Did Robin Williams Save Disney?

Summary

The Rest Is Entertainment – Episode Summary: “Did Robin Williams Save Disney?”

Podcast: The Rest Is Entertainment
Hosts: Richard Osman & Marina Hyde
Date: February 19, 2026

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Overview

In this episode, Richard Osman and Marina Hyde answer listener questions in a Q&A format, covering a wide spectrum of entertainment topics—from the cultural impact of teen dramas and the complexity of translation work, to behind-the-scenes award show secrets and the often-overlooked brilliance of voice acting in films. Using their industry expertise and signature wit, they provide insightful analysis with memorable moments, expert guest contributions, and personal anecdotes.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

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1. The Emotional Impact of Teen Dramas and Celebrity Loss

Segment Start: [01:31]

• Prompt: A listener, Louise P., asks about their favorite moments from Dawson's Creek in light of James Van Der Beek’s recent passing.

• Marina’s Reflection ([01:50]):

  • Discusses the profound impact teen dramas have on audiences, especially in formative years.
  • Observes the unique sadness in witnessing the real-life fates of actors from these shows.
  • Notably mentions how the characters are “crystallized in time” ([05:36]) and how their later life events (e.g., Michelle Williams’ and Katie Holmes’ personal journeys) contrast sharply with their idyllic onscreen images.
  • Quote: “There is an element of us that always wants to freeze these people in those moments because they meant so much to us.” ([03:52] – Marina Hyde)

• Richard’s Analysis ([05:19]):

  • Draws parallels between the immortality of literary characters and the way television actors become immortalized at a particular age.
  • Notes the added power—and pain—when the real people behind these beloved characters grow older and, sometimes, die.
  • Quote: “It is almost like a character from your favorite book has died because the actor has.” ([05:44] – Richard Osman)

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2. The Underappreciated Art of Literary Translation

Segment Start: [07:37]

• Prompt: Hayden Beresford asks about the work, training, and pay of translators.

• Richard’s Response ([07:51]):

  • Emphasizes translation as an art, not merely technical bilingualism.
  • Sheds light on translators’ specialized education (e.g., Alice Menzies with a Master’s in Translation Theory).
  • Literary translators often earn less compared to business or legal translators; standard rates can be as low as £100 per 1,000 words.
  • Praises translation’s nuance: “Can you translate the meaning of a book, not just the words?” ([13:04] – Richard Osman)
  • Notable example: Gregory Rabassa’s English version of “One Hundred Years of Solitude” praised as superior even by original author Gabriel García Márquez ([10:11]).

• Marina: Jokes about her inability to speak other languages but appreciates translators' skill ([11:24]).

• On AI Translation ([13:00]):

  • Richard warns against using AI for book translation: “It will be beyond terrible… translation does not do that.”
  • Calls literary translators “worth their weight in gold.”

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3. Insider Look at Awards Shows: Beeps, Seating Plans, and Presenters

Segment Start: [16:14]

3.1. Censoring Live Broadcasts – How Beeps Work

• Guest: Sally Wood, Executive Producer, The Brits

• Explains the technicalities of live delay and “bleeping” swearing or libel ([16:48]).

• Quirky anecdote: Kanye West once set the Brits’ swearing record, forcing producers to manage an “Ofcom nightmare” right before Madonna’s infamous onstage fall ([17:13]).

• Memorable Moment: Originally, bird tweets were used as a bleep sound, leading to complaints ([16:55]).

• Richard & Marina: Discuss the comedic timing and effectiveness of beeps vs. silence ([18:39]).

3.2. The ‘Jigsaw Puzzle’ of Award Show Seating

• Guest: Emma Baer, Head of Content and Awards, BAFTA ([19:48])

• Describes the logistical nightmare of seating hundreds of nominees and celebrities, ensuring production teams stick together and nominees are visible without revealing winners.

• Quote: “If you’ve ever had to do a wedding seating plan, you’ll know how difficult it is… Now scale that to 2,500 guests.” ([19:49] – Emma Baer)

• Anecdote: Jamie Bell was once mistaken for a seat-filler by staff ([21:14]).

• Richard: Adds that shots for television are orchestrated to make sure winners and ‘cones of fame’ behind them look good on camera ([22:04]).

3.3. Pairing Award Presenters & Scripting Citations

• Guest: Emma Baer again ([23:49])
• Explains that presenter matchups are crafted for chemistry (e.g., using friends and former colleagues), with flexibility for personal input in scripts.
• Reveals that “Paddington Bear” will present the Children’s & Family Film category at the BAFTAs ([25:47]), to Richard and Marina’s delight.

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4. Outstanding Voice Acting Worthy of an Oscar

Segment Start: [27:14]

• Prompt: Claire asks which voice acting performances have been wrongly ignored by the Oscars.

