Could Kathy Burke Be Bond?

Summary

The Rest Is Entertainment – "Could Kathy Burke Be Bond?"

Episode Date: July 1, 2026
Hosts: Richard Osman & Marina Hyde
Theme: Q&A Special – Insider takes on TV, movies, pop culture, and industry oddities

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Overview

In this lively Q&A episode, Richard Osman and Marina Hyde field listener questions on entertainment industry gossip, behind-the-scenes mechanics of TV and film, surreal showbiz decisions, and the strange world where pop culture, politics, and viral memes collide. The duo share stories about doomed biopics, odd licensing initiatives, cultural crossovers (like Tom and Jerry in China), and muse about the ultimate casting stunt—one person as Doctor Who, Bond, and Prime Minister. The tone is sharp, witty, and mischievous, packed with industry anecdotes, satirical asides, and spontaneous laughter.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Madonna’s Aborted Biopic (02:31–08:16)

• Listener Question: What happened to the Madonna biopic with Julia Garner? How common are such expensive canceled productions?
• Backstory: Universal dropped the Madonna biopic, despite intensive "Madonna boot camp" preparations involving several high-profile actresses.
• Boot Camp Details:
  • Contestants included Florence Pugh and Julia Garner.
  • Required extensive singing and dancing auditions, overseen by Madonna's own choreographer.
• Why It Collapsed:
  • Madonna’s creative control: script was three hours plus, written and directed by Madonna herself.
  • Quote (Marina): "She’s a control freak… that’s what's made her great. I just don't think that's the right person to tell your own story." [08:15]
  • Budget conflicts and shifting the production to Serbia led to further skepticism from Universal.
• General Industry Insight: Sunk costs sometimes push productions forward, but here they pulled out pre-filming. The panel likened it to the canceled Batgirl movie and discussed how studios sometimes shelve projects purely for tax write-offs.

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2. Tom and Jerry’s Popularity in China & Winnie the Pooh Ban (08:27–11:43)

• Listener Question: Why was the latest Tom and Jerry film made by a Chinese company, and how is it perceived there?
• Key Points:
  • Tom and Jerry is huge in China, once broadcast nightly on state TV.
  • The Chinese made their own version: "The Blue Mouse and the Big Faced Cat".
  • Quote (Richard): "Tom and Jerry is timeless. Tom and Jerry has endured." [09:41]
• Contrast with Winnie the Pooh:
  • Full ban in China due to memes comparing Xi Jinping to Pooh.
  • Quote (Richard): "Winnie the Pooh is absolutely... just about the most banned thing that's possible to be banned in China." [10:14]
• Memorable Fact: Online Tom and Jerry game in China has 100 million users.

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3. BBC's World Cup TV License QR Codes (11:43–13:16)

• Listener Question: Do people actually use the TV license fee QR codes shown during World Cup coverage?
• Hosts’ Take:
  • Highly skeptical; believe the usage is "as close to zero" as possible.
  • Quote (Marina): “What, the second half of the football's starting... hang on a second, let me just get...” [12:04]
• Satirical Suggestions: Better results if QR code was a plotline in EastEnders.

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4. “Triple Threat” Casting: Doctor Who, James Bond, Prime Minister (16:09–20:12)

• Listener Question: Who could plausibly be the next Doctor Who, James Bond, and Prime Minister?
• Speculative Nominees:
  • Tom Hiddleston (for versatility).
  • Ross Kemp (“I could see him as Who for sure. I could see him as an older Bond, possibly. And he's dipped his toe into politics.” – Richard [17:41])
  • Kathy Burke (“I would trust to run the country. I would trust as a Doctor Who, as a Bond…” – Richard [17:34])
  • Danny Dyer (Richard’s final “consensus” candidate) [18:52]
• Lively Banter:
  • “...due to the advantages of leaving the EU, we are now being allowed to have a Prime Minister who's also Doctor Who and James Bond.” – Richard [18:33]
  • Discussion about job-sharing the roles, and imagining their conversation leading to a real-world outcome.

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5. Social Media Vetting in TV & Politics (20:13–25:14)

• Listener Question: How does the vetting process work for TV personalities after a BBC docu-series was pulled due to the host’s offensive social media history?
• Explained:
  • Vetting can be third-party human checks or AI scans, with varying thoroughness.
  • All major broadcasters do DBS (criminal) and social media checks, to avoid PR disasters.
  • Sometimes corners are cut, and big projects can be disastrously derailed as a result.
  • Example: “The guy that we got to be the British Ambassador to the United States of America failed his vetting and still got the job.” [23:42]
• Pointed Comparison: TV is much better at vetting than politics.

