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- [00:00]
Richard Osman
Hello, everyone. This episode is brought to you by our good friends at Sky.
- [00:03]
Marina Hyde
Now, whether you're dancing through life in the Emerald City for the first time or flying back for a magical encore, Wicked is now on Sky Cinema. And with the Sky Glass, tv, Oz feels closer than ever.
- [00:14]
Richard Osman
Bring the gravity defying ballads home with a Dolby Atmos soundbar built in for a truly cinematic experience. The high notes and the harmonies have never sounded better.
- [00:23]
Marina Hyde
Skyglass automatically adapts the picture and sound to whatever you're watching. Broomsticks. Whoosh. Faster ballads hit harder. Emeralds gleam brighter. And with voice control, the real magic is doing it all without lifting a finger.
- [00:34]
Richard Osman
I love the idea of ballads hitting harder.
- [00:37]
Marina Hyde
They couldn't hit harder.
- [00:38]
Richard Osman
Just say hello, Sky. Wicked. And it's showtime.
- [00:41]
Marina Hyde
Enjoy the enchanting sights and sounds of oz in full 4K picture quality on Skyglass from the best seat in the house. Your own.
- [00:48]
Richard Osman
And if you want a smarter TV without lifting more than an impressed brow, head to sky.com requires relevant Sky TV
- [00:56]
Marina Hyde
subscriptions, broadband recommended, minimum speed 30Mbps, 18 UK Channel Islands and island ban only. This podcast is brought to you by Carvana. Car shopping shouldn't feel like preparing for a marathon of paperwork. That's why Carvana makes buying and financing your car easy. From start to finish, search thousands of vehicles with great prices, all online, all on your time. And when you're ready, your new car shows up right at your door. It doesn't get better than that. Buy your car the easy way on delivery fees may apply. I'm not an astronaut. I don't need an astronaut.
- [01:37]
Richard Osman
Audiences have spoken.
- [01:39]
Marina Hyde
Project Hail Mary is an awe inspiring masterpiece.
- [01:43]
Richard Osman
So I met an alien. If you've fallen out of love with going to the movies, this one will bring you back. Ryan gosling in the first must scene movie of 2026. Project Hail Mary, rated PG13, may be inappropriate for children under 13 only in theaters March 20.
- [02:08]
Marina Hyde
Hello and welcome to this episode of the Rest Is Entertainment Questions and Answers edition. I'm Marina Hyde.
- [02:15]
Richard Osman
And I'm Richard Osman. You're still in Kefalonia, Marina?
- [02:17]
Marina Hyde
I remain in Kefalonia, a place of incredible beauty but substandard Internet connection.
- [02:24]
Richard Osman
As I remain in London's Charing Cross, which I have to say, the Internet connection is absolutely perfect. But it lacks maybe vine leaves.
- [02:35]
Marina Hyde
Yeah, and a couple of other bits and bobs. Now, shall we kick off? Because this question can only be for you. Okay. Alison Gaynor says this week in France, a game show contestant was finally beaten two Years after starting his run on the show. Has something like this ever happened on British tv, or are the rules too strict and therefore it's impossible for it to happen?
- [02:55]
Richard Osman
Yeah, it's a. It was a crazy story. It's actually not unique in. In the world, especially of European game shows. But a guy called Emilia was on Les du Coup de Midi, which is a daily daytime quiz show. He won 647 episodes of the show. 647. He won 2.2.5 million euros in prize money across that time, as well as 23 cars, holidays, and he won a parachuting lesson as well.
- [03:26]
Marina Hyde
Oh, my God.
