00:00:01.20 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Okay. Rolling 63.

00:00:03.69 alexei sayle What number is this?

00:00:06.93 alexei sayle Hi, everybody. Welcome to episode 63 of the Alexei Sal podcast. and This is ah at least a half serious special, I suppose, because um ah we are in the second week of the new regime in Syria.

00:00:21.90 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal We're a half, we're a half Syrian podcast.

00:00:24.73 alexei sayle ah half sit We are a half Syrian podcast and we both had our own. run-ins or with the Assad regime. So, first of all, your dad was actually imprisoned by the, it was it the Assad, or was it pre-Assad, the party?

00:00:37.26 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal no no no it was pre may have told this on the podcast before but it doesn't matter um and i'm no expert um

00:00:40.75 alexei sayle I don't really know much about the... pri-assad i don't know well I don't really know a huge amount about Syrian history, but it was ah it was but it was a Baathist party, wasn't it? um And your dad was actually, but initially was in, well, tell us about it. He was imprisoned and tortured by somebody in Syria.

00:01:05.44 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal All I've got is a personal connection and personal story to tell. But I think there was the the Syria was ruled by a French colonial empire and then there was the revolution which then

00:01:16.51 alexei sayle Yeah, well, it was...

00:01:20.01 alexei sayle Well, there was the Ottoman Empire, then in and the but the Ottomans were on the wrong side in the First World War, and then the victors were obviously the Allies, and there was an agreement called the Sykes-Picot Agreement, which divided up the Middle East between the French and the British, basically.

00:01:38.46 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Uh-huh.

00:01:39.12 alexei sayle French got Syria and Lebanon, and we got Iraq.

00:01:44.94 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Yeah.

00:01:45.12 alexei sayle ah By we, I mean Britain gave itself Iraq. I mean, these these are all obviously breaking, solemn promises that have been made to and the Arabs.

00:01:57.01 alexei sayle And also that we have got the Balfour Declaration, I think, a little later as well.

00:01:57.32 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal and

00:02:01.06 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Which is why in Lebanon, not as much as like Morocco or Algeria at all, but in Lebanon they they of quite europe They really embrace that European culture and and you know a lot of them speak French, pretend to be French or Italian or like act like they are.

00:02:12.52 alexei sayle Yeah.

00:02:20.06 alexei sayle Yes.

00:02:20.22 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal when um And Syria got a little bit of that um culturally. And Syria has always been a secular country. So although there is a heavier Muslim population,

00:02:32.66 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal It's never been part of the law, such as in countries like Saudi or Iran. It's never been enforced.

00:02:36.67 alexei sayle yeah

00:02:37.75 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal You could go to a bar and get a drink in Syria. um And there were there are ah large Christian communities still to this day in Syria. um In fact, since, um because people are trying to make out like what's happened recently has been like this big Islamist movement.

00:02:56.52 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal um Whereas, but there are Kurdish towns in Syria with Christian communities and they've been putting up their Christmas trees and in their traditions and without any, you know, infringement, it's always been a secular place, but of course they'll, Islamists obviously still run around and do their thing.

00:03:04.24 alexei sayle Yes. Whether that remains the case.

00:03:15.17 alexei sayle yeah

00:03:17.03 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Where was I going? Yeah. So yeah, there's always been like a French influence in that area.

00:03:20.44 alexei sayle Yes.

00:03:21.23 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Never happened in Iraq though. Full English in Iraq is. It's just killing a million of their people is what as they call a full English invasion. ah the So yeah, by then there was a Syrian revolution kicking the French out and that led to the Spathist government.

00:03:42.11 alexei sayle The Balthus Party was initially an ideology that wanted the thought there would be a kind of unified Arab state across Syria and Iraq and Lebanon. I don't know.

00:03:53.82 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Sure, I don't know either.

00:03:53.86 alexei sayle but

00:03:54.82 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal So I'm not gonna pretend I know ah too much about what they stood on and and all that.

00:03:56.58 alexei sayle right

00:03:59.50 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal But I do know that when my dad was a teenager, he, I'm getting phone interference, put that on airplane mode. When my dad was a teenager, he broke into his school with loads of shoe polish and wrote some slogans on the wall, some ah graffiti on the walls of his school against the,

00:04:20.14 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal the Baathist party who swiftly, well, he got arrested on as he was leaving.

00:04:21.61 alexei sayle Right.

00:04:27.45 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal I think someone snitched on him. And yeah, he was held in prison. They were like, beat him. They would like, ah on a daily basis, like crack of cane on his feet on the soles of his feet and stuff.

00:04:42.19 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal and so And that's always the way of torturing and serious. Like they know you're not part of some bigger movement and they know you've not got anything to confess, but they just go through the fucking ritual of it.

00:04:55.31 alexei sayle Yeah.

00:04:56.07 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal They'd sit him in a cell. My dad said the worst one, the worst torture was he'd sit in a cell and they'd have just a dripping pipe above his head.

00:05:02.96 alexei sayle I like the Chinese water touch, yeah.

00:05:06.18 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal And it was just a drop of water look on his head and he'd be tied up so he couldn't move. But they then my dad did also have ah his, my dad loved handball, playing handball. And he even went, was part of the Olympic team in 1966. I think they went to Naples or ah Rome.

00:05:29.59 alexei sayle round

00:05:30.33 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal And dad never got off the bench, but he did get a participation medal.

00:05:36.28 alexei sayle my

00:05:37.27 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal which his brother then later gambled away in a poker game.

00:05:43.84 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Oh yeah.

00:05:43.94 alexei sayle And so was it because of his impress?

00:05:46.41 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal And he was in prison. He started a handball team with the prisoners, like murderers and rapists and fucking, you know, psychopaths.

00:05:50.24 alexei sayle Right.

00:05:54.00 alexei sayle Yeah.

00:05:55.60 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal They made a handball team and they played against the prison guards in the prison, and which is, yeah, which is brilliant.

00:06:02.36 alexei sayle Is this how he came to, how did he come to Britain?

00:06:02.53 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal and

00:06:05.67 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal He did end up getting kicked out, forced to leave the country, ah went to Lebanon, ah worked as a teacher, got a job as a journalist, and that led on to him becoming a correspondent in the UK to this Lebanese paper.

00:06:22.36 alexei sayle Right.

00:06:24.73 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal And that's how he ended up in the UK.

00:06:25.02 alexei sayle Right.

00:06:27.74 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal joined the Foreign Press Association, became president of the Foreign Press Association for two terms.

00:06:30.54 alexei sayle Oh, I remember.

00:06:34.08 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal um And we met Clive Anderson. ah ah fucking ah Fucking, talking of Iraq, ah Tony Blair and Conti McGenocide face prepped their campaign in the Foreign Press Association.

00:06:46.48 alexei sayle How's the Campbell?

00:06:52.49 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal They hired a room in the Foreign Press Association.

00:06:54.43 alexei sayle really

00:06:55.42 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal while my dad was there, it was like, yeah, like it must've been 96.

00:07:01.29 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal And they used a room in their building. And so my dad would let them in every day and meet them. And they were prepping their campaign. So yeah, my dad, unfortunately had a small part to play in helping Blair and the father of a shit comedian become rulers of the new world.

00:07:16.40 alexei sayle Yes.

00:07:19.59 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal And Brown was with them.

00:07:20.34 alexei sayle I'm

00:07:21.29 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal I've always like had a warm spot, soft spot for Gordon Brown.

00:07:24.65 alexei sayle ready.

00:07:25.32 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal I guess because he's just such, in high school politics, they they taught us that he was such a victim of Tony Blair's backstabbing betrayal, like, because he was meant to get the second term, wasn't he?

00:07:36.47 alexei sayle yeah Yeah, I think he's, I've got no love for Brown.

00:07:36.69 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal And then Tony Blair held on.

00:07:42.47 alexei sayle I think he was a as bad as the rest of them really are nearly as bad.

00:07:47.42 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal He's kind of cuddly and...