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6. Sequels Written After Film Adaptation Success (25:20–28:51)

• Listener Question: Have any authors written book sequels only after a film adaptation became a hit? Are those sequels any good?
• Case Study: Forrest Gump
  • Gump and Co. was written by Winston Groom after the film’s massive success.
  • Sequel book was far more outlandish: Forrest invents New Coke, meets Ayatollah Khomeini, meets Tom Hanks, and captures Saddam Hussein.
  • Quote (Richard): “...in the sequel, Forrest invents New Coke. He meets Ayatollah Khomeini. He meets Tom Hanks, who was filming Big. So he meets the guy who played him in the movie...” [27:07]
  • Movie adaptation was greenlit; script finished on September 10, 2001—abandoned after 9/11 as “this tragicomedy about a simple man blundering through American history had no meaning anymore.” [28:22]
• Fun Fact: The scriptwriter delivered the script literally a day before 9/11 changed the political climate.

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Notable Quotes (“Speaker” @ Timestamp)

• Marina Hyde: "You are not the right person to tell your own story." [08:15]
• Richard Osman: "Tom and Jerry is timeless. Tom and Jerry has endured." [09:41]
• Richard Osman: "Winnie the Pooh is absolutely... just about the most banned thing that's possible to be banned in China." [10:14]
• Marina Hyde: “What, the second half of the football's starting... hang on a second, let me just get…” [12:04]
• Richard Osman: "I could see [Ross Kemp] as Who for sure. I could see him as an older Bond, possibly. And he's dipped his toe into politics." [17:41]
• Richard Osman: “…due to the advantages of leaving the EU, we are now being allowed to have a Prime Minister who's also Doctor Who and James Bond.” [18:33]
• Richard Osman: “...in the sequel, Forrest invents New Coke. He meets Ayatollah Khomeini. He meets Tom Hanks, who was filming Big... He causes the downfall of the Berlin Wall, and he captures Saddam Hussein while deployed in the Gulf War. So there's a lot going on in that book.” [27:07]

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Key Timestamps for Segments

• 02:31 – Madonna biopic implosion & biopic trends
• 08:27 – Tom and Jerry in China; Winnie the Pooh bans
• 11:43 – BBC TV license QR code skepticism
• 16:09 – Fantasy casting: Who could be Bond, Doctor Who, and Prime Minister?
• 20:13 – Social media vetting, TV vs politics
• 25:20 – Book sequels after film adaptations (Forrest Gump 2)

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Memorable Moments

• The hosts’ delightfully cynical reaction to the idea of a Madonna biopic directed by Madonna herself.
• Richard's earnest nomination of Ross Kemp—and then Danny Dyer—for the ultimate multitasker in British culture.
• The detailed, tongue-in-cheek rundown of the Forrest Gump book sequel’s surreal plot twists.
• The running joke about the futility of the BBC’s license fee QR codes during football broadcasts.

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Tone & Takeaways

Richard and Marina combine sharp industry insight with playful banter and open skepticism about the odder corridors of the entertainment world. The episode delivers both juicy showbiz tidbits and gentle ridicule of bureaucracy and vanity in TV, film, and public life. If you want the inside scoop with a side of irreverence, this one is a must-listen.

Transcript

[Marina Hyde]

The rest is entertainment is presented by Octopus Energy.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Now, one of the strangest signs of status in show business is being very,

[Marina Hyde]

very hard to reach.

[Richard Osman]

Exactly. You get to a certain level in the business where you don't want anyone to talk to you at all. And there are some people who are notoriously difficult to get hold of. Christopher Nolan, for example, is famously, almost completely. It doesn't even have a mobile phone. I mean, you literally cannot get hold of Christopher Nolan. He says. Of course he does. He's got a sneaky little mobile. Has he? Yeah, he's on WhatsApp groups. But he doesn't want you to know that. Should I tell who's easy to get hold of?

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Who?

[Richard Osman]

Octopus Energy.

[Marina Hyde]

Yes.

[Richard Osman]

So Octopus Energy, if you know the score, when one of your service providers writes to you, you've got a question for them or you're disputing something, you reply and it immediately says, you cannot reply to this email. With Octopus Energy, any email they send you, you can reply to and it will go to your dedicated team, which to me feels like one of the greatest advancements I've heard of the last 30 or 40 years, you can actually reply to people.

[Marina Hyde]

So would it be possible to contact

[Guest or Co-host 1]

the people I'm paying my money to?

[Marina Hyde]

Well, with Octopus email, you can reply directly to your own dedicated small team.

[Richard Osman]

I mean, that's amazing, right?

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[Marina Hyde]

Hello and welcome to this episode of the Rest Is Entertainment Questions and Answers Edition. I'm Marina Hyde.

[Richard Osman]

And I am Richard Osman. We have lots of your questions. Thank you so much for sending them in. Are you ready?

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Yeah.

[Richard Osman]

Should we kick straight off?

[Marina Hyde]

Get me.

[Richard Osman]

Okay. We're going to start with Madonna. You must.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Yeah.

[Richard Osman]

Nathan Stucker has a question. Madonna has said that she and Universal have parted ways over her biopic apparently starring Julia Garner. It seems like a fortune had been put into pre production, including something called a Madonna boot camp. How often do films fall at the final hurdle? Is there a point where productions have to happen because of sunk costs?