- [03:27]
Richard Osman
So it was. It was a huge deal. I. I spoke to. There's a wonderful man, I've mentioned it before, called Brig Bother, if you want to follow him on. On X. And he is like the game show guru of everyone in Britain. He knows everything about every game show, so I chatted to him about it. And in Europe, these shows where you can stay on and you can start ramping up huge amounts of money are very, very popular. Weirdly, Pointless is the same. We have a thousand pound a day, and if you. If it's not one, you kind of hang on. But I think the most we ever got up to was. Was 24,000. That's the most we ever had. But on these shows on the continent, it's very hard to win the jackpot sometimes. There's all sorts of different ways you can rack up enormous amounts of money. So a million won, As I say, 2.5 million in Spain is where they really love those shows. There's one show which is called Boom, which has a combination of the two things. So it has. You can stay on for as long as you want if you keep winning, but it also has a sort of prize endgame, which is almost impossible to win. And that money keeps going up. So it's a team game. And the most famous team who ever played on Boom were called Los Lobos, the werewolves. They won 505 episodes in a row. And during that time, they picked up over 2.5 million euros in prize money. But they'd also been trying to play this impossible endgame every single episode as well. And the impossible endgame starts at €50,000 and goes up 5,000 a day. Eventually, after two years, they won the end game as well. So to add to their 2.5 million euro winnings, they won another 4.1 million euros as well. So they won over 6 million euros. So it's a cultural thing in these countries. They love a Show where it's almost impossible to win the jackpot because they've seen people win enormous amounts eventually. And it has never really worked. Over here, there's another Spanish show which we brought over here, Jeff Sterling did it called Alphabetical. And in Spain that rolls on and on and on, has been over 2 million euros a few times over there. But over here there was like a, a limit of 10 shows. It got up to £50,000 before it, it's, it got reset because our audience, just because we don't have an example of it working, we don't like it. We feel like, you know, we want to see somebody win eventually. One, you know, Eggheads works quite nicely in that way because Eggheads, the money goes up and up and up and eventually you can win sort of 80 grand or something. But it's not, it's not something. We're never going to have a show where it goes up to millions and millions. In America. It used to be. They used to be the same as us, which is. They would always have a limit. They'd have like a five show or a ten show limit. And funny enough, Jeopardy. Got rid of that in 2003. And that's where this guy Ken Jennings came good, who was the greatest winner in Jeopardy history, now hosts Jeopardy as well. And he won two and a half million dollars. He's also won various kind of spinoffs of Jeopardy. He's won another four and a half million dollars. So there are, there's big money to be made if you're a professional quizzer in these countries, but not over here. So to speak to Alison's specific question, if it happened over here, would we change the rules? What exactly. That happened. This is a very, very British story. Channel 5 used to have the quiz show 100%, which I used to rather love, where the contestants didn't say anything apart from their name and where they were from. And the whole thing was just them pressing A, B or C and, you know, getting answers right or wrong. And there was a guy on that called Ian Ligo, or as Channel 5 viewers knew him, Ian from Hemel Hempstead. He won 75 shows in a row. Of that. He won 75 shows. And there's a daily prize every single day on this show. And he won 75 in a row. And the producers at that point retired him.
- [07:05]
Marina Hyde
Oh, no.
- [07:06]
Richard Osman
They said, no. Do you know what? We're changing the rules. This is boring for our viewers. We have to get rid of you. We're changing you. So he won 75. He said they could at least have let me got to 100. You know, that's the name of the show, it's called 100%. But they didn't, after 75 shows they got rid of him. We've talked about the money that people have made in various foreign shows because this was Channel 5 and because it's Britain. After winning those 75 shows, he walked away with £7,500. Ian Ligo £7,500 After 100 shows, he won £100 an episode. But that's, that's the longest of a streak on British tv. They wouldn't let it go on. But you know, you win, you can win more on a daily show in the uk, but yeah, in, in Europe. I'd love to see those shows in the uk. But it's just one of those things that they love a rolling jackpot and they love an impossible to crack end game where the money goes up and up and up. So thank you for the question. Also thank you so much to Brig Bother for helping me out with a lot of the research for that.
- [08:07]
Marina Hyde
I love that.
- [08:07]
Richard Osman
Marina, I have a question for you from Jason Cahill. What are your thoughts on the Royal Rota? It seems publishing anything controversial about the senior royals will result in a loss of access. Does this lead to an unstated form of Less Majeste? What's the Royal Rota?