00:07:47.54 alexei sayle and So um anyway, this um this Syrian tortoise on the hop.

00:07:52.28 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal So Syria then, Well, so after a while, so for the last 44 years, I think, the Assad family has bi had an iron grip on Syria.

00:08:07.36 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal They've been straight up dictators.

00:08:07.44 alexei sayle Yes.

00:08:11.87 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal And um before Bashar, it was his dad, Hafez. Assad means lion.

00:08:17.31 alexei sayle Yes.

00:08:18.83 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Hafez al-Assad means holder of the lion.

00:08:24.96 alexei sayle Okay.

00:08:25.16 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal and and And it was, it's fucked. So I've had family members disappear because they were out in a cafe or a bar and mouthing off said the wrong thing too loud.

00:08:34.51 alexei sayle Yeah.

00:08:44.14 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal And one day when they're walking in the street, they disappear and they're never seen again. um People would comma would have accidents a lot.

00:08:50.54 alexei sayle What the fuck? Yeah.

00:08:54.58 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal There was a famous, I think he's still alive, a cartoonist, a satirical cartoonist who was snatched, put in the back of a Jeep, driven around, roughed up, and they broke all his fingers and chucked him out the back of the Jeep in the middle of the street.

00:09:10.14 alexei sayle Alright.

00:09:13.26 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal You know, that kind of shit was just normal.

00:09:15.54 alexei sayle Yeah.

00:09:16.35 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal um and the Syrians were the victim of that and um Syrian people are you can't you've been to Syria you can't find a more welcoming kind of warmer people um amazing cooks people full of joy and love up until I was 18 I used to go every year on holiday to Syria to visit my family and it was joyful beautiful occasions

00:09:20.75 alexei sayle Yeah.

00:09:25.94 alexei sayle Yeah. No, no.

00:09:44.86 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal um When they had this, ah they we went one Ramadan um and my uncle had a lamb in his back garden.

00:10:00.95 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal And my brother fell in love with this lamb and they were best friends and he was always playing with the lamb. And they named him and they would like go out and feed him and everything.

00:10:09.46 alexei sayle I know where this is going. Yeah.

00:10:12.14 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal And then Eid comes along. And they're all sitting around eating kebabs. And my brother's like, where's the lamb?

00:10:18.70 alexei sayle It's ready.

00:10:19.75 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal He's like, you're holding him, mate.

00:10:20.17 alexei sayle freddy yeah

00:10:23.35 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal It was even worse. we saw It was a big festivity. We strung him up and fucking killed the guy and, not my brother, the lamb. And um my brother was like in pieces, but then one bite of the shawarma.

00:10:30.48 alexei sayle yeah

00:10:35.96 alexei sayle Yeah. Yeah.

00:10:36.41 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal I think he quickly forgot about his friend. um

00:10:41.00 alexei sayle A familiar tale.

00:10:41.72 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal And

00:10:44.86 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Uh, yeah.

00:10:46.21 alexei sayle um ah In terms of, I mean, I, I mean, there's so much, I mean, I sort of feel daunted slightly by the enormous Eurydian by our, you know, I suppose only our partial knowledge.

00:10:58.68 alexei sayle One thing that struck me was I saw a, I've been consulting with my friends in the military about the equipment the rebels are using. And I've also been lock looking, obviously been looking at various people on YouTube. There was a, I think a fragment of a Crispin Flintov show and he had, I mean, three people who I admire and generally agree with, which was Craig Murray, Dr. David Miller, and Richard Medhurst, who does electronic intifada. And they were talking about the,

00:11:31.39 alexei sayle This was on Sunday, I think. And I only saw, I mean, I don't think I saw half part of the interview. And they were, they, because, you know, as they described it, Syria was the conduit for arms for the Palestinian resistance, then that, ah that, you know, that, that pipeline is now from Iran, that pipeline has now been choked off. And they, you know, they saw Israeli and US meddling in this, andwar and what, and of course, Turkey as well.

00:11:59.67 alexei sayle at which all of which is true. I think in the bits I saw though they didn't express any um any kind of criticism of the Assad regime which as you said that as everybody can clearly see and as I've experienced was phenomenally brutal regime and this this sort of speaks I think to a problem that a perennial problem that we on the left have always had and it always struck me for instance that my parents because they believe the Soviet Union was a better system than the and capitalism. They ignored you know or the they ignored the stallin but you know the Stalin show trials and the purges. It's been a perennial problem with

00:12:45.10 alexei sayle those of us on the left that that we there's a tendency to ignore when yeah my enemy's enemy is my friend. But more than that, we won't you find yourself not criticising something like the Assad regime because they have played a pivotal part in Palestinian resistance. And it's I think it's a problem that yeah if the left ever wants to make progress, we have have have to address that that. You have to be able to say that Yes, they were a conduit for arms, so the resistance.

00:13:15.20 alexei sayle But on the other hand, it was an extraordinary, brutal and repressive regime, as is the regime in Iran. And, you know, we can't ignore, we can't ignore that factory that we need to get over that kind of um blindness, really, I think.

00:13:22.41 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Sure. Yeah.

00:13:29.07 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Well, yeah, precisely. Yeah. If you look at who his best friends were, Putin and ah Iran, I had told her, not the idol. Who is it? Who's the leader of Iran?

00:13:39.96 alexei sayle Yeah, I would tell,

00:13:39.98 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Well, it doesn't matter. Iran and Putin

00:13:42.45 alexei sayle Yeah.

00:13:42.66 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal ah Bashar's best friends, and so he's not anyone to forgive.

00:13:44.30 alexei sayle Yeah.

00:13:46.75 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal i'll I'll never forgive the guy for killing my uncle and other members of my family.

00:13:47.11 alexei sayle okay

00:13:51.88 alexei sayle Yes, exactly.

00:13:51.99 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal It's impossible to, ah no matter what, and so anything good they do.

00:13:53.60 alexei sayle Yeah.

00:13:59.69 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal It's like a mass murderer giving a fiver to a homeless guy.

00:13:59.76 alexei sayle Yeah, it's.

00:14:02.45 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal It's like, oh, what? So you're going to love this guy now?

00:14:04.47 alexei sayle Yeah, yeah.

00:14:04.99 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Fuck no, absolutely not. um

00:14:08.90 alexei sayle Yes. And that that's I say that is a perennial problem on that.

00:14:09.32 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal And people

00:14:12.18 alexei sayle The other question is also, you know, we had that um episode a few years ago with Colin Ross about Rojava in north of Syria, where this experiment was going on following the teachings of Abdullah Al-Chalan, that there was this state, you know, where women, you know, women had absolute equality and, you know, the state was governed from the bottom up in a kind of system of kind of

00:14:20.89 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal yeah

00:14:39.59 alexei sayle you know anarchy in its true sense, the democracy, how true that was and how true it is now, it's hard to know what's happening.

00:14:40.58 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal yeah yes it's hard to know what's happening in Rojava

00:14:50.90 alexei sayle I'm here today that the kids seem to have given up their as well and they the oil fields, or there's some fucking next level shenanigans going on there because, you know, also the, you know, the kids have to a degree, certainly cooperated with the United States, and have cooperated with and presumably with Israel as well. And also, your point is, of course, that all the prison camps for the ISIS fighters from all of Syria are in the Kurdish regions. And if

00:15:23.71 alexei sayle Turkey wants to eradicate that the Kurdish kind of Enclave there if I'm sure one of the first things they would do if ah Turkey if the ah HTC where they call the HTC The if they attack the kids in the north and the one of the first things they'll do is let all those Isis your fighters free I mean, that's where that the jihadi bride isn't Selma Begum is she's up there and kids that I um So I don't know what all that means really, so I don't know don't know whether the listeners know.

00:15:50.43 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal ah wa

00:15:57.33 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal um

00:16:00.39 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal well Well okay yeah so you've got the northeast of Syria well if you want at home to follow along with what's going on in Syria minute by minute there is a website called syria.liveumap.com Syria.liveumap.com and it shows you a map of Syria and it's kind of colored in.