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Haha. Yeah. Parted ways is one of those real newspaper words, isn't it? Newspaper phrases.

[Marina Hyde]

They've parted ways. You know, like when you have to say a manager. You can't say a manager's going to be sacked because he could get sued.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

So you have to say that on the bridge. Okay.

[Marina Hyde]

Yeah.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

They have 100% parted ways. Let's put it that way, Nathan.

[Marina Hyde]

This is a film about her, co

[Guest or Co-host 1]

written by her and directed by her.

[Richard Osman]

So no way.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Yeah. I've got to question the wisdom of Universal's investment in that.

[Marina Hyde]

What we do know is that the script for this, the Madonna biopic was. And remember there are a lot of these kind of music biopics. They're very successful and there's kind of big trend for them. The script was. I know it was three hours plus. I've talked to various people who were

[Guest or Co-host 1]

connected or at least know some of the stories. There's a lot of fallout stories from this.

[Marina Hyde]

There was a Madonna boot camp. Yes. She wanted candidates who. For the role to be able to

[Richard Osman]

sing for the role as her.

[Marina Hyde]

Yeah.

[Richard Osman]

Okay.

[Marina Hyde]

And they needed to be able to sing, but they, you know. Okay, debatable. But to be able to do the dancing and to be choreographed by her choreographer.

[Richard Osman]

But Julia Garner is a big actor. Right. She's from, she's from Ozark and that sort of stuff.

[Marina Hyde]

Yeah. But various people went through this boot camp. Florence Pugh, Odessa Young.

[Richard Osman]

Florence Pugh went through a boot camp.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

I know. Beverexha, Skye Ferreira, Alexis Demi and Julia Garner.

[Marina Hyde]

And Julia Garner wins. But then in 2023.

[Richard Osman]

Madonna's in 2023.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Yeah.

[Richard Osman]

Okay. All right.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

You can imagine.

[Richard Osman]

I understand.

[Marina Hyde]

Then she. It's the celebration tour and that was a big, big thing. So they sort of shelve it. That would have been the moment, I think. But then it sort of gets. Comes resurrected. It is now definitely dead. Madonna has given an interview about it in which she said, oh, we had a falling out me in Universal regarding budget because I need, I. I needed. I've had an extraordinary life. I've had a huge life.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

So I needed a Big budget.

[Richard Osman]

All right, all right. Guy in a pub.

[Marina Hyde]

Yeah.

[Richard Osman]

So you wouldn't believe some of the things I've done. You wouldn't believe them.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Yeah, yeah.

[Richard Osman]

She obviously. They couldn't. Hollywood. They couldn't make it up.

[Marina Hyde]

They couldn't make it up.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

They need CGI to create this.

[Marina Hyde]

She said she wanted to meet, so then she tried to come up with some kind of financial compromise and she said she was gonna move it to Serbia. And Universal said to her, well, we don't even believe you today. In Serbia for four days.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Sorry.

[Marina Hyde]

And she says, did you read the script? My entire life has been survival.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

I'm not going there for a holiday. So massive drive by on Serbia there. Just.

[Richard Osman]

Come on, guys.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Thank you.

[Richard Osman]

Meanwhile, Serbia's going for you.

[Marina Hyde]

I mean, I.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Okay.

[Marina Hyde]

As I say, lots of. We have lots of these relationships in cinema at the moment because there are lots of these biopics and there are some people who are great. Someone like Bob Dylan who just says, do whatever you want. He doesn't regard that, you know, a complete unknown necessarily as him or not as him. It's just do what you want.

[Richard Osman]

Yeah, he does. He does his music. That's him.

[Marina Hyde]

The Beatles have been. Are more protective and I know have been more protective over the surviving Beatles, over the four Beatles films that are coming out, the Sam Mendes ones. This is such a tight involvement. Involvement with the performer. You know, she's writing her own story. She is. It's about her.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

She's directing and also she's Madonna.

[Marina Hyde]

And we, you know, she's. She's control freak. You know, that's what's made her great. Yeah, I would not say she's a great. She has directed a film before. I've seen. She's directed two, I think, but I've only seen one of them. We. Which is about.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Oh, yeah, about Water Simpson.

[Marina Hyde]

There's a hilarious line in that where

[Guest or Co-host 1]

she says there's some newsreel happening and it says king George III has died. And it's like, yeah.

[Marina Hyde]

And I mean, did no one check

[Guest or Co-host 1]

that was in 1820? Maybe you mean somebody else. Anyway, never mind. Never mind.

[Marina Hyde]

She is a very, very difficult performer to get into that type of relationship with. It's hard at the best of times. It probably was slightly hard. Even with Bob Dylan, even though we think he's got this philosophical thing. In terms of your question, Nathan, is there a point where productions have to happen because of sunk cost? There are definitely points where productions go ahead and do happen because people sort of slightly feel they've been in for a penny and in for a pound.

