I'm Michael. Che and I'm Colin Jose, and
we've got a little secret. Actually, it's a pretty big
secret. Well, now you got to give the
people something. I'm not saying a word.
Oh, then people will know to tune in.
Come on, tell them a little. Like how we're hosting of comedy
events streaming only on Peacock, exactly how it's called
New York After Dark and it's a comedy show that only features
drop in comic. Boom, you nail.
Into Michael Chase phone numbers.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hey, hey, hey.
New York After Dark. It's some kind of comedy thing,
and it's streaming now only on Peacock.
You love it. Zippers, welcome to this episode
of the Tea with Me podcast. Hey guys, cheers to us.
I'm alright, cheers to us. Let me just take a little a
little sip of tea there. And you know that I was a little
sip because that cup's very hot. So it's just we sippies, OK?
It was just we sippies and that's it.
But throughout this podcast, we're going to drink a cup of
tea. We might drink two.
We might drink three, OK. Some guys might be in isolation
not long that they're just having straight up pints of tea
on draft. And that's what we like to see.
This is a real fun episode of the podcast this week.
Hardly. I know because some of it has
already happened. I'm just going to introduce an
interview that I did with Eamonn Holmes.
Eamonn Holmes, I grew up known as the GMTV presenter.
I knew he was from, he was from Belfast.
That was about it. Then as time has gone on, I've
seen him on so many different things, being a presenter, panel
shows, a news anchor, radio host, you name it, he's done it
and done a damn good job of of doing those things.
So I did a Mike McGoldrick video, one of my alter ego,
alter ego, easy for me to say alter ego characters.
I was actually playing a new character there.
He doesn't know how to speak. And I actually just nailed it.
So shut up. But Eamon did a Mike McGoldrick
video with me about five years ago.
I sent him a message on Twitter, asked him would he do it.
He was like, yes, I'd love to. He arrived to do the video and
it became clear that he had not seen the character before.
And it was just through his kids that he had an association with
a character. So we chat about that because I
always meant to ask him about that.
Like, did he, had he seen any of the videos beforehand?
And he more than more than answers that question.
But just a complete gentleman, as you'll see over the course of
this interview, gave up his time for me to do this.
And, and, and yeah, and he just, he's very insightful, funny and,
and just I, I think extremely charming.
He's an engaging speaker. And yeah, we did talk a lot of
about a lot of silly things, as you'd expect on this podcast.
But also we kind of get into it as well about his career, the
advice that he would have, I guess, for somebody like me.
And I found out really, really interesting a lot of what what
he was saying, he tells me about, you know, sort of new
celebrities, if you want to call it that, coming on the TV and
how he he deals with them. And they're very, very funny
story. You might have seen.
I've posted the clip on social media about a celebrity not
sitting on the sofa when he interviewed them.
We, we cover loads of things And, and you know, we talk about
Northern Ireland as well, so many different things.
He's funny. He's he's a lovely, lovely man
and I think you guys are really going to enjoy this episode.
Before we throw into it, let me just say that we're on Patreon.
So you know, the TS Me episodes by now come out and lock down on
a Wednesday and Friday. We might just keep it going as
that when this is all over but Wednesday and Friday.
But every Monday you get access to a secret podcast on Patreon
and loads more stuff as well. If you sign up.
There's different tiers of of membership, so you can check
that out in patreon.com Tea with me podcast.
That's patreon.com tea with me podcast.
Also, if you would like to do me a big favour, you could go on
Apple podcast and read it and review this podcast with a real
sweet review. I would really, really enjoy
that. And and if you have time to do
it, great. We're going to launch into the
episode. By the way, we all have time to
do it. So don't be lying and being like
made them flat out. Nobody's flat out.
We're going to launch into this episode of the Tea with Me
podcast. I really think you're going to
enjoy it. And thank you very much for all
the episodes you've listened to before.
Or if you're a new listener, what the hell have you been?
This is the Tea with Me episode with Eamonn Holmes.
Let's get into it even. First of all, let me thanks for
thanks for agreeing to do the podcast.
I appreciate it. It's tea with me.
So I've got I've got to find out your tea background.
First of all, are you an avid tea drinker?
What's what's the situation there?
Not an avid tea drinker. I do like a bit of Earl Grey
Sheen and and then I realised sometimes it's a bit, it's a
bit, it's a bit fragrant a bit. What's the word?
It's like flour sometimes and I think, but you just can't have
that with a bacon sandwich. So no, you need just, you know,
a Tetley or something. I don't like strong tea.
I don't like dark tea but don't like a two week either.
I do have to have sugar in it, but I'm not up to at least 2 at.
Least two upwards of what are we chatting?
Sometimes two in a bit. OK.
Or 4 sweeteners. Well, you're doing, you're doing
long filament days a lot of the time as well.
So I think that can be forgiven because you're, you know, you're
on the go, you're, you're working big hours.
See the, on the Earl Grey thing. I mean, that's that's maybe a
controversial subject on the podcast because there's been a
lot of Earl Grey hit. Did you ever did you drink our
tea before you left home? Because I feel like it's not
really socially acceptable in Northern Ireland.
Was that? I would agree with you.
I'd agree with you. I don't think it's socially
acceptable in Northern Ireland. My mother's not a tea drinker at
all. Yeah, and in fact, I don't drink
coffee, so. And I'm not a sort of person,
you know, you turn on Coronation Street and they say, oh, I'm
gasping for a cuppa. I've never been gasping for a
cuppa in my life. So I don't have that urge for
tea. But I quite, I quite like a tea.
What I can't do is a very Northern Irish thing, this if
someone says to me, you have a cup of tea, I'd have to say what
are we having with it? I couldn't drink a cup of tea on
its own. Oh, right.