00:16:27.96 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal So there's a big yellow section in the northeast and that is the SDF run section.

00:16:32.91 alexei sayle It's the kids, Syrian Democratic Forces.

00:16:34.72 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal That's the Kurdish.

00:16:39.17 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal um Some people were saying they're funded by the by Turkey. Could that be possible?

00:16:47.73 alexei sayle It doesn't seem to me. if Are they the kids?

00:16:50.91 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Yeah, and Turkey hates that world.

00:16:51.70 alexei sayle Doesn't seem like, I mean you never know with this shit. Years ago my friend Siobhan Redmond was in a brilliant play but from the Scottish National Theatre called Duncenane, which was about after and Macbeth has been defeated by forces from England. She played the Lady Macbeth and it was just about our the The English are then trying to impose their kind of rule over Scotland. it's just ah It was all about how the tribal allegiances that Macbeth had kept, you know and the complex levels of kind of you know family and kind of clan allegiances. now you

00:17:33.63 alexei sayle I mean, it was a parable, obviously, about the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq. But yeah, I mean, maybe, I don't know.

00:17:41.32 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal No, I was wrong, though. I was wrong.

00:17:42.84 alexei sayle I know.

00:17:43.04 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal It's the it's US s-backed, the Syrian Democratic.

00:17:44.93 alexei sayle Oh, yes, the US. s But yeah, yeah, well, that's only the only thing that's kept that. That's what Khan said. The only thing that kept that Rojava experiments alive was the fact that the US special forces were up there fighting ISIS supposedly, and therefore the Turks wouldn't attack them because, you know, they would be attacking the United States.

00:18:07.28 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Mm hmm.

00:18:09.73 alexei sayle dataing Uh, but it's, I, I, I sort of start, I went, got into this and we, I thought, well, both of us give nice that we would, you know, be able to say, say things, you know, make statements about what was going on.

00:18:25.26 alexei sayle But then I sort of, as soon as I started speaking, I realized how little, how little I know really.

00:18:29.79 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Well, no, that and and no, no, and I i did ah defunct that from the beginning. I said, we're we're not ex oh I'm not, I spoke for myself, but I'm not an expert, but I do have a personal story to tell.

00:18:36.17 alexei sayle No.

00:18:40.06 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal you know There's this a podcast I've been getting into recently, it's called the Animal Sense Maker.

00:18:40.73 alexei sayle Yeah.

00:18:46.01 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Each episode is 10 minutes long and focuses on one animal and they're trying to tell the story and and teach you about animals basically. But each episode is about literally one animal.

00:18:58.13 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal So not one species of animal, but one actual creature. Like for example, there was an episode on pangolins, but rather than bombard you with information about pangolins, they just told the story of a guy who found a pangolin in the street, ah who'd been run over and he, you know, nursed it back to health and went and set it, ah got it back and reintroduced it to its natural environment.

00:19:06.16 alexei sayle who

00:19:18.67 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal And by telling the story of that one individual pangolin, we learn about pangolins. um Why am I saying that? Well, I'm just like, so all me and Alexi can do here is tell our own story. And if that that the insight that provides is the insight that provides, you know, um

00:19:32.37 alexei sayle Yeah, and I found you in the street and it nursed you back to the house.

00:19:35.63 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal it was on a and a basket in ah in the reeds of a river. um so But this website, syria.liveuamap.com.

00:19:45.37 alexei sayle Yeah.

00:19:46.35 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Again, so if I could just finish, and so like the top right is yellow for the SDF. ah The bottom left of Syria is mostly green for the Free Syrian Army, who are ah who they are, I think, they're Turkey ah backed.

00:19:50.70 alexei sayle Yeah.

00:19:55.92 alexei sayle Mmm.

00:20:01.02 alexei sayle They're backed by Turkey, I think. Yeah.

00:20:04.41 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal But again, even that kind of irks me to say that because I think firstly, they are Syrians and who have fucking liberated their country. And then when people have been...

00:20:14.38 alexei sayle I mean, some of them are Turkmen to Syrians, aren't they? So they have you know they have an allegiance, both with Turkey and with Syria, I think. Or maybe not.

00:20:22.78 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal And then the very bottom left of the map is blue because it's the Golan Heights, which is occupied by Israel at the moment as their lovely little buffer zone.

00:20:23.10 alexei sayle I don't know. Yeah.

00:20:28.87 alexei sayle Yeah. yeah

00:20:32.26 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal And it's the blue bit is poking out a bit where it shouldn't be.

00:20:37.11 alexei sayle Yeah, that you know, yeah.

00:20:37.58 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal And that's because they have sent some foot soldiers in. And now all over this map, there are little icons. Some of the icons have guns. Some of the icons have a little mushroom cloud or a bomb falling from the sky or a megaphone.

00:20:52.90 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal And there's tank icons and you can click on these icons and the icons are the different colors, the colors of the different factions. And so this is like a really fucking wicked up to date source of information because you can go to any region click on an icon and it will say like protests broken.

00:21:09.22 alexei sayle Yeah.

00:21:11.79 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal So let me click on this one here. There's a gun icon in the north on the border of the yellow and the green zone and it says SDF fighter you click it goes to a news story.

00:21:15.27 alexei sayle Right.

00:21:20.79 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal SDF fighters are engaged in heavy clashes with Turkish back forces near the Karakozak bridge Kobani and Tishindam. So it's giving you up up to date updates on how this

00:21:30.11 alexei sayle right So they're trying to, that so they are fighting with the kids.

00:21:32.67 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal This map is swaying.

00:21:34.94 alexei sayle Yeah.

00:21:36.21 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal um but it's thankfully not too many icons the most icons i can see are blue bomb icons because israel's bombing the shit out of different parts of syria um but as soon as it started happening what really pissed me off was people starting to say oh no they're israeli these the israeli funded these fighters oh they're all isis they're all like no the turks have just done this they've caused this to help them me defeat the Kurds and like blah blah blah and they're not they're not giving Syrians the credit or celebrating on behalf of Syrians for what a monumental thing this is.

00:22:07.21 alexei sayle yeah

00:22:15.66 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal um My cousin, for the first time, has been able to visit Damascus. And I've seen videos sent to my phone you know of my cousins hugging for the first time in over 20 years you know and not seeing each other, siblings and cousins, uncles.

00:22:25.17 alexei sayle Yeah. Yeah. yeah

00:22:35.82 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal um like in bewilderment and shock that they're they're standing in front of someone who they've only been able to look at through screen, you know, for 20 plus years.

00:22:45.95 alexei sayle Right.

00:22:48.47 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal um This cousin of mine, he he he basically had to flee Damascus. And he was living in between Aleppo and America. um because he was against the government and he has an amazing charity it's called aid all syrians if you want to help out any syrians um he has a compound in syria uh aid all syrians.org ah they provide housing to families and disabled uh and injured members of the public and they provide health and education services and they also, unlike most charities, they have no middleman.

00:23:33.44 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal None of the money you donate goes towards marketing or salaries.

00:23:35.06 alexei sayle That's good. Yeah.

00:23:38.30 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal every He puts everything into this charity and everything will you give goes straight to helping people out.

00:23:39.08 alexei sayle All right. Sounds good.

00:23:45.53 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal aid allserrian dot org This is my cousin's charity, and I'm really proud of him and everything they do there.

00:23:50.60 alexei sayle Cool.

00:23:53.66 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal and um But he's had that compound in Syria for for years and years, and this is...

00:23:59.46 alexei sayle But it's funny that he could so keep it going yet be opposed to government and because it wasn't in like a rebel held area. It would still be in ah a government control. I mean, it would be in Syria.

00:24:07.70 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal It was on the border with Turkey, and so...

00:24:09.32 alexei sayle All right. So you got a degree of latitude there.

00:24:13.13 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Yeah, and a bit of protection, and...

00:24:14.67 alexei sayle Yeah.

00:24:16.67 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal anyway just like oh yeah so he's been able to visit Damascus and visit family and ah this is happening all over the country and people are coming out of their prison cells who where they've been locked up for decades and this that was a moment of

00:24:19.94 alexei sayle All right.

