Hello and welcome to another episode of Casting Views, the
podcast that takes a topic each week and as the name suggests,
Cast Views this week. It's another Mindwipe episode
and I've not recorded one of these for a while, so I'm
looking forward to this, but even more so because the victim,
I mean subject this week. Oh well, subject's probably not
better than victim. Is it Dan?
I don't. Know I'm not sure which I'm
preferred to be honest. The subject makes me sound like
a lab experiment. Maybe it is mine.
Wipe. I'm a lab experiment.
Go here. We go the word I wanted is the
guest this week is my good friend Dan H from well from life
and also from life from life and the gaming views podcast.
Hi, Dan, how you doing? Hey mate, what we should do is
my good friend from previous working establishments walking
the dog and life in general. Yeah, I keep saying I'm
notoriously bad for intros and that just sums it all up so.
Hey, it works for me. I'm I'm used to this chaos,
right? Every week we record gaming
beauties. This is the same.
How many edits shall we make this time?
Well now peek behind the curve for you.
What people don't realise is we've been recording this for
about 30 minutes already. We're only a minute in.
Say say 30 seconds now Dan, and then edit that bit.
Look, all right, bad intro aside, Dan, obviously people
will have heard you on here a couple of times when we were
trialling the Gaming Views podcast.
But of course we are Co hosts of Gaming Views podcast.
And if you're not listening to that people, I'll put the link
in there. Go go subscribe now.
But yeah, Dan, tell us a bit about a little bit about
yourself, about how you are and about gaming views.
I'm super well and I say that in all honesty I'm, you know,
living my best life at the moment the switch to arrived
today one reason so there you go not that my life revolves around
gaming just got back from a short break last week.
So yeah on on fine form gaming views wow I mean it's just been
a blast. The last kind of six weeks have
just been incredible. I am not, as people will know
from the things I say and the numbers I get wrong and
everything else, a a a seasoned podcaster.
However, Many thanks to you for introducing me to that world and
I've just enjoyed every single minute of it.
You know, we're what, 6 episodes in now and I've barely repeated
myself other than mentioning RoboCop.
So that's that's. Done it now.
Yes, I'm going to switch that to Half Life from now and I swear.
So yeah, it's it's just been phenomenal.
Look, we take a different subject or a different deep dive
every week and we go into detail on it.
Sometimes it'll be a bit of news, sometimes it'll focus on,
you know, a specific game or a specific topic.
And we've done, you know, a number of things.
We've done the RPGs, we've done Half Life.
You know, we've done a general pilot on just us and our history
of gaming. Yeah.
And that my background doesn't just revolve around gaming.
I am a massive nerd, as you'll probably find out over the next
hour or so. You know, I, I grew up with a
pretty large family. And my solace and calm from the
space of chaos that was that family was nerdy, geeky things
like comic books and sci-fi movies and fantasy and Dungeons
and Dragons. And if you could take a peek
into my office where I sit now doing this, you would see just
from, and you've seen this down, right?
So you would see I am surrounded by more Lego builds than
probably anything else. I also have detached Deadpool
heads and Deadpool builder bears and I have lots of video games
consoles and Dragons and all just all sorts.
It's just littered around my room.
That really leads to tidy up to for actually now I'm feeling
quite guilty. But yeah, so look need to
podcasting. Absolutely enjoying it and
loving doing what we're doing. I'm really, really pleased to be
here doing this with you. I listened to these of your cast
of views and I've listened to lots of them historically as
well and it's one of my favourite episodes.
So I've been I've been changing to get on here and do this with
you. No, Well, I really appreciate
that and there's a lot you said there.
I want to pick up on a couple of things.
So I'm not going to call you. I was going to say I was agree
with you, but I'm not going to call you a big nerd.
What I'm going to say is you're a massive lover and fan of the
geekdom, what I think is called geekdom and and yeah, it's
brilliant. And as Dan said, it's, yeah, I
obviously I've been, I've, I've been around his house a number
of times and it's, it's a treasure trove of really cool
stuff, isn't it? Thank.
You great. I appreciate that.
Yeah, I think that. And and you think that when my
Lego starts creeping into the living room and my wife's like,
why have we got a Wolverine's claw as a as an ornament?
I'm not sure she agrees. If you need to keep anything
round my house, just let me let me know, but.
Your shelves are going to be full behind you.
That's what's going to happen. And my stuff.
Yeah, that's it. And yeah, you know, you said
about gaming views, it is funny. It's I think that has come along
at the right time as well for me because I'd said to you, you
know, I'd wanted to do sort of something on gaming and and you
then kind of like, yeah, yeah, I'll be up for it, I'll be up
for it. And what I like is you've kind
of pushed to do things different for me as well.
Like we've now started doing video on gaming games.
You know, as of well, I think this goes out in a couple of
weeks. So hopefully by the time this
gone out, we've done 2, maybe 3 video episodes on YouTube, which
I've been thinking about for a while.
But you just kind of carry on as you are.
So you've like now want to do video and and we've got it done.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And, and I think the main reason
I wanted to do that was because when you told me you'd only be
able to do it with a green screen, I wanted to see you
suffer sitting at a tiny little circle of green that I can then
edit any backdrop I want on. I'm joking.
I've. Got a huge amount of trust in
you, I think. I hope everyone listening.
Yeah, that that's, that's the kind of trust I've got in this
man. You'll know when Dan and I fall
out because literally his backdrop will not be what he's
expecting. But no, I, I think I look, we,
we complement each other quite well.
You, you know, you are very much a planner and a, you know, you
know, where you want things to be and how you want them to be.
I had a little drop of chaos into that.
And I think together we come up with, you know, in the same way
we complement each other around the whole gaming scene, right?
You, you are, you know, you love your retro, you love revisiting
things you've done or haven't done previously on older
generations. Got that.
And I'm very much so I love the new stuff.
You know, I'm a day one purchaser, whether or, you know,
which basically means huge buyers remorse all the time.
But but I think that complements us very, really well.
I, I can, you know, I've got the PS5 and the switch, you've got
the, the Xbox and, and the other retro stuff.
So I think, you know, in that, in that respect, it works really
well for us. And you know, we coming from
different backgrounds and different, you know, growing up
in, in a different way, in different spaces, you know, we,
we just, I think it works really well, you know, and I'm, I'm
genuinely, you know, not players wake up.
Yeah, but I'm genuinely really pleased about the whole thing
and I think it's going really well and I love doing it with
you. No, I appreciate it and and the
same, I think what I would say to people is honestly, look,
even if you don't think you're into gaming, if you've heard the
last sort of 5-6 minutes conversation, that's kind of
what we're like on on the show. We're not pretty much when I say
we're not, we don't say takes seriously.
It's not that it's not a serious pop, but we're like you said,
we'll take a subject and we're having that conversation we're
having now. It's just two friends talking
about something they love doing right.
It's. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah. And again, that's kind of what
I've really enjoyed because I've enjoyed doing this.
I mean, coming up to actually this will be episode 198.
So it's coming up to 200 episodes almost in in September
this year. It'll be four years.
I'm. Going to get you a cake.
Thank you. There is no cake, isn't it?
Do? That joke.
Yeah, I'm going now. I'm going to get you a 200, a
200, maybe just a muffin, but I'm going to get you a.
Well, there you go. I look forward to that.
Yeah, I look on our walk on a Sunday.
But yeah, I've always had the idea of wanting, like I said,
wanting to do games but a gaming podcast, but just, I just didn't
want to do that on my own. And, you know, it's just one of
those things. So I thought, no then.
And then like I said, no, you've come along, like I said, with
the energy that we, you know, needed for it and yeah, take it
to it straight away. So like I said, you know, if
you're not listening, just give us a try, couple of episodes.
And even if you don't, still press the subscribe button
right? 100% always press the subscribe
button. I have to say I am.
My arm is still recovering from RSI from the amount you had to
twist it to get me to do it though, so you know it's that
was a joke. Well, like I said, I I'm, I'm
just dreading when it gets to the real hot summer days and
I've got that green screen right up behind me and I've got the
light shining on it. No, we're, we're going to get
your, we're going to get your room sorted before then.
We'll just we're going green. Ain't ain't the room No.
No. We'll do the whole works.
We'll get you looking like mine for a fraction of the cost.
It'll be not the same. It'll be, it'll be Dan P We'll
get it. Who said?
Someone said to me at work today what I should do is get you to
stand up, take a screenshot of your background and then you can
put that on the green screen. I did think of that.
I did think of very much of just doing a shot of my background
and put it on yours. It would look a bit weird.
Why did they got the same? Just a picture of you.
With my arm around you. All right.
Well, thank you. Thank you for for that little
intro there. We'll hear from some friends of
mine and we'll come back very shortly.
In a world with so many movies to choose from, one hero will
rise. The Movie Wire podcast with host
Justin Hansen TuneIn, wherever you listen to podcasts.
Right. Dance.
So I do you know what this is? When you said you'd do this, I
was really pleased because kind of what you said before the
break, what I know about you, how much you love pop culture.
I've been really looking forward to having you on for this, to
hear what you're choosing and know that for some of these it
was probably a very difficult thing to try get it down to
maybe just three items. Absolutely, I was at pains for a
lot of these things, but thankfully and genuinely and
this and this will this actually, I'll tell you now
because while I was listening to some of your previous ones and
particularly the ones from the guys that the dad podcast, the
Middle East, our podcast. So a number of their picks were
ones that would have been on my list.
Oh, really? Yeah, 100%.
So starting with starting with Breaking Bad, I've always said
out of any program, if I was ever one I was going to wipe and
watch again, it would be that. And I didn't want to do a repeat
because I think those guys did it, I think was raging.
I think he did it succinctly and beautifully.
So I was like, I'm not going to do that.
Another one was, I think he did was Buffy.
Yeah. And again, I was like, no, I'm
not going to do that. So, so, so those guys picked up
on some stuff that that I was going to pick up on.
So I've, I've steered away from that and I've gone to my other
choices, which hopefully you won't have had, won't have been
on there. Maybe a tiny bit out there for a
couple of them. But I think most people will,
especially if you're a bit of a geek or an edge, and you'll know
and appreciate them, maybe even love them.
Like I said, knowing how much you love, like all, all things
media, whatever you pick, I'm going to be fascinated by.
So we are going to start in the random order in terms of how I
wrote them to WhatsApp to you. I'm going to keep it probably in
that order. Let's start with TVTV.
OK, so number one on my list, and you might remember this from
when we were together because I used to talk about it non-stop.