OK. Yes, you see, so I've got
biscuits and all sorts of things like that, you know, I couldn't,
I couldn't just drink tea. On what's your What's your
preferred weapon of choice? With the tea custard cream.
Well, do you know what that's mad?
Because spoiler alert. But one of the questions we get
sort of high bro question questions from listeners here,
one of which was ask him and what biscuit he likes to
accommodate tea. And this person correctly
predicted that. You look like a custard cream
kind of guy. Yeah, custard cream.
It'll tell you what's even nicer than custard cream, and you
rarely get them. It's an orange cream.
Right. Definitely retros.
I remember them, yeah. Yes, an orange cream.
I do like a mint yo-yo. As well.
Yeah, yeah. I could have that with it, but
I'm not a sort of person that would take like a plain rich tea
biscuit or a digestive biscuit that has to have chocolate on it
or something like. That right?
Kit Kat's quite nice Twix Twix is nice with a cup of tea.
Twix and a cup of tea. A lot of people see I I don't do
weird things with food. Like I know a lot of people when
it comes to a Twix will just eat the chocolate layer off the top
then the biscuit. I don't really have much time
for that, but I guess each to each to their own but that.
Sort of verges on a perversion. Yes, yeah, I would say.
No, that's that's it. But weird.
What's your, what's your, what's your lockdown situation?
What's what? What were you working in at the
minute? Well, I'm not working.
Basically I say that I'm not working.
Everything in the diary is like cancelled.
There's nothing there, which is why you and me are talking,
Shane. Yes, I'm going to be talking for
the next 9 hours. We're going to be talking for
the next but. No, I've got, we've got this
morning once a week if things stay the way they are.
We've got a week of this Morning for the Easter week, the week
prior to Easter. Now the interesting thing about
that is that the engineers have come to our house and wired our
house up with cameras in the next room.
They intend, they intend to keep this morning on air.
So if we have to broadcast from home, we have to.
We can, we're in a position where we can broadcast from
home. But outside this morning,
there's absolutely nothing there in the diary.
Everything gone, wiped out. If you were broadcasting this
morning from home, would you just go like John and you'll go
with it and just just stay in bed?
No, we're not. No, you've no.
It's in bed. You're not going to see pictures
of me in bed. The other thing you don't see me
doing in bed is eating. I do.
I couldn't, someone said take a cup of tea in the biscuit in
bed. No, I wouldn't want a cup of
tea. I don't want toast in bed.
I don't want to eat a fry in bed.
I don't want to do that in bed. I know what Bed's for and it's
not for eating I mean. I can understand someone who
just goes and picks up a snack, personally I don't but takes it
to bed. But the idea of going down,
making a fry, you're up anyway. Yes, you're up.
Any why are you bringing it back to bed?
Are you bringing a fryer back to bed?
I know, I agree. I know is I mean, like, are you
able to still like broadcast stuff from the house?
How would you do you feel weird about doing that sort of thing
in the house? Because I know you sort of needs
must at the minute, but like I've, I've sort of turned my
spare room here into a bit of a studio and I, I was doing a lot
of work from home and then I got a studio a couple of years ago.
I'm definitely going out of the house to work is a lot easier.
Sometimes when you're in in your own house, you're just too
comfortable to work. No, but I think Shane, I think
things will change. I was saying to Ruth last week
when they were rigging those cameras up in the other room, I
said to her, you know, TV companies going to look at costs
and if the viewing figures don't fall, which they haven't, they
will cut all the costs of transporting people in and out
of studios and whatever. And no sooner had I said it than
an e-mail dropped asking us to pilot a programme for ITV, which
would involve coming from our house with other people from
their houses. And I said, see, that's the way
it's going to go and that is the way it's going to go.
But you're speaking from a perspective of living in
Northern Ireland whereby you can be anywhere with anybody in 10
minutes here for me to get into London, 2 hours, you know, I
disgusted 2 hours in, two hours out in the car and hideous.
So that motivation for me would be I could see if 3 to 4 hours a
day just by working from home. You know, when I you know, when
I was doing talk Radio 4 days a week, that's that was 90.
What was that night? 3 hours, 3 hours in and out.
So that's a commute you don't you want to do.
So your motivation, if someone says to you, do you fancy doing
this from home? You're saying?
Yeah, of course I do. Yeah, I'm building some sort of
space is so easy like I just have I have this is a box room.
I've got a green screen and I don't really need anything else,
you know, to try to put out a video a day, sketch a day and
and it's great. I mean, you're obviously
limited. I'm limited on what sort of
sketches I can film here. But in a way, since we've gone
into this lockdown, I've never, I've never been more productive.
You know, just because you've got no other options, you're not
going to even you're, you know, my working weeks sometimes
involves a lot of let's meet up for a tea and a chat and it's
not many hours of, you know, actually, actually doing stuff.
So not that this is a good situation, but for productivity,
for me it's been. It's brilliant, yeah.
And yeah, I think a lot more things will happen from the
house like we did. I do a show on Ready Wolster on
Friday nights and we did the show this week.
I broadcast from my room, from this, this sort of office I'm in
now. And the difference wasn't
massive. You know, it's not like like.
There are, there are times when it is really worthwhile to go
into an office, to mix in a work environment, to meet other
people. You know, that's that's great
sociability. There's times when it's a pain
in the backside when somebody wants you.
For instance, meetings. I, I live in a world where
everybody wants a blooming meeting and you sit and, and I
come out. If I come out of another meeting
and I say what the fact was that all about what a complete that
there's two hours of my life, I'm never going to get back
again. And it is absolutely scandalous.