00:24:25.45 alexei sayle Yeah. Well, I hope it continues. Yeah. Yeah. Hmm.

00:24:36.82 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal profound profound beauty and excitement for Syrians. And then like people just instantly say, no, it's just an Israeli thing or a Turkish thing.

00:24:45.62 alexei sayle Yeah.

00:24:46.57 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal It's like, well, let them have a second.

00:24:48.97 alexei sayle Yes.

00:24:49.37 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal um you know But what's happening?

00:24:50.71 alexei sayle Well, let's hope it continues.

00:24:52.32 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Yeah.

00:24:52.77 alexei sayle We'll see.

00:24:53.27 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Yeah. And I hope they sell so far. you know I do know they've brought in a media transitional government. They've started to put that together.

00:25:02.12 alexei sayle Yeah.

00:25:04.18 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal And by the looks of it, they are not using Islamists and they're using actually qualified, interesting people. What they've got the interim prime minister at the moment is an engineer whose specialty is rebuilding infrastructure.

00:25:20.59 alexei sayle Right.

00:25:21.47 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal And they've put him in. And from what I can, from what I've seen, he's a decent dude. Um,

00:25:30.24 alexei sayle Well, let's yeah.

00:25:30.52 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal And so there might be this fighting happening in the countryside over borders and who owns what region. Like, you know, this is just a power grab at the moment, but that's in Damascus.

00:25:37.09 alexei sayle Yes. Yeah.

00:25:40.91 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal I don't think that's really happening. I think people are working together and they have the interest of the whole country at heart and.

00:25:48.16 alexei sayle Well, let's hope that continues. I don't know.

00:25:49.75 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal something I keep hearing is Syria now, Palestine next. you know it's This is Israel. ah If I could just finish one last thing, let's see.

00:25:57.34 alexei sayle Yes, sorry.

00:25:57.88 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal ah Israel are so scared. This is why they're bombing Syria.

00:26:01.04 alexei sayle Really?

00:26:02.71 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal This is why they're bombing Syria's ah military posts and ah military bases. They're trying to cripple its military ability. Because the last thing Israel wants in this world is a democratic Arab country.

00:26:15.87 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Because a true democratic Arab country

00:26:15.88 alexei sayle Oh, that's true. Yeah.

00:26:19.81 alexei sayle Yeah.

00:26:19.94 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal would be bad news for Israel. Because the only reason the Arabs haven't fucking ah crushed Israel from all sides is because they're all all the leaders are corrupt, being paid off.

00:26:22.36 alexei sayle That's.

00:26:31.21 alexei sayle Yeah. I know. Yeah. Yeah.

00:26:33.82 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal um Of course Arabs want Palestine to be free.

00:26:35.32 alexei sayle True that. Yeah.

00:26:37.86 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Of course Arabs all around the world are furious at what Israel's doing and can see genocide happening before their eyes.

00:26:38.73 alexei sayle ordinary Yeah.

00:26:46.10 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal But the leaders are just these corrupt pieces of shit like any leader around the whole world you know if we if we have a kissed armor who who will kiss israel's balls why do you think any other uh countries leader wouldn't do the same thing um arab or not power breeds corruption money breeds corruption and that's what's happening all of us are a free syria with a democratic government who hasn't been planted there by a western power which i'm sure they're trying to do uh is the worst thing that could happen for for israel and

00:27:02.87 alexei sayle Yeah.

00:27:18.95 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal that's what we're all really hoping for is that we end up with a real democracy there who are gonna hold Israel to account.

00:27:20.87 alexei sayle Yeah, well, yeah. Well, let's revisit that, shall we? And I, I, I, I'm less optimistic than you really, but, um, yeah.

00:27:28.99 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal ah

00:27:33.39 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal I'm not saying I'm optimistic, I'm saying what we're hoping for.

00:27:36.25 alexei sayle Well, yeah.

00:27:36.52 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal And the last thing we should do is panic as well though, because like, that's also what Israel want is for Arabs to panic and to start scrambling.

00:27:39.16 alexei sayle Oh.

00:27:43.90 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Sorry, go ahead. and

00:27:46.23 alexei sayle Yes, no, well, it you know, but we'll see really. I still think I'm still slightly appalled at how, well, I don't know. It's just, I'm slightly humbled by, um, how incoherent our, uh, I thought we'd be more authoritative.

00:27:59.82 alexei sayle Well, you're more authoritative than me. really You've got, uh, you've got more to say.

00:28:03.39 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Well, I'm looking at a map with dots on it, but it's not it's not about authority.

00:28:07.16 alexei sayle Yeah.

00:28:08.43 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal It's just about passion. and and um we're not yeah like We're not here.

00:28:13.65 alexei sayle ah we'll keep an eye but We'll keep an eye on this.

00:28:13.84 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal we're not a new source We're not a news source, are we?

00:28:16.85 alexei sayle i did There was a very interesting guy called Alistair Crook whose name I've heard before. I saw he did a long interview with Chris Hedges. and and we One of the interesting, point obviously very well informed about the the region, but also one that I think an interesting point he made was that Israel is kind of like a Ponzi scheme. and You know, a Ponzi scheme is the sort of scheme where, you know, you promised massive rewards, you know, 11% interest on your investment. And what they do is in a Ponzi scheme, they use the money from investors to pay off other their investors, you know, pay off. So it can only keep going as long as more and more people invest because, you know, ultimately they always collapse.

00:29:00.28 alexei sayle really because he sort of said that Israel was a kind of Ponzi scheme in a way that it has to keep finding new wars and new conflicts because as soon as they run out of wars that that Israel will collapse.

00:29:12.29 alexei sayle I thought that was a really kind of interesting metaphor really that they have to keep their population and themselves distracted by you know making new conflicts and by stealing more like you know everywhere and

00:29:13.15 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Hmm.

00:29:23.31 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal yeah yeah it correlates with what happens like that's the only time they get invested in like people donate

00:29:23.60 alexei sayle Once Israel is forced to confront the contradictions within its own society, then that like a Ponzi scheme, you know, which seems, you know, to be an amazing, secure business, then it will collapse. I'm not entirely sure that's true, but I would like to believe it is true.

00:29:47.64 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal When they were in a war, that's when America ups their donations.

00:29:49.94 alexei sayle Yeah, yeah, and they can they can also

00:29:50.34 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Israel is from England, donates after Israel, because they are in crippling debt, Israel.

00:29:54.58 alexei sayle Yeah, I mean, yeah.

00:29:55.97 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal I've seen a report recently that they're in hundreds of billions of dollars of debt.

00:30:00.65 alexei sayle But they also don't have to face their own, you know, their kind of insanity of what they are and where they are and who they are and what they yeah and the and the terrible, terrible, terrible things that they have been doing as long as they can be immersed in this continuing crisis, then they you know can can you know can can distract themselves from the terrible that a nice terrible the innate terribleness of there their nation.

00:30:07.00 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Yeah.

00:30:32.10 alexei sayle so anyway that's

00:30:33.46 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal If I can make one last recommendation.

00:30:36.46 alexei sayle Yes No

00:30:36.53 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal So yeah, you don't come to Alexei myself for news and information, he comes for opinions and bullshit. um But there's a if you are an Instagram, ah there's a fellow called Paul and Mathis.

00:30:49.87 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal ah Mathis is M-A-T-T-H-I-S. Paul Nabil Mathis is his real name. But paula and Paul N Mathis is his handle. He's an American Syrian, Syrian American um who's been providing really, really great coverage of what's happening in Syria.

00:31:05.73 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal He's where I learned about this website from and his analysis of what's going on.

00:31:07.74 alexei sayle Right.

00:31:10.07 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Just be careful who you're getting information from. um I had people messaging me

00:31:13.42 alexei sayle Yes, very both. Yeah.