• Marina’s Top Picks:

  1. (Honourable Mention / #4): Jeremy Irons as Scar (“The Lion King”), for delicious villainy and gravitas ([27:29]).
  2. #3: James Earl Jones as Darth Vader; praised for delivering “anything… half sounds like a battlesized version of the Bible…” ([28:08]).
  3. #2: Tom Hanks as Woody (“Toy Story”), especially the emotional “So long, partner” farewell ([29:47]).
  4. #1: Robin Williams as Genie (“Aladdin”)—many lines improvised, upending what people thought animated performances could deliver ([30:24]).
     • Quote: “It was revolutionary… it changed the whole way that people thought voiceovers could even be done.” ([30:33] – Marina Hyde)

• Richard: Playfully banters about bad jokes and agrees with the ranking ([31:10]).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Marina Hyde ([03:52]): “There is an element of us that always wants to freeze these people in those moments because they meant so much to us.”
• Richard Osman ([05:44]): “It is almost like a character from your favorite book has died because the actor has.”
• Sally Wood ([16:48]): “Now, when I first started, they used to play birds tweeting [as a beep] and we used to get lots of complaints saying, why are birds tweeting on the Brits?”
• Emma Baer ([19:48]): “If you’ve ever had to do a wedding seating plan, you’ll know how difficult it is… Now scale that to 2,500 guests.”
• Richard Osman ([13:04]): “You can translate the words. Of course you can. But can you translate the meaning? That’s the skill of being a translator.”
• Marina Hyde ([30:33]): “[Robin Williams as the Genie] was revolutionary… it changed the whole way that people thought voiceovers could even be done.”

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Teen Drama & James Van Der Beek: [01:31] – [07:37]
• Literary Translation (Role and Rewards): [07:37] – [13:11]
• Award Shows: Beeps & Chaos: [16:14] – [18:08]
• Award Show Seating (BAFTA): [19:48] – [23:49]
• Award Show Presenters & Paddington Bear Reveal: [23:49] – [26:05]
• Best Voice Acting Performances for Oscar: [27:14] – [31:15]

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Tone and Style

Engaging and conversational, marked by Richard and Marina’s quick wit, mutual rapport, and a mix of reverence and irreverence. Insightful, but never stuffy—mixing deep dives into entertainment industry mechanics with affectionate pop cultural commentary and plenty of humor.

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For Further Listening

Listeners interested in exclusive content, bonus Q&As, and early live event tickets can become members at therestisentertainment.com or via Apple Podcasts.

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This summary includes all critical discussion, omitting advertising and promo segments. It is designed to give non-listeners a rich, faithful sense of the episode’s content and atmosphere.

Transcript

[Richard Osman]

This episode is brought to you by Octopus Energy.

[Marina Hyde]

Now it is award season. Everyone is wondering who's going to clean up. And we tend to think awards are about that one big moment. Like, oh, my goodness, that one night, that speech. I can't believe I've won.

[Richard Osman]

But the effort that goes into winning

[Marina Hyde]

an award, everyone going for one of those big movie awards, it's not a coincidence that Academy members or whatever are saying, oh, you know, did you see that thing? Yeah, I did. It was really good. There is a remorseless many months campaign and there are tens of people working on every single film's awards campaign. Campaign.

[Richard Osman]

I thought you were gonna say tens of thousands. No, no, there are tens.

[Marina Hyde]

Yeah, there are tens. But that's quite a lot when you think of like one. And it's a full time job.

[Richard Osman]

We mention this only because we are announcing our presenting partnership with the lovely people at Octopus Energy who have just won the. Which recommended provider of the year for the ninth time in a row. And that is not something you get just by.

[Marina Hyde]

Which is hard to win.

[Richard Osman]

Which is hard to win.

[Marina Hyde]

Which is hard to.

[Richard Osman]

Which is hard to win.

[Marina Hyde]

Which is hard to win.

[Richard Osman]

Which is hard to win. But. But nine in a row, I would say that makes Octopus Energy the Meryl Streep of the business.

[Marina Hyde]

Oh, yeah. They're the Merrell. They're the absolute. They're the Merrell.

[Richard Osman]

I call them Merrell Energy. That's what I call them.

[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'm Richard Osman. Hello, everybody. Hello, Marina.

[Marina Hyde]

Hello, Richard. How are you?

[Richard Osman]

I'm very, very well. You ready?

[Marina Hyde]

I'm. Oh, yeah. I'm ready as I'll ever be.

[Richard Osman]

Born ready. Right?

[Marina Hyde]

Born ready. I don't wait. I sleep. No, I don't wait.

[Richard Osman]

I sleep.

[Marina Hyde]

I don't sleep. I wait.

[Richard Osman]

Oh, okay. That makes more sense. Whereas I. Yeah, don't wait. I sleep. I have a question for you. We've had lots of questions on this similar line, but it's from. Which you'll understand when I read it from Louise P. She says, like so many of my generation, I was devastated to hear about James Van Der Beek's passing last week. What were your favorite moments from the show?