I mean, I, I sit on the board of this is one of the productive
meetings, though. I sit on the board of Manchester
United Foundation, which is the charity arm of the club and, and
I've done so for 12 years now and I used to have to go to
Manchester for a meeting that would last two hours or so and
then back down again. So a whole day.
So it's like 4 hours up, 4 hours down, plus the two hour meeting.
And we can now go into London where they have this video wall
at United and you can sit there and it's even better than this.
It's as if you're just sitting in the same room as people.
It's absolutely incredible. Whereas I'm not going to say,
well, why do I have to even go into London?
Why can't we do it like this? And you Zoom or you Skype or
FaceTime or whatever it happens to be.
So I do think there's certain things that are going to change
and where it's better for the environment, it's a better
productivity of your time. I mean, since all of this has
been happening, I've never been lighter.
I've had time, I've had time to walk the dog, I've had time to
exercise, I've time to sit in the sun.
Look at me, you can hardly see me.
Look at the colour. I am sick of that carpet, you
know. So just having time, my friend,
is, is incredible. And once you give that to
people, it's very hard to hand that back.
I mean, it'll be interesting. This like stand up comedy is, is
the main thing I do. It'll be interesting to see how
that's how that's affected. I mean, the dream is I'm just
doing gigs from my kitchen, you know, that's, that's, that's a
dream. We get an audience, you know,
I'm some sort of hologram. I don't even need to be there.
That's a dream. But I mean, it's, it's weird
with being a stunt comedian because of course you want as
many people in a confined space as possible.
So I don't know when that's all due to get back.
I did the thing, I did a thing called Zoom.
So, so we're on Zoom at the minute and, and one of my lads
said to me, oh, dad, you should try House party.
Have you heard of this app called House Party?
So apparently so bloody phone doesn't stop.
So I'll just turn this off. You also get this thing that
it's funny when everybody sends you these funny COVID or
coronavirus videos and then the same video comes to you 17 times
from different people and then it doesn't become funny anymore.
That's what's sort of going on there.
But I was talking about this house party app.
And so you join this app, this house party, and you can have,
you know, 50 people on the screen or 100 people or
whatever. And the first person, once you
let people know you're honoured, people apply to be your house
party friend, are there. And the first one was Brendan
O'carroll from as in Mrs Brandon.
That's good, that's nice. He's in Mike and I saw he's in
my contacts, even forgot he's in my contacts.
There is boom, boom, boom, boom and then I have all these other
names pop up. Don't know any of them.
Never heard of any of them. So it appears that anybody who's
in. So if you and I want to do this
and I said I have a bit of Sheen and whatever made there a couple
of other people, but ever in your contact book, conjoin it.
Ever in my contact book, conjoin it.
So you're in that awful situation where people who maybe
haven't spoken to for 15 years say, just thought of take this
opportunity, you know, of getting in touch and you think,
well, there's probably a reason we.
Haven't, that's why yeah, yeah, yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I mean, that's that's enjoyable. I mean, when you start with
yourself and Brendan O'carroll, I mean, it, it it becomes a big
I'd like to see who, you know how that party ends up with a
with a lot more people. Do you have like, do you have
many friends that are in the same industry as yourself in
terms of, you know, you were like Brendan Carlson contact
list. Do you are you friendly with
other presenters? What's your social circle or are
you friends with people? You just.
Well, I tell you, the answer is the answer is yes.
But the downside of all that is, again, this living in London
business where you've got, you know, within the M25 or so, it's
a vast area. So if you say I'm going to pop
down and see Ryland Clark, for instance, he's a very good
friend. Well, that's, that's 90 minutes
getting to Ryland on a Saturday night, you're in this house and
then 90 minutes home again, it's the same for anybody wherever
they live. So people tend not to bother.
There's lots of people Ruth and I are friendly with.
Ruth is very on show busy. I just am friendly.
We're not show busy people, but we we have not with, but you
would think the the sort of Premier League type people on on
TV we're we're more the sort of, you know, conference league type
people. We, we keep in touch with all
them and we're very, very friendly.
It's a load of people, load of people who I could spend my day
just texting people and things. And I'm, I'm more sociable than
than Ruth would be on that front.
She's very nonplussed by it all. But I just am interested in the
business and people are often asking you advice and whatever.
So that's, that's quite good. So we, we have, we have quite a
lot of people, you know, like Ruth's best friend is Lucy
Alexander, who you would know from homes under the Hammer and
the carpet, right? Adverts and things like that.
And I mean when I say me good friends because she lives
nearby, so she's in our house all the time.
We're in her house. You know, Ryland, tremendous
friend and right, right. It's just moved into a big
house, but he was Ryan's house was we went to visit him one
night and he invited us down to the house and took a just
getting there. We got there and you're
thinking, well, what sort of house does he live in?
So. I mean, I'm very, I'm very keen
to know what sort of house Ryan lives in because I'm picturing a
lot of like water features. I'm thinking there's maybe
chandeliers. I have AI have a vision of it in
my. Head bit of bling you're
thinking, so you go down the you come off the, the motorway and
you start going through these areas and roots company couldn't
live here. We couldn't live here.
And you go to an area that's a bit like gang Gormley in the
1950s or 60s. So it's just full of bungalows,
right? And we say, well, I'm sure he
doesn't live in a bungalow. So you're going along with
street and then there's a bungalow that becomes like a
compound, which is a massive white wall, rounded and light
shining up on the the house. And it's got an extension on the
roof of the bungalow. And you realise this is his
house. This is his house.
And it's got blue lights and things shining in the front
house. So you go inside, but it is a
bungalow. It's a bungalow that has been
transformed. It was a bungalow fortress.
Yes, a bungalow fortress. That's exactly right.