00:31:16.46 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal like old friends of mine messaging me going, I've got a shame about Syria. I'm like, what? Am I trying to celebrate? And he goes, yeah, it's all just Israel, isn't it? It's just Israel doing this and all the all the rebels, all the rebels ah are backed by Israel.

00:31:26.00 alexei sayle Well, yeah.

00:31:29.76 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal I'm like, wait, I know, I was just like, firstly, how dare you lecture a Syrian about what's going on in Syria? Because when I tried to argue with him, he started,

00:31:43.51 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal getting defensive and doubling down.

00:31:47.89 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal But also like these people who are liberating the country are not Israelis. They're not they Syrians doing something incredible. Those images of the prisoners coming out, isn't that wasn't that incredible seeing them?

00:31:57.36 alexei sayle Yeah, so moving, yeah.

00:32:01.59 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Anyway, we'll keep an eye on it.

00:32:02.35 alexei sayle Yeah, well, let's let we'll keep we'll keep our overview, overwatch on it. And yeah, you you you'll hear it first here, something.

00:32:16.13 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Um, I've had a lot of really, really, shall we move on?

00:32:19.89 alexei sayle Yes, I think we have. I thought i thought we'd do all Syria, but actually I think we should move on.

00:32:20.85 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Lots of, um,

00:32:24.42 alexei sayle Yeah.

00:32:26.25 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal and I've had, a yeah, I think any more talking we do on the topic, we'll just be pulling, uh, some stuff out of our butts.

00:32:31.20 alexei sayle Yeah, yeah.

00:32:34.40 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Um, lots of them really nice comments about the film club and our discussion on Withnail.

00:32:34.65 alexei sayle Yeah.

00:32:37.93 alexei sayle o

00:32:39.53 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal I think we went, it was successful despite your, existential panic attack halfway through it where you were wondering what the point or what happens next.

00:32:50.40 alexei sayle Well, I feel that about everything, but the yeah.

00:32:54.30 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal And someone Mark messaged on the Patreon community chat um to answer Alexi's questions of what happens now with Film Club. um Now that the podcast is recorded after we watch the film, the way you could put our thoughts and questions

00:33:14.39 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal so He's saying, could you watch, do the podcast after we've had a chance to watch it and send you questions, basically. And I thought that's kind of what the point was. That's why we were telling listeners.

00:33:23.86 alexei sayle Yeah, didn't we do that?

00:33:26.42 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal That's why we're telling you what we're going to watch so that you can watch it.

00:33:27.88 alexei sayle Yeah.

00:33:29.46 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal But I guess we're not giving them a specific date. So next time I'm going to tell you a deadline to send us messages and ask us questions and emails.

00:33:36.22 alexei sayle Well, big news till our big, big, big news.

00:33:39.90 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal What's that?

00:33:40.24 alexei sayle I have decided on the next film.

00:33:42.38 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal No way.

00:33:43.35 alexei sayle I fucking have, man.

00:33:45.13 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Is it the cook, the thief, his wife and her lover?

00:33:45.45 alexei sayle I fucking have. No, it isn't.

00:33:48.33 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal As someone suggested.

00:33:48.68 alexei sayle That's it. Oh, fuck no. I remember going for an audition with Peter Greenaway. Never have two people not got on more.

00:33:57.50 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Oh, really?

00:33:58.48 alexei sayle ah For that film, actually. Yeah, he saw me. We had a meeting for that film. and I'm like, you know, red.

00:34:04.32 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Would you have been, were you auditioning for Gambon's part?

00:34:07.85 alexei sayle Now, I think the next one down, the driver. I think I can't remember, but I i was like, mate, this is terrible.

00:34:13.54 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Wow.

00:34:21.32 alexei sayle And my mother, when I think about it, I've had many, and many auditions or interviews where, as we call them now, weren't like that. I'll tell everybody sometime about how I sort of brought the death of David Lean even closer.

00:34:38.74 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Okay, so we're not doing that. So I can't believe you've picked the next film.

00:34:41.75 alexei sayle Yes, I have picked the next film.

00:34:42.12 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal What could it be?

00:34:43.74 alexei sayle This film is but but but broadcast news. Do you know what that is?

00:34:50.94 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal that rings a bell broadcast news that's not the we're angry as hell I'm not gonna take it anymore no that's network

00:34:53.38 alexei sayle You're locking it up.

00:34:58.35 alexei sayle Now that's network. Now it's a film, it's a film that I've always loved but I haven't watched for a few years. But I also think it's, a it's um I was talking to my, I was at a meeting with my editor, my book editor the other day, and I for some reason started talking about broadcast news.

00:35:15.03 alexei sayle And I realized this is the film I want to see next with all my was all my and my internet friends. They were my best friends, really.

00:35:24.97 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Also from 1987.

00:35:25.10 alexei sayle how much not and some Okay, same years with that, yeah.

00:35:29.94 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Yeah, American film, Holly Hunter, William Hurt, Albert Brooks, even a bit of Jack Nicholson in there.

00:35:37.09 alexei sayle yeah yeah both kuzex he's

00:35:37.43 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal And Joan Cusack and John Cusack.

00:35:42.27 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal I love John Cusack. um

00:35:44.99 alexei sayle got a bit weird now he sounds a bit of plastic surgery i think he looks a bit odd i'm afraid he has oh there he is yeah any well anyway this film i think this film is

00:35:49.35 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Don't you dare say a word bad word about He's very pro-Palestinian and he's lost a lot of work because of it.

00:36:01.10 alexei sayle works on so many, oh, I i hope it does on rewatching, it works on so many different, it's a funny film. It's a very, ru it's a romantic comedy. um It's very touching in the romance because it's about a kind of, it throws a very interesting light on, very sophisticated, interesting light on friendship and desire and love.

00:36:28.03 alexei sayle And so it it it it um it's very interesting in that department. it's But it's also more importantly, it's about a kind of pivotal moment, really.

00:36:40.30 alexei sayle And it was prescient in this way. It's about the moment when the news changes from being the news to being entertainment, really, when it's about the

00:36:50.72 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Yes.

00:36:52.75 alexei sayle It's about the chip in a way, and I don't think it, I mean, to where we are now, where you know the news is entirely. unreliable and is entirely false and is entirely a kind of fake construct.

00:37:05.44 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal especially in America.

00:37:06.60 alexei sayle Yeah. Particularly in the United States. Yeah. I mean, I think, I think there was always to a degree, there was always that, but there was a, there was a much more, the weather resources and there's the impetus to try to at least try and tell a kind of truth.

00:37:21.02 alexei sayle And then this is about that moment when that battle is lost really. And it's, you know, I mean, it's very profound for a romantic comedy to also be,

00:37:32.20 alexei sayle about that. It also has one of the greatest sort of anxiety attack scenes in it.

00:37:38.19 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Wow.

00:37:40.75 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal That's also the theme of, it's also the theme of Anchorman with Will Ferrell is about that when news became entertainment.

00:37:41.27 alexei sayle Ever if you liked that?

00:37:48.45 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal It's about that moment.

00:37:49.23 alexei sayle Yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, Anchorman is a good film, but it's, you know, it's not, it's not, yeah.

00:37:51.30 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal It's a bit farcical. So when was the last time you watched broadcast news?

00:37:57.23 alexei sayle Long, probably many years ago. Long run time.

00:38:03.01 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Okay.

00:38:03.66 alexei sayle But also, I mean, it's always, it's always something I, I mean, I worked with, I worked with William Hertz.

00:38:03.84 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Awesome.

00:38:09.07 alexei sayle So there's always, there's always something in these films that I, I worked with.

00:38:13.13 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Mm-hmm. What did he work with Willy Hurt on?

00:38:16.44 alexei sayle Uh, Goki Park, my first movie.

00:38:19.05 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Porky Pig. Oh, cool.

00:38:20.96 alexei sayle Hmm.

00:38:22.12 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Um, I've yet to watch that. We need them. I've yet to watch Porky Park.

