s, they were just considered to use the parlance
of the programme, served to be loonies, and they were just put into the castle, and sometimes
they were just forgotten about, and they would spend, and they would live their whole lives in the
in the that institution, they, and when they started, they kind of found in places in the community

(01:08:29):
for them to live, they were like 40, 50, 60 years old, and had always been taken care of, you know what I mean?
And really there was, you know, there was nothing, I suppose it's easy for us to say now,
and to say it's about five, and how we understand these things, but back then, it's about a shame really,
it was a real tragedy though, like some of these people didn't really need to be in there,
and could have been treated, and just like, whole lives like lost really, like in a living in a,

(01:08:53):
at a place like St. Chut. They touch upon that in the show in terms of when they're speaking about
Nana, and Isabelle played by Angela Bruce, who is effectively the kind of person in charge of
the ward at St. Chut, they're speaking about Nana, and if she doesn't get picked up, they're going to
send her off to the other ward, and they lead the, well yeah, once you go there, you never come back.

(01:09:14):
That's it, you'll be your fucked, that'll mangle your head completely.
So they touch upon that there, and yeah, terrible tragedy that that used to happen,
and it was, because I guess they, is it a case they didn't know how to handle and cope with people with
mental issues at the time, or it was a case of, their loonies just shoved them away and ignore it,

(01:09:36):
and something old, I think it's probably a little bit of both, and they know they'd be,
there would be a fundamental lack of understanding of what deep some of these people's conditions
were, and how to, the best way to take care of them, but also just a bit of a site out of mind,

(01:09:58):
mentality as well, you know what I mean? I think, you know, as the NHS in the UK, it's got an older,
and become increasingly harder to give the funding that it needs to operate, you know,
again, they touch on it in the programme, you know, it's a case of, what the character says,

(01:10:19):
you know, we could spend the money on machines that are going to save lives, and the tech
cancer, it's not like anything, or we can spend the money on a radio station for a bunch of loonies,
you know, when he's talking about how funds are allocated, you know, they, I'd imagine,
they get Gartelock Hospital where this is filmed, I know the castle is well, and then it's

(01:10:40):
telling some of the other places around Scotland, what was the one, Aberdeen Cornhill? Was one
Aberdeen? Cornhill, yeah, I mean, there would cost a lot of money to staff and make sure that the
patients had everything they needed from medicine to, you know, just the kind of basics,
on all that, and you know, it's like, they're always going to be looking for ways to do that kind

(01:11:02):
of thing cheaper, and I think unfortunately, people with these types of challenges, probably,
are as high up the priority list as other illnesses, you know? Yeah, which is a, yeah, a crying shame,
and a terrible shame, yeah, which is, yeah, it's highlighted, I think, really well on the show too.
To come back to the show and the cast, we have Ken Stott has ready Eddie McKenna, I've just checked,

(01:11:27):
we fucked up again, Greg. He's Bob, he's Bob Tull in crime. Oh, of course, yeah. How did we forget that?
He's fucking Bob Tulling, right? Ken Stott being Ken Stott, really? In this, he just,
he just plays Ken Stott, and I love him for it because he's a treasure, isn't he? Ken Stott.

(01:11:47):
There's a stock performance that I'm going to pick this year for the Swally, and it's a very,
very, very, very early, tagger story that he's in. Excellent. I'm going to pick it where he's
not with the playing Ken Stott, but yeah, he's, he's unusual Ken Stott because he's obviously a fantastic
character. He's got a very, very known actor face. You know what I mean? Like he's, you know, he does,

(01:12:11):
he does just look like probably half a dozen people that you might see in the street anywhere you go
in the world, you know? But there's, I always think with him, he always seems to have a real
fundamental understanding of what the character is, you know? And, you know, and Eddie's character is
in a very unusual character in the sense that he is part with the waning, because it's

(01:12:35):
grand, grand parents. I don't think it's ever established whether it's on his mother or father's side,
but his grand parents fled the waning during the war in came to Glasgow. Can't imagine what they
thought when they got there, but anyway, and, you know, his dream is to be a professional radio DJ,
and he's, but he's doing jobs that he is not really invested in. The latest one being a double glazing

(01:13:01):
salesman, and the funny thing is like for Eddie in the first few episodes and kind of come back to
what he said before about that sort of sense of a little bit of closure at the end of the first three
episodes is that Eddie seems like one about a path to fucking everything up himself,
and yet people come into his life and sort of sort of things out for him, you know, like the way

(01:13:22):
Campbell organizes Campbell and Rosalie organized the recording should you at the hospital, the Nana
of Royal Family, sorts out is sorts about with a big job doing all the windows at our house,
and all that kind of thing, you know, things just be, well, while he's kind of blundering through,
there seems to be people ready to sort of sort him out. And I think the way Kent's thought plays him is,

(01:13:44):
he doesn't play him as sort of somebody who inadvertently makes a wrong decisions or takes a wrong
choice and stuff, he's somebody who's sort of got the courage of his convictions, but he just
doesn't get it right all the time, you know. And that's it, it's not like he's been, or he eludes to
that he's been through any trauma in his life or anything, as Nana says to him, you know, your 38,

(01:14:08):
you've never been married, so it's not like he's been through a divorce, that would be the
easy route for a character like this, you know, he's divorced, he's fallen on his luck, he's just
been kind of stumbling through life in a way and sounds like he's only had the double glazing
job for a couple of months, so what the hell was he doing before then? But his dream has always been

(01:14:28):
to be a radio DJ, he eludes, mentions on a couple of occasions, a next girlfriend, is Angela,
that she, yes, because of course Nana could never pronounce Angela without saying angel'd light or,
he's kind of tried to stumble through this, but it's not like he's been through anything bad that

(01:14:50):
has happened, it's just almost like he's just a bit of a loser in a way or a waster that has never
fulfilled his potential, but and he even puts himself down, and I do this as well Greg, I will admit
to this when people ask about the podcast and I've had a few people I've spoken to about this that
have listened and they've said, "Oh yes, it's fucking great, and I'm just a hobby." And that's what Eddie is

(01:15:13):
like, it's just a hobby in terms of his radio, but he he's beating himself down on it because he wanted
it to be his dream, he sent tapes in to Rio Scotland and Rio Clyde and he's he's tried, but he's
just been rejected so many times that he's given up effectively. Yeah, well that's that, and the irony of,
you know, in this, Eddie is putting his hobby first a lot of the time before his job, and as I was

(01:15:38):
sitting in my office on Tuesday watching a couple of episodes of taking over the asylum on the company
time and making notes, I thought, "Ah, maybe I've got that a bit in common with Eddie." Yeah, you know.
Maybe I've edited a few episodes on company time, Greg, I'm recording it, I don't know,

(01:15:58):
why don't I put the the link tree of this in my personal social media because worried I'll get caught
if doing something, but yeah, you're right, it is the case, but he has a passionate about it, and
of course he's not getting paid for the hospital, okay, he's not getting paid for the psychiatric,
yeah, he's losing money constantly because he's, like gives money in anna, of course, he goes and buys

(01:16:21):
help for Francine, I use a pocket, he's been all the petrol money, for example, he is losing money
for this, but it's his passion, and it's his hobby, and you can tell how much he loves doing it,
just as much as I love just sitting down and talking to you every couple of weeks, talking about stuff.
The one part of Eddie's character that I would like to have seen him even more of is that,