It's a comedy show, BBC Two, probably around early 2000,
somewhere like that, but it's the Mighty Boosh.
You know, just when you said when we're working together now,
people just bear in mind this was what, probably 2000 and six,
2008, something like that. Yeah, yeah, I.
Think I knew straight away what you were going to say.
So yeah, the Mighty Boosh. Go for it.
My sense of humour is quite off kilter most of the time, you
know, I'll find people I click with in terms of my sense of
humour. Sometimes it could be a bit
dark, sometimes it could be a bit silly.
And those are the people I tend to that tend to gravitate to my
orbit and vice versa. And this is very much a
programme that sits firmly within that little bit dark,
little bit silly area. You know, it's just, you can
tell that the the guys who, who created this.
So this is no fielding anyone who watches Bake Off will will
know. And his comedy partner basically
created the Mighty Boosh as a stage show.
They toured and did the Fringe in Edinburgh and they did a few
smaller pieces and then they kind of, they drifted apart and
then drifted back together as the Mighty Boosh and and managed
to get a show commissioned pilot originally, I think, and then
went on to create three seasons across BBC Two.
And it's just one of the most absurd, funny, weird comedy
shows. So the first season is set in a
zoo. They are essentially zookeepers.
They have a mystical shaman called Naboo who helps them on
weird missions each week. It's got Rich Fuller in it.
It's also got my word, Toast of London.
Why can't I remember his name? Matt Berry.
Thank you. Thank you, Dan.
Matt Berry? Yeah.
How can we forget Matt Berry? So, so it's got Matt Berry in it
and he's genuinely hilarious in the whole show.
He plays essentially Dixon Bainbridge, who is the keeper of
the show, the the owner of the zoo, and he's just this
misogynistic, angry little man. And Rich Fuller plays a just a
weird little sidekick to him and they're always at odds.
And there's mutant Kangaroos and there's, you know, hunts in the
Arctic for for mystical gems. It's genuinely warped and
insane. And then in the second season,
it moves to them having a flat share in what I assume is
London. It might not be London where
they are. They're trying to be a, a kind
of goth Electro band. So it's all a bit weird, right?
And then and then the third season, it's an antique shop
that they own. But there are recurring
characters that go throughout it, like the Hitcher, like old
Greg, you know, and these. And once you've seen them, you
kind of go, Oh my God. And they're all played by the
actors within the show. And it's just a genuinely funny,
funny show that I on numerous occasions fell about laughing,
you know, without being able to recover.
I went to see them live a number of times.
They did. I can't think it was the O2, but
they did. I think they might have done
Wembley. They've done some big venues as
well with the show. And again, they just kind of
take that the TV show to another level.
It's just a genuinely beautiful piece of work and very, very
funny. So yeah, if I could have the
opportunity to not see that again.
And that, and that's the thing for this.
I took this genuinely as a mindwipe.
If I if I'd never seen it before and I could see it again fresh
for the first time, that would be on my list.
And this is what I was going to say.
You'd love it as you did the first time because things can
age and that, but you'd love it as the first time.
And what I've got to say is it was you that got me onto this
programme because as you said, you did quote it.
So at work you just quote those random lines.
And yeah, I then remember buying the DVD box set, I think the
first two series and absolutely loving it.
Now, I was a bit wary because these zany, these really weird
comedies I'm not usually a fan of, like, you know, incurred A
Raph now, but I didn't really get on with Monty Python.
OK. Things like that.
But the my wish, as you said, I just couldn't stop laughing.
I remember watching it and it's just, I think it's also because
they're quite likeable and as people as well.
So they come across has a really good group of people and, you
know, it's just you. You said Rich.
Was it Rich Rich Fuller? Yeah, I remember there's a
couple of times where he's singing a song like he's saying
I can't go for that. And it's almost like a minute or
two of it, and then he stops the player and he goes.
And that's why I, you know, I can't go for.
That I don't. I don't like cricket.
I don't like cricket as well. He's thinking about that for two
minutes. He stops it and then just says
and that's why I don't like cricket.
And then the other two walk in dressed as caveman, not being
able to speak English. It's that it's that level of
weirdness that you just go, what the Hell's going on?
But it's it's so funny at the time that you can't help but
laugh because it's just situations and things that you
go that I don't know how, no. Fielding is the moon.
No, Fielding is the Moon is a stroke of genius.
And then you've got, I don't know who played the character,
but like, he's a little alien head with tentacles that they
carry around in a papoose as well.
I think that was nothing. Probably was.
Yeah, it was. Yes, it was.
You're right. And he plays the Hitcher.
It's it's just so good. And they and they work really
well together. You know, they work in this way
where, you know, 1 is the straight man and one's just a
bit of a Jackass. And and it's that interplay
between the two of them because they don't always get along, but
they really love each other. You know, it's that kind of and
that and that's what I really enjoy about it.
And I think I've always, you know, but comedy isn't
concerned, particularly where it's like, you know, either an
ensemble or or a duo. I've always loved that kind of
straight man to the to the crazy.
And yeah. And one of my all time heroes in
comedy has always been Eric Morecambe, you know, because
just his, you know, how he and early wise worked was just just
so funny, you know, And I often at Christmas, they they'll
recycle the old shows and sit in, you know, with André Previn
and things. And I'll sit and watch them and
I will still, even though I know what's coming, I will still be
laughing my socks off because I just think they're just a genius
pairing and so, so very funny. And it just makes such a good
grounding in comedy. And, and that's what, you know,
they do really well in the Mighty Boosh.
Well, I've got two more things before we move on to your next
choice, but one is because of that show.
I've just really, really like Niall Fielding now, so I'm
really happy because I love the Bake Off anyway, so I'm really
pleased he's the host of that. But he's now in my list when
people ask me, you know, which three people would you want to
meet? The dinner party on my show or
the the night out for a drink, whatever.
He's in my he's in my list because I would just love to get
in that head of his and or maybe I wouldn't, I don't know, but I
would. I just think he's the sort of
person that you could sit at a table and have a pint with a.
100% and he's one of these people that's had such a an
unusual journey, but also fascinating in that, you know,
he, he knows Courtney Love really well.
I think they lived together at one time in London.
You know, he's had this it's this incredible journey and
knows all of these very famous people.
And and so I think you're right, you know, being able to have
that conversation with him go, how the hell did that happen?
You know, how did you fall into that kind of circle?
I mean, look, and we should give props to Julian Barrett as well,
right? Because as as the straight man,
I think he carries a lot of the weight, You know, if if you it's
easy to act like an idiot all the time, right?
But trying to. Keep a straight program.
Yeah, 100%. And he does some his his comedy
timing and some of the things he does, like playing an old
Russian woman when he when he does and trying to sing a song
in Arctic conditions. It it's just, you know, I mean,
if you watch it, you'll see what I mean.
But it's just a a worker genius. So yeah, that one locked.
And, and the only other thing is I'll say hi again to Joey and
Alex of the Game Club pod because often when we're online
having a chat, even they're quoting Mighty Boosh quotes so.
I'm going to love those guys even more.
I've not met them face to face, but I I genuinely look we might
end up with you doing gaming views alone.
I might I might jump ship and just.
No, no, amalgamation, Amalgamation.
You're locked into contract, right?
Moving on, what's #2 OK, so. I'm wondering whether I still
should I stick with the comedy or shall I move on to my do you
want to break from comedy or do you want to carry on with comedy
and then go a little bit different?
Let's let's carry on with comedy.
Carry on with comedy. So my second one, which I'm
hoping the kind of people who listen to your stuff and listen
to our stuff will know is a little Channel 4 program that
used to be on a Friday night post pub before you're a trash
called Spaced. OK, Yeah.
Oh yeah, OK. One of the very best comedies
ever produced, only ever two seasons, much to everyone who
watched it's disgust. And it launched the the careers
of Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Jessica Hynes.
Like, look, Simon Pegg is like, you know, Tom Cruise's best mate
now, right? Well, this is what I was going
to say. It's astonishing.
I was watching Dead Reckoning the other night and I'm just
looking at it and thinking spaced.
I I my wife and I wore out the VHS recordings and the DVD's re
watching it and now we still watch it on it was on Netflix
for that. Well, I think it's back on 4oD.
It's a weird slice of observational stroke random
hilarity about two people who fall into a flat share.
And I don't think I'm spawning anything by saying this.
So, so Jessica Hines and Simon Pegg fall into sharing of a flat
under the mistaken belief that the only way they could do it
was to appear as a couple, as if they're dating, because that's
the only day Marsha, who's the the landlady, would let them
stay there. She didn't care.
That was nothing to do with it. And this is a running joke for
the kind of the the, the almost the two seasons.
They're joined by Nick Frost, who is Simon Pegg's character's
best friend, who is got thrown out of the TA right, the
Territorial Army for being too insane.
And he's basically just an absolute nutball, but a lovable
nutball. And there are so many pop
culture references in that show, particularly around wrestling
Star Wars, like the Matrix and and homages and, you know,
flashback. There's there's so many things
in it and these you could tell, like when I used to watch it, I
just wanted to be their best mate because they were my kind
of people. And it's just such a cleverly,
sharply written piece of work that that whose DNA And trust
me, if you've not watched Space, but you've seen the Cornetto
trilogy, you will kick yourself because the DNA of those films,
Shaun of the Dead and particularly Hot Fuzz, right.
If you love Hot Fuzz, go and watch spaced because it that
that is where a lot of what happens in Hot Fuzz.
Like you'll see what you know, how that into play happens.
You know, it's it's a show that is just one of the genuinely
funniest things I've ever seen. I mean, I'm thinking about
certain scenes from it now and laughing.
Just the conversations they have.
There's a lot of you know, they're they're kind of stoners
and they're you know, but it's a joy to watch.
You know that and they they play off and riff off almost
everything. Almost any pop culture movie or
sci-fi or TV program or anything you can imagine.
They playoff of it and get a joke out of it and it's
brilliant. It's funny because again I
remember clearly remember you talking about this.
Now I've I've only seen it the once and I not because I don't
like it but I've just never got round sitting again so I
remember very little about it. But what's funny is the 2 shows
you've picked so far, it's almost, I won't say necessarily
the inception, but the inception of a double act of people.
It's almost, you know, so you see the Mighty Boosh with the
two of them where they've then gone on to obviously Simon Pegg
and and Nick Frost have both had, you know, great careers
since then. But they were best mates at the
time. So that's so Simon Pegg and Nick
Frost. And actually the show is not
really about those two. So, so the protagonists in it
are really Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes.
So actually the interplay is actually between those two.