- [08:21]
Marina Hyde
Okay, the Royal Rota is a sort of press pool system where selected journalists and snappers photographers have access to royal events and then they can share them with those who weren't present amongst themselves. And so you have what's called pool clips and shared write ups. And what it has allowed Royal Communications, who are the people who run sort of the various palaces, media operations. It's allowed them to control access and maximise distribution and it's to create a sort of orderly press access that isn't overwhelming for various members of the royal family. So on a sort of really basic practical level, it's a bit like I've done this in elections as well. If a politician or in this case if a member of the royal family is going somewhere quite small and intimate, you do not want 40 people sitting. Maybe they're going to a hospice or maybe they're going to something like that. So you, in that situation you would have, you know, one person there doing the moving images, one person there doing the write up and it would, it would be very. And then they share them with all the others. Now different people are in, different news organizations are in this at any one time, but they basically, they broadly stay the same. So at the moment you, the people who are in it are the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, sky, the Sun, the Mirror, the Express, the London Evening Standard, the Telegraph, the Mail, the Times Press association and various various picture agencies. And you're. We'll get on to what I think about this in a minute. You're given a ROTOR pass and you have to sign up to all their conditions, which are all controlled by Royal Communications. And as I say, they keep a, you know, maybe there'll be 15 or 20 per event and sometimes you'll get that, what's called solo rota. Meghan and Harry criticized it and withdrew completely. Say they said it pushed bias and invasiveness and unfair press practices. And they said what we're going to do is we're going to create our own sort of rotor. We're going to go with selected, selected, favored people. So grassroots or socially responsible or socially oriented outlets. And they were also going to use their own social media. I don't think it's interesting. Listen, this, this particular system doesn't stop other reporters getting other stories about the Royal family. And the Royal family's really never been able to stop people getting too many stories about them.
- [11:03]
Richard Osman
It's just for things like official visits, is it? And stuff where it would be overwhelming to have 30 people.
- [11:08]
Marina Hyde
Yes, it is. I mean, having said that, rather like when football clubs say, oh, we don't, you know, you wrote something really disparaging about us. You're not allowed to come to press conferences anymore. There are moments of carve out like that which are, you know, in my view are obviously wrong. It is much more exclusive and sort of managed than the lobby system, which we must do a question about some other time. The parliamentary lobby system, which is the system via which politics is covered to some extent. But equally, just as with the lobby system, if you get report, if you get some story that's outside of that, you will run with it and you always have been able to. It's, it's very interesting because I would say that so much of the story of modern celebrity, sport, whatever it is, is about access in the, in so much of everything that has happened over the past decades in public life have been about, of different ways of restricting access. To a certain extent people, you know, when social media came along and you can see that's what Meghan and Harry think has happened. Like, oh, hang on, why don't we just control our own stuff? Which a lot of celebrities also found for good or for real? Probably a lot for real. If you try and control press access or you don't cooperate with anything, then they do come after you. And that's a sort of unpleasant fact of. Of that business. And people will always try to get to a truth, as we've talked about before, if they feel that, oh, you're selling me something with so much again, so much, you know, that people have regarded as fair game and that they're all in the business of selling something. And if people feeling they're being mis. Sold something, then they have a problem with it. It's very interesting, the Royal reporters, I mean, if you think of the stories in like the 80s and 90s, which were obviously hugely invasive in lots and lots of ways. That book I was talking about the other day, there's a really good sort of little nugget in the Diana World book, which is the sort of story of the obsession with Princess Diana. James Whittaker, who is this sort of legendary Daily Mirror royal reporter, I remember
- [13:12]
Richard Osman
him from sort of breakfast tv and things always look very jolly, hugely jolly,
- [13:16]
Marina Hyde
and a sort of. Yeah, so it's a slightly sort of foghorn voice and. But he. He went out and sold all those stories on the. On breakfast TV as well. But so all the best stories really are partly to do with access and then you kind of maybe do something with that access or you. A piece of information that's come via access and then you can do something else. It's really interesting.
- [13:37]
Richard Osman
He.
- [13:38]
Marina Hyde
He thinks his best story ever, it was about. About Princess Diana, was he found out partly via access, partly via contacts, where. Where Charles and Diana were. And they were on a yacht in the Mediterranean in 1985. And he had a network of insiders, so we found various. And he sat there and he watched them on the deck with a pair of binoculars for six hours and nothing happened. But that was the story. But you see, they didn't talk to each other for six hours and he thought, oh, my God, there's something so wrong in their marriage, this is. Something dreadful has happened. And of course he was right and, you know, that wasn't access. But equally, in a weird way, it's very weird and the book that I was reading is very kind of good, talking about maybe he liked her best just to sort of observe as a creature. But that story is, you know, that's not from the press pool, that's not from the Royal Rota, and it's not. It's not really anything. It's a story where absolutely nothing happens. But it became the biggest story of the 80s, I suppose, in lots of ways, which was that the biggest royal story, certainly, which was that their marriage was completely falling apart.