(01:16:45):
you know, they get, it's kind of indicated to us that he's got a bit of an encyclopedic
knowledge of music, particularly music from the kind of 50s, 60s and 70s, and we have that nice
moment when he and Campbell are recording the standing show on Radio Scotland and Eddie's

(01:17:06):
Dr. Boogie, and they have, you know, in the listeners are challenged to write in and, so I phone in and
them and see if they can catch them out, would they get a bit of knowledge or something, and you know,
we know that he's got this amazing collection of old 45s, and that he's been collecting over the years
and stuff, and maybe that's why we come back to what I said earlier on, I wonder if there was ever a

(01:17:32):
suggestion that there might have been another series of this, just to, to kind of follow up a few of
those sort of developments in thought threads and things that are established in the first series,
and it'd be good to see what Eddie did next, and if he was able to do something with his passion.
As much as he is, like a bit of a downtrodden character and a bit downbeaten that you can see in a way

(01:17:54):
he's no shabby suit, shittaker, lives with his grandmother, although as he says, no it's my flat, and
unlucky in love or whatever, but he does have a backbone, like he stands up to the guys at work,
like Macatyr, he does take it for a little bit, but then he does push back, and there's a couple of scenes
that is one in the wine bar where they're having the sales event, he does kind of stand up to them,

(01:18:18):
and gives them a bit of taste through medicine, and then of course when he punches Macatyr and then
when they lock him in the toilet and he escapes and manages to make the meeting, it is like a fuck you,
and he does have a bit of a backbone in terms of doing this stuff, but he just doesn't show it that much,
and I do find his relationship with Francine very interesting, because he's very taken with her,

(01:18:43):
obviously, from the initial time he sees her being carted out the wing barefoot, and you must have
like that, because she's barefoot quite a lot, it's okay, it's not okay, but she gets carted out the
wing having a manic episode, and he's instantly kind of like intrigued, and the relationship they have
is very odd, but very beautiful, the way it develops over the course of the six episodes, and you're

(01:19:07):
kind of there for it, you want both of them to be happy, and I think, as you know, it's mentioned later on,
in terms of when she says, you know, I've got scars of my body, and he says, we've all got scars,
but we don't know what his scars are, really, in terms of what he's been through, because it's never
really gone into that much, okay, he's been rejected a few times, he maybe hasn't been, he hasn't

(01:19:30):
found the job that he loves, it's not a bad life by the signs of things, he never hear about him,
having been abused, or having had depression, or having been through mental health issues, he seems to
just have been, he's his own worst enemy in a way, well, well, actually, no, you know, something,
I take that back, because he admits at the end, the second last line is, you know, Francine and

(01:19:53):
an alcoholic, so he is an alcoholic, so he does have issues, so I'm sorry, I take back what I just said
about that, he does have a huge issue, and a disease, and I guess, yeah, that's his thing,
I'm really sorry for, no, I'll lean to that earlier, but is that him thinking, is that him sort of
realizing, yeah, so they all has experiences with St. Jude's and Francine and everything,

(01:20:17):
has brought him to the realization that he also has a problem that needs to be treated,
and an alcoholic will never admit, they don't realize they've got a problem until they admit
they have, so that's, you're right, that's, that's beautifully done, yeah, the second last line,
effectively, him admitting that he is also ill, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely, anything is like,

(01:20:38):
they don't, they don't sort of push the alcoholic thing, they don't, they don't sort of tease it
out too much, like he does have about the whisky with them most of the time, he has, but you don't,
the only time you see him, the worst for wear is in the last episode when Campbell comes around
to his place, and he's, Groegie's grandma is going to wait there for the wane here on the bus,
and he's obviously being on a tear the night before, you know, but then is that the worst thing

(01:21:04):
though, Greg, because he's a functioning alcoholic, because he's always got a half-bought-alonum,
he's always shrinking, and Francine does point out to him in terms of, you drink a lot,
oh yeah, yeah, no, and we allude to, you know, he tells the story about when he, the first time he
got pushed was when he was 15 and he had to go up and say a poem, and you get the impression he's

(01:21:25):
drunk every time since then before he's had something to do, because he needs it, and he says it,
and there's the whole thing when him and Campbell are about to do the show, he's a bite to have a drink
and he doesn't, and I'm not ready, I'm not ready, Francine kisses him, and it's almost like that's the,
that's the drug he needs, rather than the booze, to get through that show, and natural encouragement.

(01:21:50):
Yeah, I think he does have a massive issue, and I do think it is alluded to a lot throughout
sure. Yeah, actually, I think you're ready, I mean, no, maybe if you could go back and watch it again,
be kind of looking for a bit more, yeah, I think you're ready.
You are touched, my friend, I just want to come in for you, I'm no one I'm not much.

(01:22:15):
But he's also a bit of a, for being a shambles of a salesman, and obviously Francine likes him,
and it's a track to him, okay, you could say she's a loony, but Caroline Patterson who plays the
receptionist at the the window place, most famously Ruth from EastEnders. Ruth Fowler.
She likes him, yeah, something there, she fancies him. Yeah, and there's a bit of a kind of, they're,

(01:22:37):
they're sort of like the only kind of normal people who work in that, who work in the, in the office,
you know, the only people that aren't fucking ourselves is, I mean, there's, there's the two young guys,
the two sort of young salesmen who are always sort of hanging around Macatyr, who, you know,
you kind of feel that it might not be too late for them, but you're obviously griffin, the boss

(01:23:01):
griffin, they buy Roy Hanlon is perhaps the most eccentric character in the whole fucking program,
ironically, you know, and then Macatyr himself, you know, is a sort of shark cutthroat salesman and
everything, and then you, they, when they have the sort of sales meetings when they're all shout,
they have the American guy come in, don't they, give them like a seminar, selling and everything,

(01:23:24):
and then just come back to what you were saying about, um, about Eddie's problem with alcohol, you
know, when, when he needs to get the money together, and he, there's a bit of a montage of him just
door stepping, and he's, he's having a, he's having some whisky and then he's got the extra strong
mint, so before he goes in to talk to them, and, um, yeah, it's, uh, she's, Karling Parts and that's,

(01:23:45):
that, this must be, is this post, these tenders, bim, or is it during, was she gone with me
tenders by now? Uh, she was in the sender, so 94 to 99, so it must have been pre, just, pre, I think,
just, just pre, this must have been filmed before she got the essential. Yeah,
because like, there's, there's moments with Eddie when I'm like, you know, like he's,

(01:24:07):
well, are we supposed to be written for this guy at this stage? And then there's other times,
you know, when you're like, you know, they, a really nice moment is when he is trying to sell windows
to the single mum, and he, he sort of, it has a bit of a come to Jesus moment, he's like,
if you're actually putty in the house, I can fix your windows for you, but just the fastest
a bit loose, you know, so you know, like, sort of fundamentally is, uh, he's a good soul. But he is,

(01:24:31):
because as we see an episode four, he goes above and beyond to help Farrakis. Yes, exactly.
Put them down to reference, giving them, and he's the one that comes up with the idea. They're,
it's, you know, they don't know how they're going to solve things. And of course, um,
Rosalie is the one that comes up. I would just put stuff in his CV. But Eddie's the one, it's like,
no, no, no, no, let's do this kind of properly, but not, but make it look good. And I can do this.