As you know, Jessica Hynes is a budding author.
Well, I say author, she is a, she is a budding author, but,
but ends up kind of writing mainly for, you know, women's
magazines and things like that. And Simon Pegg is a comic book
artist. And, and I think that another
reason I interconnected with that really, really closely was
because that's what I wanted to do originally.
So, so I used to love drawing. I did, you know, art and design
at college. I, you know, and I still draw
now. I still sketch particularly for
my kids and stuff, and it's always comic book characters,
you know, and his work was actually the work that they show
in in the show spaced. That is he that he is his work
is is by a guy called Simon Beasley, who used to work for
2000 AD, you know, used to deal with it and and his work is
phenomenal. I mean, if you ever get a chance
to see any of his work around Sloane or slain, whatever you
want to call it, or, or Wolverine or you know, his, his
work is phenomenal in that space.
And he does some of the work they show on the show.
And he was a big fan and they they were all friends as well,
you know, and, and Edgar Wright, you know, directed and wrote a
load of the shows with those guys, you know, so he was behind
the camera, which is why when you look at shows like films
like Hot Fuzz, Shaun the Dead, they were just taking what they
were doing in those shows to the next level.
And my challenge to you is go back and watch it, right?
Go back on 4oD. It looks a little bit dated now,
but trust me, Dan, you will thank me if you go back and
watch that. You'll be, you'll be talking to
me on Sunday going, Oh my God, I watched it.
And you're right, it's just brilliant.
I will do it. We may have to do watch along,
right? I'm going to move you on now
just because I'm just looking at time, right?
What's your final choice in TV? So we'll be quick with this one.
And this is this is mainly because the reason I want to do
this is not so much about my love for it or my knowledge of
it or anything else. But this is more about the fact
that when I was a kid, I used to spend a lot of summers in in
Wales at my, my grandparents house.
And my grandma passed away recently.
She was 99. So she was, you know, she had a
good innings, you know, she was, bless her.
But I used to go and visit her in Wales.
And in Wales they had the precursed satellite TV and I
used to watch a show on there that I loved and I remembered it
and I remembered it all the way through my life.
And it was a show that in the UK where when it was screened was
called Battle of the Planets. In Japan, where it was created,
it was called Team Science Ninja Gatchaman.
It's an anime and I'm not a massive anime fan.
Used to be. I used to love Fist of North
Star and Akira. I went to the Phoenix Scholar in
London to watch Akira premiere in the UK.
So I used to love all that and I kind of fell out of love with
it. But Battle of the Planets, it
was about, it's about a group of five teenagers who essentially
could transform into superheroes.
And they used to go on missions every week.
And it just, I can't remember a huge amount about it.
They tried to do a kind of a westernized launch of it back in
2008 time, I think. And the guy who did Batman the
Animated series, Tim, can't remember his name, Tim Dinny,
but he he was involved in it and they released a kind of a
trailer for it, like CGI version of it, but it never took off.
But that show, you know, if I could kind of start not, not
have seen it and go back and watch it again, which I probably
could now because I've forgotten it all at that time in my life.
It just used to be absolute joy, you know that and spending my
summers with my grandparents and having a brilliant time in Wales
and being able to watch that show.
Well, I'm looking at it now because when you said it, it
rang a bell. But then you said, oh, like
anime. And I thought, no, was I'm not
sure I saw it there. I'm looking it up and I
absolutely saw this and and the memories are coming back now.
Yeah. You know, sort of like the 90s.
Is that that kind of time or, or late 80s, early 90s kids TV had
some great cartoons, slash anime like this.
You know, we had so many, didn't we?
Yeah, we did. Yeah.
But but this is the only place I remember seeing it.
And it was because they had whatever the, you know what,
maybe it was satellite TV or whatever it was they had at
their house. But, you know, I can't remember
kind of seeing it anywhere else or, you know, having the
opportunity to watch it anywhere else.
And I just, you know, when I was trying to kind of dredge up my
memories and things I'd love, there's so many, but that kept
flooding back to the surface. And I was like, God, I love that
show. It's very different to your
other two choices, yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
And there were so many dramas and things like that that I
love, but I, I couldn't kind of pull out ones that either
somebody hadn't already mentioned or, or that, you know,
I, I kind of, I would struggle to articulate. 85 episodes.
Yeah, 1978 to 1980. Blimey.
Yeah, and you'll recognise they're they're, they had a
robot companion and they had like a you.
Know always a robot companion, always right and he.
Looked a bit like RTD too, weirdly.
And they had, you know, a major bad guy who would always be, you
know, at the bottom of everything and so mighty be
spaced in Battle of the planets. OK, right.
I really like that. I really like that.
So thank you for that. We're going to move on to the
subject. I, I always say I tend probably
not to have too much of a conversation on because I'm not
well, I haven't been for years as well, Not much of A reader.
I used to love reading and now it's probably limited to comic
books every now and then. But yeah, what are three books?
So, so one of these is a is a comic book.
The other, the other two are not.
I am and have been quite a prolific reader throughout my
adulthood, whether it's books on kind of leadership or dev OPS
and things like that things do in my career.
I love reading some of those non fiction things.
But more often than not it is is like last year I went through
the entire Jack Reacher series just in within within a year
easily, probably within about 8 months.
I just, I was voracious. So I was reading them on the
train. I was reading them at home and
the night before. But it's my way of decompressing
at night. Unfortunately, and probably due
to you, I now mainly read comic books at night because I
subscribe to Marvel Unlimited. So I now go, so I'm going
through the history of Marvel at the moment.
So I'm just on Wolverine. So I'm kind of going through
those. Let's start with the one that
isn't a comic book. And so the first book I'm going
to choose mainly because one I'm looking at it right now and it's
still falling into pieces, is Stephen King's It.
This was a book I picked up at school, weirdly or not, I was
about 14, maybe 13, and it was in the library at school and I
was like, oh, quite interested. I'll pick that up now.
For anyone who's ever read it, it is not a book for a 13 year
old to read. There is quite a lot of naughty
words, sexual content and unsurprisingly, horror.
My mum found it in my bag and wrote a letter of complaint to
the school, at which point it was removed from the shelf so I
didn't actually get to finish it.
I was about 1/3 the way through it.
So when, when I was old enough, I was probably about 16 or so, I
picked up and read it. And I must have read that book
double digits easily. And, and, and every time I read
it, I find something new or some different way to connect to it
depending on the stage I'm at in my life or you know what it is
because it's a, you know, I'm sure people have read it or seen
the the film. Lots of people have seen the
film, but it's it's essentially a story of kids growing up in a
little town called Derry in Maine, which is where Stephen
King writes a lot of these books around.
And there is a presence there that essentially has been
killing people or, or, you know, surprised people know, but the
population goes missing at certain points in history and
these kids fall into why it happens.
There's a little bit of a detective story, but it's more
as you read it about how those kids grow up and then the story
revisits them as adults and all this into place throughout.
So it's not like a it's not like a a bit and bit, you know, you,
you actually start the book at one of their houses when they're
older and then it kind of it flashes back and forward.
But it's done in such a beautiful way.
And it was, you know, I'm a massive fan of Stephen King.
And I think it's, it's one of those books where he's, he
really hit his stride because I've read a lot of his earlier
works like the Dark Tower, and that was one I'd, I'd
potentially thought about putting on here.
And particularly the the first Dark Tower book you can read.
When you read it, you kind of go, this is him finding his way
as an author. You know, look, he could still
write 10 times better than I could.
But you, you know, it's not true where he is now or where he's
been. And then as you watch the
progression of the Dark Tower books, you see his his writing
grow throughout his career. But I think it is one of those
books where he'd really hit his stride.
And it was kind of around the same time as things like, you
know, or shortly after things like Carrie and Cujo and, and
books like that where he as an author, he came into his own and
created like the Tommy knockers and all these sorts of things.
But it for me stands out as his. It's just a beautiful piece of
work and such a well written book and properly scary as a
horror, you know it is. It is a proper scary book.
It is interesting what you say because Stephen King, I'd only
read a couple and it's probably again, a similar age.
When I was at school, I remember reading Carrie and yeah, Cujo,
you mentioned it. I think a cousin or or someone
had it, family member had it. And yeah, it's it's horror.
So I think that's what would have appealed to me.
But when I was younger, I absolutely loved reading.
And like you said, it was his writing style as well.
The books were just interesting to read, let alone that you're
after that next horrible scene. It was exciting book.
It brought you on that adventure, right?
And the level of detail about the environment he's, he's so
passionate about, you know, where he grew up and you know,
the environment in which he grew up.
And, and the way he's able to portray that through not just
through the eyes of a different character, but just talking and
setting the scene and the scenery.
And, you know, the world that they inhabit is there's very few
authors out there who can do that half as well as he can and
still keep you engaged. Because sometimes it often comes
off as a laundry list or a tick list of, you know, the colour of
the trees or things like that. The way he does it and the
nuances he puts in it. And and it's such a beautifully
written book and arguably one of the scariest antagonists in in a
book ever write in Pennywise. You know, as villain, well,
villains, you know, as antagonists go, it's still in
pop culture. I know there was a couple of,
they remade it a couple of years ago, didn't they?
But yeah, they did even before that.
Pennywise is just in the consciousness.
Isn't it? Yeah, yeah.
Just just just super scary clown.
I mean, it's clowns are scary anyway for most people, right?
I mean, they don't bother me weirdly.
But but but a lot of people say, you know what?
It's scary. And they go, oh, clowns are
really scary. My wife don't like clowns, but
I'm not. It's just a clown.
But then you see a clown like that or you read about a clown
in that way and you're like, yeah, probably.
I probably wouldn't need to go, you know, he turns into a bloody
werewolf. I'm probably all right, you
know, But yeah, just so descriptive, so beautifully
written and just a, just a great horror book, just as just a
phenomenal book. Great start.
OK, so what's your next pick? My next pick is I'll go to the
graphic novel. So this is again a book I read
and I'm now on my third copy of it because the other two felt
pieces and that is Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns.
So I'm a big fan of I guess you'd call them kind of else
welds or what ifs, you know, those kind of things.
You know these what if these things happened all the so I've
just finished reading all of Old Man Logan and Dead Man Logan,
which are just brilliant as well.
And then you know, like rain, which is kind of the spider man
version of him when he's older. But this one was one I picked up
probably not long after it was published.
Actually, I didn't I didn't buy the individual issues, but
picked up the graphic novel when it came out.
And for those of you who don't know.
So it's the tale of Bruce Wayne. He's old, he's retired Batman.