00:38:25.34 alexei sayle Is that how we count? Well, I don't know if we could have a thread. I mean, I, I love talking about all, I was talking last night. I was at a party at the, um, There was the radio, it was BBC Studios comedy, BBC Studios audio comedy party last night, which used to be the old radio for comedy party. Lots of young comics there and some of the old older, older brigade are also there. And I was just talking, I was talking to actually to Emma City. Now Emma City is very nice, younger sort of comedian, comic actor who we did, um I did Richard Osman's House of Games with.

00:39:03.92 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Oh yeah.

00:39:04.22 alexei sayle And um we got we became so we were so we came so close just over that day, really. And we were both talking about how much we love Anthony Costa out of blue. He's so funny. He's such a funny guy. And really, I mean, funnier than he knows, really, as Emma was saying, she could do very good impressions of it.

00:39:22.08 alexei sayle And I actually watched that boy band documentary, three or four boy bands forever, just so I could see Anthony Costa out of Blue being interviewed.

00:39:27.46 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Yeah.

00:39:30.88 alexei sayle ah That's a slight detail, but he's a a really nice guy. and um But I was talking about, I just think I like to talk about we it's all the terrible films I've been in.

00:39:42.44 alexei sayle um oh ah so We could do that, eh?

00:39:45.42 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal And yeah, you talk to MSCD. And so you talk to MSCD about Frankenstein.

00:39:49.76 alexei sayle I was telling them a city about all the terrible films I've been in. And, you know, the the the feminist remake of the Bride of Frankenstein starring Sting.

00:40:02.02 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Oh, I really want to watch that.

00:40:02.48 alexei sayle and I think we've talked about that a bit, yeah. But i don't I don't think we should use our film club to watch terrible films I've been eating. I would actually also, also dear friend, my Phil Ellis was saying that there was and also a terrible film I did called Solar Babies, but that's become something of a, he said there's a, now there's a podcast called maybe Screen Grab, I'm not sure.

00:40:25.42 alexei sayle And they do, they did a whole episode devoted to this terrible film ah I was in called Solar Babies.

00:40:30.17 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal No way.

00:40:30.22 alexei sayle And they actually said I was good in it, but um Anyway, I don't know. But I think we should just stick to movies I'm not in. Movies I'm not in, but where I've worked with somebody in in the movie.

00:40:42.45 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Okay. but um But maybe I'll get round to watching these films that you are in and then I can pick your brains and ask you but about the film and stories from the production.

00:40:50.95 alexei sayle Yeah. Yeah.

00:40:55.47 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal And you you were at this party because you'd just wrapped Sandwich Bar, season and five.

00:40:59.62 alexei sayle I just thank you for yes I just we just season five of Sandwich Boy doesn't go it's scheduled not to go out until 5th of March although I think they're going to put all four episodes and I play on BBC Sounds at the same point.

00:41:16.16 alexei sayle Um, yeah, it's, uh, I think it's, uh, you know, I'll keep plugging it i see because I would like maximum listenership. Um, it is, I think something really special. out I was, you know, it it was hard, hard, hard to write in this.

00:41:31.95 alexei sayle particular yeah to capture the kind of zeitgeist really, which doesn't necessarily lend itself to audio comedy. But I think it's a really powerful piece of work, I think, where genocide comes up a lot, which is unusual in it obviously in radio comedy.

00:41:48.36 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal and

00:41:49.85 alexei sayle um but ah yeah um i mean um we've also I mean, if the world changes radically, we've also got some space to, we may record some stuff closer to to transmission, but yeah, no, it's really, you know, it's it's a big it's a tough job right in two hours of top-notch comedy, you know.

00:42:01.94 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Mm hmm.

00:42:08.31 alexei sayle it's I'm very, very proud of it anyway.

00:42:10.78 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal And.

00:42:12.83 alexei sayle And I think it will be, you know, when it goes out, we did, i will I mean, it's sort of, I think it's such a, we got record number of applications for ah tickets.

00:42:25.20 alexei sayle They've never had so many applications for two years, 1600 and 1900 applications to see the show being recorded, which is unheard of.

00:42:25.48 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Oh, that's a good sign.

00:42:34.31 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal I wish they would all listen to the bloody podcast as well.

00:42:37.31 alexei sayle Yeah, yeah, maybe they don't know about it.

00:42:37.93 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal That's some good numbers.

00:42:39.58 alexei sayle That's why I think they don't know. I think they're not being told about it.

00:42:45.42 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal We could just spend a grand on a marketing person for a month and get the word out.

00:42:45.58 alexei sayle The internet's hiding us. yes it Yeah, yeah. We've been talking about that for three years.

00:42:52.01 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal um um That's great.

00:42:57.40 alexei sayle ah Maybe.

00:42:57.99 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal And are you happy with the performance you gave, the delivery, the passion, the anger?

00:43:01.78 alexei sayle Yeah, I mean, i havet yeah I haven't listened to the um i haven't listened to the the recording. Yeah, but the edit. But um yeah, it felt great in the room. It felt really magical. And also, I mean, I wished in a way some of the bits. I wish, i'd I mean, I did five nights of tryouts at the Museum of Comedy and um So the material is honed, you know but there is ah there is a thing with standard material where the more you perform it, you you find new ways to deliver it, and new ad bits and stuff like that.

00:43:36.54 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Yeah.

00:43:37.11 alexei sayle I mean, that to a degree, five five um performances is not enough to to do that.

00:43:42.41 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Not enough, no.

00:43:44.92 alexei sayle But, you know, is it is what it is. I mean, it's exceptional that anybody, you know, a rich, the head of BBC Audio comedy, you know, it's unusual that a radio show, the people but you know try the material out at all.

00:43:58.79 alexei sayle really They just think of it and then do it.

00:44:00.96 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Which is strange because when you before you go to Edinburgh, you do a couple of months of work in progress.

00:44:05.62 alexei sayle Yeah. Yeah.

00:44:07.90 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal I've been doing the same standard material for like six years and I'm still finding new ways and honing it and and finding new joint. Just when I'm starting to get bored of the material, I find something new in it that makes me completely love it and look at it at a new and with a new angle.

00:44:18.44 alexei sayle Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

00:44:24.34 alexei sayle We do, I think, and and it was slightly frustrating that I thought, as I was doing some of the bits and so much, I thought, oh, I can, there is ah there is potentially a lot more in this bit, really.

00:44:25.07 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal ah

00:44:35.51 alexei sayle I can always do it live, you know, rework it and stuff.

00:44:38.45 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal This is why you people want you to tour again, because that's it, isn't it?

00:44:44.28 alexei sayle I know.

00:44:45.10 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal You can get you can use this material from Sandwich Bar and keep gigging it and keepru and and evolving it, ah finding new new threads in it.

00:44:49.47 alexei sayle Yeah, no, absolutely. Yeah. I know that.

00:44:55.50 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal um

00:44:55.72 alexei sayle Yeah, it's just the traveling. It's just the traveling and it's all lost in a way.

00:45:06.49 alexei sayle Alright, see you in a bit. There's sort of that.

00:45:09.24 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Hi Linda. Just sort of what? Gone.

00:45:13.19 alexei sayle That thing about um the days are lost, you know, you can't, you always think, you know, you're in Nottingham, you think, oh, I'll go and see, you know, Nottingham, the Museum of Pencils or whatever that they have in Nottingham, you know, but you don't, you just lie in the hotel room until they throw you out really. And then you do the gig that night and you come alive briefly on stage for an hour and a half, and then you're back in that kind of,

00:45:38.71 alexei sayle ah You're back in that coma, really. And that when when you're young, I think, well, one, you have more energy, but also it doesn't. But we you know when you're my age, you sort of think you don't want to you don't want to lose those days, in a sense. you know it's it's you you haven' go You haven't got so many days left that you can afford to um just waste a day lying on the bed in a Marriott in Dundee.

00:46:06.97 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal That's why you need me with you. I'll wake you up at the crack of dawn. We'll go out with it with a camera and we'll film.

00:46:10.76 alexei sayle Are we going for a run? Yeah, we're going to do Kung Fu. We're going to do Kung Fu.