(01:24:57):
And he does it. And he really does go above and beyond. You can tell he's delighted when you know
Farrakis gets the interview, Farrakis is jolly. Yeah. Even to skip ahead when they offer him the slot
on the radio, I think he turns it down because it's just him and not Campbell. Yeah. He's, he's a good guy,
but they, and his character does develop over the course of it, and you, you do get to see glimpses

(01:25:22):
of him. Yeah. Well, a good guy. He is, I think. And he has, it's kind of sense of Richard is not always
rewarded because he stands his guns for him and Campbell. And then what happens is they decide
they want Campbell and they don't want him. You know what I mean? You know, so he's not been,
for being like an honorable guy, he's not had the reward that you would expect. And you have to wonder,

(01:25:44):
he takes Francine to the Lithuania club night. Is that because he wants to go in the date with
Francine? Probably 60%, but I would say 40% now also as well because he wants his grandmother to show
off to her friends. Yeah. Her grandson has a girlfriend. Yeah, absolutely. No, I can't imagine
anybody else. It's like doing, they can sort of play in the role really. I think it would need to be

(01:26:07):
accounts. It needs to be an actor like Ken Stott who could, you know, who could, who could sort of
go on that journey that Eddie goes on in this, I think. I can't think of any other Scottish actors
that would be right for it. Anyone else around that time and I, I mean this in the nicest possible
way probably has too much swagger to be like, you need the downtrodden kind of, the person you believe

(01:26:30):
is a fucking loser, but has a good heart and can achieve things like it's believable when he does things
and when he's charming, the, the lovely, lovely, oh my god, Arabella, we were so hot when she was young.
When he's charming her and stuff that you believe it because he does have that kind of cadence, but you
also believe he is a total fucking loser and that when he gives his money, you know, he's got

(01:26:54):
Peter Thorick with for his job and he gives it all to Nana. You believe that. You're like, my god,
what a good guy. He will go without to do that, but he's also a loser but has this charm and you're
right. I can't think of anyone else because everyone else of that era would have a certain bit too much
bravado, you know, you couldn't see Robert Carlyle or someone, you know, pull this off because you'd be

(01:27:16):
like, ah, he's going to charm the pants off everyone and have the breakfast slot on video Scotland
within a week. Well, yeah, I think, I think Robert Carlyle was like, you know, like he's not sort of,
he's like, I can't think of when he's playing a character who just sort of accepts things,
you know what I mean? Like, you know, he, but he's like even in the, in the full Monty. That was

(01:27:37):
exactly what I was going to go to. He's sort of downshroding in the full Monty, but he's,
he's also sort of optimistic as well, you know, he's optimistic, he's got his optimistic about them doing
this, like Chippen Debles thing with all these middle aged, out-of-shape guys and making some money
and stuff like that, you know what I mean? Or, you know, he's playing a bit of a unhinged character

(01:28:02):
himself, you know, I couldn't see him, I couldn't see him doing it. You know, and then I spoke,
you've got guys like Alex Norton and stuff, but again, I don't know, there's just, there's something,
there's just, there's something about, there's some energy that I can't put my finger on that
Kens thought has, but he just seems, this, this role could be written for him, you know? It's,
it's because he's believable, I think, is the, the, the whole thing. I think who will probably save

(01:28:28):
the best for last? So if we're going to talk about the other cast members, I guess we could move on
to Katie Murphy, as Francine, yeah? And I guess that's a spoiler when I'm saying we'll save the best for
last, because obviously there's a, there's a natural transition I should go into there, but Katie
Murphy is Francine, Katie Murphy, oh my god, how, how, hey she not done, you know, we, we covered this,

(01:28:50):
it was our first episode of last year, we did Tuti Frutey, yeah, and we raved about how good she is,
such a different role because she was a sassy, sarcastic,
argumentative, little tyrant of a bitch in '2' and '230' in there's she's playing a vulnerable
malic depressed who's been through abuse and my god, she's just incredible in this as well.

(01:29:13):
Like there are scenes it just breaks your heart and the switch of how she can be so fine one minute
and speaking away and then talking about when we've tathaged the cat, you know it's not a woman,
it's not a girl, it's not a girl, you have this manic episode, she's just wonderful and there's
little bits when Eddie plays help for her and she kind of comes out the ward and she just looks

(01:29:34):
over and just gives in this little smile, just melt your heart. Yeah she's really really good,
she's, I mean I think she, I think I read, maybe we were doing the '230' pod that she kind of
stepped back a bit from acting when her daughter was born and kind of focused on raising her daughter.
I was looking at her IMDB and she's still, you know, still can do some bobs hidden there all the way through

(01:29:57):
but nothing particularly high profile, the kind of episode of the doctor or stuff like that, but she's
well, what I like about the way she fits her character here is that she's, she's a tragic character,
but she doesn't, she doesn't let the tragedy define a character, you know what I mean? So when she's,
you know, when she decides that she wants them to do DJ and she's doing her own show,

(01:30:21):
and when, and even when Eddie takes her out in town for the day and then takes her to the
Lithuania club, you know she's got a bit of a twinkle in her eye, you know, she's, you know, she's very
ease with the, the Eddie's grand's friend at the club, you know, she's up dancing and she's very,
very ease, but then when they get back to the hospital when she sees the kids try to set fire to the

(01:30:47):
outhouse where Mick Tavish the cat and our kittens are, you know, she, she completely 180s, you know,
I mean, then, and she reminds us why she's a patient that's in judes and it's, I mean, I hope she's
like particularly proud of this one Kate Murphy because, so if you'll side over that we've not seen
like in this in the steam issues, quite a comic character, and in the, in Tuttifruti, she's

(01:31:12):
very, very funny character in Tuttifruti as well and it, she has her moments in this which is quite funny
too, but for the most part, it's a very, very sincere kind of portrayal of somebody with like,
serious psychological problems. Yeah, and she has a couple of like really heartfelt moments,
when they're in a car with Eddie and she's telling her, you know, about her uncle Frank and, you know,

(01:31:33):
she was, she was abused. It's horrible, but she also has some very funny and very great moments and
you really want her to do well when she's doing our show, you're, you're so happy for her and she does
get enthusiastic about the station as well and stuff and, you know, for somebody who didn't
what anything could do with it to begin with, she really does get into it and you kind of relieve,

(01:31:57):
she obviously goes catatonic, you know, towards the, in the last episode, but she, she comes through and
you kind of believe, again, the relationship with her and Eddie, there's something, something there,
that it's almost two kindred souls that kind of found each other, so now and it's, yeah, it's lovely
and wonderful. Yeah, yeah, she's, she's really, really good, really good. We also have Fergus, played by

(01:32:21):
Angus McFadden, who quickly became one of my favorite characters. Yeah, phenomenal, phenomenal
performance and it was, you know, episode three, I finished episode three and I thought to myself,
that is an episode I'm going to sit down if I'm ever feeling depressed one day because it just,
it's such a feel good episode and it's so lovely and everything goes well in every series of

(01:32:44):
three. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, the fundraiser, everything goes well, spike, Milligan turns up, we'll come
back to that, um, Rosalie shakes, Campbell's hand at the end, you're just like, how can this episode
get anywhere? John Morrison turns up in the episode. Yeah, like, how can this get any better? And then
episode four just fucking pulls the rug out onto your feet with, and it's a very Fergus centric focus

(01:33:07):
and starts off great with him. So he's a patient that just escapes on a regular basis, but he always
comes back and episode four just starts up with him hang gliding. It's just a phenomenal opening.
The episode, but it just wraps everything off gets on the bus and waves and fucks off.
And the casual waves like what took it back where I got it from and yeah, they just accept that he