He still is a thrill seeker, so he races cars at high speed to
try and get his his juices going.
He essentially he can't sleep. He's like his mind's all
twisted. He he doesn't know what he's
doing. He's in his, I don't know what
is he late 60s, something like that in this.
And something happens that triggers him and he decides he's
going to go back to being Batman.
In fact, he has, he has some symbolism.
So he has he sleepwalks and he finds himself turning on the
lights in the Batcave and decides he's going to go back to
being Batman. But he's old and he's slow and
he's really struggling. And, you know, people have
forgotten who he was, or at least believe he's now this
criminal. And it it's this interplay of
him surviving in a whole new world that's taken over by
mutants and kids who file their teeths, you know, so they can
attack people and deal in weapons and all of the kind of
well, the number of the Justice League characters play back into
the Atom Superman, Wonder Woman. So these characters all into
play throughout this story as well.
And it's a big old book. And Frank Miller's art is just
on point, man. I mean, you couldn't wanted a
better artist to deliver that story in that way.
You know, someone like Greg Capullo or someone like that had
or, or, or, you know, had had done the same artwork for that.
It wouldn't have had the same effect, you know, because it's
not, it's not beautiful art, but it's amazing art.
Do you know what I mean? It's like there's some artists
who can create beauty in, in comic books.
You know, Jim Lee was one of those.
But but there's some people who can create phenomenal art that
hits the moment. And it, it's a weird book in
that it also references things like Reagan, the Reagan era and
the 80s really heavily and Russia and the Cold War and
things like that. So it's a really odd book.
And he ends up getting embroiled with this.
The Joker comes back, 2 face comes back.
But one of the other characters in it is, is a girl called
Carrie Kelly, who who is essentially becomes Robin, but
she's like a, you know, 13 year old gymnast.
And she ends up getting wrapped it up with her.
But he knows it's the wrong thing to do because all the
other Robins have died and things like that.
So it's just you probably tell I love the book absolutely, but
I've got I've actually got like a a book about the book, Frank
Miller kind of telling how he came up with it and was because
it's just I I love it a bit. And if I could not have read it
and read it again. Yeah, I absolutely, I've got
that as well. And I've said before, I think
I've said on here that of all the characters, I think Batman
is my favorite, but mainly because the cast of villains and
I just find the stories are are often there is that element of
humanity or, you know, there's that human emotion kind of that
runs through the story. And like you said, bitter old
man reluctantly takes on young apprentice kind of, well,
apprentice, but but you know what I mean?
And it is, yeah, it's and it is just a classic.
I mean, if you say that in comic book circles, everybody,
everybody's aware of it, right? Absolutely.
I mean, you only have to show him the picture of him jumping
in front of the lightning, you know?
And everyone goes, Oh, yeah, that, that that's where it's
from, you know, And it's, it's just such a, you know, and so
many other books and even even comedies have referenced that
very picture, you know, of him jumping in front of the
lightning. And that's just the silhouette
of him. Yeah.
It's, it's just brilliant. I'm going to read it again
tonight, actually. And what's your third choice?
My third book. Again, I'm not going to go into
a ton of detail. I could, but it feels unfair
given our time limits. It's a book called Eric of
Melnabone. That I do not know.
That I didn't know. I wasn't sure.
You were so written by an author called Michael Moorcock, a
Seminole British author, kind of Tolkanesque in his approach to
his writings. And so he wrote a series of
books, a lot of books. He's very prolific about a
cosmic entity, I guess, called the Champion Eternal.
And the Champion Eternal took on many different forms through
many different books. And one of the forms he took on
was the form of a character called Elrich.
And Elrich was one of the last surviving descendants of the
population of Meldebone, which is this kind of cruel Kingdom of
dragon riders, right? So and he suffers from crippling
albinism. So he's he's an albino.
He's really frail and weak and the way he relies on and the
thing he relies on to power is not only post he's a sorcerer.
So but he relies on potions and things to get himself through
the day almost. He also has a weapon called
Stormbringer, which is his sword, which basically powers
him by devouring souls. But it's pure evil, right?
And it's it's basically this story about his cousin Yokoon
wants to usurp the throne. And in the book, Elrick
basically says. You know what?
So they fight, he wins, but he basically says, I don't care.
You have it, have have the throne.
I don't want it anymore. And he goes out into the wider
world. And that book is the start of
his journey through his world. And then he gets pulled into all
these kind of again, one of the true first kind of beginnings of
what you'd call the multiverse. So that's what the champion
Eternal was. There was there's lots of
different champion Eternals and he ends up getting pulled into
the universe is a different way. So he peers and different
stories and different things There there was a band Hawkman
who who wrote songs about those adventures and things and and
and released albums about it. And it's just, you know, if you
love fantasy, if you love Tolkien, if you love even if you
love kind of Song of Fire and Ice and and those sort of
things, you know, it's got that depth of level of detail in in
across the Champion Eternal books.
But the Elrick stories for me, the things that grabbed me.
And the reason is I shared a room with my brother, my older
brother for a long time and I used a lot of his kind of
leftovers and things like that I used to swallow up.
And so he started reading these books and he left that one late
about. In fact, he probably, he
probably left with the White Wolf, which is another one of
the books late about. And I probably picked it up and
then went back and got all the others.
And now I've got a lot of compendium and all these things.
But yeah, if I could wipe those because I clearly I've
remembered a lot of it. But if I could wipe that and
read it again, that would be another one.
Nice, nice. Now I do want to move on because
I actually want to jump to a subject.
Do you know what? A subject that you and I don't
really talk about that much, so I can't necessarily guess what
your options are going to be here.
But music? OK, so there'll be 1 you
definitely know. Yeah, yeah.
I think I could probably guess one, but yeah, yeah, it's, it's.
But do you know what it's when I was sitting, I was thinking that
we don't, we, we, we talk TV, films, books, games, stuff like
that. But we've never really sat down
and talked about music, I don't think.
No, yeah, agreed. And I, and I am one of those
really weird people when it comes to music.
So I had a conversation with someone at my my job recently
and they would talk to me and I'd come into iPad headphones.
I'm walking sweat. They'll know what you listen to.
I was like, it's probably more like what I'm I listen to
because I'm the person who will have all of my music songs list
and there's thousands of albums on there.
And I just put my shuffle. So I will listen to anything
that comes along because I I am happy with anything I've got.
You know, I love music. I'm quite eclectic.
There's not a lot I don't like. I'm not a massive country and
western fan. If it's on, I'll tolerate it.
But you know, but other than that, I'm happy with anything.
Oh, that and Taylor Swift or pop.
But you know, I'm so quite eclectic, so on my list, I'll go
from top to bottom. So my first one and one that was
quite informative for my teenage years and something that
happened that I kind of just went, I've never had anything
like this before and I love it, is the Slim Shady LP.
OK. He's everywhere now.
Everyone knows who he is, everyone knows what he is.
But at the time when I got that album and when I first heard
those songs, very few people had.
And it was, it was a game change for me because I, you know, I,
like I said, growing up, my brother, my brother was a
massive rap fan. I guess you'd call it say, you
know, things like N.W.A, Run DMC, all those things we I'd
listen to continually. And then I heard, you know, the
Slim Shady LP and I was just, this is just amazing.
You know, it's just such a great collection of someone who's
clearly got a lot of passion and anger as well, I guess.
And then there's able to articulate that in a way.
Yeah, a lot of anger, but able to articulate in a way.
And look, I know it doesn't age well, right?
And it's misogynistic. And my kids now, right, My kids
are my little girls. They're 11:00 and 10:00.
And they asked to listen to Eminem.
And I won't let them because I'm not.
There is a lot of misogyny and a lot of, you know, and I get it.
But even my wife loves Eminem. We've seen him in concert a
couple of times and things. And she'll say, look, you know,
it's not right for them to hear it because they can't
distinguish what's supposed to be humour versus what's not
really real, you know, So we, we steer them away from it where
their friends listen to it, you know, but.
But it's his word play. It's his word play as well.
Phenomenal, phenomenal. There are a couple of tracks
we've let them listen to that are ones that aren't heavy on
the swearing and misogyny and things like that, but they're
they're more interested in the speed at which he raps.
So, so there's, there's a song he did with another group called
Speedum, and it is just, you know, the flow is just
phenomenal. It's so quick and so rapid and
so clever, and it's all done without the aid of any
technology, you know, And to have that skill, but not just
that, to link and the way he rhymes and the words he rhymes
and the way in which he does it, it's just like, it blows my
mind. Yeah, but he also, he was one of
the few that I remember anyway, that then also, you know,
considering sort of how he how he started, would then have fun
in the some of the videos, which you wouldn't have necessarily
expected if you were listening to the songs.
Then you see some of the videos, oh, like my name is and I can't
remember. What's the other one where he's
like, I'm a superhero, he's climbing up the side of a
building. I can't remember.
How he does with Dre. Yeah, yeah, Be like, you know,
it was fun seeing him have that fun side to him compared to some
of the songs from. Here on the album stuff, yeah,
yeah, he does that a lot. A lot of his.
I mean, if you watch the video for Houdini, which is one of his
more recent ones, he actually, he brings his older version back
through time. So he actually, and they do a
great job and come see. Yeah.
And he does all the things that they did in those videos you've
just talked about. So.
But yeah, I, I love that as a, as an album, I think there's not
a bad track on it, you know, and it's fun and that and that for
me makes a great album. You know, there's not a single
bad track, which leads me to my next one of which there's not a
single bad track. And I know for a fact that you
will agree with me. It's just whether or not you
know which one, which album of theirs I'm talking about.
Right. So let me guess, it's going to
be Oasis? It's the mighty Oasis.
You're absolutely right. Yep.
Right now, which album that's you see?
I mean, it's not backtrack on any of them.
I was going to say it could be, it could be any of them.
So I mean, right, Let me think about you.
What's your favorite album? Then let's let's just ask you,
let's switch the tables. If you could only pick one, what
would it be? I think you do, you know what I
think it would probably be definitely maybe.
Yes, Dan, it's definitely maybe yes, Dan, it's definitely maybe
best Dan out there, best tracks out there and well, not
necessarily the best because I think they obviously they grew
as a band. They you know, they learn and
how to apply their trade definitely differently.
No, definitely grew as a songwriter, but definitely maybe
for me is I think the original and the best album that they
did. See, I agree with you.
The reason I picked because when you asked me that, and I don't
know, I don't know if you had a chance to listen, I had an
episode where Griffin from reboot the boot came on to grill
me about Oasis, about my love for Oasis.