- [14:53]
Richard Osman
So the royal writer is really just sort of official functions and outside of that it's fair game and people have always found ways through it.
- [15:01]
Marina Hyde
Yes, but they can use it to, you know, as always, as I was saying with, as football clubs have done, to say, oh, no, you're being cut out of this because of the way you've behaved. And there are many, many stories where it always exists, where you have to give us access to things and you have to tell the press a certain amount of stuff and serve yourselves up to a certain extent. And if you don't, we will find ways of getting our own stuff because you failed to provide for us and that. I mean, there was a famous incident when Prince William was at university in, in St Andrews and they felt that all the royal people felt they were just being completely cut out as they weren't having anything, they had no access whatsoever. So they just did a paparazzi shot of him getting his shopping in one night to say, oh, we could do this all the time. So either you give us something or we'll do our own thing. So it does work both ways. It is a weird sort of carve up and. But, you know, I don't think any of us could say that the Royal Family have been successful in suppressing stories about them over the last few decades. So it's a sort of arrangement that broadly works for good or for ill.
- [16:12]
Richard Osman
As I say, sounds like it works for no one.
- [16:14]
Marina Hyde
The British way. Well, we want everyone to be suffering, really. We certainly want the monarchy to be
- [16:19]
Richard Osman
suffering, I always think, and the tabloid press.
- [16:21]
Marina Hyde
No one's unhappy when the tabloid press is suffering.
- [16:24]
Richard Osman
Let's go for a little break, shall we? Hey, everyone. This episode is brought to you by
- [16:32]
Marina Hyde
sky, which means it's time to talk about Mr. Big Stuff. The sky original comedy which earned Danny Dyer a BAFTA for season one.
- [16:40]
Richard Osman
He returns as Lee, a man reacting to matelife developments with self pity, avoidance and long afternoons in a garden chair.
- [16:46]
Marina Hyde
His brother Glenn, played by Ryan Sampson, the show's creator and a fan favourite from Brassic and Plebs, takes a different approach, launching an investigation despite having no qualifications beyond stress, impulse and alarming levels of determination.
- [16:59]
Richard Osman
One of those shows that is not exactly what you expect, but also such a great reminder that the mighty Danny Dyer is such a colossus in the middle of our culture.
- [17:07]
Marina Hyde
It's sharp, it's Chaotic. It's tender, with cameos from Linda Henry, Sean Williamson and Rudolinska to keep things grounded.
- [17:14]
Richard Osman
Also, Danny Dye is one of those people, if you turn up on the TV show and he's also on, you think, oh, we're in for a fun day here. And also, whenever you're watching a TV program or a film and he turns up, you're thinking, oh, we're in for some fun here. Listen, I'd watch him on a film, I'd watch him on an entertainment show. I'd watch him on Mr. Big Stuff.
- [17:28]
Marina Hyde
All episodes of Mr. Big Stuff, series two are available on sky, and series one's there too, if you'd like to trace the spiral back to its source. Requires relevant Sky TV subscription.
- [17:39]
Richard Osman
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Marina Hyde
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- [18:03]
Richard Osman
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- [18:08]
Marina Hyde
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- [18:11]
Richard Osman
relax and let go of whatever you're carrying today.
- [18:15]
Marina Hyde
Well, I'm letting go of the worry that I wouldn't get my new contacts in time for this class. I got them delivered free from 1-800-contacts. Oh, my gosh, they're so fast.
- [18:24]
Richard Osman
And breathe. Oh, sorry.
- [18:26]
Marina Hyde
I almost couldn't breathe when I saw the discount they gave me on my first order. Oh, sorry. Namaste. Visit 1-800-contacts.com today to save on your first order.
- [18:36]
Richard Osman
1-800-contacts.