(01:33:32):
does this. It had to come to some sort of sad ending and unfortunately episode four ends with,
with Fergus coming suicide. I wasn't, I wasn't prepared for that. No, at all. No, because,
because the, the, the, the tone of the end of the previous three episodes, but especially to your

(01:33:52):
point, the third episode, you know, they really feel that you're on a journey with these characters
to a happy ending for everybody. You know what I mean? And then, you know, to end episode four with
Fergus committing suicide, it was really jarring, you know, they really, really jarring.
I genuinely thought he was going to have like a man like episode and get locked up or, you know,

(01:34:13):
an injection as bum or, or something, but didn't see that coming. And I was genuinely heart and
mouse heart broken when that happened because you such a great character. I mean, my god, why doesn't
like in the, I think the next mission impossible from the last one, I mean, Tom Cruise should just
have a donor card wherever he goes. It can get into everything, can't it? Yeah. Yeah. I was, I was

(01:34:38):
glad when he got his haircut, Fergus, I wasn't enjoying that sort of that kind of Marty Pebble,
the 80s, early 90s cut that he was rocking there, but you weren't liking the mullet? No. It wasn't quite a
mullet, wasn't it? It was, it was mullet adjacent, I think. Yeah. It was the full thing. And because
like, like as an actor, have to be honest, like, it wasn't historically not being a huge fan of that

(01:35:04):
of Angus McFadden's. And I think it's because I never really liked the way that he played Robert the
Bruce in Brave and Grey, you know, I agree with you, which I know that's desperately unfair for me to
kind of put his whole career down because I like him in one, in one film, but that was all that,
it was only thing I'd really seen him in, I had seen him in little bits and bobs, but that was the

(01:35:28):
only thing I'd seen him in where he was that kind of essential character. I have to say in this,
he's very, very good. And you know, is the sort of quiet spoken, he sounds as low as supposed to
come from like, maybe the islands or something like that, quite soft spoken, genius who manages to solve
the problems for all the technical issues and stuff with the mixing desk and the recording,

(01:35:50):
the radio station and everything. And then, you know, has the sort of journey that he goes on in a
fourth episode where you kind of feel like he's not really ready to leave the hospital until
that episode and then we come understand that really what's to do is to get a job that he enjoys
doing and, you know, sort of get his, get trying to get his life back on track a bit. And like, this

(01:36:12):
the cynicism of the doctor that's treating him, which is it's sort of similar to the cynicism of
the doctor who's treating Rosalie in her episode for a Rosede, they're not very sympathetic
characters, the two, I can't remember the actor's name, but he plays Fergus, I want to play in the
crow road, doesn't he, the doctor who's treating Rosalie? Yes, so there's this kind of, there's this,

(01:36:36):
you know, the doctors are painted as being quite, well, that doctor especially, it's being, you know,
if you're like, she's sabotaging Angus because she wants to study him because as she says to him,
you know, it would get so frenious, something we don't know a lot about and we're looking for
patients to struggle with it to volunteer for a research camp and that kind of thing. And he's,

(01:36:57):
he just wants to get on with his life, you know, and so his last act is screwing the mixing desk down
on the table after installing it all before he kills himself and it's just like,
fucking hell, you know what I mean, they were, where did that come from? I thought we were supposed to,
yeah, I thought we were supposed to be they can be nice little finish at each of these episodes.
Yeah, it was a big shock and horrifying to have for it to happen and for it to see, I did not

(01:37:21):
expect that or see that coming at all. Yeah. And yeah, horrible. And I guess it needed it for a kind of,
a little dramatic point with the things not rosy. Yeah, it has to show that something to one character
does have to to suffer or sacrifice to be able to hit the point home that mental health isn't all fun

(01:37:42):
games, radio stations and, you know, open days and watching the MRT and spade Milligan. Yeah.
And the thing is as well, that sort of shocking moment really sets the tone for the last two episodes.
And yeah, it can be a sort of discomfort, this can be a issue because when you start in an episode 4,
so episode 5 and episode 6, you're sort of like, well, this, like, all bets are off now. Yeah, you know,

(01:38:07):
anything can happen. Yeah, anything could happen here to these characters who will become,
will become really fond of and, you know, it's clearly not all going to work out for everybody.
Don't go. You don't look stupid. There wasn't a lot today. Naveem's acclaimed in present danger to
themselves and others, I suppose. She's a cow that Evelyn. So let me have you in three weeks.

(01:38:33):
I've got your section. You're not a new man. The bastards, they always renew me.
You know, looking forward to it. You'll be alright, you know. If I'd half your talent, I'd get
myself the cushy job going. We accompany Karen, end up that rich and big centric instead of Lynny.
Where are you? No me. I'm a hardcore unemployable. I don't mind. I'm very good at it.

(01:38:56):
Now, who's got a song? But you've got brains, Vegas. You've got an education.
I, and a big hole in my CV that says, "I've been working for the blooming from Venus for the
past two and a half years." And, um, although she's not Scottish, but Risa McCabe is Rosalie. She's
very wonderful character. Just fantastic. I love that character. I genuinely cry when she shakes

(01:39:20):
Campbell's hand and, you know, the last couple of episodes where she has her glow up and
she's not doing great in the assisted living, really, because people in that area don't like her,
but she's doing her own and she's a wonderful character and I love the scenes for her and John Morrison.
John Morrison playing a fucking arsehole as her, her husband. He is, but the more that we come

(01:39:45):
understand about them and, you know, the, the last couple of the scenes of them, you know,
he sort of realize, you know, we obviously understand quite early on when we meet Rosalie,
the reason for her OCD is because of the trauma of her son passing away. He has either
purposefully or inadvertently let her believe that he's passed away because she didn't clean the

(01:40:09):
fritten veg properly and he did, you know, because he had the chemia. You know, and I think, you know,
he sort of, he sort of softens the wee bit when he, I think when she sort of becomes more empowered
in the later episodes to your point where she's had a makeover when she's sort of taken,
she started taking control of her life outside of St Jude's as well as kind of pushing this

(01:40:30):
radio station and trying to look at, trying to make things happen for Fergis and trying to keep
any focus, and deal with Campbell and stuff. It's, I think of all the characters, her journey is the
most, it's the most satisfying, I think, you know. Yes, totally ringing phone her when she's hiding in
the cupboard, it's hilarious. Yeah, it's, you know, again, she's the one that maybe it's because OCD is,

(01:40:54):
and I don't mean, I really apologise for saying this if this comes out wrong, it's the, it's maybe
the least bad of the illnesses that everyone is suffering from, so maybe it is easier to make jokes
about it. Yeah, maybe. I mean, ever always having the debtor and hiding in the cupboard and stuff,
but it's still not funny, but it is quite amusing. Yeah, I mean, you know, we all have things which

(01:41:18):
kind of have to be a certain way, you know what I mean? I'm sure you living on your own, you know,
you, you like to have things in your place like a certain way, and you know, you know,
I have a few things that I need to kind of be a certain way, like, you know, they can need to,
if I, I always check that the doors locked before I go to bed, obviously, but I saw it, not always,

(01:41:42):
it's kind of part of a bedtime routine, so if I get into bed and I can't really remember if I
check the door or not, and even though I know I did, I've still got to go up and go downstairs and
just check again, you know what I mean? Even though I know that because it's such a routine thing to do,
I'm not even aware that I do it, you know, just checking the door. I have to say like, living with
those sort of things, like sort of times by a thousand sounds horrendous, you know? Oh,