And it's so hard for me to pick because, you know, Oasis music
was a part of my kind of like youth and and growing up.
And I absolutely love Oasis. So it could be any of the first
three albums and their second, you know, definitely the second
and third got more grand and more polished.
But it's what you said. It's it's the rawness of
definitely maybe it's that real heavy guitar driven.
And it's just them at their their beginnings before
anything, all the fame and trappings.
And yeah, there's just something about that album for me that is
just, you know, pure Oasis. The nail on the head pure Oasis.
You know, I'd, I would love to have been at King Tut's to see,
you know, that before it was released, you know, as a, as an
album, you had to see them play some of those songs in, in
their, not their heyday, because that came later.
But in their, in their youth, in their, you know, when they were
just starting out and no one finished being a roadie for the
inspired carpets and got his act together.
And, you know, they'd kind of gone and, and created what was
essentially magic, right. And I, I, you know, I know
there's, you know, there's a lot of bravado in those boys and the
things they say, but at the time they were the one and only
rock'n'roll band out there. Yeah, I think.
People rock'n'roll. Yeah, I have to remember how
massive they were. I mean, you know, and that's
what I'm saying to you. Like, you know, I'm looking at
the track listing now. I'm not saying these are bad
songs, but like rock'n'roll, star shake and make up like
them. But you know can not listen to
me. There are, there are better
songs than those ones on other albums.
I know what you're saying, yeah. But like, you know, for me, two
of my all time favourites, there's are on there, Live
Forever and Slide Away. Slide away.
I'm so glad you said that, it's such a tune.
It's great, right? I mean supersonic, obviously.
Married with children. That's what I was going to say
to them. Dixie's Diner and Married With
Children, which are odd, odd choices on that album compared
to the rest of it. I mean, I could, I could talk
about Oasis all night. So yeah.
And I knew that's the one, the only one.
I thought I knew of yours, but yeah, no, I'm going to say it.
Fantastic choice. Yeah, I knew I knew you'd agree.
So my last one, it's an odd 1. You might, you might be
familiar, you might even have it in your collection.
But the reason I've chosen it is when I was quite young, so I was
probably 8 or 9, my my parents divorced and my dad moved away.
So we'd only see him. We didn't see him for a while,
actually a good year or so. And then we only saw him like
either every weekend or every other weekend or something like
that. But every time I went to his
house, more often than not, I'd always ask him to put an album
on. Right.
And it's a weird one, I'm telling you now, but the album I
will always ask him to put on and it I can, it's so haunting
now I can hear it in my head was Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds.
Oh, what an album. Right.
Yeah. And so I can I, I suspect, I
strongly suspect if you put that on now, once I got in the floor,
I could probably recite all of the spoken pieces and probably
most of the songs as well. Because, you know, there's
something about music that connects you to, it's something
that's happened or, or, you know, past or, you know,
something in some way. In those moments, your brain,
for whatever reason, clings on to a part of that music, whether
it's the lyric or whether it's, you know.
And that for me was one of those albums that did that.
I'm desperately trying to, I'm hoping they come back and do the
tour so I can take my dad to it because, you know, I'd love to
see that on stage. But that album was just amazing.
And I made the mistake of watching the American movie of
that, not the Tom Cruise one, the the original American movie.
OK, yeah, that was an error because, you know, my version of
War of the Worlds was Jeff Wayne's version of War of the
Worlds. And then when I saw the the
movie, I was like, this isn't War of the Worlds.
Even the cover is iconic, the cover of the album, isn't it?
Phenomenal. The tripod, Yes.
Yeah. Oola, Dan Oola.
And forever Autumn, I'm just looking Forever Autumn.
That's a big one, obviously off the album, isn't it?
But The funny thing was it might still be there and you know, you
sort of working in London. They do you know these
interactive immersive I saw. The other day, the Immersive 1.
Done that and all I had yeah, yeah, you and and you should I
think you would love it. All I have in my head as I was
going round was forever autumn, you know, and I think they play
it at various bits. So I yeah, I'd, I think I'd
absolutely recommend it. But yeah, it's well, it's an odd
choice in terms of, you know, sort of what your first two are
and you know, as an hour I. Told you I'm weird.
I told you I'm weird. I have weird eclectic.
But I love it. I love it.
It's. Such a haunting piece.
Music for me is like everything else.
For you, I think it's yeah, No, What what a choice.
What a choice. Yeah.
And, and like I said, it's when you say War of the Worlds music,
it's the album cover for me. It's so good.
My dad had the double album on LP and I've, I've got it in the
garage actually, because he, my dad lives on Narrabeen now.
So he gave us all this crap to keep in the garage and, and some
of that is his vinyl, which is so it's actually up in I just
haven't got a record player. Yeah, yeah.
Everyone go listen to that now. All the world.
Well, not now. After, after you've finished,
after this, please. All right, we are going to jump
to right. Let's go to films.
OK, so I'm going to cheat to start with only a little bit,
but if you make me pick one, I will.
So I'm going to start and I'm going to call them one thing.
I'm going to start with the original Star Wars trilogy, so
that so that's New Hope, Empire and Jedi.
I'll allow, but what would be your one if we chose one?
Empire and anyone who says it's anyone who says it's not.
Wrong. Just.
Just now, right? Absolutely wrong.
But go on then, go on. I'll allow it.
So, yeah, so.
So I didn't get to see Star Wars.
I didn't get to see A New Hope in the cinema, right.
It was, it was one of those things I watched probably when I
was really young because, yeah, God knows, I must have been,
what was it, 70? 77 wasn't it?
77 So I would have been a year old right when it when it came
out and when it came over here it was probably 78 I guess.
Yeah, yeah. Probably the year after or a few
weeks after the the the US. But my brother was a bit older
than me and he he saw it and he had all the toys before me.
But I did get to see Return the Jedi at the cinema, which I
loved, but I got to watch the others on VHS or on Christmas
specials or whatever it was on TV.
And I fell in love with Star Wars, probably again, because my
brother, he's got lots of blame for this from a very early age.
And you know, you talked about those trips to my grandparents
and things like that. You know, any Christmas was
always I want Star Wars stuff, right?
Yeah, not I want please, may I have Star Wars stuff, right.
And I've I've, you know, memories of my my granddad, who
was he was the spitting image of Eric Morgan, by the way.
But I have images of yeah, I'll show you a picture of him one
day. But I have images of him.
He used to take like we got an attack Walker for Christmas one
like the big lump of plastic thing and he'd pretend to ride
it around the living room, you know, and things like that.
So all these, yeah, everything was interconnected with Star
Wars. We got the troop transporter and
we'd always have Star Wars figures.
There'll be, you know, little lightsabers that come off
people's arms laying about the house and, you know, missiles
from Boba Fett somewhere. And, you know, but but Star Wars
for me was the start of a journey into sci-fi that without
that, I don't I'm not even sure I ever would have gone on.
And it's, it's such a joyful set of films and let you say what
you want about George Lucas and you know, Disney and everything
else about it, but you just take those movies.
And I'm not talking about the special editions and the, the
original, the original stuff, you know, at the time and what
they did. And I, I probably watched nearly
every documentary out there about how those things were made
and when they were made and what they, you know, I and I just,
they are just a piece of inspirational joy for anyone
else. Whoever wants to make a, a
sci-fi movie. I listened to part of, I think
it was the Rebidbit one where you talked about June, you know,
and how June inspired Star Wars. And yeah, I, I think to some
extent there's probably some of that.
And I don't buy the whole thing. No, I think it was a two way
street. I think, you know, Star Wars has
done much more for science fiction in general or movies in
general than any other, any other thing, any other, you
know, piece of work, you know, as I'm off anyone.
I, I think Star Wars has done more for general pop culture
sci-fi than anything. And it's, you know, the
characters and, you know, I know it's based off of, you know,
Kurosawa's work and things like that, but everything takes
inspiration from everything else.
So that's just the way life works.
And I just, you know, I just, it's got some great dialogue and
lines. It's got everything about it is
memorable. I doubt there's a single person
on this planet, even if they haven't seen Star Wars.
They know what a Chewbacca is, you know, They know what an R2D2
is. They know what a Luke is or what
a hand do. You know what I mean?
Like there's a Death Star. I know what Death Star is.
I've never seen Star Wars, but I know what you mean by Death
Star. Well.
What I would say about it as well is like growing up as a
kid, you know, in the 80s, especially early 80s, you know,
Star Wars was that pure fantasy, wasn't it?
It was the biggest escape world on TV for us as a young kid.
Well, you know, I don't want to speak for you, but I think
that's the vibe I'm getting from you.
You know, it it it was our space operate because even then, the
the original 1, you know, it looked like dated now, but it
was it was fantastic to to watch, wasn't it?
It was pure escapism and it was, you know, you know, George Lucas
talks about how he was inspired by, you know, those kind of
Saturday morning Flash Gordons and things like that.
And you know, the the comic books around that time, your
previously, you know, particularly the kinds of ones
talked about space and space adventures, you know, and he, he
took that and meshed it and melded it into this thing that
now it's become this bit of an unwieldy behemoth.
But at the time was just like you said it was, it was pure
space opera and it was brilliant with it.
I don't know why Empire resonates so much with me.
I, I think everyone cites it because of the cliffhanger and
because of the, you know, because of the, you know, the
twist, you know, it's not a twist anymore, but you know, but
actually, I think it's the way that movie starts.
There's the thing that engrossed me, the Battle of Hoth and just
the whole piece, you know, Luke getting captured, you know, and
I, I, I, I'm still torn as to whether they did actually, you
know, screw his face up because he had that car accident or not.
You know, it's never really, no one's ever really gotten to the
bottom of it. Lots of people will tell you
different things. If you could sit down with Mark
Hamill and ask him, I'm sure he'd, he'd probably tell you.
But you know, that whole piece around it and it's, you know,
even the weirdness around Leia gave him a kiss while he sit in
the hospital bed. You still kind of go, but yeah,
I just think I think that journey from from Hoth, you
know, through and you introduce characters like Boba Fett and
you know, and then, you know, IG 88 and you know, all of those
kind of the banty hunt piece, you know, for me, it's the stand
out of the three, you know, and people might have buy Jedi and
Ewoks and stuff, but I don't care.
Absolutely. This is your mind vibe.
Yeah, so if I could get rid of
them and watch them again. Fair, Fair enough, Fair enough.
Do you, before we move on, do you, do you want to know why?
I mean other than, you know, it becomes well known that it came
out in 77. Do you want to know why I always
remember that New Hope came? Out I would love to.