[Marina Hyde]

Oh, my God. I was also devastated. This is James Van Der Beek, who is the Dawson of Dawson's Creek. And he died of cancer last week age 48. I want to talk a little bit about sort of teen dramas in general, but they talked so much about Their feelings. It was such a sort of talky show. And their love and their angst and that kind of. That young love, that limerence, that word which I hadn't heard of about three weeks ago and now see absolutely everywhere, which is this kind of infatuation, this young love thing. And it.

[Richard Osman]

What's it called?

[Marina Hyde]

Limerence.

[Richard Osman]

Limerence, yeah.

[Marina Hyde]

And they. And they talked about the bad ti. Their bad timing in that way that only teenagers can talk about bad timing in relationships. But I went back and, oh, God, it was awful. I just watched those titles and the music just hit me. Right. I was too old for Dawson's Creek, by the way. But because I always have to watch the things in all my life, I've sort of had to watch the things that were the big things in the same way that I watched Gossip Girl, and I was also too old for that. I loved it. And those titles. God, the Four Principles. There's something just so sort of tragic about or difficult or poignant about how their lives unspool because he is now dead at 48. Joshua Jackson is he. He carries on Katie Holmes, not knowing that she's gonna end up marrying this much older person. Tom Cruise, and I don't think anyone thinks that that was a fairy tale. And Michelle Williams, who ends up falling in love with Heath Ledger and they have a baby and then he dies of a drugs overdose when he's 28. And there's something so sort of these incredibly idyllic titles where they're all so young and you just. You can't freeze them in time. And actually, there's an element of us that always wants to freeze these people in those moments because they meant so much to us. When those things hit hard, those teen things, they make such a huge impression. And I remember reading something with Molly Ringwald, who was such a muse to John Hughes, who obviously was an absolute poet of the sort of teenage experience. And she was in for him the Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles and Pretty in Pink. And he couldn't quite really deal with her getting older and wanting to do different things. And there is that tiny element in all of us that slightly needs to be managed where, you know, you always want them to be. Back in Dawson's Creek when they're young and sort of perfect and nothing ever changes. But teen dramas, in a weird way, they haven't. Back in the era when everything. And we got all the American ones, by the way, all the big ones. And I'm starting with things like Degrassi High and fame and things like that. But the big one that really hit was Beverly Hills 90210. And that was. I mean, that was a new era of teen drama. And that was. And then, you know, Dawson's Creek, My so Called Life. Buffy the oc, Gossip Girl. We didn't really have these things. I was trying to think if we

[Richard Osman]

had anything like that with Grange Hill.

[Marina Hyde]

Well, this life. Press Gang.

[Richard Osman]

Press Gang.

[Marina Hyde]

Press Gang was our version of that. I think if you don't know what it is, it's so hard to explain. But it was like iconic and British.

[Richard Osman]

Christopher Fletcher, Julius. Oy.

[Marina Hyde]

It was like Moonlighting, but with British teenagers.

[Richard Osman]

It's written by Stephen Moffat. Press Gang, wasn't it? Who's gone on to do such extraordinary things.

[Marina Hyde]

Ended up being pretty good. Maybe that was his masterpiece though. Cause it was so good. But there's something about those teen ensemble casts that get people right in their heart. And that is, for me and for everybody, really a big part of why Stranger Things was so enormous. Because it did feel. And that feeling that everyone is watching. So sorry, we talked about this on Tuesday, but it's the feeling that everyone is watching something at the same time. And that actually in a world where we don't really have shared culture anymore, some few things are so big that they break through and become shared culture.

[Richard Osman]

But the fascinating thing about why James Van Der Beek's death has, I think, proved so emotional for people is, you know, there's always been these extraordinary works of literature that have, you know, Pride and Prejudice and those characters live forever at the same age.

[Marina Hyde]

Yeah.

[Richard Osman]

And so they, they're very important to us. They mean something to us. What they, you know, what happens to them means something to us. Dawson's Creek and shows like it. Absolutely. Those characters are crystallized in time. But there is an alternate timeline where the people who we associate with them very, very powerfully associate with them. So it's the first time we ever saw those people get older and things happen in their lives in a way that characters from books don't. You know, there's something about television. There's something about the fact that actors playing people. So it is almost like a character from your favorite book has died because. Because the actor has. And I think that's. That's a very powerful thing.

[Marina Hyde]

Absolutely. And I think he was such a. He was such a lovely person.

[Richard Osman]

He seems like a great guy.

[Marina Hyde]

Yeah, he was such a lovely person. And he never wanted to be sort of cool or anything. And he laughed that he became the ugly crying meme. Those people who mean so much. It's incredibly hard to come to sort of terms with. And I absolutely understand your question, Louise, because it is devastating.