00:46:15.76 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Do Kung Fu in the park, we'll film some fun YouTube content, go for a run or something I've never done um and go check out some museums.

00:46:22.85 alexei sayle Yeah. Yeah.

00:46:28.10 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal I'll be like a little mini you.

00:46:30.79 alexei sayle Yeah, though I wonder if that, yes, if I'd pushed my, you know, whether I could, whether I could be that person or whether the show would just be shit because I was naked.

00:46:40.38 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal I wonder, it's one way to find out.

00:46:42.70 alexei sayle Hard to know. Yeah. Hmm.

00:46:46.45 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal All right. So broadcast news, uh, the, the first podcast of January, we will be watching broadcast news.

00:46:48.50 alexei sayle Yes, that's the film. So in the three

00:46:55.67 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal If you have any, if you want to get involved in the film club, you've got until then to watch it and send us questions and comments about broadcast news from 1987. There's nowhere, it doesn't look like there's anywhere to watch it for free or to stream it.

00:47:09.62 alexei sayle You know, I know you where you can, but I know we, I mean, there are places you can buy it.

00:47:10.31 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Um, so, you know,

00:47:15.01 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Yes, places you can buy it, rent it, and you know you might want to call up a pirate friend of yours, however you want to do it as your business.

00:47:15.56 alexei sayle to stream

00:47:24.17 alexei sayle Yep.

00:47:25.32 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal um Have you heard of John Pilger, Australian filmmaker, documentarian?

00:47:29.17 alexei sayle Yeah.

00:47:33.06 alexei sayle Yeah.

00:47:34.56 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal ah John on our community chat messaged us about, all comment in ah wrote in the community chat about John Pilger, as an alternative Australian, because we were talking about Nick Cave ah last week, and he's like, well, there is an Australian that is very good.

00:47:48.80 alexei sayle Oh, right.

00:47:52.69 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal And it is this year anniversary since his passing.

00:47:53.04 alexei sayle Yeah.

00:47:56.33 alexei sayle Yes. Nope. I mean, some of the stuff Pilger did was amazing though.

00:47:57.49 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Well, it will be.

00:47:59.01 alexei sayle I do think in a way he did suffer. to a degree from that kind of dictator blind. I mean, I mean, other people can correct me on this, but I think he did just suffer from a kind of a degree of left-wing dictator dysphagia or whatever, like dictator blindness, that he sometimes couldn't, he was so committed, you know.

00:48:07.11 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Mm.

00:48:21.96 alexei sayle committed to the truth and committed to the rightness of our cause that sometimes he couldn't see.

00:48:22.02 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal It's true. Yeah.

00:48:27.63 alexei sayle Maybe that's unfair, but people want to defend him. I always got, I slightly got that feeling sometimes that he was blind to the faults of the

00:48:35.17 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Interesting. I think that's a condition of of Westerners who look over into the Middle East. And and yeah, because John Pildre, yeah, he did films about Palestine and stuff as well.

00:48:46.78 alexei sayle Mm hmm. I yeah don mean, they you know, entirely, you know, righteous.

00:48:47.05 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal So I guess

00:48:50.45 alexei sayle He's a righteous, he's a righteous dude. I just, you know, I shouldn't, I mean, in a sense, you see, i i mean maybe I'm wrong for criticizing his, his kind of dictator bias.

00:48:57.26 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal and yeah

00:49:03.75 alexei sayle You know, well, I'm, you know, serving by, by equivocating, I'm serving the the black, the darkness. I'm serving the dark side by equivocating about some delightful by bringing this issue up. But um, I don't know again, discuss really.

00:49:19.82 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal I remember when Bashar first came into power after his dad died. I was very confused about ah how a president's son can take his place because it's not a royal family, it's a president.

00:49:35.03 alexei sayle No.

00:49:35.24 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal But they were I do remember ah this kind of sympathetic story about him and how people but had this spin on him as a sympathetic character because I think they called him like the parachute president because um it was meant to be his older brother who who took, was it Basile?

00:49:51.86 alexei sayle Yeah, you it was Basel. Basel? Yeah. Yeah. just Yeah.

00:49:58.54 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal It was meant to be his older brother who became president next. And he was the army guy, he was the military tough guy, but he died.

00:50:03.93 alexei sayle Riding a car crash, I think.

00:50:07.57 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal and

00:50:08.74 alexei sayle Although now you make me wonder.

00:50:11.03 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal And Bashar was in Acton, living in London.

00:50:16.37 alexei sayle Yeah.

00:50:18.20 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal He was an eye doctor.

00:50:20.58 alexei sayle Yeah.

00:50:21.87 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal And he married this woman from Acton um who was born here with Syrian parents, who my family who my family fucking knew her. She went to my Arabic school, my mom's Arabic school on Saturdays. um My mom taught her how to speak Arabic and stuff. um And her house in Acton, I remember ah wed you'd drive past it and it'd be covered in her family home, like covered in paint. and like the windows have been bricked and shit and so it's just been cordoned off and they're in like protection or something and but yeah Bashar just suddenly snatched away from his life parachuted into Damascus now as the president of Syria and people were like oh wow what poor guy or like he didn't mean to do be there or anything and he had this kind of benefit and the doubt for the first few years

00:50:50.24 alexei sayle Right. Right. Yeah.

00:51:07.18 alexei sayle Mmm.

00:51:13.63 alexei sayle Yeah. Well, I suppose, i yes. I mean, clearly he's done i mean terrible things. I mean, I think he mean he had an opportunity. I mean, I think when I was watching Richard Mendez and David Miller, they were kind of cynical about anything to do with the Arab Spring and away.

00:51:28.50 alexei sayle But I do think the uprisings in Derrard in 2010, 2011 were real. I think there was a moment when there was a popular uprising as there was in Tunisia and Egypt.

00:51:39.85 alexei sayle There was a, yeah, there was a popular uprising.

00:51:40.14 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Of course there was, yes. And i was we were so hopeful. It was a really exciting time.

00:51:43.59 alexei sayle Yeah.

00:51:45.99 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal It's such a weird feeling that that the excitement that has come on Sunday when Bashar has finally ousted is something that began 11 years ago.

00:51:56.36 alexei sayle Hmm.

00:51:57.12 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal And it's almost like our emotions were just, there was a pause button pressed.

00:52:00.56 alexei sayle Well, and of course, people of Egypt, or the people of Tunisia have not had, you know, what has come after the Arab Spring has been worse than what came before in many ways, certainly in Egypt. ah But he he had that opportunity to deal with the uprising.

00:52:10.61 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Yes, true.

00:52:14.78 alexei sayle I think if he'd maybe, I don't know, but conceded, you know, to a degree, a degree of democracy, a degree of kindness, then he said he wouldn't have...

00:52:25.09 alexei sayle I mean, and then bad faith actors, you know, the Turks, Israelis, the Americans.

00:52:29.63 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal The Russians.

00:52:29.97 alexei sayle the Iranians, you know, then the Russians, then all piled in. But um yeah there was a moment perhaps when he could have shown some kindness. And it seemed like in a way that the actions of a weak man to crack down so mercilessly, you know,

00:52:45.44 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Disgusting. Whether you're right or wrong, as soon as thousands of your people are dying and being killed, you need to just step back and and then say, who didn't?

00:52:54.91 alexei sayle and Yeah, and he did didn't do that, and now I wonder whether that was a... Well, not that I did the other, I hope he just did anything different, but I mean, I don't know.

00:53:03.66 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Murderous cunt.

00:53:06.01 alexei sayle There seemed like there was an opportunity particularly in, say, after Derrar.

00:53:13.84 alexei sayle I don't know, but...

00:53:15.70 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Do you know much about what's happening with the observer?

00:53:19.17 alexei sayle Not a huge amount. They're being bought by tortoise media, which Linda said, the people she follows on the internet say is basically the CIA. I mean, the observer was always more right wing, even when it was ah allied to the Guardian than the Guardian itself, but which is not saying much, but I don't know. Jay Rayner has left in a hoof, but then he's a fine prick anyway.