[Richard Osman]

And yeah, sunk costs. If people don't know that that's the money you've already spent, is it worth spending a bit more money to spend money?

[Marina Hyde]

You've got to market it.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

You've got.

[Marina Hyde]

No. And by the way, they hadn't made this film. So you say sunk costs. I mean, I don't know how much

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Madonna boot camp costs. It's probably quite expensive, but it's nothing like having to get the cameras rolling and her not feeling it for the first three days.

[Richard Osman]

And also maybe they were filming that and they can.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Yeah, maybe it could be a documentary.

[Marina Hyde]

We know she's great in behind the

[Guest or Co-host 1]

scenes documentaries, so that would probably be a good use of the money.

[Marina Hyde]

But I have to say, I don't think there's ever a time in films where we have got to the point recently where there are certain things, like there was the Batgirl film and there was Acme versus Coyote, although that is gonna come out now, where people just thought it's so expensive to market this thing that we're just gonna keep it on the shelf and do nothing with it and use it as a tax write off.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

I don't know whether they can tax

[Marina Hyde]

write off any of this.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

I don't understand the accounting.

[Marina Hyde]

But there is always a point at

[Guest or Co-host 1]

which you can pull out. And I would say before principal photography begins was quite a good moment to choose for this one.

[Marina Hyde]

I just think it's too. I just think that there's a level of relationship with a performer that is too tight. And in this case, knowing what we know about her and is honestly the reason why she is brilliant and amazing and still out there, she's phenomenal. I'm not trying to. I just don't think that's the right person to tell.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

You are not the right person to

[Marina Hyde]

tell your own story.

[Richard Osman]

Yes, it is certainly cheaper to do it now than after four days in Serbia.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Just even four minutes, I would say. Yeah. Question for you, Richard, from Faye Williams, who says, I recently took my daughter

[Marina Hyde]

to see the Tom and Jerry movie.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

It was the strangest cinematic experience of my life.

[Marina Hyde]

Life. I did not know that this was

[Guest or Co-host 1]

made by a Chinese company. And I have so many questions. Is Tom and Jerry a big deal in China? Was it a commercial success there?

[Richard Osman]

Tom and Jerry is a huge deal in China. It used to be shown on state television. We've spoken before about China and the very strict rules they have on what can and can't be shown. And you know, they would have looked through Tom and Jerry and seen that there was nothing that could actively harm the party. And so, yeah, it used to be on every night on CCTV, I think, starting like 1991. And people loved it. In fact, they loved it so much that the Chinese, as is often their way culturally, they thought, sorry, why be watching this program about an American cat and American mouse? So the Chinese made their own version of Tom and Jerry and their version. This is genuinely the title of their version of Tom and Jerry. Their version of Tom and Jerry was called. This is. From the mid-90s onwards, it was called the Blue mouse and the Big Faced cat launched as a rival to Tom and Jerry. You know what, it wasn't really a rival because Tom and Jerry is timeless. Tom and Jerry has endured.

[Marina Hyde]

Yeah.

[Richard Osman]

In China because that's really sort of, you know, got to cause them any trouble. There's now like a big online game of Tom and Jerry, who's got 100 million users, which always sounds a lot, but in the context of China, that's. Yeah, it's not that many. So it's huge deal. All over Asia, there's Tom and Jerry, Singapore movies, so all sorts of things. But the interest, really interesting cartoon character in China is Winnie the Pooh.

[Marina Hyde]

Oh, yeah.

[Richard Osman]

Because, you know, in the same way that China's absolutely embraced Tom and Jerry and it's a huge deal. Winnie the Pooh is completely banned.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Yeah.

[Richard Osman]

In China. I mean, completely banned in China. You can't, you can't get an image of Winnie the Pooh. You certainly can't watch like the Christopher Robin movie or anything like that. You'll be aware of why this is, I think. But if people don't know is because, in fact, when Xi Jinping met Barack Obama, which is 2013 in the States, a meme started going around with Barack Obama as Tigger and Xi Jinping as Winnie the Pooh. There was a suggestion that they had a similarity of look of build.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Yeah.

[Richard Osman]

And Xi took this very, very badly. And therefore when someone takes something badly, more and more and more and more memes started coming up and lots and lots of satirical things about China, but using Winnie the Pooh. So things that looked basically harmless, but Xi and. And the rest of the CCP sort of understood what was going on. So Winnie the Pooh is absolutely. You couldn't be more banned in China than Winnie the Pooh is. So Tom and Jerry, they, they continue their ascent, but Winnie the Pooh is. It's essentially just about the most banned thing that's possible to be banned in China, which is some achievement, I would say. Yeah, yeah. Oh, this is a question I want to know the answer to as well. Paul Cronin says, I have a question regarding the World cup coverage on the BBC. Usually as the second half starts, they have a QR code for a link to get a TV license. They're not quiet about it either. Paul, I'm intrigued to know if you have any data on how many people have used this service during the World Cup.