[Richard Osman]

There's a beautiful. There was a beautiful picture Alfonso Ribeiro, who was. I mean, this is the absurdity of what we are as human beings. So Alfonso Ribeiro, who is a real human being, but is also Carlton from Fresh Prince and so means something to, like, has a. And suddenly he's there with James Van Der Beek as James Van Der Beek is dying. And the two of them clearly love each other. And you just think, well, that's a very peculiar thing to deal with if you love television and you have that parasocial relationship with characters, which, of course, we all do, especially, you know, from certain ages of our life. And it's. I think it's a deep privilege to live in an era where we have that culture. I think it's a deep privilege to be part of that culture. If you're James Van De Beek and Alfonso Ribeiro. You know, for all the tragedy of James Van Der Beek's life, at least he had that. At least he understood that, you know, he had that meaning to people. And I think, you know, in amongst all the sort of chat about entertainment and what it is, it makes you understand quite how important it can be in people's lives.

[Marina Hyde]

Richard, one for you from Hayden Beresford, who says, listening to you recommend when the Cranes Fly south made me think about how crucial translators are. How do people become translators and how much are they paid? Are there any superstar translators out there?

[Richard Osman]

Thanks, Hayden, and also thanks for your comments about when the Cranes Fly south, which now I seem to be getting credit for, for being in the translate. It's my mum. It's 100% Brenda, not me. So, yeah. Lisa Ridson's when the Cranes Fly south, translated by Alice Menzies. If you haven't read it, it's genuinely everyone, since we recommended that on an episode, everyone who's read it seems to absolutely love it. So I feel. I feel happy that. That. That was a good recommendation. Yeah. In terms of this question, yes, I think there's sort of an understanding that all you have to do is speak the other language and you can translate a book which. Which is nonsensical if you really think about the books that you love. You know, you can translate a story, but can you translate language? Can you translate idiom? Can you translate, you know, what a character, what the vibe of a character is, which, you know, if you write a character, In English, they have a very English sensibility. And there are certain bits of humor and certain bits of meaning which don't quite come across in the words. You know, if you. If you're reading German, there are certain words which mean 15 things at once. We know that in our language there are words which we know what you're saying, but you're actually saying something different. And the translator has to be able to deal with all of. All of that. It's not a question of, you know, just literally doing a literal translation or something. You have to get across the idea of or something. So being bilingual absolutely is not enough to become a translator. A lot of translators have sort of very specialized degrees. So Alice Menzies, funnily enough, who translated when the Cranes Fly south from the Swedish. She has a master's in translation theory and practice from ucl. So, you know, it's a big deal. So you have to do a lot. But the pay is not insanely great, I will say that. And actually, literary translations are generally paid less than people who do business and legal translations and things like that. Even though it sort of is a. Yeah. Harder job, I would say. You tend to. There's. The Society of Authors recommends an absolute minimum rate of 100 pound for every thousand words. So a book, my books are 90,000 words, so you get 9,000 pound for that. That's the minimum. And also that's recommended. So there will be people being paid more than that because there are certain translators in certain countries who can charge more. If you're Addison Menzies, for example, and you've just had this big hit with Lisa Ridson's book, you can ask more.

[Marina Hyde]

Yeah.

[Richard Osman]

For the next one. And, you know, once a book like when the Cranes Fly south has become a big hit, people will be seeking out more Swedish literature and stuff that's like that and Lisa Ridson's next book. And you hope that that's a relationship Lisa Ridson and Alice Menzies that grows. And, you know, there's good money in it for Alice Menzies because she did an unbelievable job. Are there any superstar translators? There's a guy called Gregory Rabasso. He was American, but he translated a lot of Latin American literature. And Gabriel Garcia Mar says that Rabassa's version of One Hundred Years of Solitude is better than his. He said he translated it so brilliantly, he said, I prefer his version of it. So that sort of counts as a superstar. And his background, Rabassa was in Romance languages. That was what he studied. But he was also a code breaker in World War II as well. And sometimes you need to be able to solve puzzles as a translator. And the way he said he translated, which I think is interesting, is he did not read the whole book and then go back. He would just translate it sentence by sentence because he wanted to get the sense of what was happening as it went along. And if he was taken by surprise, he understood that if a certain sentence sounds bland, but you're aware that it overturns the thing that just happened, that it needs something, you need to be showing something else.

[Marina Hyde]

That's how I do it, too. Just start. Don't bother trying.

[Richard Osman]

Yeah, exactly. There are people now, regrettably, I can't

[Marina Hyde]

do any of the languages.

[Richard Osman]

And that's your problem.

[Marina Hyde]

Yeah.