(01:42:06):
gorgeous. Yes, horrendous, you know, like, you know, if you can't go to bed, if there's like a dirty
glass in the sink, and it's going to like, in all those types of things, it's, yeah, I'm not sure.
But you're right, it does, like, I, again, I don't feel like they take the piss out of OCD,
but they have, but I think we do have some fun with the, yeah, with the more, perhaps the, the less painful

(01:42:31):
symptoms of it. We also have Elizabeth Sprix as a grandmother. I mentioned it in my intro. It's
the witch from Simon in the witch. Great. She is the comedy relief of, of, and pure 100% comedy
relief in terms of, you know, you Scottish men always drink half and half and talk about your

(01:42:51):
penises. The, the line that I, I was in tears is when she's having the jumble sale, and he's like,
why are you getting rid of Grandad's hat stand? He has no need for hats. He's dead.
Jesus, what are you doing? Don't take up snowman, feign it, punish you. But what are you doing?
Tomorrow I'm at jumble sale. I raise much money to go to the do-a-me. By selling Grandad's hat stand?

(01:43:18):
He has no need of hats. He's dead. Why are you doing this? Because I need 3000 pounds and you don't
get, listen, delivery of it. It is, the matter of fact, wait. Wonderful character. Just up dancing,
cooking, fucking stew at three o'clock in the morning and wonderful comic relief.

(01:43:38):
When she, she was mentally eddy when he comes home because the TV license man's been
running three times and she's been hiding and she's like, you pay TV license. I need to watch blind date.
Yes. Fantastic. She's such a wonderful, just like comic relief of just going into eddy's home life
and seeing that he's like, fuck, no wonder he spends all the time at the radio station.

(01:44:01):
Yeah, at all. And it's, you know, if I think it's his house, so because, like, you, you, you,
you kind of feel when you first, when you first meet eddy, I'm just a bit of a loser. He's living with
his living in his grandmothers and she's looking after him and stuff, but yeah, she's looking after him
to some extent, but she lives with him. You know, it's never, the question's never asked where,

(01:44:26):
where's her, where her, his parents? You know, we only know that his grandfather passed the way some
years before and that's how she came to live with him. That's it. Obviously, before we go on to the
big one supporting cast, Macastale, you know, when he turned up, it was like, oh, it's good.
Took me two scenes to know it was Gavin Mitchell. Oh, really? First time I saw him, I didn't realize

(01:44:47):
it was Gavin Mitchell and then it wasn't to the next and I was like, holy fuck, that's Gavin Mitchell.
Like Jesus. But yeah, him with the spoon, just a wonderful relationship. And I nearly had that
down as my archetypal, Scotch moment is the scene where Castello takes his spoon away because I'm like,
it's Stevie the bookie and Bobby the barman fighting for the spoon, but this could be archetypal

(01:45:09):
Scotch moment. But just a wonderful, um, supporting cast, you mentioned you don't run Donna, he
Jake Darcy. Um, yeah, uh, actually, Jensen. This is a thing, this is what they may be think about.
So they can this sort of 70s 80s and 90s. What it must have been like for Scottish actors? Because
we think about it, right? Jake Darcy has a very, very, very central role in Gregorney's girl.

(01:45:33):
Right? Very, very important character. I think he's on screen more than any of the other teachers.
And then, you know, how, when's Gregorney? So 14 years later, and he gets like a two, three minute
appearance on this as an early tradition. Then you got, then you got Max Castello. So he, you know,
obviously, uh, kind of joked about it before, but he was like essential character in the classic

(01:45:56):
episode of Tiger. You know, I, I'm, I'm, I'm, this like, when he's young, I have to say very, very good.
And yet, I think he's in every single episode of this, but he's hard to get any lines. No. Most of the
time he's sitting in front of the tele looking sort of disapproving the other patients who are engaged
in with the radio station. It's not until a bit later on, we see that he has been a bit of a

(01:46:16):
youth turn in. He's actually quite invested in the radio station as well. Yeah. So it's a good
performance, but it must be, it must have been difficult because these are guys who have,
so a tied their flag to acting as a career. One minute, your main character on a beloved, perhaps
the most beloved Scottish film and one of the most beloved British films ever. And the next minute,

(01:46:38):
you've got like a few minutes. But then, then you're, you got to speak to your main character in
still game for both of them, you know, as Steve the bookie and Pete the JK. License to get pushed.
Yeah, it must be, it must be like a stressful, stressful existence. Yeah, I can imagine it must be,

(01:47:02):
to be thinking where your next job is coming from and then having to do bit parts and, yeah,
you get the odd little scraps thrown at you, but whatever they do, they're fantastic in. And it's still,
even, it's basically recently, you know, the field of blood, but that was still, that was really about
10 years ago now. Yeah, that came out, but both had parts in that, but yeah, they still get stuff,

(01:47:25):
Castellos and, you know, Mitchell do still pop up and stuff. Well, yeah,
got Mitchell, that's been, he was in crime, wasn't he? And then last episode, and then Rod Donahay,
you're following a watch that, but he, I think like the first two series of the Game of Thrones, he was
a very central character. And that, you know, after going through years of playing, little bit parts

(01:47:51):
hidden there, you know, with them, I guess, his old enemy that he was up against for this,
Robson, nope, Robson Jerome, Robson, I've mixed them too. His Robson Green and Jerome Flynn, Jerome Flynn
was in Game of Thrones, wasn't he? He was, yeah, yeah. I know that much, but yeah, that much is all,
I kind of know, right then. So he gave a ten, as Campbell Bane. I watched the interview with him,

(01:48:14):
he, he still says that this is, this was basically the role that catapulted him to fame, but out this,
he wouldn't have achieved anything. I watched the interview with him last year, and someone asked him
about this role, and he speaks about it so fondly, and they asked him, you know, what Campbell would
be up to now? Campbell Bane, oh my god, he just fucking steals the show, doesn't he?
Well, it's a great part because really he's the, he's the energy that keeps everything moving forward,

(01:48:40):
you know what I mean? He's the, he's the enthusiasm, and he's, he's the character who, you know, at the end
of it, it sort of gets what he said he was going to get, you know, he didn't, because you've got Eddie
who's trying to bring him back down to earth with Well, it's not like easy, and you've got to say
that in the end when you can't do this, and you can't do that. And he, he's sort of uncompromising in

(01:49:01):
his ambition, and he gets, and it's really encouraging because at the very end, he's, he's a radio,
he's a DJ and radio Scotland, he's got exactly what he wanted, but he was going to, he's not going to
take it because he's doing what Eddie did, and Eddie's like, don't be mad, he's got to take it,
that's not your only chance, you know, but just, he's great in this, you know, I, and it's going to be

(01:49:25):
22, 23 years old maybe, 22, yeah, and just, they're absolutely going for it, holding his own with some
very seasoned actors as well. So, your lesson? I always brilliant, Solica, Levi's,
Riggley's, Pepsi and I, and Brueh are that all rolled into one.
♪ Young girl, get out of my mind, you never close your eyes, fame ♪

(01:49:49):
♪ You know the ball of hell, no ♪
Anyone else, listen? Well, I don't think so, unless you can't agnus, I'll not sit on next to one of
the speakers, but since she's got the tonic, so it's difficult to know whether she was actually listening.
You picked a bad time, you know, Tuesday at 7 o'clock is Emerdale, and the patients are very fond of
Emerdale. So, I should have started at 7 o'clock, did missy standers? Eight, eight, chance to bell!

