The Rest is Entertainment podcast

[Thortour]

Can Richard just not shhhhh and let Marina speak?! I wanted to hear what she had to say about her interview with Glen Powell but he interrupted her so many times I lost track of what she was saying. Contrast it with how she behaves when he speaks.

I like him, I'm interested in what he has to say but can he not just let her speak?
I feel like he is just like so many men who talk over women.

Once you notice it you can never un-notice it I agree!

I remember, years ago, watching and conversation between him and Frankie Boyle ( I won't even get into what I think about him) where Frankie was arguing for more interesting, challenging TV, and Richard having none of it, fighting the corner or lowest common denominator rash because it would make the most money. Really put me off him, not that I particularly enjoyed him anyway!

The other day he completely knocked her off her train of thought with incessant attempts at jokes. It was really rude. YANBU he needs to stop it.

Yes, @NameinVaneits the celebrity boyfriends episode I’m thinking of !

If you look at any of the comments on eg Spotify, they all say what we’re saying. It’s astounding nobody is managing him, and that he’s so thick-skulled as to not have changed his behaviour. For a man who is utterly determined to avoid controversy, never offer a real opinion, fence-sit, and say how ‘brilliant’ everything and everyone is, he’s remarkably tone-deaf regarding how he himself comes across.

I know, I was listening thinking where will Marina place Louis Partridge in her top 10 UK celebrity boyfriends as I had just finished watching House of Guinness and Richard interrupted yet again just to say he’d never heard of Louis Partridge ?!?

I do find Richard Osman interesting and he knows a huge amount about tv and the industry but between the interrupting and never saying anything controversial I’m getting a bit fed up with him.

I stopped listening to it as I had got fed up of his constant monologues, how everyone in the entertainment industry is so wonderful blah blah blah.

I didn’t have anything new to listen to so I thought I’d give this podcast another go. He’s even worse, I had to stop listening to the boyfriend section it made me so irritated.

I stopped listening because I started to find them a bit irritating. The intro music is also really jarring on my ears (stupid reason but I listen in bed) and the ads annoy me.

I think the interrupting and mansplaining have got MUCH worse. When the podcast first started,I remember saying to DH that it was a really enjoyable listen because they gave each other space to talk and weren't trying to out-funny each other

I do like them both and find them extremely knowledgeable and funny, but I agree that it's become a stressful listen. Agree about the Gregg Wallace minimising from Richard and the inexplicable Glenn Powell madness from Marina. I also find it annoying that they both claim to have seen every new film and TV series, and listened to every new album - how can they possibly have the time?!

I can’t bear how Richard tells us the show is BOUGHT to us by blah blah sponsor. It’s brought Richard.

When I first started listening to the podcast I thought Richard was brilliant and would make me laugh out loud. Marina I was a bit more “meh” about.

How that has changed! I find Richard’s fence sitting, inability to have an opinion about any celebs (everyone is fantastic) irritating now. Marina is fab - funny, cynical and opinionated. Love it when she does her scathing “is this actor A, B or C list?”

But good Christ the amount and length of the adverts are driving me mad now!

They’re both knowledgeable and some of the insider knowledge of how things work eg Richard saying how he would, as a producer, choose traitors and Marina discussing undercover journalism are great.

it’s the absolute smug “See you next Tuesday” at the end of each Thursday’s episode that does my head in the most though. We know what it means…

(I’ve also stopped listening to Rory and Alastair. Such know smug it alls with slopey shoulders like they never had any influence on anything..)

Well, it’s part of their job, for the podcast alone? Which I imagine is well-remunerated. And even if RO writes a book a year and does the podcast and Hoise of Games, that’s still a fair amount of free time to see films, tv etc. His children are adults. Marina has children at home and various other writing gigs as well as a stipulated number of Guardian columns, but it’s still all pretty fluid, and she needs to ensure she keeps abreast of new entertainment as well as politics etc, I imagine.