And so you go inside and as you would imagine, you're absolutely
right. He's got, it's a bit like Doctor
Who's tired as you go inside and it's memorabilia of Big Brother.
So he's got Big Brother chairs in there, Big Brother light
switches, Big Brother, there's all sorts of Big Brother type
things. Lovely house and him and his him
and his husband share that house and that's very nice.
But however he did pack up a few months ago and he's bought a new
one and it's much bigger I believe with grounds around
different things. But he's doing incredibly well.
My God is doing so well, but we haven't been able to get down to
see him yet. But I think.
He's a lovely fellow. Yeah, he, he just, he just has
that natural like ability where you sort of watch him and go he
he's not, he's not playing a character here.
He's just 1000% being himself and.
And genuine, genuine, you know, he's a genuine guy.
I think I think that's you know, I wouldn't say you and Ryan have
similar presenting styles, but but I would say that that's
that's very similar with you in terms of what when when I watch
you present then like when I watch you right now and when we
which I want to talk to you about in a little bit.
Whenever we did that video years ago in Hollywood, that sketch
there, there's no difference. Is that something you're you
were conscious of when you started presenting, That you
just wanted to be as as like yourself as as possible because
you know you can from doing like a tiny bit of presenter.
Whenever I was younger, I always found myself like putting on
what you would call a presenter's voice.
I was trying to be something I wasn't.
Did you always try and not do that?
Or tried to watch the best and forget the rest and and I still
watch everybody. I could mark homework.
If you give me a presenter in Northern Ireland, I would, I
would watch them and I could mark their homework and I I
would be a very good coach, I'd be a very good producer from
that point of view. Because nobody helps anybody
else. No one actually says to people
you're enthusiastic, you're a good journalist, but actually
you're crap on air. And it never ceases to amaze me
when I switch on the television, particularly during this
coronavirus crisis. And so many people are getting
their chances on news stations all around the country.
And you think, so that's the best presenter you have?
Is that the best you can do? And, and it never ceases to
amuse me. And I, and I always think to
myself, I thought, how did I get on?
How did I actually make it in this business?
And the reason I, I made it was that so many, too many people
aren't very good. That's the whole problem.
And if you're half good at all, if you do watch the best, forget
the rest and model yourself on the on the best people, I think
you've a pretty good chance of getting through there.
But the amount of people who are not coached and not told and who
can't present, basically, I have this thing.
If you have someone whose eyes are like this and they're
watching and they're presenting A programme and they go good
evening and welcome to the programme, we'll add sack them
straight away, right? Basically, if you look too keen
to be there, you shouldn't be there.
That's basically you don't want to get on an aeroplane, do you?
Shame you don't work on an aeroplane, the pilot says.
Good afternoon everybody. Well, I'm delighted to be here
and I'm thrilled a bit. So we're going to be flying to
Ibiza. It's going to be a flight time,
all 5, we think more or less 3 hours, 20 minutes.
And we really do hope that we're going to get you there.
It's going to be enjoyable. I'm so no, you want somebody to
be who does the deadline them. Hello there.
How are you doing? 3 hours 20 minutes.
That's what it's going to take to get to Ibiza.
Strap in, enjoy the ride. Here we go.
That's what you want. You want something.
You want the pilot who sounds like he doesn't need to be doing
this. You know what you eat, he's not
arsed. You want a pilot?
He's not arsed. So my philosophy, and not
everybody agrees with that, is that that's exactly where you
want your TV presenter to be. That's that's my genuine view,
rightly. No, I like that view a lot on
it. I want to ask you about maybe
whenever you were starting presenting or or just in
general. I've pitched some awful
programmes in my time where I've come up with an idea whenever I
was a bit younger and enthusiastic and you don't
really think about it. You're like, wouldn't this be a
great idea? Did you ever pitch anything
yourself back in the day that you now look back on and go,
thank God nobody greenlit that? No, because most ideas are are
quite good. Most ideas are workable
depending on who presents them. And you can look at the most
ordinary formats on TV, the most ordinary formats.
And you would say, well, if I pitched that, people would say
no to that. But if somebody else pitches it
and their mates, A commissioner or whatever, then you're in,
you're through the door. So it doesn't matter what you
want to do. She.
And really at the end of the day, it's what they want to do.
So you know, when the commissioners say, yeah, that's
great ideas because that's what they want to do.
It's not there's anything particularly wrong with with
your idea. So yeah.
Well, I mean, I mean, there was, there was.
What's quite a lot wrong with a lot of these ideas?
Go and pitch it to me. Pitch something to me.
All right, what about, I mean, I'm thinking we have like a
cross community dating show in Northern Ireland.
It's sort of like blind date, but we use the peace wall.
You know, I'd like, I'd like the peace wall to, to, to sort of
come up like a garage door at the end of it.
And so we're basically it's a dating show, but we're we're
promoting cross community relations.
Different. Yes, yes.
And they weren't keen. I'm not for.
Some reason but I'm not keen. I'm going to find it myself,
zippers. Forgive me for interrupting the
podcast for 30 seconds. We're going to do a charity
appeal very quickly on on every podcast just because there's no
sponsors kind of around at the minute.
So this is this week's It's for the Northern Ireland Hospice.
Times are a bit different at the moment.
Or one spot in the city is now quiet and desolate and most
people are working from home. But people that can't work from
home include the incredible frontline staff at the Northern
Ireland Hospice and Children's Hospice who are working
tirelessly to care for local people who need it most.
The impact of COVID-19 has been devastating for the Northern
Ireland Hospice. A lot of the fundraising events
have been cancelled, that's why we're asking for your support.
