The Rest is Entertainment podcast

Me too, I nearly always hate audiobooks

I can’t listen to audiobooks at all, as my natural reading speed is so fast that if I speed them up to match, the readers sound like chipmunks on helium.

My mind gallops at 500 miles an hour too so I have no problem keeping up with Marina (I often listen to other podcasts at 1.25 speed as they are too slow!)

I watched about 10 minutes of The Franchise when it aired, it was terrible, very niche and unfunny. No surprises it wasn’t recommissioned.

Yes from the way Marina spoke about film sets and industry stuff I thought she’d done a lot more film and TV writing than she actually has. I noticed they haven’t discussed the reviews for The Franchise or TMC. I like the books but the film was rubbish.

Like other posters I love Marina’s encyclopaedic knowledge of so many topics. I also agree there are way too many adverts!

marina is a bit like me in conversation, if I don’t say what pops into my head there and then, it’s gone forever

Agree, I thought it was being from Norfolk that meant I struggled with how quickly they are talking and interrupting each other. Slow it down, no need to talk at 100mph.

I started listening to the podcast because of RO (had never heard of Marina) but the longer I listen the more I fall in love with Marina - she is so excited, passionate and opinionated - I love her!

What is bread and circuses? Never heard that!

crikey chill out 🙄

Marina’s not the only woman. The Rest Is Politics US has the excellent Katty Kay. The Rest is Money has Steph McGovern.

Disclaimer, should have said his books look shit, not that they are shit because I haven't read them.

I have thought about this many many times. I find Richard Osman absolutely insufferable and I think he is deeply cynical. Very bread and circuses. And his books are shit. I still listen because I adore Marina Hyde

I am in the minority because I love their conversations and the way they spark off each other. But I see so many people complaining that they interrupt each other

you apparently, then, ignored my other comment explaining it?

I can see now.

i did use inverted commas because i know her family background isn't journalism but my brain couldn't think how to summarise "a member of the elite so no pressure on her to pick a job that she can scrape a living by"

Yes when a PP said nepo baby I thought one of her parents was a famous journalist.

Yes, I like her too. Her background isn’t a choice she made.

Just wanted to say that I love Marina, just in case she sees this thread. I really admire how she seems to have a knowledge of EVERYTHING, from royal history to the Super Bowl. 😂

Her father is (was?) Sir Alastair Edgcumbe James Dudley-Williams, 2nd Baronet. Newish title created for her grandfather, a Tory politician. Ie, she’s from a deeply Establishment background.

i remember reading she comes from a priveliged background, which is why i put "nepo baby" in inverted commas. I couldn't remember so i asked Copilot (which is run on Chat GPT AFAIK)

"Marina Hyde is the daughter of Sir Alastair Edgcumbe James Dudley-Williams, 2nd Baronet, and the granddaughter of Sir Rolf Dudley-Williams, 1st Baronet, a Conservative politician and aviation pioneer"

Who is Marina related to?

Marina may (or may not, IDK) have had a leg up for being a "nepo baby" but i think she has paid her journalistic dues (look where she started) and she is a very very good writer who really understands her subject (don't forget, she writes about politics as well as entertainment) and the English language. I still maintain she talks fast because of boarding school - it is exactly how my friends and i speak at the beginning whenever we have a reunion, then we slow down when we realise that we no longer have to struggle to be heard.

Richard Osman very clearly knows the TV industry. And he clearly has the kind of brain that retains trivia and is ambitious to earn money. He can also use English competently - not in the way Marina does - and spotted a good gap in the market for his novels. I can't begrudge anyone that kind of success, he clearly does work at it. I do think he tries much too hard as a fence sitter though, and that is possibly because of his ambition not to be seen by anyone as a bad guy, and also because he knows that a career like his can't afford to put people off him. (although i assume at this stage he is VERY comfortably off). Did he grow up in poverty?

I think that’s probably a fair point about JM on a non-celebrity version — I’m not so sure that he attracted any particular deference from Tom or Clare as the other two from the sporting world, though.

It’s an interesting thought experiment to think of this celebrity version as being a normal season, where contestants are just cast for a mix of personalities, ages, sexes, ethnicities etc — interesting to think who would be perceived to be ‘the clever ones’ if, for instance, SF had just been a somewhat bumbling older man who spoke RP. I suspect Joe and Nick would be perceived as the clever ones. Or would RP and a quality of deliberation have gained SF and David O status if no one knew anything else about them? Would Alan get away with so much if people didn’t have a strong existing sense of his flappy, fussy comic persona?

DS (13) has made me embark on a rewatch of whichever UK season had Amanda, Alyssa and Wilf as the original traitors, and it’s funny to compare the two. The non-celebrity version has way more screamy emotion (I had forgotten just how many men were in absolutely hysterical tears at breakfast on a regular basis, and one of them leaving the round table to be talked down by crew because of a panic attack) and way more aggression and raised voices.

Did Hannah the large blonde comedian get similar responses on here to Joe M or Ruth Codd? Because her behaviour is regularly far more angry and aggressive than either Ruth or Joe’s, and it’s pretty clear to me that people aren’t voting for her at round tables because they’re afraid of her likely fury in response.