Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Television quiz presenter and former executive producer who later became a bestselling author of murder mysteries including The Thursday Murder Club.
On the island
Eight records
We're talking about television and how meaningful that was for me growing up. And there's one song I think that to anybody over a certain age just screams television and screams that shared experience and a love of our country and our culture, and it is Bring Me Sunshine, sung by Morgan Wines.
My brother, Matt, he's three years older than me, he was always, always in bands. He was always playing his bass and you know, formed a band with Brett Anderson in their teens. So, Brett and Matt were always around, and then they became Swayed. So, my second song, it's the one they did on Top of the Pops. It was like someone had punched a hole in the sky for me. You just think, wow, we're from where we're from, and you're on Top of the Pops, mate, with your friends doing these songs. I was so proud of him.
The thing I've always loved is sport. It's given me such joy over the years. And one of the sports that gave me a huge amount of joy is the snooker. And I was sitting on the sofa about three or four months ago. The snooker started. I had a packet of frazzles. And I thought, I'm 50. And the nine-year-old me was doing the exact same thing. And the rather lovely thing is the theme music to the snooker has not changed either. And the second I hear it, it brings me such great inner peace and reminds me of happiness at all my ages. So I'm going to go for, I think it's called Drag Racer, but it's the theme to the BBC snooker.
You Can't Stop the BeatFavourite
Talking about uh that thing of sort of losing yourself slightly, or b not not growing up to be the person that you were supposed to be. And that definitely happened to me, I think, in my twenties and thirties. And then um I went I never occurred to me that I would do. I went to into therapy, and this is a song I didn't used to like, kind of Big brash pop music. You know, when I was a teenager, I didn't like, you know, kind of ABBA and Queen and stuff like that, and I certainly didn't like musicals. So this is a song that's so full of joy and that reminds me that I'm back to who I was, I'm back to where I was, and it's You Can't Stop the Beat from the Musical Hairspray.
This one is for my kids who are now very 23 and 21. And, you know, when they were younger, of course, I tried to make them listen to cool music because all parents do. And my daughter, Ruby, was talking to me the other day about how great Fiona Apple is and just saying, you know, Fiona Apple's new albums is incredible. And I said, but you used to listen to Fiona Apple when you were really little. She went, oh God, yeah, I remember that. Don't worry about that. I remember it. And I thought, that's nice. And this is just one of those songs that I knew kids would like. I loved as well. And it's Extraordinary Machine by Fiona Apple.
Yeah, I'm just thinking back to Pointless when I started that and one of my favourite bits of any day on Pointless and always has been right from the start is sitting in the make-up room, which is about 45 minutes before the show. My makeup artist is Pauline, Zander's is Debbie. Sharon from Wardrobe often comes in and those 45 minutes, if I really think about it, bring me such joy. We have such fun just gossiping and you know, we've been together 12 years and we would always play, we always play songs in. the make-up room certainly in the in the early days to g us up and this is a song that reminds me of pauline debbie sharon me and zander all the gang popping in and out which is everything i've loved about having a career in tv and this is american boy by estelle and kenny oes
One of the things I absolutely love, I love writing the book, but I love the selling. I love it. And for Thursday Murder Club, I went down to Sussex to do some signings. I went to Havers Heath, where I grew up, and went to the bookshop that you know I would always go to when I was a kid, and down to Brighton, which is where I spent so much of my time. And I was doing all this signing. The book was already selling at that point, so I knew it was a hit and I knew my life had changed. And coming back in the car, it's just in the back of the car, this song came on my headphones. And there's a song I know, and a song I love, but I'd had this day. I was feeling my life had just changed and again I'd gone back to where I grew up and I think sometimes it's important to be proud of yourself and that's quite difficult for people I think it's difficult for me and I just thought you know what I'm really really proud of myself and this song was on and I just burst into tears in the back of the car. I did it quietly so the driver didn't notice but I was in tears and I was in tears because I was proud of what I'd done and I'd worked so hard. And anyway the song is by Future Islands and it's called Ran.