Northern Ireland Hospice need your donations now more than
ever. Please donate what you can today
at nihospice.org/donate or text NIHOSPICE the 70660.
That's nihospice.org/donate or text NIHOSPICE.
All one word. Nihospice the 70660.
Cheers. Back to the pod.
Yeah, and I've got loads of loads of questions from from
listeners to the podcast and we'll get through some of them
if that's OK. So there's great response
whenever I said we were having you, having you on the podcast
and questions. Yep.
Phil Mccee says. Can I ask what Eamon's memories
are of having The Rock on GMTV about 15 years ago?
He was surprisingly sassy towards the People's champ.
All in good fun though, I'm sure.
So do you remember interviewing the rest of The Rock and was was
there a bit of a Ding Dong between you?
Rock as in as in the film, star the wrestler.
Boy. He's a very approachable fellow.
He's a very, he's one of these guys.
You have this problem often with Americans.
They're surrounded by their people and that's a nightmare.
One of them, two of them come in recently and they, they said we
can't seconds before going on air, we can't sit, I can't sit
on that couch. I can't sit on that couch.
I said, why can't you sit on that couch?
I can't be in this personal behaviour.
I said I can't, can't sit in that couch.
And I said why? And they said, they said her
people said because she's allergic to certain fabrics.
And the producers are all going, oh, no one told us there was a
sofa on this programme, right? No one told us there was a sofa
and I'm rude and I just have that Ulster just just fucking
sword at attitude, which is I woke up as what's the problem?
What's the problem? And like, honestly, there's
seconds to go on there. And they went well miss so and
so can't sit on this couch because she's got allergies to
various fabrics and no one told us to be a couch.
So I'm immediately thinking, well, she had to sit on
something. What did you think we're going
to sit on? And I said, OK, OK, OK.
I said, what are you allergic to?
And she said, I am allergic to everything except linen.
I said, oh, thank God, it's your lucky day.
And she said, what? Why, why, why is this?
And I said, because that couch is pure linen.
I have these allergies myself. I have, I said, and that is
flown in from Northern Ireland, pure Ulster linen.
That's as I said. So it's so lucky.
That is where I'm from. And you've got the same sort of
situation. Come and sit down.
I don't know what the couch was made of.
Not that she didn't walk away. It's seen there.
Anything else you know? But they're so woke.
Some of them are so woke in itself.
She's in intensive Care now. She was all right.
She walked out again. And then another guy came in and
he said, he said, he said, I'm a representative for plastics in
the ocean. I'm a crusader for plastics in
the ocean. So there can't be any plastic in
my dressing room. And the producers are going, you
know, the TV's plastic, the door handles are, I mean, goodness
knows what's plastic? I said just lie.
And they go, oh, you can't lie. You can't lie.
And I went, hello. I mean, everyone.
I said, see, that's a plastic free dressing room.
And he looked and he started looking at some things and I
said, oh, yeah. But you see, all of that is all
stuff that we we have, which is biodegradable.
Matter of fact, we can't even wash the stuff in here because
we do. It melts.
You know, they go right, right, because they're all woke, but
they're all stupid as well. But people like the Rock.
Lovely, lovely guy and very nice.
And they're people like Tom Hanks, Pierce Brosnan, Robin
Williams, God rest his soul, lovely, lovely fellow, nowheres
and graces. There are a lot of people who
you're really surprised at how ordinary they are.
And the guy that plays Frazier, Kelsey Grammar, what a lovely
guy. And so there's there's lots of
people who you're really surprised, but it's the ones
you're starting out and on their way up who have their people and
they're surrounded by their people.
And I reckon there's quite a lot of this goes with Meghan Markle
as well. I think she's got that entourage
from Hollywood. And you know, we have that same
what Meghan wants, Meghan gets. And I'd say probably a lot of
that emanates from her people. I mean that that's something I
found in in just a small dose in in interviewing sort of well
known people and celebrities is that almost the higher the
profile, the person, the more down the earth they are.
Like you say, it's people that are coming up or people that
maybe just don't have that profile that that compensate
with like an attitude or or entitlement, But you actually
find people that that are bona fide stars you.
See, they, they, they think maybe to be a star, this is the
way they have to act. But the thing about stardom,
it's the most, it's the most ordinary concept because
basically it equates to this, whether you're a move, whether
you're on in movies, whether in televisions, within soaps,
whether you're a comedian, whatever what it is she in it's
longevity, it's actually just been there for a long time or,
you know, being on telly every day or whatever it happens to
be. That's when people accept you.
It's, it's a marathon, not, not a Sprint.
It's not about winning one race or one gold medal or being in
the front cover or something for one year or two years, whatever.
It's been able to look back at somebody's career and say they
did that for 10 years, 20 years, 30 years.
That's when you become ingrained in the psyche off people and
that's what they all should be aiming at, not peeking, but just
sort of staying there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Way more
questions. Yeah, Stevie.
Stevie Henning says about the video.
Ask Eamon about the video we did together.
So my one of my alter egos, Mike McGoldrick, I interviewed you in
Ned's bar in Hollywood. Do I get the impression that did
did one of your sons maybe know the character and and get you to
do it? Is that the way it came about?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So.
So I whenever, whenever you arrived to do it, I didn't think
of explaining the character or anything to you because I was
like, listen, Eamon's obviously a big fan.
So so I was chatting to you just like this before we were
recording, you know, nice to meet you.
And we're talking a little bit about Hollywood and the barn
heads that we were recording. And, and then we said action.
And I just obviously turned into this, you know, north down
social life. And I could see in your eyes
during it you were going, why is he talking like this now?
But we do know people like that. You mean, you know, McGoldrick?