- [18:44]
Marina Hyde
Welcome back, everybody. Now. Oh, this is a sad question, Richard, but possibly not is about fiction for men. Martin H. Has written in and says it is assumed that men have largely stopped reading fiction books. Is this true?
- [18:59]
Richard Osman
God, so you'd believe it was true if you read every article about it. So it's seeped into our culture that women hugely dominate the reading and writing these days of fiction. It's not as true as they say. There's a stat you see all the time that says 80% of the fiction market is female and 20% is male, which I find zero evidence for. Anyway. There's evidence for. It's clearly female skewed, that's for sure. The best UK evidence is that I think 67 of fiction books are bought by women, 33% by men, which, I mean, that's a big skew but no different to lots of other, you know, markets and marketplaces. And there's still a lot of men reading. But the funny thing about books is not many of anyone reads all that many books. It's not like television or sport or something like that. It's. It is still quite niche. It's. It's a very profitable industry because everyone who does read, by and large, is paying for those things. And books have a very, very, very long life because, you know, you can still sell books many, many years later. So that's where the money in books come from. It doesn't necessarily come from, you know, almost all the British people reading. The stat about how many people books in general that people read a year is also misleading, which is the Average person reads 14 books a year, 14 fiction books a year, which sounds like a fair enough amount. But there are many people, my mum would be one of them, you'd be another one, who will read such huge amounts of books that that is skewed. And actually the better average is the median, which is sort of halfway across our culture. How many books do people read? And that's about five a year. So the average person, really, in a more interesting way of using an average, reads five books a year, five novels a year.
- [20:45]
Marina Hyde
I still think that's quite a lot in a way, for if the average person, that's everybody taking the average of everybody, then I think that's quite a lot.
- [20:54]
Richard Osman
I mean, certainly there are male skewing authors and female skewing authors. There happen to be an awful lot more female skewing authors at the moment. Probably the four bestselling authors in the world at the moment would be Colleen Hoover, Sarah J. Maas, Rebecca Yarros and Frieda McFadden. And they have predominantly female readerships. You know, you'll have other writers like Stephen King who's would skew, skew more male. Lee Child would skew more male, but again, not crazily so. My books are almost exactly 50, 50, which I always love. And I often talk to men who say, oh, I absolutely got out of reading and I got back into reading. So, you know, I like that. So I don't think it's as big a problem as people say, but I think if we constantly keep repeating this thing of, you know, 80, 20, then I think it gets worse. I think Andrew Tate had something to say about men reading books. This is not his worst crime, but this was his quote. He said, reading books is for losers, losers who are afraid to learn from life. He thinks if you Read a book, you're learning from other people's lives and it leads him to this conclusion, which is books are education for cowards.
- [22:04]
Marina Hyde
I thought he spent his whole time holed up in that shitty compound out by the airport in Romania. I mean, what life? He doesn't have any.
- [22:11]
Richard Osman
I mean, sort of get through a Tom Clancy or two. I like that, I think. But I mean, you, you can't read books about 17th century. You, you can't live in 17th century England, but you can learn about it. You can't live in someone else's heart, but you can learn about it. I think he's sort of. I don't know what books he's talking about.
- [22:30]
Marina Hyde
Do you think he's pre Enlightenment? I think he might be.
- [22:32]
Richard Osman
I think.
- [22:33]
Marina Hyde
I don't think you'd be thinking about the 17th century. I think you. I think he's sort of. Yeah, he's a sort of Dark Ages figure really, isn't he?
- [22:40]
Richard Osman
Listen, it's, it's an interesting take, but to Martin's question, yes, fiction does skew female in. Right, in writing and in reading, but not as much as they say. And lots of people are trying to encourage more men to read, but with. Essentially, we're trying to encourage more people to read, we're trying to encourage more children to read, more women, more men, more everything. Because, you know, books do make you smarter, they do tend to make you more empathetic. And it also takes your face away from a screen and that, you know, it's. Your brain does change. And we all know when we can fall out of love with reading for a month or so. And then you, you have to sort of force yourself back into it. And when you do, you're always happy that you did. But yes, it's female dominated, but not as much as they say. And the more the merrier.
- [23:28]
Marina Hyde
Oh, thank you. Well, that's, that's a much more optimistic take than I had feared at the start of the question.