I've been very lucky the last few years and I feel like I'm in a place that I want to be. I'm happy with myself. Got these beautiful kids. I've met the woman who I'm going to be with for the rest of my life, Ingrid, and I just think the motivations of being younger are gone. Competition and ambition, you know, you soon realise that that rocket fuel disappears and it's about happiness. And my kids bring me happiness and Ingrid brings me happiness. And this song is a song, whenever we have a party, this is the one where you know the party changes gear. There are certain songs in the world that I would call a banger. Lauren, you called it what you want, all killer, no filler. But this is a song that, you know, reminds me of her and just makes me think about the happy times ahead. And it's A Little Respect by Erasia.
In conversation
Presenter asks
5:29Tell me about the kid you once were. What was he like?
Uh because I don't see very well. I've I've never been a child who's who's hugely engaged in the world. Just someone on the sidelines, I think. But I was very deeply content. I found it very easy to entertain myself, and I still do, uh and to amuse myself. And I had the the most wonderful mum in the world, and I I look back on it with great affection. I mean, I mean, my father left when I was quite young, when I was about nine, and that was probably the end of that innocence, I suspect. You know, I think I still had a lot of happiness, but I think it it fundamentally changed me a bit.
Presenter asks
6:17And it was a moment, wasn't it, your dad's leaving? It was a really kind of sudden and seismic change. [What happened?]
Oh yeah, I mean it couldn't have been more English. There was never a raised voice in our house at all until the day we're called into our front room. You know, I had a glass of orange squash and he said that he was in love with someone else and he was leaving and he hoped that was okay. And yeah, complete shock, a complete surprise. And listen, it was in 1970 so no one really knew how to handle these things. It was handled very badly. Badly in what way? Well, badly in that there was no sign that it was ever going to happen. It was done instantly. He had moved out instantly. I didn't see him for a very long time. And No one really explained to me what happened and why it happened and so, you know, I I was able to put up a front of what it it doesn't worry me anyway. I'm not fussed anyway and I don't really need my dad anyway.
The keepsakes
The book
Agatha Christie
Again, I can't help turning everything into a format. So I was firstly thinking, listen, it's got to be some short stories because then they've got a little bit extra to dip into. And then I think, well, is it crime or is it humour? So I drew two semi-finals, which were P. D. Woodhouse versus Alan Bennett short stories, and P. G. Woodhouse won that. And I had Agatha Christie versus Patricia Highsmith. And Agatha Christie won that. So it's a Christie Woodhouse final. And I think I have to go for the Poirot short stories of Agatha Christie would be the book that I would take.
The luxury
a pad of paper, a pen, and a dice
when I was a kid and you know throughout my life I would just lie down on the floor with a pad and a pen and a dice and with a dice I could make all sorts of sports tournaments imaginary sports tournaments like cricket tournaments golf tournaments and I could spend hours and hours and hours and I was so happy in that sort of reverie that kind of imaginative world so I would take a pad of paper a pen and a dice and I know it wouldn't float everyone's boat but I'm very very very confident it would float mine
Presenter asks
9:28How do you remember that time [after your dad left, your mum bringing you up on her own]?
looking back, what she did was extraordinary'cause you you know, listen, we didn't have any money, but we would go on a coach holiday and we'd go to Italy on a coach for like forty eight hours and stay in a tent and she would I'm when I look back I just think oh my god you took two kids on a 48 hour coaching must have been miserable and she eventually became a full-time primary school teacher which is a perfect job for her and she would take in homework every night she'd be stuffing envelopes for companies for sort of 0.001p and it's that's not what she signed up for when she married my dad you know it's not what she signed up for she signed up to have the life which she did deserve and I was never really properly made aware of it you know you could I would hear her crying sometimes and that obviously I've tried to blank out because it's something that wasn't allowed to get past my defensive wall but no she's an extraordinary woman and she did extraordinary things and you know I'm very very coarse beyond grateful for that and now some of the ways I'm able to pay her back delight me just about my favorite thing about my success is the the things I'm able to give to her.
Presenter asks
12:40How much impact did [nystagmus] have on you when you were growing up?