Mike McGoldrick is based on people who we all know we can
identify with. And that's the beauty of the
character that actually had. And I'll tell you, tell you
something else, Shane, when you work and are friendly with Keith
Lemon, you know, you sit there and you go, is he in character?
Is he not in character? And so you don't get any more
crazy than that. I mean, he and he is, he's
another lovely man. He's filthy, but he's a lovely
man. Well, you can.
I mean, you can tell that although, yeah, he's very
eccentric, you can tell that he must be very, very popular
because so many people like yourself and like the regular
guests that go on it. You know, you're you're putting
a lot of faith in him, I guess, on that show to to take the piss
but know where the line is, I guess takes the piss.
You're. Absolutely right.
But you know what? He's not?
He's not nasty. He's not horrible.
There's no horribleness about him.
As I said, he's absolutely filthy.
But he's, he leaves you aghast, he leaves you speechless.
But he's, but, but you know, and my, my approach with him is to
tell him he's filthy and he should be taken off TV and all
that sort of thing. But he's, he's a very nice man.
There's a kindness about his humour which is which is good.
I think as well you're you know, if if you are like in his
position and doing that sort of comedy, as long as the joke is
always on on yourself. So he makes the joke a lot of
time on himself. You know, he brings it back to
himself. He makes himself look, you know,
look like the fool very tactically.
So I think that that's great. Lawrence Docherty says if Eamon
Holmes has a boxing match with MC Hammer, can we call it Holmes
under the Hammer? You could.
Yeah, you could. Matter of fact, they should
have. The big travesty in TV is they
should have put me on that show. Why am I not on that show?
Homes under the hammer, yes, it makes and you and MC Hammer, you
know, sort of get the. Co host.
I mean you need the. I need the work at the moment as
well. Yeah, you've got the Yeah.
I mean, you'd have to be doing it virtually as well, so maybe I
don't know if it would work. You know you couldn't go to the
homes, Dan. Dan Murphy has a little bit of a
grey period, he says. Does Eamonn remember recording
an episode of Songs of Praise at his old school St Malachys?
I do. If so, why did he lie to us kids
who came in to film it? When he said he'd give us a
shout out in GMTV the next day we watched it.
He didn't. A lot of unhappy St Mac lads.
Is that right? Well, it did some malachys twice
actually. And no, it didn't.
I did it once. The songs of Praise you write.
It was a different programme. Was it the second time, I don't
know, running orders? I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm very
good at remembering people and, and, and, and doing things like
that. Or maybe he wasn't there for the
full 3 hours of the show. I don't know.
Maybe he got up late. Maybe I did it at 6:10 and he
wasn't out of bed. But the other thing is, it is
amazing. I think it's a peculiarly
Northern Ireland thing. People who've been brought up on
downtown radio, Keep it Country or Radio Ulster, you know, all
that sort of thing and they can say love on the show.
Please could you give a shout out to my wife Mary and our four
children who are all brilliant and super and fantastic and
whatever, whatever. And people in Northern, I think
that this is what TV programmes are there for.
I think community is very, very important, but they actually
don't get that so much in England.
They don't get it. There's not, there's not a lot
love of that that happens. Matter of fact, TV is becoming
more and more impersonal. So they wouldn't they, they
rarely give people surnames anymore.
So, so it's like this is she and from Ireland.
They wouldn't say this is she and Todd from Hollywood or this
is she and Todd from Belfast or Northern Ireland or whatever.
It'll just make it Ireland. You could be from Killarney, you
could be from Donegal, you could be, you know.
So I so the show I do in Ready Wolster is called the She and
Todd Show. And normally we do eclectic
music and features and a bit of chat.
But last week we just decided to have a big rave and play like
90s dance music. And we've never had more
interaction on the show from people wanting shout outs.
We never get that. And once we started doing that,
it just blew up. Like I've never.
And as a broadcast that makes you feel good because you
actually realise you're doing something, you're touching an
audience that means something to them.
Because what is the point of doing what we do if it's not
relevant to people? That's what I always think.
If I was listening to this, I was watching this at home, what
would I think? And is this actually useful to
people in some way? And you're, you're invoking all
those memories of all those people who want to rediscover
their youth in the in the 90s. Can even can you now?
Can we build some bridges? Can you now give a shout out
belatedly to Dan Murphy and the Somalakis lads?
Dan Murphy and all the lads from Somalakis, whatever year you
were, I think that was, I think it was early 90s.
We did that, we did that particular show.
But yeah, I, I an absolute credit and always lovely to be
asked to go back to your old school.
It took them a while. Used to be asking back to
everybody else's old school schools and never went to of
course, but but now, yeah, I'd do anything for some malachies
and it's it's meant a lot to me. And you know, the, I suppose the
person I am today is because I went to that school.
So to all the guys at Saint Max. Nice.
A bit of applause as well. Great to see, Claire Moore says.
What is he most proud of that has come out of Northern
Ireland? So I guess I'll extend that a
bit and ask you in the last say decade, is there anything that
that's happened here or whether it's ATV programme or or a
Sports Personality, is there anyone you're extremely proud to
say that person or or that thing is from where I'm from?
I I think in my day-to-day. Sorry, don't say me or I'll be
embarrassed. Besides you, Shane, besides you.
I think that in my day-to-day work, when I always hear that, I
always say to people, people don't say to me, hi, Yemen, I'm
from Enniskillen. Hi, Yemen, I'm from Mahara.
Whatever. They just talk and I say, where
are you from? Where are you from?
And then they tell me and then I get sort of quite art.
They haven't told me. They're they're one of us.
So they're they're, they're. And then and, and so I'm always
proud of people who make it. I'm always proud that how we as
a country punch above our weight immensely.