I'm going to link it back to music again.
So I really love Ash and their album.
Debut album was 1977 because two, well two of the band were
bored in that year, but they also said they love Star Wars
and that's the year it came out and it starts if I remember
right, the album starts with a TIE Fighter sound I think as
it's as if it's like flying overhead so.
Nice. I just thought I'd mention that
really random thing. So yeah, that that's the way I
always remember what year it came out.
Number two on your on your film list then.
Number two, first, the first DVD that someone bought for me, not
that I bought myself, but first DVD that someone bought for me.
And a film that I'm still not sure why I fell in love with it.
And again, it's got a bit of a weird undertone in all honesty,
but still a brilliant piece of work.
And it's the movie Leon. OK, I've not seen that for such
a long time. Which you should.
So one of my favourite all time actors, and we've spoken about
this before on a few occasions. One of my favourite all time
actors is Gary Oldman. And it's one of those movies
where he puts in a performance that you just don't expect.
You just, you know, he plays this twisted narc addicted cop
who's just kind of a bit of a psycho crazy up against a hit
man who for all intents and purposes adopts a little girl
whose parents get murdered by said cop.
And it's about their budding relationship kind of father
daughter type thing and and him this hitman who's almost a
silent hermit type guy trying to protect her from from the cops.
And it's just a really, I don't know.
It's just something about, I think it's just a beautifully
shot, weird, wacky movie with this weird double act who
shouldn't work. But it's a young Natalie Portman
isn't. It yeah, young Natalie Portman
Yeah, that's right. And, and it's just AI just look,
people, people can read into it what they want.
And sometimes I do worry about how people's minds work because
I've watched that movie and I don't see a sense of paedophilia
or any way through it. But other people will say that,
you know, there is that undertone.
And I think that maybe that's a, you know, I think they're over
analysing some of this stuff. But, you know, for, for me, I
just think it's a, it's a wonderful movie about a guy who,
and you know, that I, I'm a person who's got three
daughters, right? So I know what it's like to be
protective of of, you know, three young kids.
And so, you know, just seeing that and doing anything you can
to make sure that they live is that true expression of of being
a parent. And so, you know, that that
movie for me, and by the time I had that movie, I, I had two
kids. So, you know, by the time that
movie, I saw that movie and was and was bought me.
So I think it was probably something tying back to that in
terms of why. But yeah, if I could not have
seen that and kind of watch it for the first time with fresh
eyes, I'd I'd love to do that again.
That's fair because I remember at the time it being a massive
film. Yeah, Luke Besson is, you know,
who's who hasn't really gone anywhere much with it.
I mean, he's done some other stuff.
He did Fifth Element and things like that.
But, you know, after that it kind of, you know, his movies
became a bit more B list, should we say?
Yeah. And just going back before we
move on. Yeah, Gary Oldman, someone I've
really I've really appreciated over recent years more So I
mean, you know, you, you got me onto slow horses and and he's
he's phenomenal in that. But again, just go back to
reboot D Boot when he was on it, he said there's like that meme
that we're going to find at one point in our lives.
We're going to take a mask off our face.
We've been played by Gary Oldman all our lives because he's so
good at portraying characters. He's so good.
Yeah.
He's from Slow Horses. Was going to be either in one of
my book lists or the TV list but I I moved away from it because
it was it was too new for me. And I just.
Thought so, but yeah, Mick Herron's characters in that are
phenomenal. OK, OK.
And what's your third film choice?
My third film choice is again, a phenomenal piece of animation.
Actually, that is one of those things if I could just purely
for the reason if I could not, but I got so much joy out of
watching it that if I couldn't watch it, if I couldn't have not
seen it and and watch it again for the first time, I would.
And that is Spider Man Across the Spider verse.
OK, OK. Yeah.
Those movies have done something with animation that that no one
saw coming, you know, and being a big fan of, you know, comics
and animation and all and, and, and, you know, just geekdom and
superheroes in general. Those movies were just eye
opening and what they achieved and how they did it.
And I can't wait for the third one.
You know, my daughter cried genuinely when it got to the end
of that one and it finished and there was no ending ending for
it. Yeah, she was genuinely, really.
Probably I've. Delayed it so long, haven't
they? Yeah.
Yeah, they have, but the amount of work that that must go into
that, you know, they use multiple animation techniques to
do these things and to create these these crazy universes.
And I'll be honest, I'd read the spider verse tales, the the
comics and it hadn't really, I hadn't really done anything for
me. I'm like, that's right.
It's different, you know, Spider Man 29 nine or whatever.
But when they put it into a movie and made it what it was,
yeah, right. You know, in just, you know,
he's he's not so much into Across the Spider verse.
He's in. He's in the first one,
obviously. Not but.
And, and that was potentially going to be much because that
was actually the first movie I went to the cinema with my
daughter on my own to see who she's now nearly 12.
And I just remember watching that with her.
And she must have been about 8 or 9 at a time.
She, she forced me to go and see it because I was, you know, I
wanted to go and see it, but I didn't think she'd want to
because I don't really sit and pay attention.
But she did through the whole thing and she got really freaked
out by the Prowler and the noise it made when the Prowler was on
screen. It's kind of a howling, roaring
noise and it used to freak her out.
So she was just cuddled up to me.
But we watched that movie and she really loved it.
And now she's growing up and she's kind of growing out of
that sort of stuff. So she's not that bothered dad.
So for me, that was going to be one of them.
But it was actually the second movie that I think they did such
a phenomenal job on. And there's still just scenes in
that where the Gimme goosebumps, you know, in terms of, you know,
some of the and it's not necessarily animation.
It's it's the, you know, you know, miles going off and kind
of going, I'm going to do my own thing, right, Screw you, Like
I'm not going to be part of your game anymore.
And you know, that sort of I've always been a bit rebellious.
And I think that that kind of thing has has definitely, it
resonates with me on a, on a, on a, on a certain level.
Yeah. Do you know what it is with me
with that film is so, you know, obviously, I mean, you're well,
I was massively into all the Marvel films like the MCU and
that came out and I and I wasn't, you know, I wasn't sure
because it was, you know, animated, but I knew I would go
see it because it it it looked good.
And my wife would watch it and she she doesn't really do
cartoons, but she loved it. It, it works on so many levels
as well as a movie. It's, you know, it's just, it's
such a, it's a, it's a fun thing to watch, right?
It's and it's a it's a great story, but the art in there is
phenomenal. Yeah, yeah, absolutely,
absolutely right. I know probably going to zip
through because, but I want to make sure we cover everything.
So random. Let's do food.
And I know, you know, I know. Food is again another passion.
Yeah, I, I'm a, I'm a big foodie.
I cook a lot. I cook all the meals at home
actually, and I and I love eating out.
So, but I'll run through these quite quickly because some of
them won't mean anything to you. So, so there was when I was a
kid, probably mid teens, late teens, there was a little
Chinese restaurant, I don't know, even a restaurant.
It was a take away on a group of shops near my house.
And whenever me and my a good friend of mine, fellow nerd and
geek, would get hungry of an evening playing D&D or whatever,
we'd always wander down the shop and grab some food.
And it was something they did down there, which was a chastity
chamane with chips and sweetie sour sauce.
And even now I'm sitting and salivating.
Oh my God, because I can remember it's triggering a
memory going, Oh my God, it was so good.
I've never found one like it. And and that for me, if I could
do that again, I'd do that. My second one is for my birthday
last year, we went to the hand of flowers, Tom Kerridge's
restaurant. It's not a dish that he does,
but but as you sit down at the table, he brings you they he
didn't bring me. He's serving me.
He wasn't even there. He was off somewhere else from
the TV show. They bring you this in house
baked bread and and it has this. I don't know if it's like bone
marrow butter. OK.
My God, I have never tasted bread ever.
Like this stuff. I, you know, and it's not to do
with the facts of posh and fancy restaurants because it's just
bread. But whatever they're doing with
that thing, you know, passing it through the intestines of a
fairy or whatever, it's a mate. It's just such a phenomenal.
It's got the right crust, the right, you know, rise, the right
everything. And it was just beautiful.
And I'm a massive bread fan. I love bread, you know?
I can live without bread, so. Yeah, so that that for me would
also. Now I was tempted to put pizza
on the list, but again, you have so many people saying pizza and
I know you're a big pizza fan and I cook a lot of my own
pizzas, so I haven't put that on the list.
But my third one is almost a type of pizza and it's one my
wife and I went away to an all inclusive in Turkey years and
years ago. And while we were there, they
had their own little outdoor pizza area type thing, but they
cook the most amazing lamb chin, which is like Turkish pizza, but
they put like a, a cooked lamb and tomato sauce on top of it.
And then you fill it with salad and nice sour cream or whatever
and then you and and that just amazing.
So 2 bread based things in there, which is probably not
healthy. All carbs, actually.
It's all. Tasty, tasty, tasty.
Yeah, really good, Yeah. I I like all those.
Now going back to your first one, it's funny, isn't it?
There's always something like that.
Like there was a friend of mine growing up where we would go out
and we would pass this shop and we would always go in it and get
it. And it was a chicken ticker
wrap. You know, I never.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I never got anything else from
that shop. It was just that because that
was our thing to do. And I love that so.
Much and I'm that's how I did. I'm a creature of habit.
Wherever I go, I look at the menu and say, oh, next time I'm
going to have this or I'm going to have that.
I always get the same thing because I just love what I like,
you know? I love.
And I think there's, there's certain places that's applicable
to and there's certain places I absolutely won't like if, if I
go to a nice restaurant, there's this rule, I can't remember who
said it, it might have been bored down or someone like that,
but, but basically said never order the same thing at a
restaurant twice. Like if you're going to a nice
restaurant, because if it's somewhere you go and you're
familiar with, I think it's fine.
But if you're going to like out for a posh dinner, always have
something different because you'll never be as excited or,
or or great grateful of the thing you got the first time and
it will never be quite as good. So, you know, always choose
something slightly different. So, you know, generally when I
do, but there are certain places where you go, I'm just going to
that. Well, well, that's it because
this, well, this place was like a take away.
And so, you know, I never had that anywhere else.
I never saw that anywhere anywhere else.
So it would be yeah, I'm just going to have that and, and grab
it and it. But it would also be almost like
not a tradition, but do you know what I mean?
It's that habit. You, you, you and your mate,
you're walking back and you just dip in, grab that and as you're
walking home. Exactly.
OK, another one which I'm curious to know is sports.
