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.

I think they have read this thread! The Thursday show and the traitors edition both seemed much better. Hardly any talking over each other, and Marina allowed to get her points across in quite a lot of depth. Long may it continue.

I love it and then.

Must admit I find the pair of them unbearable. He's overbearing and comes across as thick (although I'm sure he isn't - I used to really like him in the early Pointless days but have really gone off him since), and she's - in my opinion at least - a pretty mediocre writer who let the 'har har Marina Hyde's done it again!' army of horny centrist dads on Twitter make her think she was actually saying anything insightful, as opposed to being someone whose connections got her her job rather than any innate talent.

The Glen Powell thing just makes me think of the Mean Girls quote 'stop trying to make fetch happen' but with Glenn Powell. 😂

Marina a mediocre writer?!!

Yes!

There’s no shortage of journalists using their background and connections to turn in very mediocre writing but Marina isn’t one of them. Whether you like her work or not absolutely she has a talent.

I certainly don’t think RO is ‘thick’. I think he’s got a lot of experience in predicting which kinds of light entertainment format will work, and that he’s honed that formula in the feelgood, easy-read Thursday Murder Club books (though I did think the most recent one suggested a falling off in the qualities that had made the earlier ones so popular.)

I don’t think Marina Hyde is at all mediocre. I don’t always like her work, but I’m generally interested in her take on things, even when I don’t think she’s right.

I think she had a very interesting take on Joe Marler in the last CT edition - that in the civilian version his status would be much higher than it is among a load of luvvies. I think she also does her research thoroughly, unlike R who just seems to interview his mates. Overall though I do enjoy their insights into why some formats work and others don't. The actual celebrity stuff leaves me cold - no idea who most of these people are, let alone care!

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.

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?

Who is Marina related to?

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"

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.

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. 😂

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

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

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"

I can see now.

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

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

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

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

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

crikey chill out 🙄