- [23:33]
Richard Osman
Marina, Mark east has a question for you. He says, during an important parental lecture on patience triggered by a 12 second YouTube buffer, I recounted how tough we had it in the olden days, the 1990s, when we would wait patiently for months for the UK release of a film compared to the US I remember those days. Why did that used to happen, those big release gaps between the US and the uk and what changed to bring global release dates closer together? Has that shift had any real impact on the industry or box office behavior?
- [24:01]
Marina Hyde
Well, those are all very good questions and yeah, exactly. Skip AD or, you know, something buffering. You never had it so good, kids. Yes, this was the thing. Now this. There was a very, very rigid system of windows of what happened with films and the U.S. basically, because most of the films were made there. Obviously it's different with Bollywood films and things like that, but they were obviously prioritized in terms of market rollout. And when films were shipped on physical reels, you showed in the US first, and then you shipped the reels overseas and you needed all that extra time between release for things like, I don't know, dubbing and subtitling and local marketing, whatever that, all that sort of stuff. But you also hoped, because you could, because this is the system you'd created for the world, was that the US run would get a buzz and that would serve as a momentum type of marketing campaign for the international rollout. As with the box office, if you heard that something had been a huge hit in America. And So, yeah, the 90s that you're talking about, I think in 1995, the average movie, Hollywood movie, came out in the UK on average four and a half months after they had in the US.
- [25:13]
Richard Osman
That's insane. In the 90s, I know, but you
- [25:16]
Marina Hyde
remember it, you know, and I'm going to talk to you about the various windows in a minute. But then 10 years ago, the average was three weeks after. Now, as you can see, it's simultaneous, by the way. Obviously that's. It's all digital now. And so you're not shipping these huge, literally physical reels of things anywhere. But there are various reasons this, this happened. So we'll go back over the decades, pre Jewels, pre Star wars, all that sort of stuff which we've talked about before. You know, movies were sort of opened in a kind of roadshow style way. You'd open them somewhere, you'd open them on sort of limited release, and then if they were popular, you'd roll them out and they go on to wide Release, more than 600 screens. And then anyway, Jaws comes along and they have these ideas and then we all become used to the idea of blockbusters and everything wants to be a blockbuster. So the 1980s to the 2000s, it's all wide release now. The 2000s and 2010s are where it all changes because things go digital. And as soon as things go digital, you have the piracy risk and that's what really changed. Yeah, everything changes with that piracy risk. And now in the 2000 and 20s, obviously you've got the streaming issue, so things have much shorter theatrical Runs. But so what? These were called windows. And this is how it went in the olden times. And you can tell your child this is how it went. You would have the theatrical window, that is cinema. It was then available for hotels and airlines. Don't forget, you could sometimes. I mean, I didn't do this, but I knew people who'd say, oh, yeah, I saw it on a plane. You know, how. Have you seen Beverly Hills Cop? I've seen it on a plane. Well, excuse me. So then it went to rental and then retail, so you could buy the disc or whatever it was, or the VHS or the dvd. Then it went to pay per view. These were all the windows, like eight windows. Then it went to video on demand, then it went to pay television, then network television, and then finally it could be syndicated. Right. So that even that rental window had eight weeks exclusivity. So that. But that when I think in the mid-2000s, Warner Brothers had a big, A big standoff with Blockbuster because Blockbuster said, we will not stop Warner Brothers films if you can buy them on the same day that you can like rent them in Blockbuster, you know, because we, we, we won't accept that. But they came to accept it rich. So many of these businesses, they caved. And then all the other wind. Once that had happened, all the other windows began to look vulnerable. So studios were thinking, well, hang on a second. If I, if something's miles apart, well, I'm spending all this money. And we know how much marketing costs. They don't want to spend all this money. And then like six months later say, oh, it's now it's out on dvd. Or, you know, now you can watch it. They're like.
- [28:11]
Richard Osman
To spend it again. Yeah, yeah.
- [28:13]
Marina Hyde
You basically want there to be a sort of momentum. And so now we're so. Yes, it's changed everything hugely. As you can see, there are certain people who desperately want theatrical release for their stuff. Netflix say, we don't give anyone theatrical release. And, oh, hang on. Except for you, Greta Gerwig, who's doing your Narnia movie. So she's managed to get a carve out for that. But then it's like, well, how's it?