Now I probably should have said to you, but you, you if you've
listened, you probably get it. So it's not anything you've had
to have done. It could be a sporting event
that you've watched. You don't have to have attended.
It could be on TV, but sport, sporting events and and again
it's not I've only. I've only got the one.
OK, you're not a person, are you?
I'm not. I'm not a football person.
I know a. Sporty person in the slightest.
I grew up a lot around boxing. My brother was prolific boxer
and particularly Thai boxing and he loved it.
And and actually, you know, this probably stems again from him.
It's probably his fault. There was going to be, I was
touring an idea of an American football match on there.
But actually it's, it's one event that I find fascinating,
mainly because of all the hype that surrounded it at the time
and the fact that, you know, at that time, particularly
involving 2 black sportsmen at the pinnacle their career and
the, and the press and everything it generated.
So I would I would love to be able to watch the Foreman Ali
fight again. The Rumbling.
The jungle. Because, you know, I've only
ever seen it a few times, but it always stood out as one of
those, you know, even when you see some of the clips of Ali
essentially what feels like playing with his food.
I know that's a terrible word to put it, but you know, in terms
of how he fights and, and, and what he and he was at the height
of his career. And I think, you know, just to
be able to get the opportunity to see that, you know, and if I
could, if I could go back in time, watch even better, but
just be able to see that again, you know, without, I probably
could, to be honest, I've probably forgotten most of it
now. But again, you know, and it all
goes back to, you know, I spent a lot of time with and around my
brother at that age. And he, he was heavily into
boxing and stuff. And he'd put, you know, videos
on that, you know, and he'd talk about Rocky Marciano and things
like that. And but just going back and be
able to see that both George Foreman and Muhammad Ali in
their in their heyday would be phenomenal.
That's interesting choice. Interesting choice because again
we don't, as I said, we don't tend to talk sport because,
well, we're not necessarily sporty people so.
I'm definitely not. It's never been a thing that's
grabbed me and I don't, I don't really know why.
My again, my dad's a massive Hammers fan, you know, he's a
West Ham fan. My daughter is a footballer.
She plays, she plays football. My son-in-law is a, is a
professional rugby league. Yeah, you know, I've got all
these sports things floating around me, but I it holds no
interest for me. There's just so much you can do
and and geek doing my. Brains.
My brains full of other stuff, unfortunately for a Deadpool.
Right, let's jump to gigs and shows.
And shows could be theatre, etcetera.
So yeah, gigs and shows. To one of you, one of which you
will know because you were there or be it not on the same day.
The other one which I'll start with is when I was much younger,
I was very lucky to. I had some tickets got for me
and I don't think anyone was really aware of this person at
the time. When I went to see him at Her
Majesty Theatre. I went to see Lee Evans in one
of his first ever gigs. Oh really?
And it was without a doubt one of the funniest things I have
ever seen in my life. Because he really burst onto the
scene, didn't he? Massively.
And it was the show where he did Bohemian Rhapsody at the end.
So you know, if you've seen the VHS or the videos of this stuff,
he did this light. He does the thing singing with a
mic at the start and you know, my mother-in-law joke and it is,
it is, it's just it's it was just the work of Jean.
And I've never seen anything like it from because I come from
a generation where comics were people like Jim Davison or Jim
Tarbuck or, you know, those, those sort of, you know, which
were really now people look at them and go, Jesus Christ.
I mean, but at the time when they were a bit less, we were a
bit less PC and, you know, things were a bit less than they
are now. They were they they were at
times genuinely funny. I mean, you know, Jim Davis had
a hit show on TV based around snooker.
You know, these people, you know, these these people were in
the mainstream, but it has kind of comedy evolved.
Yes, you had people like Ben Elton, who was very on kind of
the left wing kind of, you know, rah rah side of things and you
you had, you know, like Hale and pace and stuff on TV and things
like that. But but then you never stand up
wasn't what it is now like in terms of this mega stardom of
stand up and Lee Evans really kick started all of that.
You know, he was the one who hosted the first one at the O2
and had, you know, however many thousands of people it was
there. And but to see him in what was
essentially a really small, quite, quite unique little venue
was just such a joy. And, and it was, it was genuine.
I can't I I genuinely couldn't see most of it through the tears
because I was laughing so much. He he also had that real
frenetic physical energy as well, wasn't it that that was
the thing. I mean, I mean, I never forget
the first time I saw him on TVI mean he was he was drenched in
sweat by the end of it because he had.
Same at the show. Yeah, yeah.
He had a towel constantly like and he was just his suit.
He had to change suits in the interval Cos he had a like a
grey suit and I think it was and it was it basically turned black
because he just sweated the whole way through.
It and even him this like little British comic, you know, or or
little known British comic initially burst on the scene and
then he's in there's something about Mary, right?
Something about Mary. He was in the Fifth Element.
He was in, you know, he, he. Kind of went as well.
Yeah, he's in the fifth element. He's one of the he's one of the
guys on the starships when the ship, when they were at the
space opera thing. OK, have I forgotten?
That yeah, the aliens all all burst on He's he's on the he's
one of the guys on the bridge and he has a bit of interaction
with. I think it's a bridge for this.
Yeah, yeah. But so that was my mind.
Yeah, yeah. But so that was, yeah, that was
an absolute joy to see. And if I could do that again, I
would, because it was genuinely. The funniest things.
I've ever seen and my second one is obviously and the their
second appearance in this in in this podcast is Nebworth Oasis.
I went. I went on, I went on the
Saturday. I was lucky enough again, my
brother's fault. He got, he got the tickets and
Nebworth is, is literally just down the road from us, right?
So it was a stone's throw and I think I might have even been at
college. What was it, 97?
It my name. No.
Yeah, 9697. Have I forgotten this?
Yeah, I. Think it's been 97.
Yeah, pretty sure it's 97. And I was, I was actually at
college at just across the road. So at the Broadway in Stevenage,
I was at college and they and you literally it was you walk
across, if you park your car and walk across fields.
So that's what we did and walked across on the Saturday to see
Chemical Brothers, Prodigy, Bootleg Beatles and the mighty
Oasis. And it was just one of the best
days of my life. The sun was out.
It rained in the morning and by the time it started about 2:00,
it was glorious sunshine. There was beer there.
I got burned to buggery. I got, I was so sunburnt.
And then, you know, half 11, it finishes with fireworks and I'm
the walrus. And it was just just such a
amazing coming together of people who with a love and
passion for a single band really that happened at Stones throw
from my hometown. So I I would genuinely love to
experience that all over again. I yeah, I have to agree with
you. I mean, I was there on a Sunday
and just looking, it was the 10th and 11th of August 96.
I was 6 OK. Like I said, it was just a
brilliant day. Now I really wanted to go on a
Saturday predominantly for it was Ocean Colour Scene and
Prodigy, right? Yeah, but I've got the Sunday
and I'm not going to complain because I saw also saw one of my
all time favorite bands there, the Charlatans.
Also got to see Manic St. Preachers, who I'm seeing this
August actually, and yeah, it like you said to have it.
Oh, you still got your ticket? Yeah, I still got my ticket.
Was it 2250? I think £22.50 right?
£22.50 There you go for Ocean Colour Scene, The Prodigy, the
Bootleg Beetles and The Chemical Brothers.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, an an Oasis, yeah, yeah.
I'm not going to tell you how much money I paid for my Oasis
tickets. We won't go there, we won't go
well. At least you got tickets.
I'm still gutted. It's too soon, Too soon.
And remember Liam Noel anyone? If you're listening and you've
got spare tickets for me, please, please help me out
there. They're too busy rehearsing,
dude. Yeah, it's funny that what you
said. It was the opposite for me.
So when we walked in it was because I went with a mate and
we, yeah, you walked in and everybody they were, they had an
ambulance there at St. John's because people were
getting sunburned out. But on the way out, when I'm the
Walrus was playing, it was raining.
So we'd gone in the sun and we left in the rain.
Well, I did nice summer rain as. Well, yeah, yeah, I, I did see a
couple of years ago though, I did see Liam solo at Knebworth
and that that just kind of brought it all back so.
Yeah, I didn't. I didn't get to see him at
Knebworth. I did get to see one of their
last UK gigs together at Wembley when they were just before they,
shortly before they bust up and I saw them, my wife and I went
to see them and they were supported by Reverend and the
Makers and Kasabian and that was, that was phenomenal.
That was a cracking gig. Yeah, Kasabian actually.
So I saw them, they, they played just before Liam came on solo.
So I saw him twice that year because we'd got tickets.
So you know, they do the, is it the Teenage Cancer Trust?
They do a series of gigs at the Royal Albert Hall.
He was playing there. So we got tickets for that.
And then about a month after we bought those tickets, it came up
that it was playing net worth. So my wife said, let's do it.
I said, no, we can't. She goes, yes, you can.
So we got the tickets. And yeah, Kasabian came on just
before him. And we didn't go for the start
because some of the bands we didn't really know and we, we
weren't, you know, we didn't want to be there all day.
Go there for Kasabian, who, You know, I'd liked a couple of
their songs, you know. Yeah, I heard them on the radio.
But hearing them live and just again, the energy in the crowd
when they come on, it was incredible.
So it blew me away live. They, I mean, I've been, I've
always been a big Kasabian fan. It was his first album.
But they, they really blew me away live.
They were, they were genuinely brilliant.
And again, I'm going to say it, but that's the thing because
unfortunately I lost my SO. I had the programme AT Shirt and
the Ticket £22.50 for all those bands and it's insane.
Oasis £22.50. Insane.
And this isn't that long ago. I mean, it's long ago, but it's,
you know, it's long ago but, but it's that long ago that it makes
the difference between £22.50 and £250 or whatever it is
people were averaging on those tickets for, for Oasis, right?
But that's the thing, I can't remember at the time being in a
mode where I was stressing about spending £22.50 to go to see an
all day event. That net worth, you know, Oasis,
I, you know, I wouldn't have been in that mindset.
Whereas I remember when I was trying to get tickets for Oasis
this year, I remember thinking I'm going to have a dilemma if I
do get through because I know the prices that have been
quoted, I I would have to think twice.
Isn't insane. What a choice, what a choice.
So was that the two you had for this?
They're, they're the two, yeah. I'm, I'm trying to keep it.
I'm trying to keep it lean towards the end now.
Right, I'm going to give you games, but do you know what
games? Because we've got gaming views,
we won't necessarily go too much into it because there's another
big fun on me, but fun on me. What games would you relive?
So the, the first one's obvious. We've just done a deep dive on
it and it's half life. I I genuinely love to forget
that I play, I play, I certainly play the second one and and it's
episodes, you know, at least once a year.