[Marina Hyde]

Okay. This is an answer that I don't even need to have any data on

[Guest or Co-host 1]

because I'm possessed of sound mind.

[Marina Hyde]

Okay. I would not think that that could

[Guest or Co-host 1]

be meaningfully charted, the level of that sign up, because it is as close

[Marina Hyde]

to zero, I would have thought, as

[Guest or Co-host 1]

you could possibly get. I have no idea whose bright idea that one was, but just in terms of the psychology of it.

[Marina Hyde]

What the second half of the football starting. Hang on a second, let me just get. Let me just.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Okay.

[Marina Hyde]

I don't know whose idea this was, but I believe it will be something

[Guest or Co-host 1]

that can't be chartered in terms of sign up.

[Richard Osman]

Is it though at least airing culturally, the idea that more people should pay their license fee? Is that what they. I mean, no one's using it, clearly. I mean, that's not like a sort

[Guest or Co-host 1]

of nudge unit thing. Okay, maybe like a nudge unit thing.

[Richard Osman]

Maybe.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Maybe that's it.

[Richard Osman]

But no one's actually doing it. But yeah, I thought it's a short

[Guest or Co-host 1]

sort of one word answer, that one.

[Richard Osman]

I would have thought, yeah, get emb. Or to show the QR code halfway through the episode of EastEnders.

[Marina Hyde]

Make it a plot line.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

He has to sign up for a license.

[Richard Osman]

Exactly. And he just. He keeps holding and he's got a double sided bit of paper with a QR code on. So while he's looking at it, you are also looking at it as well. So you can hold.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Your plotline's so boring that you can actually think. Actually, I'll tell you what, I don't mind missing this bit. I'll just. Yeah, that's the possibility.

[Richard Osman]

I have some sympathy, I suppose. These are enormous audiences and you know, there is this sort of 10% of the population who are watching the BBC and not paying their license fee. And that needs to be. That gap needs to be bridged. But yes, it.

[Marina Hyde]

I don't think this is the way to do it.

[Richard Osman]

It feels like that gap is not being bridged. It feels like, yeah, quite the opposite.

[Marina Hyde]

Shall we go to a break now?

[Richard Osman]

Yes, shall we? This episode is brought to you by the Lloyds 5k House Deposit Lloyds are

[Marina Hyde]

offering a 5k house deposit which was last seen in 1996.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

What are your entertainment memories of the 1990s?

[Richard Osman]

I feel guilty talking about the 1990s because you look back and it was, it was such a golden era.

[Marina Hyde]

We'd never had it so good and we didn't even realise because we were

[Guest or Co-host 1]

young and we just thought we were entitled to it all.

[Richard Osman]

We absolutely took it for granted. Yeah, Brit pop was absolutely in its pomp Oasis playing to a quarter of a million people.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

You had Blur, Sway, I'm so sorry,

[Richard Osman]

Spice Girls, amazing movies at the cinema, Trainspotting. I mean it felt a time of absolute optimism, but at the time you just assumed that was the way that

[Marina Hyde]

a very British type of optim.

[Richard Osman]

But part of the optimism, of course, is that mortgages were more affordable and that is what Lloyds is dealing with right now.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Yep.

[Marina Hyde]

Last seen in 1996, Lloyds are now offering 5K deposit mortgages to first time buyers. Search 5K First Time Buyer 1996 Average

[Richard Osman]

first time buyer deposits based on ONS data subject to status. Your home may be repossessed if you don't keep up repayments. Conditions apply.

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[Guest or Co-host 1]

Okay, welcome back, everybody.

[Marina Hyde]

Now, this is a very good question.

[Richard Osman]

That was an interesting. You started with.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Okay, I don't know why I did. I don't know why I did.

[Marina Hyde]

Richard, I'm so sorry. I'll tell you what, because I've seen

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Dylan Stone's question and it slightly set me off on.

[Richard Osman]

Oh, so you're trying to think of an answer.

[Marina Hyde]

The UK is currently searching for a

[Guest or Co-host 1]

new Doctor who, a new James Bond and a new Prime Minister.

[Marina Hyde]

Who could do them all?

[Richard Osman]

Who could do them all? That's. I could think of someone who.

[Marina Hyde]

There's a lot that can do too.

[Richard Osman]

Yes, there are a lot that can do too, and there's certainly plenty. Say, they could do all three.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Oh, yeah. Who's the triple threat?

[Richard Osman]

I'm thinking Tom Hiddleston would go, I.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Oh, my God, he.

[Richard Osman]

I could take all of those on.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

When's that show coming out? I need to get. I need to get back onto that. The time detective thing. Yes. Okay.