- [28:36]
Richard Osman
And Thursday Murder Club.
- [28:37]
Marina Hyde
And Thursday Murder Club. Yes, Thursday Murder Club will have a theatrical release and then it will be on the platform. How long between all those? I mean, it would have to be, you know, with certain things that, like, you know, whatever. The rocks, Christmas. Was it called Red One? That ridiculous thing with the rock. Yeah, well, I mean, that would have been Each one of those windows, those eight windows would have taken about 15 minutes with how quickly they got that out of theaters and onto the service. There are many things. So all of this is collapsed and that collapsing windows thing was a big thing. And you still see creators still want their movies to be theatrical. Studios actually would like to have, lots of people would like to. The theater owners would like to have longer release in cinemas because it allows them to make money. If you've got a two week release and then it's going to somehow end up on the platform or on Apple or wherever it is then really you just know that people are waiting at home see it. So you can't really make money out of the, out of the property at all. And so they want to have longer releases. Everything has basically been thrown up in the air and it hasn't properly settled. It's a, it's a, it's still very, very difficult and it definitely hasn't made anything better for the cinemas. It's become a nightmare for the cinemas. But you know, yes, it's good that everything can be released worldwide at the same time now. So we immediately see the combined box office for a film. So you can see the, the way the American trades break it down. You'll see the domestic box office and the worldwide immediately which also makes your film look much more profitable in an era when films are much less profitable.
- [30:11]
Richard Osman
And the only time you really still that delay now is with indie films or films that do get a bit of a buzz. So they, you know, they might do well in, in the States and then they'll come over and we sort of read about them and looking forward to them openly or something like the Ballad of Wallace island that was huge in the UK and therefore gets a much bigger rollout in the States sort of the next month. So that still happens, but it doesn't happen for any of the big movies
- [30:33]
Marina Hyde
or they don't have a distributor. You know, there was a film that had a little bit, you know, just a kind of low budget comedy called One of Them Days. And I remember reading about it and thinking when can I watch this? And it was a long time till I could watch that clearly because it didn't even have a UK distributor. And there are lots of situations like that, as you say, with the indies, but with a big studio movies they try and open them simultaneously and piracy has become, was, was a big part of why they did that.
- [31:00]
Richard Osman
Piracy is a thing whenever you get proofs now for new people's books, it always has like I got a book this week, the new Francis Bufford book. It's one of my favorite authors, but it has the word Faber written in very dark ink across every single page, that it's unreadable because it has Faber written across every page. Chris Columbus, who directed Thursday Murder Club, he just got a copy of the new Thursday Murder Club book, the Impossible Fortune, but he says it's got Chris Columbus written all the way across every single page. He said, so listen, the top and bottom of each page, I have to say, are great. He said the middle of each page, I have no idea.
- [31:36]
Marina Hyde
Oh, this is a good one. About promotional work for movies, Ella Worsley says, will actors be contracted to attend red carpet events and do cover shoots. If so, who pays for their dresses and hair and makeup?