But I would the first one, I would love to kind of go that's
gone say again and listen to the episode to find out why That's
not a plug. It is a plug.
And you know what? I'm going to link it in the show
notes. There you go.
The next one is an absolute beautiful piece of work and the
only game ever to make me genuinely cry within the first
hour and a half. And that is The Last of Us.
And I know people have a lot of some people have a lot of
issues. I don't know why with with the
game. Maybe it's because it's now in
the public domain, there's ATV show and things like that.
But when it came out as a game, the work that Druckmann and the
team did on that and what they and how they created it.
And I don't think it's a spoiler, but you know, again,
for someone with some with small kids playing that game at the
beginning. And I hadn't read anything about
it or which is unusual for me or spoilers or anything like that.
But playing that game at the beginning and playing as Joel
and his daughter dying at within the first kind of hour or so
genuinely broke me. Because I'm.
So invested in that. No, it never that kind of thing
never happens. And and it and it you know, for
that reason alone, we spoke about this earlier, right?
I'm very much a take the highs with the lows kind of person,
right. So I don't think you can have
the highs without the lows. So to enjoy everything that game
has, you have to go through that bit of suffrage at the at the
beginning. And so a game that can do that
to me deserves a place on this list.
Well, that's fair enough. Mass Effect for me does the
same, but that's that's for another time.
That's another time. Keep keep an eye on gaming
views. OK, really solid, really solid
start there. What's next?
Last one is a game that was my first I guess foray into RPGs
proper. I'm not sure you can call it an
RPG, but but at a time that's what it would have been classed
as. And and the thing that one of
the things that really kick started my love of video games
when I was quite young, and that's Zelda, a link to the
past. You know, forget all your your
froggers and your Pac-Man and things like that, which were
fine and they were a bit of fun. Then they were like, you know,
in five minute bursts or whatever.
This was a game that kind of was game changing for me.
The story, you know, the, the enemies, the boss fights, you
know, the master swords, the whole thing just just gelled
together beautifully. And and you know, again, I've
got the I've got the switch to today and I've totally forgotten
because I've switched online, but it's quite prominent on the
on the switch. You've got the Nintendo store
piece that you've got access to a load of back catalog stuff.
So you've got you've got the N64, you've got the GameCube,
you've got the Nez, you've got the snares.
And on the snares is a link to the past.
So I was like, I'm just going to download that and play it on the
big screen. So that's what I'm going to do
because I love that game so much.
Yeah, absolutely brilliant. Three, it's 3 again, classics,
iconics, you know, still in the modern mind, you know, these
games like so we spoke about half life ourself, Last of Us,
you know, is, is is everywhere and and Zelda, what a legacy
there, right? So yeah, OK, OK.
So Dan, we're going to move on to the final subject, which is
life moments. Yeah.
So this this one for me is I've only got one right and I
apologise up front if I get a little bit emotional because it
was probably definitely the hardest thing I've ever been
through, but also in in another way, the most joyous thing I've
ever been through. So I've got 4 kids and you know,
the birth of any child is an absolute gift.
It's, it's one of the most amazing things you can
experience and be a part of and, and grow with, right.
And I love being a dad. I love my kids.
You know, two of them are much older at 2728 and two of them
are much younger at 10:00 and 11:00.
But my youngest, she was born 3 months premature.
All right. To put that in perspective, she
was, she was only 26 weeks old when she was born and she spent
the first three months of her life in intensive care and I
spent the first three months of her life living between work and
the hospital. So I would literally, my wife
would be at the hospital in the day, My mum would be looking
after her sister who's a little bit older.
My wife would be at the hospital all day with her and I would be
at work after paternity leave. And then I would leave work and
I would drive straight to the hospital Lister just down the
road from us. And my wife would swap over and
go home to care for another 1. And I would spend the evening as
much as I could until probably about midnight or two in the
morning at the hospital and then drive back home to get a bit of
sleep before I went to work. And that was kind of the cycle
that I got into for for three months.
And she was very poorly. She was, she was, you know, she
was in an incubator for a good 6-7 weeks.
She was intubated. So she had a tube, she was being
fed intravenously. She was on, you know, tubes out
of everywhere. And there's a song by a band
called Wires, which is about a similar thing that that the lead
singer went through with his with his daughter, you know,
during that time. I think it builds this
incredible bond because what you do when your child is, is born
so early, you have what's called kangaroo care, which is skin,
skin contact. So they, they literally the time
she's not in an incubator, they put her or him on your chest and
you spend time with them just laying there.
And I learnt the words to a book and used to read that because
you couldn't take books in sorry.
So you couldn't take physical objects in because of germs and
things like that. So I had to learn the words in
my head and I would read the story to her over and over
again. And I still read it to her
sometimes now. And we, and in that time, we saw
so many families whose unfortunately, their children
didn't survive, but because of the situation you're in, they
would be in the same room as you.
And all they could do was put a curtain around, you know, and
you're feeling, I mean, it's almost like survivor's guilt.
You're like, were your kids still there?
But they, their tiny baby had just passed away.
And it was one of the hardest things I've ever had to go
through. But the reason it's so joyous is
also because of what it, what it's given us in Daisy and, and
who she is and the character that she is and how strong and
fierce that she is. And so I said before, I'm one of
those people who takes the highs with the lows.
And I genuinely believe that. And so it, it, I know it sounds
like a really strange thing to want wiped and to live through
again because it was so hard. But because of because of what I
got out of it and, you know, outweighs the bad so much, I
would do it again. I wouldn't do anything
differently, but that is what I would do again, to live that
experience and know that everything was going to be OK
afterwards because that's the hardest thing, going through it
and not knowing. Yeah.
No, I really appreciate you sharing that because, yeah, I
remember you at the time. I mean, you know, not having
kids myself, you know, you can say, you can imagine, but it's
hard. You know, you can't ever
understand what you're going through.
And, you know, and and I think, you know, I think I'll be OK to
say this, that you are a person that generally you'll go through
day-to-day if if there's issues, you know, that just bounces off
your kind of thing or you don't let it show.
But clearly, as we said it, it was a very traumatic thing for,
for, you know, for your daughter to be born that early.
But, you know, I remember kind of what you were going through
and, and how you were feeling at the time.
And look, I get it. I think what you say, you know,
people might find it unusual to, to live with something like
that. But I think what you said is
because obviously now it's got the, the, the most happiest of
endings in sense of, you know, your wonderful, wonderful
daughter. And I think, yeah, no, I, I, I
get what you're saying about it's that, that, that moment
that shows you kind of what life is right or what it can be so.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And we all go through these
sliding doors moments where, you know, life can go one way or
another. And, and thankfully for us and
sadly not for a lot of other people, it went the right way.
But you know, like I said, it was one of those things, if I
could live that again, but knowing what the outcome was
going to be rather than guessing everyday what it might be,
that's why I'd do it, you know, And look, you know, you're
right, it is, it has had the best of outcomes.
I mean, the kid drives me absolutely looping most days,
right? But she's amazing, right?
And now and that whenever I'm being driven nuts, I have to go.
But what could it have been? Do you know what I mean?
I'm glad she's here to drive me nuts.
And that's not to say I love any of my kids any less.
I absolutely don't. They are all incredible in their
own way. It's just I know that none of
them had to go through what she went through.
And therefore that's why that holds a special place for me.
I get it. I get it.
No, thank you for that. Thank you.
It's. You're very welcome.
Well, I think we've reached the end of our topics, haven't we?
You could correct me. It's been a marathon, Dan, it's
been a marathon. I apologise.
I said it would be quick. And I've no, no, don't
apologise. This, this episode is always
like this. And it's, it's, it's, you know,
adding extra topics to it as I've gone along.
Hasn't the health team? You're smooth with the editing
down, it's fine. Yeah, yeah.
So when I say hello and goodbye, that's.
It. No, but you know, I was saying
to you beforehand, I love these episodes because one, the guest
has to do the majority of the work, kind of joke, joke, joke.
But no, it's I love, it's fascinating.
I love, you know, you know, whether it's a podcaster or a
friend or in your case, both. I just love getting to know what
makes people tick. Do you know what I mean?
You know, because. Yeah, I can get that.
People will now hear you on gaming views and you're just
going to be talking about games, right?
But what's the music? What's the food?
What's the the the gig set make you?
Yeah, that that's that's the thing.
That's why I love this so. The human element, I think is so
intrinsic. It's part of what I do as a job.
It's part of, you know, knowing and understanding people is far
more important than being, you know, super technically
proficient in a certain space. You know that that's not always
true. Obviously there are people who
are technical profession and brilliant at a job, but actually
when you have to play things at a more political level or
leadership level, you know, understanding and knowing
people, not in a Machiavellian way, but genuinely wanting and
interested in people and their nature can just help you in so
many ways. And so I've always tried to be
an open booking those sorts of things, you know, and I, and I
will always try and continue to because I, I'm not ashamed of
the things I've been through or the things I've done or where
I've been or how I've grown up. You know, most people, most
people, some people who kind of sit and go as a 49 year old man
talking about essentially, you know, electronic toys, honestly,
and it will be the only time I do it on this podcast.
I don't give a shit because I'm me and I'm proud to be me and
I'm proud to to enjoy the things I do and love my family the way
I do and you know, and, and enjoy doing the things I do with
you. So you know, those that matter
don't mind, and those that mind don't matter, right?
Trust, trust us. Trust us here here first, but
trust us we we may not have the podcast then, but we'll be
playing with the latest consoles.
We're we're 59 all day long. All day long. 5979, right?
It's on the controllers. And it'll all be BR and I
controlled then, won't it? Quite.
I hope so. I'll be exhausted.
Look, Dan, thank you very, very much for doing this.
It's. Been my pleasure.
Do you just want to do you want to plug game reviews one more
time before we go? Go and watch game reviews, it is
genuinely the best gaming podcast on the planet and I say
that without any hint of irony, mainly because Dan and I are the
presenters. So do it.
Yeah, we'll, we'll, I'll stick all the notes in the show notes.
Yeah. Go listen to Gaming Views.
And yeah, if you want to be on this, if you've heard this and
you fancy going through the same thing Dan just has, you can find
me on social media at Casting Views or drop me a note at
castingviewspod@gmail.com. All that's left to say is I will
see you next week for another episode of Casting Views.
If I want your opinion, I will give it to you.
Come on, check what we've got 'cause you need it.
Don't make a scan. A spark and voice need it.
Come on, we've got what you need.
We're tasking.