[Richard Osman]

So I think. I think it probably has to be an actor who could turn their thoughts to politics. Right. Rather than a. Yeah, rather than a politician. You know, rather than. You know. Although Andy Burnham might go, I. I actually think I probably could do it. I actually think if you look at what I've done to Manchester, if you look at. Honestly, if you look at what I've done with the buses, I don't think a TARDIS is that much different.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Yeah. TARDIS fairs cat. Therefore I can run the galaxy.

[Richard Osman]

Yeah. I think, however, politicians would not be in sight. I think it's got to be actors. So it's essentially which actor could play both those parts. And would you trust to run the country as well? Which is. Which is. Get Callum Turner in Almost no one. Yeah, I would say. I mean, God bless actors, but, yeah, it's difficult. Kathy Burke, maybe, who I would sort of trust to run the country. I would trust as a Doctor who, As a Bond.

[Marina Hyde]

As a Bond. I guess, again, you see, it's just

[Guest or Co-host 1]

very, very difficult to get the triple threat.

[Richard Osman]

It is Ross Kemp.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Yeah, I knew you were going to say him.

[Richard Osman]

Obviously, he's my answer to everything. He sort of is. I could see him as who for sure. I could see him as an older Bond, possibly. And he's dipped his toe into politics a number of times. I think he's politically engaged.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

It's a possibility to toe Dippers. I sort of slightly feel like,

[Richard Osman]

Yeah, I mean, listen, none of these. I'm not suggesting any of these. I'm simply answering a question.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

I don't think any of these people would do any of these jobs.

[Richard Osman]

Well, yeah, I'm just answering a question.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Someone who could be in the middle of the Venn diagram.

[Richard Osman]

I've been sat a ch. I've been set a challenge.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Yeah.

[Richard Osman]

And I'm attempted to meet the challenge. I think the name that we can all agree on probably certainly the one where you go, okay, due to the advantages of leaving the eu, we are now being allowed to have a Prime Minister who's also Doctor who and James Bond. This is just something that's been brought in.

[Marina Hyde]

Let's start making the benefits work for us.

[Richard Osman]

I think the name that would keep the country on an even keel for the transitional months, which I think would be really, really difficult of having this Prime Minister who's also Bond and who I think the answer, as so often, Danny Dyer. Don't you think?

[Marina Hyde]

You know, I didn't know where you were going with it.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

I thought there's nothing that he could say that I won't find massively offensive. And yet you've plucked it out of the bag. Okay, fine. I'm sold. Yeah. All right.

[Richard Osman]

Even as I said it, actually I was thinking Tenant, because he's already been who. So we know he can do that. He can do Bond. Yes, it's a different Bond.

[Marina Hyde]

Yeah.

[Richard Osman]

You know, but I think it would bring a lot to it. And yeah, he could. I guess he'd be a Prime Minister.

[Marina Hyde]

But could they not do a job share? Like when there were two leaders of

[Guest or Co-host 1]

the Liberal Party, the two Davids, could they not each do the job share of all of.

[Marina Hyde]

So two guys filling three roles.

[Richard Osman]

Oh, I'll tell you what, why don't you have three people? Why don't you have Andy Burnham as Prime Minister? Why don't you have Callum Turner as James Bond? And when you have George Four Acres as Doctor who, that's actually a much easier idea. When you have three different people.

[Marina Hyde]

I think they'll probably go with that in the end.

[Richard Osman]

Yes.

[Marina Hyde]

I think not necessarily those personnel choices,

[Richard Osman]

but you never know.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

At least a couple of them.

[Richard Osman]

But what if this bring like a Doctor who episode? What if this discussion brings this into actually happening and that one of the crypto billionaires is like, no, I actually do want that to happen now.

[Marina Hyde]

I'd love to think that things that

[Guest or Co-host 1]

we say in this podcast actually manifest themselves in real world outcomes and I'll try and say something that I want to happen before the end of this show and it be real.

[Richard Osman]

I wonder what that would be. I'd love to know. I would genuinely love to know what's right at the front of your brain at the moment as things you'd like to happen.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Right.

[Richard Osman]

I have a question for you.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Okay.

[Richard Osman]

That was a good one, though.

[Marina Hyde]

That was.

[Richard Osman]

Yeah, yeah. A current question here for you from Rosie Norton. Thank you, Rosie. Rosie says, I'm intrigued by social media vetting and how it actually works. I noticed the BBC dropped a documentary recently because of the host who I have to confess, I hadn't heard of, that's Ashley Kane, because of his past social media comments. The BBC said in their statement that the vetting process had failed and that it's the production company's responsibility to carry this out. What does the process actually entail? Is it done by a human or AI? And does everyone get vetted before appearing on tv?

[Marina Hyde]

Well, yeah, vetting is a big thing just for people who don't know the story. Ashley Kane is a BBC presenter. He did various documentaries. I think they thought that he could reach disenfranchised young men, et cetera.

[Richard Osman]

He's got a sort of, yeah, a rugged manosphere vibe about it.