It is a thing where the world is essentially in soft focus all the time. So it's like being in the fog all the time. Some people have it worse than me, some people have it and don't notice it. But you know, it's one of those things, yeah, where you can't drive. When I was at school, I could never see the board. I couldn't see the textbooks in front of me. I can't see the birds in the trees. If I'm watching cricket or something, I can't see the ball. So TV was incredibly important to me because they'll show me a slow motion of the ball in cricket and they'll show me a bird in a tree that I wouldn't see. And TV, of course, ridiculous, is a visual medium. And if I'm ever sitting in an edit, I can't see if a boomer's come into shot. I can't see something looks good. I'm just listening. I just listen to what's happening. And if I'm presenting... I can't read an autocue, of course, it's too far away. And so that just means that I never read autocues, which means I mix stuff up. Which means, hopefully, you know, when you do long-running shows, they feel fresh because you're not saying the same thing all the time, which is easy to fall into. So, you know, I've been able to use it to my advantage. But yeah, I'd rather be at the Seawell. That would be great. I would love that. But listen, I see beautiful things sometimes that no one else would ever see because I see a haze in the distance and you know it's a building and I don't. I just see this beautiful experimental painting.
Presenter asks
20:21What happened [with personal issues]?
Well, I think it is that thing of, you know, my career was going well and I was successful. So I had all the things that I that and you know, I had kids, all the things that I thought were the thing that I needed or the thing that was going to make everything okay. And none of them did. And, you know, getting older and older and just working out that I was slightly directionless. And I had various addictive behaviours as well. And, you know, as soon as you have an addictive behaviour, you know that something's up because you know you're hiding something or controlling something. … Well, my my my ad addictive behavior has always been food. It has been since I was incredibly young. And it's it it's not seen as it doesn't have any of the sort of doomed glamour of drugs or alcohol or anything like that. But if an alcoholic came to my house, they would be shocked to see that there are bottles of gin, bottles of wine, completely untouched, because an alcoholic couldn't have that in their house. And if I came to your house and there were crisps or chocolate bars or anything untouched in the freezer. I'll be like, How, what? How are they untouched? If I'm going through an episode, that's the thing. It's booze. It's just booze, but food. The addiction is identical. The secrecy of consuming these things, the shame behind it. And food is a tricky one because booze and drugs you can just give up. Unbelievably difficult, but you know, a zero tolerance policy. Whereas if you're addicted to food or to love or all these things that are sustaining, you do still you still have to have them. And so it's quite a hard one to work your way out of.
Presenter asks
25:12How did [The Thursday Murder Club] happen?
Yeah, I was just at where she lived, which is a beautiful retirement uh community down in Sussex, surrounded by all these fascinating people who'd done these extraordinary things. And literally just the thought, Wow, this'd be an amazing place for a murder came into my mind. Just just that, because of the w the way it looked and this kind of lakes and woodland and all sorts of stuff. … I thought that, and then the second I thought, oh my god, I'm surrounded by people with incredible skills. And I thought, oh, well, listen, then we've got ourselves a gang and they can solve it. And, you know, it's like the A-team, but everyone's over 70 and they've done these extraordinary things. And yet they're sort of invisible because of the way we treat older people. And the TV producer bit of my brain just went, this has got legs. This is something you should do.
“It couldn't have been more English. There was never a raised voice in our house at all until the day we're called into our front room. You know, I had a glass of orange squash and he said that he was in love with someone else and he was leaving and he hoped that was okay.”
“I certainly shut a bit of myself down, that's for sure, you know,'cause it's very painful, especially when you're a kid.”
“Almost everything you ever do is going to fail. I mean, that's the truth. And you know, I always I always say fail well, which is, you know, if you're doing a show or if you've written off to someone, make sure, even if it fails, that you make a good impression.”
“when you walk into a room, you've only got two options, right? Everybody in that room are either going to say, wow, who's that really tall guy? Or they're going to say, who's that really tall guy who looks really awkward about being tall? I said, those you don't have another option, which is who's that ordinary size guy. It just doesn't exist. So when you walk into a room, you've just got to own your height.”