[Richard Osman]

You know, another question we've had a while, you know, a few times, is, could AI do this? And it will not surprise you to learn there are companies who will charge you 100 quid to do an AI translation of your book. It will be beyond terrible because, you know, we all know if you do a literal translation of anything, it's awful. And, you know, any. Any book that's worth reading has a love of language and uses language in a certain way, and translation does not do that. But absolutely, if, you know, you can translate a book for $100, but it will be beyond appalling. I mean, just terrible, terrible, terrible. So it's a tough gig being a translator. It is not as well paid as it should be. The best ones are absolutely worth their weight in gold. If I can give a shout out to some of my translators. And every now and again, when you go to other countries, you meet your translators. And that's what was my favorite things to do, because they'll always have. They've always got questions about the characters, and they've always got questions about certain bits of idiom. And they've always, like, I was worried that when I did this, that actually you meant something else. And so they've always got, you know, that's so cool. Yeah. They take it incredibly, incredibly seriously. Albert Fuente Sanchez, he does my Spanish translation. These are just ones I met Sabine Roth, who does the. The German one as well. Roberta Coridin, she's the Italian one. Ingebrid Bjorkland from Sweden. But all of my translators, and I've met a few of them, thank you so much for everything that you do. But it's a tough gig and, you know, there's a reason why the best ones are in demand, because it's really difficult to translate a book. You can translate the words. Of course you can. But can you translate the meaning? That's the skill of being a translator, I would say, is translating the meaning of a book.

[Marina Hyde]

Right, I think it's time to go to a break now. But after the break, we have had so many questions about awards and we're going to discuss some answers that we've

[Richard Osman]

got from, like an awards special.

[Marina Hyde]

Yeah, a bit of a second half awards special. We've got some answers from people who've run the Brits and people who produce the baftas, and they've got all sorts of different responses.

[Dominic Sambrook]

Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Book Club, a new podcast from Goal Hanger, hosted by me, Dominic Sambrook and me, Tabitha Syred.

[Tabitha Syred]

As some of you may know, I have been Dominic's producer on the Rest Is History and we even did a miniseries last year about all things books.

[Dominic Sambrook]

And since we enjoyed that so much, we have decided to roll it out as its own show. So it'll be coming out every Tuesday. We'll be doing a different book each time and digging into all the stories behind them.

[Tabitha Syred]

And we are going to be talking about the historical contexts behind some of the greatest and most famous books of all time. We're going to be digging into the remarkable people behind them, the unexpected stories behind the stories, and also unraveling the plot of each book a bit and delving into the depths of the story.

[Dominic Sambrook]

Now, you don't have to have read the books to listen to the show, but we hope that by the end of each episode you will be able to pretend to people that you've read them. That is the key thing. And either way, whether you read them or not, we hope that you'll learn lots of fascinating facts, you'll do lots of great stories, and maybe Tabby the odd laugh.

[Tabitha Syred]

We will be looking at thrilling gothic bodice rippers like Wuthering Heights and Frankenstein Stein, as well as iconic stories like the Great Gatsby or Little Women and then also some more modern stuff. So Game of Thrones, normal people, the Hunger Games, Hamnet, all manner of exciting stories.

[Dominic Sambrook]

So please join us on our journey into all things books. Wherever you get your podcasts, just search for the book club every Tuesday and hopefully we will see you.

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[Richard Osman]

Welcome back, everybody. Now, we have. We always got lots of questions about award ceremonies, so we thought maybe we would put some of them together and ask people who really know about these things.

[Marina Hyde]

Since it's the season.

[Richard Osman]

Since it is the season. Tis the season. Exactly. We will start with a question from Lucy Rose. Thank you, Lucy. Lucy says the Brits have become synonymous with sweary performances and award speeches. How do the decisions get made on what should and shouldn't be beeped out? Now, who who's helped us with this one?

[Marina Hyde]

Sally Wood, who is the executive producer of the Brit.

[Richard Osman]

Thank you, Sally.

[Sally Wood]

There's a 30 second delay in the truck. In the room next door to ours is ITV compliance, a team of people, they're listening to the show. If they hear a swear word, they write the timecode down, then they pass it down the line and then when we reach that timecode, they beep. Now, when I first started, they used to play birds tweeting and we used to get lots of complaints saying, why are birds tweeting on the Brits? There's something wrong with the audio. The technology has been updated now and it's just silence. But there is a lot of bleeping on the show. And Kanye west, who was booked 24 hours before because Rihanna had pulled out. So it was a very last minute performance and he broke the record for the most swear words on TV, 47 in the three minute song. So we were getting ready to deal with an ofcom nightmare. Then Paloma performed in her beautiful rain performance. Show's about to end. Madonna comes on, she falls over. Our first thought is, has Madonna fallen over because of Paloma's water? That wasn't true. The water was not on stage. But that was my most chaotic memory from working on the show was Kanye swearing into Madonna falling over into us, thinking momentarily it was our fault. Yeah, it was chaos.

[Richard Osman]

Thank you so Much. Sally. It's one of those things, isn't it, when you think you're gonna get in trouble for Kanye swearing and then you think, oh my God, Madonna's fallen over. This is gonna get all of the publicity. I remember that they used to have the, the, the birdsong on Big Brother as well.