[Marina Hyde]

And he's got a social media history,

[Guest or Co-host 1]

as it turns out, where he's called

[Marina Hyde]

women slags and sluts and bitches and various other things. And you often get, there have been apprentice candidates where, you know, they find that 10 years ago they said something, whatever, and they always naked produce that and they say, oh, it's the production company, they failed. Vetting in general is quite interesting. There are various different levels of sophistication. Like anything, nothing's perfect. It can obviously be done by AI, but it just depends how deeply how much, to be honest, quite how much money you want to spend on it. The BBC do have a social media vetting process. Everyone gets DBS checked, disclosure barring service. If there's any reason why you haven't been able to work in certain things or you've got, you know, whatever it is and you get your social media. This is the BBC's vetting process and you get your social media check by sort of third party firm because obviously these things are business risks. I mean, having to pull a documentary is expensive, but we know that even with really expensive things, companies just don't do it. I mean, remember the star of Emilia Perez, Carla Sofia Gascon? She had no social media. No one had seemed to have gone

[Guest or Co-host 1]

over all social media.

[Marina Hyde]

And that was complete amateur hour vetting by Netflix's movie side. And it completely derailed the Oscar campaign. Everything we talked about it on the show. The secret lives of Mormon Wives. By the way, the star of that

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Taylor, Frankie Paul, or the breakout star

[Marina Hyde]

of that was found to have had this kind of domestic violence arrest. She is the star of a whole season of the Bachelorette which they shelved. But by the way, I've noticed. Have you seen that? I think they're gonna find a way

[Guest or Co-host 1]

of bringing that back.

[Marina Hyde]

Next to us, we always felt like

[Guest or Co-host 1]

they've got an entire series, Disney of the Bachelorettes sitting there waiting to air.

[Marina Hyde]

They're going to just wait till it's

[Guest or Co-host 1]

died down and put it out.

[Marina Hyde]

But as I say, it's very, very expensive. There are different types of vettings, of psych test. Really. A lot of people who produce certain types of reality shows will say, oh,

[Guest or Co-host 1]

I mean, the top quarter that you'd really want all fail the psy.

[Marina Hyde]

There are different evaluations. Clearly, if it's a show about business or if it's a show where they might involve hooking up with other people, then you have different things. You can go out as far as you like. You can go out. Sometimes they even do family members. Because just saying, oh, it can really get a show into sort of trouble. I mean, we hear a lot about it in politics. You know, why didn't reform who have

[Guest or Co-host 1]

obviously in all their iterations as Brexit and Ukip and everything, had problems with candidates.

[Marina Hyde]

Why did they not properly vet the social media of their make a field candidate? Who was this plumber who said all

[Guest or Co-host 1]

things like, yeah, I'm a sexist and I don't care.

[Marina Hyde]

And all these, which cost them hugely.

[Richard Osman]

Yes, sorry. But the question is, can he be here on Tuesday afternoon?

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Yeah, can he?

[Marina Hyde]

But I will say that the guy

[Guest or Co-host 1]

that we got to be the British Ambassador to the United States of America failed as vetting and still got the job.

[Marina Hyde]

And I can absolutely promise you that given what we knew and what was in the public domain, Peter Mandelson would not have got hard as an Apprentice candidate.

[Richard Osman]

No.

[Marina Hyde]

For whatever reason they got. But he would have failed that BBC vetting and he wouldn't have been on for that show. Although, you know, the BBC take a

[Guest or Co-host 1]

lot of stick for everything.

[Marina Hyde]

Cause that's the nature of it. But let me tell you that Peter

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Mandelson would never have been.

[Marina Hyde]

He would not have put cleared the vetting for the Apprentice because of the Epstein connection.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

And they would have found it out. Cause enough of it was in the public domain and it just wouldn't have happened.

[Richard Osman]

However, he probably would be able to get on Celebrity Big Brother.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Yeah, I think that'd be fine.

[Richard Osman]

That'd be a good booking.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Richard Osman]

I'm a celebrity. Mandelson. How much money do you reckon he's got? Mandelson?

[Marina Hyde]

Well, he has some quite interesting years,

[Guest or Co-host 1]

if I can put it that way. Between the.

[Richard Osman]

Enough to last him.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

I would have thought so. Yeah. I don't really know how further. Much further I can go on that.

[Richard Osman]

If you're on a celebrity, you'd definitely be making the call.

[Marina Hyde]

Yes. Although I think they're. They've written. No, they just. I think they've really pulled out of celebrity politicians now.

[Richard Osman]

But he's not a politician anyway anymore.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

No. But I think he's a private citizen.

[Marina Hyde]

I just think the blowback to them is too great.

[Richard Osman]

Yeah.

[Marina Hyde]

But yes. So we're going to see lots and more about vetting because they're. Because the fracturing of the party system as we used to know it means that there'll be so many different candidates being fielded and lots and lots of them will fail their vetting and lots of them will get through and then we'll discover far too late the things

[Guest or Co-host 1]

that they have said.