- [31:48]
Richard Osman
Ah, well, I've been. Literally had a big meeting last week with Netflix about Thursday Murder Club. So I've, I've been right in the heart of all this. Yes, basically, yeah. For any TV show or for movies or anything like that in your contract, it will ask you for a series of days to make yourself available for promo duties. Red carpet, slightly different. It might. If you're the big star of the movie, then you'd have to be on the red carpet, but otherwise it would be, can you turn up or not? But every single time a big movie comes out, they'll get hundreds of pictures in from all the big magazines you'll get. And, you know, people who want to host the premiere places who want to host the premiere, they will be apportioned out to the stars of that show. Those requests would go out to those stars, and the stars usually should say yes to two or three of them. You know, that's the, the idea. Or they're gonna junket. They'll have like a junket day where they'll do a lot at the same time. But yeah, it's absolutely in their contract in terms of photo shoots, in terms of premieres and stuff like that. They, they, yes, they, you. You do get a glam fund, which is if you are turning up for a red carpet, the film company, the TV company is very, very aware you're being photographed everywhere. And those photographs are going to be used by the TV or film company. And so you are given a budget for hair, makeup, for dresses, for whatever you want to wear. So there's, there's always that as well. So, yeah, people are not expected to, to, to, to fund a red carpet look by themselves. And most people, you know, you absolutely can do. And lots of people do do. But if you do need hair and makeup, that does get paid by themselves, your Amazon or your Netflix or your Lionsgate or whoever is making the movie. But yes, it's all written into the contract. That's why quite often when you get, you know, there's all sorts of headlines saying, Pierce Brosnan speaks out on this, or Tom Cruise reveals. This is. None of them are revealing anything. They just. They've had to do three interviews for the thing that they have to contractually do three interviews. They will have to answer the questions that they're being asked. And so people often go, oh, God, why don't celebrities shut up? And you go, well, I mean, celebrities are very, very, very happy to shut up, but every single time they see anything in any interview, it immediately gets reported. And, of course, all those interviews are asking, you know, things that try to lead them into giving stuff away. And so it is contractually, you have to be talking and you have to do interviews and you have to go on the red carpet and that. It's not like, oh, my God, these people are desperate for publicity. Oh, my God, these people love the sound of their own voice. It is contractually for you do. Part of your fee is you have to promote this and you have to say yes to a certain amount of things. You could always turn things down, but you can't turn everything down. So you have to pick and choose the things you want to do. Talking of red carpets, by the way, a perfect place to say we're not doing a bonus episode tomorrow, but anyone who is a member, we have 10 tickets, 10 pairs of tickets to give away to the Thursday Murder Club premiere in August in Leicester Square. Everyone will be there. Mirren Brosnan, Imrie Kingsley Tennant. The cast will be there, will be there. So if you are a member in your newsletter, you'll get a chance to apply for those. If you're not a member, by the way, and don't want to be a member, there is a. You. You can follow my Penguin newsletter as well, which is absolutely free, and there'll be tickets there as well. But, yeah, we're trying to do a premiere where there's lots of members of the public there and not just, you know, influences, I think is the idea.
- [35:20]
Marina Hyde
The people's premiere.
- [35:21]
Richard Osman
The people's premiere, exactly that. So the stars will be there of the. Of the actual film, but hopefully, apart from that, it'll be. It'll be fans. That's the idea. And I'd love it if. If some of them were listening right
- [35:31]
Marina Hyde
now and you can find details about our club@therealsentertainment.com Now, I think that about wraps us up for today, Richard.
- [35:40]
Richard Osman
Thank you for all your questions, everyone. Will you be back with us next week?
- [35:44]
Marina Hyde
I. I will be. You'll be delighted to hear that I will be back.
- [35:48]
Richard Osman
Yes.
- [35:48]
Marina Hyde
Where we belong next week.
- [35:50]
Richard Osman
In a dingy basement.
- [35:52]
Marina Hyde
Yeah, in a dingy basement, but together.
- [35:54]
Richard Osman
See you in that dingy basement next Tuesday.
- [35:56]
Marina Hyde
Yes. This episode was brought to you by our good friends at sky who've made something rather special.
- [36:16]
Richard Osman
Yep, a tv. And a smarter one at that called Sky Glass. No box, no dish, no cables creating abstract modern art on the wall. Just one sleek screen that does it all.
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Marina Hyde
It adapts to what you're watching, too. A Spanish villa in the Day of the Jackal, A jungle paradise in a nature documentary or poolside in the White Lotus. The crystal clear picture quality will make you feel like you're right there. Minus the questionable company.
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Richard Osman
Sky, Netflix, Disney, Apple tv, plus your favorite apps built into one place. Gone are the days of app hopping your way to a perfect evening's entertainment.
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Marina Hyde
If you fancy a TV with the latest tech and unmissable titles, visit sky.com requires relevant Sky TV and third party subscriptions.
- [36:55]
Richard Osman
Broadband recommended. Minimum speed 30Mbps, 18/uk Channel Islands and Isle of man only.
- [37:01]
Marina Hyde
Spring just slid into your DMs. Grab that boho. Look for that rooftop dinner, those sandals that can keep up with you. And hang some string lights to give your patio a glow up. Spring's calling, Ross. Work your magic.