[Marina Hyde]

Yeah, I was gonna say that when they were talking swearing, but mostly when they were talking about the game.

[Richard Osman]

Yeah.

[Marina Hyde]

If they're talking about the.

[Richard Osman]

So that's why it went off. Tom Cruise or something. Yeah.

[Marina Hyde]

Or libeling people.

[Richard Osman]

Yeah.

[Marina Hyde]

So if it went on forever, you'd be thinking, this is the longest swear word I've ever heard. What is it? I'd like to use it myself one day.

[Richard Osman]

Super kind of fragilistic. Expialy what I love, a proper old fashioned beep. If ever on panel shows and stuff, you have to beep things. We still have to, very often, but a beep is one of the few things that can actually keep a joke as funny as it was. Anyway. Yeah, there's this something about a beep and the way we hear a beep that actually you go, oh no, that's a when. Well, times as a punchline. Exactly.

[Marina Hyde]

And it is split seconds, that timing.

[Richard Osman]

Yeah. And sometimes. Do you know what, it should be

[Marina Hyde]

an award for Best beat, but it

[Richard Osman]

genuinely is sometimes, you know, if you like, do I lose the, you know, do I come in after the or do I come in before the? And it's, it's different each time and occasionally you'll, you'll get a three year that someone's, you know, blah, blah, blah. And that is almost. If you, if you can absolutely time those beeps perfectly, then you can make it much, much funnier than it was in the studio.

[Marina Hyde]

Question from Hannah about seating plans. How do award ceremonies decide the seating plan in the theatre? Everybody thinks about this. Are there unwritten rules about where nominees, winners and industry power players sit? Now, to answer this, Emma Baer, who's head of Content and Awards at BAFTA and has had to do a few plasma in her time, has, has said this.

[Emma Baer]

Well, if you've ever had to do a wedding seating plan, you'll know how difficult it is and where to put people. Can be quite tricky if you add to that the fact that there are two and a half thousand guests as 46 films nominated, everyone needs to sit within their production, within their film. It's a bit of a jigsaw to get around. And with 256 nominees, ideally you'd want everybody in the front few rows but that's obviously not possible. So they're all spread out throughout, through the room. And nobody in that room knows the winners, not the people that are doing the seating plans. So it really adds that kind of tension and excitement about who's going to win. We have this amazing person who is in charge of the seating and in terms of the skill to visualize who's in every seat. It really is amazing. So she'll be there on the night, 10 minutes before we go live, looking at the seats, checking everyone's in. She has this ability to know the names and the films and where they should sit. And she can literally go D7. They're not here. Where are they? And if somebody's in the wrong seat, there has been the odd occasion where she can't remember faces. So we've had a situation where she was walking Jamie Bell to a seat, and there was someone sat on the end of that aisle. She tapped them on the shoulder and she said, excuse me, are you a seat filler? Seat filler is not meant to be in at the beginning of the show. Please can you go backstage?

[Richard Osman]

And.

[Emma Baer]

And the very polite dad and driver did explain to her, I'm actually a nominee. And we've obviously never let her forget that.

[Richard Osman]

Oh, my God. Can you imagine? Oh, I always. When. Whenever, occasionally someone's working on a show, they'll send you a picture of it during the day. And during the day, you've got. Everyone's faces are on sticks when they're doing rehearsal, so it'll say, Adam Driver and picture of Adam Driver's face. And so if you know people who are working on a production, you can work out who you're sitting next to as well. But it is. You always assume when you get there, oh, does this mean I'm not gonna win? Or I am gonna win? And it's utterly meaningless. You know, sometimes people come from behind you to win, sometimes people from in front of you. You're always on an aisle anyway because, you know the camera has to go up and down the aisle.

[Marina Hyde]

You won't sit in a theater if you're not in an aisle.

[Richard Osman]

Well, I can't. I know, exactly. Cause people behind me go, medically, I can't.

[Marina Hyde]

Medically, I have to be in a winning seat.

[Richard Osman]

Medically, I cannot. Never been in a winning seat. Of course, at the Broadcast Awards the other night, my wonderful producer Tamara, who I've talked about before, said, oh, yeah, we've lost again, by the way, that is now 19 in a row. 19 losses in a Row. Isn't it just. It is ticking off, isn't it just? Yeah, listen to Scam Interceptors. We lost an M. And that's a. That's a good show. So, yeah, honestly, there are times we've lost where I've been like, I don't know about that. And there are times we lose. I go, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that seems, that seems fair enough. But 19 in a row, that's a bit. And wherever we're satisfied, absolutely meaningless. But you also, the interesting thing is not just where people are sat, it's. You have to. When you. In rehearsals for those shows, you. You see the shot that you're going to have every time a nominee is put up. So you know who your most famous people are. So, you know, if you're at the Oscars, it might be De Niro. If you're at the BAFTAs, it's David Tennant, what you know, Olivia Colman, whatever it is. And you can see the shot you're going to get of them either reacting to something or when they're nominated. And you can see the triangle, the little cone of people behind them as well. And sometimes you just want to make sure that that cone has also got famous people in it makes it look really, really deeply impressive. So you know your fields of vision, you know the people who are going to be in shot at any given time. And so you, you want it to

[Marina Hyde]

long and strong in stars.