(01:50:14):
Television's not just a simple diversion here, it's more of a way of life.
Been in a couple of episodes of Strathblair, and it just so happened, the cast and director of the
work on Strathblair was working on this and recommended you come in, and didn't audition. I don't know if
you saw the files that gave you the audition. His original audition was there, his original

(01:50:35):
audition is available on YouTube as well, and it's very different to watch, like it's very raw, but
you can see why they did pick him, and yeah, wonderful performance is you're right, he kind of drives
the show, really, with his manic energy, whenever there's anything that's there, he picks up, he just has
this unbound enthusiasm. He's the one that, you know, is, um, immediately, I'm gonna write six

(01:51:00):
jingles, and he does, and yeah, all of a sudden, you know, overnight, him and Vosly have cleaned up
the entire studio, he's written jingles, he's done all this stuff, he really wants to achieve it,
he comes up with the ideas, and it's ludicrous as some of them sound, you know, about the open day
and stuff, when he's like, we'll get Spike Milligan, when Spike Milligan appears on stage, and you're
like, right, because I'm like, he's fucking done it, he's done it, like, it's wonderful, and even,

(01:51:28):
you know, Eddie's like, you did it, they're in the papers, and when he, when him and Angus, is that
the start of episode three, when, or yeah, episode three, when him and Angus are doing the, um,
the outside broadcast, like outside, you kind of galleries, it's, it's fucking brilliant,
the, the manicness, when he's just, the police are coming right, we'll grab this stuff, we'll just

(01:51:48):
melt into the crowd, and then we'll leg it. And when he has, the acting, you know, even with the
relationship with his dad is heartbreaking at times, and it shows the range that 10, he doesn't just
play this Jerusalem bunny the whole time, he does have other really heartbreaking scenes, and when

(01:52:09):
you see the relationship with his dad, but then he has his manic episode to, if you can't get kept
in from there, six to ten weeks. Yeah. And when you realize that he's been, you know, he was faking it,
and it, there's a little glimmer there that's sure was in on it as well. Yeah. At the end, and
you're like, ah, fuck, this is, this is wonderful. I love it. His, his performance is just

(01:52:31):
absolutely phenomenal in this thing is there's a moment in, when he's having these episodes,
and he's changing the records and he keeps scratching them, that, you know, is somebody who grew up
being taught to respect vinyl when you touch it, very carefully, always every little vinyl cloth
nearby, make sure that the, the needle in your record player is sharp and all this kind of thing.

(01:52:56):
That was, that, that moment when he's having these episodes and he keeps scratching the,
keeps scratching the records when he changes them, and then the episode towards the end when,
when the new electricians in the recording should you, when he, him and Eddie have the little
tussle when the records get knocked down and Eddie steps at some of these records as he's getting

(01:53:17):
pushed out. It was a bit like, you know, it was, I mean, I was like, watching somebody you like getting
kicked in the balls. You know, I did have to laugh because I think for the majority of the show,
most of the time one of them is sitting down or, or another one standing up or they're kind of at
different levels. It's not until like, at episode five or six, they're both stood up face to face at one

(01:53:39):
point and I'm like, how different is their height? Oh my god. It can start looks like tiny, so I had to
look up. Can start five foot five. And it is six foot one. Yeah. So not a huge, well, a sizeable
difference and it did look at that one scene. It looked massive. The different height of them,
the way they were facing off, but yeah, it stopped only five at five. But then when he, when he was

(01:54:00):
doctor, who David Tennant, they got all the regular characters that they put in with them, like John
Baramon and Billy Piper and that, they were all like in Catherine Tate, all they could good bit
shorter than him. So he does, he does seem to tower over everybody, but if he's six foot one, he's
about the same height as me. Yeah. Yeah. So he seems taller, but he's not worse than that tall. So yeah.

(01:54:21):
But you're right. He does get a wonderful ending and that's where we spoke about at the beginning of
the episode in terms of the ending. And I think there is a bit of a, a sweet and a bitter kind of way
that this ends. I mean, the sweet is of course that the Campbell does get his dream to become a DJ.
Rosalie does get her life in order and is released. Francine snaps out of her catatonic coma and

(01:54:46):
is last seen on the bench with Eddie and they kind of become a bit of a couple really.
Yeah. Yeah. The better is obviously that Eddie, you know, feels in his dream to achieve, get the
registration, he loses his job, you know, Fergus can suicide, the registration gets shut down. So there
is a bitterness to the ending as well, but there are some sweet points to be there. And as I say,

(01:55:07):
I do think genuinely the, the last kind of scene where Eddie admits to Francine, I'm an alcoholic.
And she goes, yeah, I know. And you know, the, the last line of, you know, we can get better, we can,
it's just going to take time just just a beautiful last line to end a beautiful show.
Yeah. Yeah. Really good. And I would love to have seen a bit more of those guys that they've

(01:55:27):
have seen, they can maybe, they'll companion series or something just to see what happened next.
You know, you could, you know, by, by the end of the episode, you're really written for Eddie.
You're really written for Eddie and Francine and, you know, and I guess Rosalie and, and Jim, her
husband and, and all that. And then we, you know, we never find out what happened to the sort of

(01:55:48):
secondary characters either. They called the patients that weren't involved with the radio station
and stuff. So yeah, they're really good. Really, really, really, really, it's sort of reminiscent of
sort of classic, you, like sort of Scottish drama, you know, like the place for today and stuff,
where a lot of the time it is kind of left open. And you, it's just up to you to, you have to decide

(01:56:09):
yourself, but, you know, what, how things happen, what, what happened to these guys and
did everything work out for them or not. It was very widely acclaimed despite, you know, what
happened, like the, the subject matter and the BBC being a bit nervous about it. And it did win,
when the 1995 BAFTA for best drama. And I think that's a huge thing as well. I read an interview with

(01:56:33):
Francis Childe and she says that, you know, the, the BBC still were being nervous, but, and it never
got that BBC one repeat. But, and it was ignored for years. And then all of a sudden in the mid 2000,
somebody uploaded all the episodes to YouTube. And she said that that was one of the best things
that could have ever happened. And for someone who's, you know, work is now being a legally distributed,

(01:56:56):
she's like, I'm delighted because people are going to see it. And that did lead to the BBC actually
releasing it on DVD a few years later because I guess they wanted to kind of act that. Yeah, yeah.
And has that been, do you think maybe the, because obviously they've been about that time was when
David Tenon got Doctor Who, he had just done Cassyn Over, which was, yeah, really, really successful.