[Marina Hyde]

But yeah, I would say television is better than most people are doing this.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Certainly better than politics.

[Marina Hyde]

Ah, the beautifully named Honey Clark. Richard has a question for you. After the success of the film Project Hail Mary, there'd been talk of Andy Weir writing a sequel to the book. And I presume there will be a film sequel too. Have any other authors written a book sequel after a film adaptation has been a hit? And have those sequels been any good?

[Richard Osman]

Gosh, the very best example of it, I would say. And it was gonna be made a film or something. But by the way, Project hail Mary. I'm 100%. I mean, Andy Weir of Salesman millions of copies. He was sold millions before this had come out. And his other books do as well. So that. That will be. He will write it. There'll be, you know, an amazing movie of it as well. Beside Game of Thrones where there comes a point where. Because sometimes books take longer to write them films that you start to get out of sync.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

And he'll never finish Game of Thrones though, and I don't care.

[Richard Osman]

But the best one was when a film comes out of a book that wasn't enormously successful in the first place is a really interesting time. So foreign Forrest Gump is Based on a book. Based on a book by Winston Groom, which was a perfectly, you know, successful book, but the movie was beyond enormous. I mean, it was a huge thing. So Winston Groom immediately thinks, well, I'm going to write a sequel to Forrest Gump. Because, I mean, you would. I mean, any author will tell you if there's an audience out there for something. And he created this character who, you know, who he loved, and, you know, you've got this interesting kind of dynamic. So, you know, of course he's going to write another book, and of course they're going to make a movie of that. So Winston Groom writes Forrest Gump 2. The first book was out in 86 and the movie was 94. So Groom publishes a sequel called Gump and Co, and in Gump and Co, in the sequel, Forrest invents New Coke. He meets Ayatollah Khomeini. Yeah.

[Marina Hyde]

Wow.

[Richard Osman]

He meets Tom Hanks, who was filming Big. So he meets the guy who played him in the movie, although he doesn't know that he.

[Marina Hyde]

Well, this is meta.

[Home Depot Advertiser]

Meta.

[Richard Osman]

I know, it's really meta. He causes the downfall of the Berlin Wall, and he captures Saddam Hussein while deployed in the Gulf War. So there's a lot going on in that book.

[Marina Hyde]

Well, in Gulf War One, he captures him.

[Richard Osman]

Yeah, Okay, I know.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Listen, that's an alternative timeline.

[Richard Osman]

He's Forrest Gump. You know, that's what he does.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

It is certainly an alternative timeline. Yeah.

[Richard Osman]

So Paramount eagerly, of course, greenlight a movie adaptation of Gump and Company. I mean, they will do their own version of it. You know, it's my thinking Eric Roth turns in a script. It turns in the script and talk about Forrest Gump. And, you know, he's always there when the big events of history happened. He turns in the script on the 10th of September, 2001, the day before September 11th, 24 hours before the Twin Towers are attacked, Tom Hanks, Zemeckis and Rothay collectively agree that this tragicomedy about a simple man blundering through American history had no meaning anymore, is what they said.

[Marina Hyde]

I mean, that day, it was whilst

[Guest or Co-host 1]

an awful sort of national tragedy within the absolutely desperate and cynical entertainment industry was an excuse to say no to so many things they hadn't quite found the words to say. Yeah, this is going to be disaster. We're not doing it.

[Marina Hyde]

It was just everybody. Everything's changed now.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Everything's changed.

[Marina Hyde]

And unfortunately, we can no longer proceed

[Richard Osman]

with the project, so we cannot do your reality.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

Yeah, we can't be doing this anymore. I'm afraid. Because reasons.

[Richard Osman]

Yeah, because reasons. So yeah, that's a perfect example of it. And you know would have fed into Forrest Gump 2. I imagine there would have been a Forrest Gump 3. But yeah, as the writer, you know, of course if you've got a big hit movie, you are immediately going to do a sequel.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

That is us for today. I kind of really recommend Richard's series on the World cup of US sitcoms, which you can look listen to for free on our timeline right now.

[Richard Osman]

Exactly. Next week. It is for members only, I'm afraid. We've also done the World cup of British Bands, the World cup of British Quiz shows.

[Guest or Co-host 1]

That must have been blood on the floor for that.

[Richard Osman]

They are. Yeah, they're really really was. If you want to become a member, get access to those and to get ad free listening etc etc it is theres entertainment.com if you go and visit there you can become a member. You do not have to of course we will be here twice a week regardless. Talking to Witch Church. See you next Tuesday.

[Marina Hyde]

See you next Tuesday.

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[Marina Hyde]

Two devastating earthquakes have hit Venezuela, resulting in widespread destruction.

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Thousands have been killed and injured and

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survivors desperately need food, water, shelter and medical care.

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Go to dec.org.uk to donate or text

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DEC to 70150 to give £10 texts

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cost your donation plus standard network rate.

[Marina Hyde]

See website for T's and C's.

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Thank you.