[Richard Osman]

Exactly. That you want. You want a little bit of depth of field in your. In your celebrity bookings. Thank you, Emma. We've got another answer from Emma, actually, which. Can we do this one as well? Because I thought. Because there's an interesting bit of information in it. We had a question from Sean Gadfree. Thank you, Sean. Who said, how are citation matchups made? The people who read out, you know, the nominees and what have you and what happens when they don't stick to the script. So if we can go back to Emma, who has an answer for that as well. Thank you, Emma.

[Emma Baer]

So citation readers are the presenters. They. It's the fun part, you know, it's one of the fun parts of the evening, working out who goes where. We have to think about all the. Our audiences. So not only those that are in the room, we have a broadcast at home on the. On the BBC. We have international broadcasts, but we also had last year 130 million views across our social platforms. So we have lots of different audiences. So we have to be as broad as possible and cater for all tastes when we're selecting those citation readers. When it comes to pairings, it's all about people that have worked together or know each other, are friends. We don't want bad chemistry. We all remember Mick Fleetwood and Sam Fox, so it's really important that we get that right. Recently we had David Johnson and Amy Lou Wood who presented the nominations that we did last month. They actually knew each other at school, so it was very joyful to watch them reunite. And that really came across in a lot of fun when they were announcing those nominations. And then we look at, you know, what's really important. Where is there a platform when somebody needs to say something? And for me, seeing Michael J. Fox using that as a platform to make awareness of Parkinson's was equally important moment. We do have moments when citation readers want to rework that script and they want to tweak it. That's absolutely fine. We're really happy and we'd rather they do that and they add their thoughts and humour to that. But we do see it beforehand. There's only one exception that has presented a few times for us. I won't name that person, but they come and scribble something backstage, flash it at us and go on. But we allow that because this is somebody we know always delivers and has worked with us before. So, talking of citation readers, I do have a little exclusive. Richard and Marina. I'm really delighted that personal favourite of mine is going to present the children's and family film category this year, and that is Paddington Bear. He's coming to the Royal Festival Hall. We're very thrilled to have him there and we can't wait for him to present that category. And obviously we are stocking up on marmalade sandwiches in the green room.

[Richard Osman]

Paddington.

[Marina Hyde]

Paddington.

[Richard Osman]

Are you kidding me?

[Marina Hyde]

Animatronic feet, I hope.

[Richard Osman]

When? Eventually. Tomorrow. And I do win an award.

[Marina Hyde]

Yeah.

[Richard Osman]

It's presented by Paddington.

[Marina Hyde]

Yeah.

[Richard Osman]

Oh, my God. Perhaps that's what they've been waiting for. I don't need to get it from Nick Knowles.

[Marina Hyde]

I would love to see you and Paddington in the same shot. It would be so sweet.

[Richard Osman]

I would love that. Whenever I have my photo taken with people, they would say, I'm sorry I'm so short. You think, you know, I get my photo with children as well. I mean, it's okay. You know, cameras are designed for that. Ah, Paddington. I wonder who writes their own stuff. Hugh Grant. That's my bet. You trust him, right?

[Marina Hyde]

I don't know. I would have said. I would have provided that little piece of detail.

[Richard Osman]

Oh, would you yeah, yeah, because that's a nice thing because they weren't.

[Marina Hyde]

It wasn't like. And they never will work with us again.

[Richard Osman]

Well, maybe that's a question we can have for next week. Yeah, we'll ask. We'll ask Emma and we'll get the name of that person. Do we have one time for. Do we have time for one final. I think we do for one final question for you. Okay. A question for you from Claire. She said off the back of your conversation about how the Academy Awards overlook comic performances, I'd also argue that outstanding voice acting performances have been wrongly ignored. What great voice performances deserved an Oscar.

[Marina Hyde]

Oh, that is. There's so many good ones. And I really. There was one. Okay. I thought about this and I have left not quite making my top three.

[Richard Osman]

So number. So let's say number four. Let's say number four would be another way of saying that four.

[Marina Hyde]

Well, I'm not doing a top four is. Well, you are doing Jeremy Irons as Scott Uncle Scar. That voice is amazing. But it's not probably. It's not the most villainous Jeremy Irons for me. It's not the. Have you ever seen Dead Ringers? No.

[Richard Osman]

The Radio 4?

[Marina Hyde]

No, not that Jeremy Irons plays. It's like a horror. A body horror. Jeremy Irons plays twins gynecologist. It's not a big chick, let me tell you.

[Richard Osman]

Yeah. It ain't a date movie.