You know, people who lead orchestras, people who are head
of engineering at various places, people who built
Britain, people who people who you don't hear about, you only
hear about, you know, people like me and Zoe Salmon and Rory
McIlroy and you know, or whatever, and people who we
educate people to very high standard.
I think we all have a chip on our shoulder as well, which
means that we, we think we're hard done by and, and, and we're
quite well driven, but there's so many places you, you, you
realise this is a great thing for us to have.
It's a great thing for us to have.
But a lot of people from other parts of England have a much
worse than us, much worse than us.
And they're not as driven as us because there is she and is
there not something about us that thinks we'll show them or
the cards are stacked against us?
Because I just think we are disproportionate.
We have got people in all walks of life disproportionate to a
million and a half population. Absolutely.
And I think you, you can because of the geography of it as well.
So if you're, if you're an aspiring boxer and you see Carl
Frampton doing what he's doing, that's a person who could
potentially be brought up a mile from where you've where you were
from or, or maybe it was 50 miles, you know, something like
that. So there is.
The car car was from. Tigers Bay.
Tigers Bay, yeah. And, and I used to walk through
Tigers Bay or in those days around Tigers Bay to get to
school. And it turns out Carl is married
to. To a girl who is the daughter of
a second cousin of mine. So everybody.
So that's how small a village it is.
For us, yeah. I mean, back home, there isn't
6° of separation. It's, it's three, you know what
I mean? It's three or usually one.
And it's because you know your uncle played five aside with the
person in question. Yes.
Owen McMahon says Is Alan Partridge really as good a
friend as he says he is? No, I used to.
I used to like the Alan Partridge character.
Not, not so sure now. I don't only ever hear him
saying bad things about me, but so I don't know the friend
business, but it sort of annoys me when people think that
Partridge is based on me because he's the antithesis of what I
would be. We all know who he is based on.
Yes, he's a composite of probably two other presenters,
but The thing is, if I say who those two other presenters are,
then the rest of the click bait media will all go.
I could do with the podcast you used to say it.
No, I'm not saying it. No, I think we do.
I think people that that know that character well know know
know know exactly exactly who you mean.
But but he's, he's well researched from the point of
view that the characters do exist.
The characters absolutely do exist.
Yeah. That that who he becomes?
Yeah. So a little more questions.
This isn't a question, but Becky Allen just says I love his wife.
You know, not a question, more of a statement, Becky.
You should live with her, see how much you love her.
That's very nice. You see, Shane, I used to be
Eamonn, I used to be, there's Eamonn Holmes.
Now I go home and I just need a sign round my neck which says
Ruth is not with me because as soon as I go home, the first
question to me isn't hello women, how are you?
Whatever it is, Ruth not with you, Ruth not with you.
That's all. So it's just that question, Ruth
not with you. Felix saying does it look as if
Ruth said no, she's not with me, she's not with me and no, So
yes. So I'm not aiming and Ruth, or
probably Ruth and Eamon, really. You, Moses, and this is a big
one. Honest opinion on Ice T.
Iced tea. Iced tea, you don't really, I
don't really see. The point of it really, I've
tried it a few times and I think you have a soft drink, you have
a cup of tea. I'm not really sure.
The iced tea business in between.
I have tried it, I've tried to like it, but no, I don't know.
This is a question from Johnny Bull who says most famous person
on your phone. Probably Alex Ferguson.
Probably. Probably.
I'm trying to think it surprises sometimes you've you've numbers
in there and you you forget that they're they're there.
But Olly Murs is in there. Oh yeah.
Yeah, Who else is in there? There's there's quite a lot of
people, but, you know, but I mean, I suppose in terms of fame
and fame at the moment, Sir Alex, Yeah, probably.
Let's go. Let's stay on the football theme
from a final question, which is from Dylan O'Neill, who says and
I'm, I'm a Man United fan as well.
I don't know if you can see the scar.
Yes. Very good, very good.
From the I think 9394 season. But then there's.
All those bits I'm trying to point out.
What's your what's your number one bit of memorabilia in the
background? What's my number?
What? Where?
Your number one bit of memorabilia in the background
there. Well, there's some graphs from
the new camp Barcelona from the from the 99 match.
There is there's a pair not in this room, but I've got a pair
of Ryan Giggs, his boots. I've got Eric Cantina's Return
of the Magnificent 7 shirt. I would have loved to have had a
George Best shirt or Northern Ireland shirt or something like
that, you know, But no, I've got that.
So, so I suppose those are the, those are the main bits.
What I do have of a room upstairs and I saw this at, at
the Manchester United offices in London and they have manaquins
off or mannequins, you know, hairless mannequins.
So they have various kits on them.
And I thought that looks good. So I've got 4 mannequins and a
room I have upstairs where I watch football and they have
different kits on the different United kits on them.
Thinks it's creepy and doesn't want, doesn't go into the room.
Sometimes they fall asleep and wake up and I think who's that
in the corner? But yeah, that looks well.
I'm a huge fan of old Man United shirts.
I got about 3 last year and we're talking mid to late 90s
shirts. And the only thing is I don't
wear them as much anymore. I stopped wearing football
shirts day-to-day about 3-4 years ago.
I just thought I just have to wear, you know, normal type
clothes now. But I think there's lockdown
might be the perfect opportunity to just get the get the football
shirts on. So the last question given a
football later from Dylan O'Neill is tops.
A question for you both. Top three Man United players of
all time. Well, I would do Oh, that's that
that's different. Course.
It's so difficult course it's so difficult of all time.
Certainly the ones that I that I have seen, right.
I would put it like this. I would say I know, I know two
straight away, right. It's getting the.
It's getting the the other one. Oh, such a hard question.