(01:57:17):
And then he, he signed up for Doctor Who and I wonder if it was obviously one of the most
popular actors to play Doctor Who, and so popular that they brought him back for a couple of
the episodes as Doctor Who last Christmas. And I wonder if maybe that's what's led to people,
let's find that and let's see what else he's been in and you know, then that's how it's ended up on

(01:57:39):
there and maybe the Doctor Who effect. I think it has been because I have read a lot,
doing some research for this episode and looking on Reddit and stuff. There's been a lot of
on the David Tenon, Redder or the Doctor Who Reddit people being like, I've just watched this show
called Taking Over the Asylum. This Scott is show from the mid 90s and he's phenomenal in it.
And it's one of his earliest roles. And I think that probably has brought a lot to it, not to, and

(01:58:02):
I don't want to put words in anyone's mouth, but obviously we have a listener who is a huge
Peter Capaldi fan. And I wonder if she discovered Capaldi through Doctor Who, but then she discovered
us through our episode on Soft Top Hard Shoulder, which is quite obscure as Scott is film really,
to find, but obviously did was that discovered after Capaldi became Doctor Who probably,

(01:58:30):
but I guess that does lead and I'm just saying if I see an actor in something that I really enjoy
or really like, then I will go back and watch some of their back catalog. And yeah, maybe more of a
director to discover stuff that I've missed in the past and see their early work. So yeah, of course,
I think it's very natural that people will have discovered this on the back of David being

(01:58:51):
in Doctor Who and yeah, hopefully brought it to a wonderful new audience and yeah, hope they enjoyed
it. We get some downloads off of it as well. I want to talk about the music for a moment,
because there is a lot of, I would you say, classic pop music in it. There's a lot of Beatles music

(01:59:12):
in it. Clearly not recorded by the Beatles because that would be expensive. So it read me to have
a look at who, who did the music. And the music was done by a musician called Junior Campbell, who
used to be in the band Marmalade in the 1960s. Marmalade previously were called the Gay Lords. And

(01:59:35):
sensibly, don't laugh. Perhaps sensibly changed their name to Marmalade in 1966. But he's a Scottish,
he's a Scottish. Marmalade, probably the most famous, ironically, for their cover of the Beatles song
Oble de Oble da. But yeah, I was looking them up in these quite varied career, but mostly writes music

(02:00:02):
for TV and film these days. But the music was good. It's funny because there's some songs that
run a soundtrack, which are obviously the original recordings, some of the motown stuff that's
played on there and some other stuff you can tell. And then a lot of it is, I think there's the
stone, a couple of stone songs on it, a lot of Beatles songs, which are all covers. And I think

(02:00:25):
they're all covered by Junior Campbell and session musicians. Did you have a favourite song, but
played on the show? Oh, I think we've got to go out this place. Yeah, the way it was teed up,
that was dedicated to the people of Perth, wasn't it? So yeah, I think that was it.

(02:00:46):
Yeah, I think that was probably my favourite. There was a lot of good tunes though. What about yourself?
Do you have a favourite? Well, I like the version of Let It Be, and it's not, they're not even
pretend, they're not even trying to be a copy of the Beatles, it's a lady singing it, it's a different
arrangement, it was really nice. I really, really like the Stevie Wonder song for once in my life.

(02:01:08):
I don't know why. Oh yeah, that's a great song. Always, always just really liked it. But it was just
cool because, you know, I guess a lot of the music that they wanted to feature would be expensive
because of the the calibre of artists that record the original. So just getting somebody like
Junior Campbell to record the covers and things, especially when he's got a little bit of, you know,

(02:01:31):
he's got a little bit of Beatles in him anyway from his marmalade days. It was good because it really,
because sometimes you can sometimes tell that productions are sort of settling for a particular song
because that's what the budget was stretched to, you know what I mean? And it gets sometimes feel
that we've out of place and you kind of think, "Well, I don't know if that's the song that they
really wanted." But, you know, it's in a budget and whatnot. So I like the way they sort of circumnavigated

(02:01:56):
that for this. So is it time to put taking over the asylum through or swallow the awards for the
first time this year? It is, it is indeed Greg. Last fact, David Tennant did not attend the Scottish
BAFTAs when Mrs. Barley had, because Catherine's eat at Jones got his ticket instead. Yeah, because she
was going out with Angus McFadden. Yeah, it's been a regret to that now, doesn't it? She's got it,

(02:02:19):
everybody hearted she. No Greg, what? No Angus McFadden, Michael Douglas. Can you name anyone else?
I'm sure she went out with Michael, she got her Michael Sheen, I'd say to the cadopman,
Catherine. I'm sure she said more, boy friends, just because she's, well, I'm sure she has.
We're not going to go into Catherine's eat at Jones dating history on this.

(02:02:39):
Except we sort of drawn long enough. Let's do the awards. Okay, right. We'll be talking about that
afterwards. The first the award is the Bobby the Barman award for Best Pub, but I know the actor
who plays Bobby the Barman features in the show, but what's any pubs unfortunately? No, I had,

(02:03:00):
I mean, there's a couple of bars that are featured in terms of like sales meetings and stuff,
but I went for the Lithuania club. Okay, yeah, fair enough. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, good night out.
Lots of vodka. Yeah, I like that kind of thing. Next award then, the James Cosmo award
for being a prolific Scottish actor and appearing in lots of things. I mean, there's tons,

(02:03:21):
there's loads so many. I couldn't choose between Darcy and Castello. Yeah, I went with Castello,
he doesn't have a Darcy's probably got more lines than Castello. He's put the fact he's in it for,
he tells a minute, but I went with Castello because he's in every episode and it's just lovely as he
has lovely moaning crater face every time it lights up the screen and he hasn't aged.

(02:03:45):
That's like he hasn't aged at all. He still looks the same now as he did back then. Yeah,
okay, next one then, the Jake McQuillan award for, oh, the Jake McQuillan, your T-Zoot award,
almost for what name they award there. Would you go for this? I went with the
the Black Sabbath fan nurse, um, um, punch and eddie and, person of these nose. Yeah, Stuart punch and

(02:04:10):
he, he had put some, oh, he had put some, sorry, yeah, but I want with Eddie punching McAteer,
the guy from work because that felt more of a T-Zoot because he deserved it. Eddie didn't,
Eddie didn't deserve to be headbodled, although Stuart was like, I've been fucking dying to do that
for a while. He does, I didn't think Eddie deserved it, but yeah, McAteer deserved it, even though it

(02:04:31):
was a weak punch by Eddie, but still. Yeah, okay, next then is the June McGregor award for
Gratuaute's nudity. Apart from David Tennant's arse when he's getting a, there's injection,
there's not really any nudity in it. Uh, David Tennant's Baynars is what I've got right in my
little scratch. So yes, they'll go with that. Next one then, the Francis Baby award for Gratuaute's

(02:04:54):
swearing. I wouldn't say there's a lot of Gratuaute's swearing, the one I went for was when Campbell
sat in the argument with his dad and he alludes to what his dad's streams were, then his dad says,
a lot of fucking good-that did me, you know, but what did you have? Uh, yeah, some of the earth, I
had that one. I, I did like the, and it's not Gratuaute's as well, but, uh, because I know we often

(02:05:19):
say on this, it has to be an effort, I see, but it's when Fergus is telling FranCena about his
sectioning, not being renewed and she says, the bastards, they always renew mine. I just liked that.
Just thought that was funny. Yeah. Um, and then lastly then, when I was second to last, sorry, the
archetypal Scottish moment, well, I mentioned it earlier, I went with Eddie always having a half

(02:05:42):
bottle on his person. Yes, instead of a hip flask. Yeah, well, but you, well, then normally I would go for
something, I shouldn't go for something kind of funny, but for me, I had to go for the hospital
building because there's just something about, um, that style of architecture. I think it's maybe a
little more typical of East Coast, of West Coast, or central belt sort of architecture, maybe even

(02:06:07):
in Glasgow, but there's just something about the tower and the sort of color of the brick and stuff
that, to really felt very Scottish to me. Yeah. No, I would agree with you on that. Yeah. No, I'd go with that.
Definitely. Yeah. And then last of all then, the Shonkornry Awards, who wins the production for you,
I think I know the answer. Yeah. I mean, for me, Ken Stott's great, Katie Murphy's great, Angus