[Marina Hyde]

No psychopathic twin gynecologists. Elliot in Beverly. Anyway, doesn't matter.

[Richard Osman]

He's number four.

[Marina Hyde]

Yeah, that's number four. Okay. Number three. James Earl Jones as Darth Vader.

[Richard Osman]

Yeah.

[Marina Hyde]

And let me tell you something. Okay. It's a shame you can't do C3PO, but Anthony Daniels is actually also. It's unbelievable that he's incredible physically, but. And also the thing about George Lucas dialogue. And this is incredibly bad and also incredibly good at the same time. You know, Harrison Footwood famously said, george, you can write this shit, but you sure as I can't say it. And there are other shows. I mean when I think of. I'm trying to think of other things like that Game of Thrones is also like that. There's a. You know that line when you play the game of Thrones, you win or you die. Unfortunately, that line has to be delivered by Lena Headey. So it's on a bit of an uphill struggle. But James Earl Jones can deliver anything. Anything at all. That kind of half sounds like a battlerized version of the Bible half sort of portentous. The Darth Vader. It's an unbelievable voiceover. And it makes it. It's so chilling. It's extraordinary. I love. I mean, I really love those first four.

[Richard Osman]

Do we know if James Earl Jones ever recorded the famous Darth Vader joke, which is, you know. I know what Luke Skywalker got for Christmas.

[Marina Hyde]

I don't know if he ever recorded this joke. Yeah, carry on. What did Luke Skywalker.

[Richard Osman]

Oh, shall we do it? Yeah. So I won't do the voice, but if you. James Earl Jones did it. I know what Luke Skywalker got for Christmas.

[Marina Hyde]

What did he get for Christmas?

[Richard Osman]

He got a subutio set, a jigsaw and a new bike. Oh, my God. How'd you know that? I have felt his presence. I would love it if James Earl Jones did that.

[Marina Hyde]

Could he elevate that? He could do anything.

[Richard Osman]

You reckon he could do it better than me?

[Marina Hyde]

Yeah, I think he'd edit that.

[Richard Osman]

Okay, so he's number three.

[Marina Hyde]

Yeah, he's three. Number two. Tom Hanks as Woody in Toy Story. The whole arc through the first three movies is ridiculous. But the bit when he says goodbye to Andy when he's going to college and he just says, so long, partner. That contains that is Oscar worthy. And I actually had to have a look what got the Oscar for Best Actor that year. And it was Colin Firth in the King's Speech. Not even close. Not even close. Hanks. No. Hanks is number two at number one because the sheer creativity. It changed the whole way that people thought voiceovers could even be done. Is Robin Williams is the genie in Aladdin. Huge amounts of it improvised. It was revolutionary in what people felt could happen with animation. And the idea that there was something that was almost for the parents in these children's films, all of these things. It was completely groundbreaking. I remember talking to Josh Gadd a lot because I love his. His voice is the voice of Olaf in Frozen. And he said, and he's obsessed with Disney. He's actually obsessed with Star wars as well, but he's obsessed with Disney. And he thought. When he got that, he thought, even though it's just like a tiny little snowman or whatever, the possibilities of the form because of Robin Williams having gone earlier and actually the Olaf voiceover is unbelievable. And it became sort of iconic itself. But so Robin Williams is the genie in Aladdin is number one. It's just phenomenal.

[Richard Osman]

Good. Top three. Perfect order. A little bit of nonsense about number four, but that's okay.

[Marina Hyde]

Inevitable.

[Richard Osman]

Yeah.

[Marina Hyde]

Not like you can't have no nonsense

[Richard Osman]

tomorrow for our members. I'm gonna be asking you for book recommendations in the first of our series, which doesn't have it at the moment. It's called Bookworms. But I think. I think that our listeners might be able to come up with a bit a better name than that.

[Marina Hyde]

But I'm really looking forward to it. I absolutely balked it. And then once I got into it, I'm really looking forward to talking about these books. Okay, fine.

[Richard Osman]

If you want to become a member, it's wrestlersentertainment.com you get ad free listening, you know, early access to tickets, all sorts of things like that. But for everyone else, we would be delighted to see you next Tuesday.

[Marina Hyde]

See you next Tuesday. Close your eyes. Exhale.

[Richard Osman]

Feel your body relax. And let go of whatever you're carrying today.

[Marina Hyde]

Well, I'm letting go of the worry that I wouldn't get my new contacts

[Tabitha Syred]

in time for this class. I got them delivered free from 1-800-contacts. Oh, my gosh, they're so fast.

[Richard Osman]

And breathe. Oh, sorry.

[Marina Hyde]

I almost couldn't breathe when I saw the discount they gave me on my first order.

[Tabitha Syred]

Oh, sorry.

[Marina Hyde]

Namaste.

[Emma Baer]

Visit 1-800-contacts.com today to save on your first order.

[Tabitha Syred]

1-800-contacts.