OK, right, let's say. I've got my 3 so I'm ready for
yours and we can compare. This is very difficult because I
feel like I want to have done a Sloan ball be chanting in there.
I feel that I'm going to go for somebody more modern, and Peter
Schmeichel ranks up there big time for me.
Ryan Giggs ranks massively. But the guy who we've missed an
awful lot, midfield maestro Paul Schools right at #3 at #2
without a doubt, Without a doubt the most amazing catalyst of the
modern era, Eric Cantona. And just an absolute privilege
to have watched him play. And at #1 whether it's with
retrospect or what, But you know, when I was 9/10/11 12:13
whether in the United shirt or Northern Ireland shirt, there's
just George was magic, magic. So George Best, SO schoolsy
Cantona and George Boyd #1. So my top three is totally
different. Yeah, at #3 yeah, I'm going with
Cristiano Ronaldo. Yes, yes, of course, yeah.
At #2 somebody that wouldn't be in most people's even top 10.
But I just, I just think he was 8-9 out of 10 every game.
Rio Ferdinand #2 for me. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Good, good considered selection there.
Yeah. No, I because, you know,
defenders don't get enough credit.
And you're absolutely right. Absolutely.
Player of the year awards, all that kind of thing #1 Roy Keane
for me. Yeah, no, well, can't.
Can't argue either mate. Can't argue.
They're good selection. Good selection.
Get out, get Alex Ferguson on. Will do.
House party.
Good point. You Alex Ferguson and Olly Murs.
We'll get a few cans, isn't? Roy Keane, a brilliant
summarizer. Don't you just love watching him
because he's out-of-the-box and he just says it and he obviously
has no mates in football so he doesn't care?
What I enjoy is he makes other people not know what to say and
I always enjoy that, you know, but but his his punditry
whenever you get like him Carrig or you know, and they really
stir the pot with the pundits. You know, they know who's who's
going to clash with whose opinions and I I think he's a
great card. Sometimes I think he takes the
troll on like maybe a little bit too far where I'm like, all
right, Roy, I know you're doing this for a fact, but whenever he
whenever he is just you know, he's got those like shark eyes,
you know, just the no emotion on his face and he.
I wouldn't have wanted to have played with them or under him.
I don't, you know, I don't think I'd want him as my boss.
But I mean he's a brilliant, brilliant pundit and as you say,
an absolute superb player. Probably, you know, when you
look, if you were to do a debate about best captain Man United
ever had, a most influential captain, you know, it could win
me as controversial, you know, whether him, Brian Robson, Bobby
Charlton, whatever. But but you know Keno would take
some denying. Probably the best captain we've
ever had. Let me, let me ask you this last
thing before, before we wrap it up.
What's the number one thing whenever you come back to
Northern Ireland that you seek out or that you go and do?
Do you have like a ritual or is it, is there, is there something
you can't wait to do as soon as you get home?
Yes, go round to Bennett's on the Hollywood Road and have a
fry. And it is.
Bennett's is a spot I only discovered last month.
I went to see River Dance with my mum and we went to school.
We shouldn't really tell people about it, We shouldn't really
tell people about it. Just just go in there.
You get a very good Ulster fry. Our fact when Ruthie comes,
that's what she wants. She just loves loves the Big Fry
and Bennett's. All right, we'll have to check
it out for a fry. Eamon, thanks so much for for
doing the podcast. I really appreciate.
It thank you my friend. Really appreciate it and.
Stay safe and well, you and everybody listening.
Yep, Yep, scary times. Same to yourself, scary times.
And we're just going to drink a lot of tea to get it to get us
through it with two 2 1/2 sugars.
Eamonn. Cheers mate.
Thank you very much. Cheers shippers.
There we have at the Eamonn Holmes episode of the Tea With
Me podcast. I'm sure we'll all agree.
What a guy, what a guy. Fantastic sense of humour.
Pretty deprecating about himself as well.
Knowledgeable, wise, physically attractive.
OK, so that was the Eamon Holmes episode of Tea With Me.
Honestly, the guests in the next couple of weeks that have kindly
agreed to do the podcast are amazing.
It's a real mix of people from the world of comedy, acting,
sport, that kind of thing. But I'd love to hear from yous
if there's guests that you would like me to try and get because
we're just, we're just speaking to everybody at the minute.
And I'm asking the question, you know, what's the worst that's
going to happen? Another restraining order
possibly. But you know, I'm putting the
question out there and nobody's really said no.
So let's just enjoy that while at last, you know why we're able
to get good guests. So if, if there's a guest you'd
like me to get, you can tell me on
socialmediaorwillbeevenbetteraswehaveahotmailaccountwhichisteawithmepodcast@gmail.com. So that's not a Hotmail account,
all right, And I don't know why I turned 75 years old there, but
twasmepodcast@gmail.com, I think that's what it is.
Oh, God. Look, don't worry about it.
But I think that's it. Let me know what guess you'd
like to see in the podcast and I will do my damn just to get them
on. Cheers to everybody who
listened. I appreciate it.
Tea with me. He's out Wednesday and Friday
again, the Patreon is patreon.com/tea with me podcast.
That way you can support the podcast and get the bonus
episode that comes out on a Monday.
Producer Dan and I just did an episode all about Tiger King,
which if you haven't seen it on Netflix, watch it and then
listen to our podcast about it. Cheers, guys.
Thank you very much for listening or watching the video
versions on my YouTube page. Shane Todd, I mean, what a
brilliant name, but you'll find it.
You know, I mean a back you to find it.
Thank you very much for listening.
And guys, keep a tea. All right, Cheers.
See you later. There we are, mate, special
effects. Now we're cooking.
Cheers.