(02:06:29):
for fans great. It's David Tennant wins it for me, but that I doubt. Um, it's, it's not a show. It's
Ken Stott show, but David Tennant for me is a standout performer in this. What about you? I would have to
give it to Tennant just because of what it began for him. Yeah. You know what I mean, if you think of
now, I mean, he's gone from, you know, appearing in Scottish, sort of a typically Scottish stuff,

(02:06:54):
like short-lived stuff as well, like that strapped layer and everything to doctor who to, you know,
they got internationally known the Shakespeare, all sorts, um, I would have to give it to David Tennant
because this really feels like the, well, he said it myself, didn't he? But it really feels like
it's been a launch pad for a bigger, really successful career. Yeah. And he still comes back and does

(02:07:16):
stuff like, yeah, des, for example, when it was a few years ago, but, um, I think he still comes back
and then, you know, voices, um, Scrooge McDuck. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Never forgets kind of his Scottish
roots. He's almost like a, a young Brian Cox in a way. Like he does. Yeah. That's a good comparison,
actually. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He does. He has a little

(02:07:37):
bit of a brain Cox in that regard. Yeah. He hasn't forgotten where he's come from. Yeah. And I think
he appreciates where he came from and will always come back, if that makes sense. And it says a lot,
actually, that, you know, his best friend is, um, uh, Michael Sheet, yeah, who is, is never forgotten
as well as roots either. No. It always goes back to Welsh. I think they're, they're very good comparison

(02:08:00):
and double acting away that they, they're both proudly known and recognize their heritage. And
we'll always come back and do that, but they're not, uh, you know, against all going off and doing
like a big Hollywood film or something. Yeah. For sure. And I think as well, David Tenon, he's, he has the,
the kind of physical advantage of, as he's got an older, he sort of, he sort of become quite distinguished

(02:08:23):
looking, you know, I mean, when you see him, when you see pictures of him there, I mean, he's,
it's a fifth day, three, I think, something like that, 54. And he looks, you know, he, he's, he's
sort of aged really well. Um, you know, whereas I've got the S.S. Out of the case for everybody,
you know, who big, somebody will look at the great one, their young and then as they get older,
it so it goes a bit wrong for them, you know, like me. Yeah. Not at all. Not at all. Just a very handsome man.

(02:08:50):
I think I look better now than I know that we know we're young, to be honest. But, um, anyway, anyway,
I just got, it's very quickly mentioned. So Catherine's eat a Jones pre-make with Douglas. Oh,
Jesus. Huck no. Wesley. Leslie. Grant. John.
Three dissonance. David, David Essex of all people. Oh my god. Yeah. So she obviously likes the older

(02:09:17):
gentleman, because David Essex, big good. I forgot she went out, I forgot she went out with John
Leslie, but that's right. They were together for quite a while. Yeah. Before he, before he,
well, and truly fucked it. And when I say fucked it, I mean his career, I don't mean anything else.
Is that it? Essex. Leslie. Huck no. That's all that's on, uh, that's all that's on our Wikipedia.

(02:09:40):
That's just the high profile ones. I think you should take back your claim that she'd been
with everybody then. I don't know. I mean, I felt like she was always on the arm,
as somebody knew back in the darlin' buds of May, day when she was starting to become famous. But
anyway, good luck to her. I like Catherine's eat a Jones for its worth. I think she's,
seems like an isolated lady. Do you think Sean ever had a cracker? Sean Connory on an incident?

(02:10:05):
I don't think so. I think she would have a cracker, him, but I think he was loved up by then.
Right. Okay. So that was our first episode of 2025. Do you have the keyboardist Trinxer?
That was our first episode. He probably had to.
And that was my choice, Greg. So it is your choice for what we're going to be talking about

(02:10:32):
on the next episode of The Culture Swally. Why do you tell me what I'm going to be watching next week?
That's not the gear slick misjouge.
So I've gone for something. And I'll tell you why, because obviously we did. We did tune the fat
for our New Year's special. And I thought, well, we were talking about Hill. We've not really

(02:10:56):
done a still game apart from the very first stage show in blah, blah, blah. And I thought, well,
I don't really want to choose still game yet. So I'm going to choose something that is tune the fat
adjacent. And I've gone for a short-lived sitcom written by Ford Kearlin, Paul Riley, Mark Cox,
starring Ford Kearlin and Mark Riley. So I'm Paul Riley and I've gone for Deer Greenplace.

(02:11:21):
Oh, one wonderful. Yeah.
A hilarious, according to IMDB, a hilarious snapshot of Parklife in Glasgow.
A whirlwind half hour that sees us taking everything from a bone idol, Shire Horse, to unrequited love.
So that sounds like fun. I remember watching a couple of episodes of it when it was on a TV.
And if you want to watch it before, do this into the podcast. All the episodes were on YouTube.

(02:11:45):
So it's a nice easy one. I remember watching that when it very first came out and I have not
seen it since. There's two series, isn't there? There's two series. Yeah, there's two series.
Apparently it was cancelled due to, obviously, viewer's dropping, but also because Ford Kearlin
had a new sitcom commissioned called Happy Holidays in which she stars with Gavin Mitchell.

(02:12:07):
She was cancelled after one series. But we'll talk more about that on the next episode of The Cultures.
Wonderful. I look forward to that. And Greg, okay, Deer Greenplace on the next episode of The Swally.
Fantastic. Right, thank you very much for listening everyone. I hope you enjoyed the show. You can
get in touch with us. You can email us on cultureswally@gmail.com. Just drop us a line, say hello. If you've

(02:12:27):
seen any new stories, you'd like us to cover or if there's anything you'd like us to cover on the
podcast and get in touch. You can follow us on the socials. We're on Insta@CultureSwallyPod.
And we are on X for the news twitter, but we never post there at SwallyPod. And we have a wonderful
website as well, don't we, Greg? We do. It's a website that needs a little bit of TLC, but you can find

(02:12:48):
us at cultureswally.com for links to other episodes and some features on Scottish news. No, not
it, no, those any future Scottish news, but it's a future Scottish pop culture. So come and give us
some visits. Fantastic. Right, well, thank you very much, Greg. Are you going to go off and see
who other Welsh libraries have been dating? I mean Kate Beckins. Oh, she's English, but she went
out on my machine, so yeah. I think I'm going to be her date with her daughter. I've got a daughter

(02:13:11):
together, haven't I? They start liking Stalewood. Okay, she and Beckinsdale. No, no one else, you're going to
look into our dating history or know you're done with that for the day. I think I'm done with that
for the day. I'm going to, I'm doing a 10k run tomorrow, so I'm going to have a chill evening.
I'm going to have got some nice food in to cook for me and my daughter. So my wife's away overnight.

(02:13:31):
So I've got some, my daughter's neither of a nice dinner, relaxing evening, go to bed early and then
get my run out the way tomorrow. So that's my plan for this evening. Go to bed early, get the VPN on
and keep your run tomorrow. Yeah, I know you were a game. Okay, well you enjoy yourself, buddy.
And, um, until next time. Until next time.
I'm going to go all at once.

(02:14:07):
You can go better.
All it's going to take is time.
[Music]

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Episode 118 - Takin' Over the Asylum (1994)

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Episode 118 - Takin' Over the Asylum (1994)