Yes, someone pointed that out on here, and I thought it was just a slip of the tongue, but he’s gone on doing it through several different iterations of the Sky ads!

Perhaps there’s a specific editorial assistant at his publisher whose job is correcting all the brought-for-bought s in the Thursday Murder Club books.

'Marina is fab - funny, cynical and opinionated. Love it when she does her scathing “is this actor A, B or C list?”'

I love her too. I've read her stuff in the Guardian for years and she's a brilliantly scathing writer about politics

Glad I’m not the only one bewildered by this show turning into The Rest is Glen Powell. My assumption is that Marina just has a massive crush on him and a bad case of mentionitis. He’s like margarine in the form of an actor - smooth and unobjectionable but nothing to write home about.

To be fair I do think it’s a good show. I find their tastes (especially Osman’s) very bland, but it’s interesting to have a podcast that’s making an explicit case for mainstream entertainment. God knows there are enough podcasts for niche oddball stuff. And it’s useful to be reminded that things like Death in Paradise and MAFS have exponentially more viewers than Slow Horses and Succession.

I like Richard but his recommendations are often disappointing, and I don’t believe an intelligent well read person such as Marina loves his books as much as she pretends to.

I feel like Marina’s obsession with Glenn Powell is tongue in cheek, as he’s incredibly popular but rather bland and basic (like Richard’s books actually).

@WeekendInNewEngland totally agree re Marina's supposed adoration of Richard Osman's books. She's almost absurdly erudite yet we are supposed to believe she is gripped by such very basic cosy crime nonsense.

People who are more clued up about the entertainment business than me - do you think a thread like this would actually be seen by anyone to do with the podcast? Ie are they interested in this kind of feedback?

Even if they are I guess Richard can make tweaks but can't fundamentally change his personality

I've had to give up on soooo many things because it's just not relaxing when people get interrupted. I think podcasting is a real skill that is somewhere between an ordinary conversation and a professional broadcast - it just doesn't work if people talk over eachother

I used to love it, but now I just can't listen. The Glen Powellness of everything drives me insane and I don't think either of them have the insider knowledge that they claim to (well obviously they do but not to the extent they think they do). Richard going on about how we should watch everything because of all the amazing production staff and Marina talking about shows / films and and how they are made and the only thing I can find her credited for that I have ever heard of was that terrible HBO show 'The Franchise' which was just full of in jokes (The Studio is too but brilliantly written). I work in TV BTW so I know a fair bit (although not expert in everything by any stretch).

I love Marina's columns though and quite like his books but the podcast is just not for me anymore.

I had never heard of Glen Powell until this thread 😅

Agree with all of the above. I’d love a Marina solo podcast. Maybe with guests. But not RO. I’ve stopped listening and I used to look forward to podcast drop days.
Plus RO’s books are unbelievably shite too, well I only tried the first one, got a third of the way through which was a struggle (but I am weird and rarely allow myself to give up on a book) and left it in an airport lounge as I wouldn’t even give it to someone I know. Watched the movie version with my DD and that was also depressingly dull apart from the fabulous venue they shot it in. The fawning over his books on the podcast was probably the last straw for me as it epitomised a complete lack of critical thinking and I started to doubt their impartiality more generally.

I agree totally about Richard being too domineering but I find Marina very articulate and bright (she talks extremely fast) and if she loses the thread occasionally it’s because RO has interrupted her for about the third time. She’s very tolerant of him but in her shoes, I would be getting incredibly irritated.

Yes I have a bit of a love hate view of Richard. He’s so perceptive and informative but my god he’s smug. Him and Ben Elton together were unbearable. There are some episodes where he just doesn’t seem to be able to control the condescension and the “British boyfriend” one was one such, plus a few weeks earlier when he claimed social media wasn’t necessary for aspiring authors, utterly failing to understand that his own privilege as someone already famous, would not mirror those with no profile. It was a shocking lack of self awareness. Still love the pod, but it’s not soothing at all, not good for getting to sleep 😁