00:53:44.58 alexei sayle um But apart from that, no.

00:53:48.10 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal They're like picketing or something. they They don't want it to be sold.

00:53:49.69 alexei sayle The, the, the, the guardian staff are not happy with it. No, no. Um, I have limited.

00:53:58.21 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Interesting. It's funny you said tortoise media. That podcast I mentioned earlier about animals, the animal sense maker is is by tortoise.

00:54:05.92 alexei sayle Yeah. Really.

00:54:08.91 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal have I had no idea that they are a big, big thing.

00:54:09.16 alexei sayle yeah It's all connected.

00:54:12.77 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal That's so weird that you said that.

00:54:14.19 alexei sayle Yeah, it was I think it was founded by a former Times journalist. I don't know whether, I think, people as I say, the people Linda listens to on the internet say the funding is suspicious.

00:54:25.67 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Here's what they have to say. Tortoise is an audio first newsroom devoted to slow news based in London, UK. We take news slowly. We investigate. We tell stories that really matter. And we take time to see the phil picture full picture.

00:54:43.32 alexei sayle I hear the people. James Hardcastle isn't it? Is there sort of? Can I have found it? Can I make that up?

00:54:53.24 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Looking into it. Looking into it.

00:54:57.97 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Well, maybe that's just a topic for next week. I'll do some research and we'll check up chat about that next week.

00:55:02.10 alexei sayle Sure. Yeah.

00:55:03.90 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Tortoise. And they're trying to buy the observer or they have bought the observer.

00:55:04.63 alexei sayle tall boys. They have bought the observer, I think.

00:55:08.71 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Whoa, whoa, whoa.

00:55:08.91 alexei sayle I don't know what anybody wants with the newspaper these days is in a sense hard to fathom.

00:55:12.88 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Mm.

00:55:14.45 alexei sayle But yeah,

00:55:16.31 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Especially just the Sunday edition of it. It's confusing to me, but OK.

00:55:21.28 alexei sayle yeah, I used to have a column in this, I had a column for years in the, in the observer virtually no, a Jewish Chronicle, I don't think I ever had a column there.

00:55:25.78 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Where didn't you have a column, Alexi?

00:55:33.12 alexei sayle But yeah, it's funny because it's sort of in the era also when, you know, nobody could complain really because, you know, so you felt like you wrote these things and that was kind of it really.

00:55:47.47 alexei sayle Now, I don't know if to be a columnist now would seem to be a very different thing. I don't know. Yeah.

00:55:55.00 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal and

00:55:55.32 alexei sayle Sunday Mirror Observer. Independent for many years.

00:56:01.76 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal And who is it I wanted to ask you about? and

00:56:08.85 alexei sayle As you said, we've got Andrew Feinstein coming on Friday. So we'll record that and then we'll, we'll put that out in trips and traps.

00:56:14.74 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Yeah, next episode is with Feinstein.

00:56:16.74 alexei sayle Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, we'll make half Yammer in half Feinstein or Feinstein. I don't know. We'll Yeah.

00:56:25.86 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal We'll find find that out. and I was going to ask you about Jonathan Friedland. I was just looking up his name. I couldn't remember his name.

00:56:32.31 alexei sayle get

00:56:33.18 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Yeah, get what's what's the story there?

00:56:34.91 alexei sayle He's a liberal Zionist. is but it was i things like pissen you liberal nazi it's ah ah he's ah He's the one, he's credited with really, certainly with the, yeah, the the the the yeah Guardian did a lot to subvert Coburn. When Caffeine was elected,

00:56:57.57 alexei sayle became editor. There was some hope for her because she'd written that play, My Name is Rachel Corey, about the woman killed by the israel by the IDF and the American, yeah.

00:57:05.30 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Yeah, run over by the bulldozer. Yeah.

00:57:08.76 alexei sayle But as she seemed to, I mean, in all fairness, to god um the god i mean the Guardian's coverage of Gaza hasn't been bad compared to the rest of the British media.

00:57:21.49 alexei sayle but um although it's, you know, tailing off now, but Friedland is credited with um really kind of making hair, you know, making hair anti-Corbin or making the paper anti-Corbin and also showing a degree of support for Israel, you know, which parts of it does.

00:57:40.51 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Right.

00:57:48.57 alexei sayle He certainly does. You know, say ah yeah he's

00:57:54.58 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Well, I mentioned him ah last week, I went to see my friend's show that I plugged on the podcast cutting the tight rope at the Arcola Theatre. um

00:58:04.49 alexei sayle Right.

00:58:05.06 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal And they had a really, it was lots of mini short plays about censorship in the arts, particularly around Palestine and Gaza.

00:58:08.34 alexei sayle Hmm. Hmm.

00:58:12.03 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal And they had a very great satirical piece about

00:58:16.08 alexei sayle By him.

00:58:16.54 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal that about not Jonathan Friedland, but someone who's obviously, it was a satire of him.

00:58:18.93 alexei sayle but it's a bit, yeah.

00:58:21.68 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal um And it was really, really interesting and well done.

00:58:22.10 alexei sayle No, he's a fucker.

00:58:25.98 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal And the performance was fantastic. And a big part of it is a big part of the message of the play is that Arts Council have not been funding projects that are deemed political.

00:58:36.15 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal And the only things that they are not funding is pro-Palestine stuff.

00:58:40.78 alexei sayle Yeah.

00:58:41.17 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal you know Since when is art not political? that that they've They've literally got it in their rules now. They've rewritten the the rules for applications that your you shouldn't be doing anything political to get Arts Council funding.

00:58:52.57 alexei sayle Yes. Yeah, again, I have mixed feelings about that in a way. I mean, one of the one of my drive when I invented alternative comedy, ah one of the things I wanted it to be was absolutely free from state sponsorship of the arts, because I think that that is a kind of a double edged surgery that I want.

00:59:01.98 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Hmm.

00:59:11.54 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Hmm.

00:59:13.81 alexei sayle I thought it was vital that I did stuff that was as political as could be, but people still paid to see it. And I thought that that was a lot better than if I'm trying to raise some raise funding from some fucker.

00:59:27.58 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal That's really interesting. I want to ask you about that next time we yama.

00:59:31.55 alexei sayle Yeah. Well, let's discuss that state sponsor.

00:59:32.33 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Next time we yama.

00:59:33.19 alexei sayle I mean, I've always been absolutely against state sponsorship of the arts and certain, you know, I think that, I mean, it's it's clearly fucked up and and, you know, you can see why.

00:59:44.18 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal And who was that geezer at the time where the comics drip first did their shows that the king of Soho guy who had his

00:59:51.59 alexei sayle Raymond, Raymond, kind of forgot these in Paul Raymond.

00:59:54.50 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Paul Raymond and his leisure lounge or something, or his pleasure lounge, is that the venue?

00:59:59.63 alexei sayle Now Paul Raymond's Festival of Erotica was where the comic strip was based.

01:00:05.26 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal That's it, someone was telling me, someone had been reading about him and like, when people in suits showed up at the door, he'd be like, this way for the festival of erotica. And then if I was at you, and then if youre a punk if a punk showed up, then you'd gesture the other way and go, oh, this way for the comedy.

01:00:13.83 alexei sayle That's me, that's why I said. Yeah, the answer to me is

01:00:21.15 alexei sayle Yeah. Well, the bouncer said if they if they smelt of beer, if they smelt of aftershave, we'd send them to the festival of erotica. If they smelt of beer, we'd send them to you. But they also said that they would always anybody Japanese was forced to go and see the festival of erotica. And one night, Ryuichi Sakamoto you know, composer of avant-garde musician and composer of, you know, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence is perhaps his best known music, but, you know, haunting.

01:00:51.99 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal okay

01:00:52.47 alexei sayle They sent him into the festival. I'm like, no, mate, you don't want to go. He wants to go to the comic show. He wants to come and see me. bri and No, mate, you don't want to go there. You want to go to the festival again.

01:01:03.23 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal okay you're pulling him either way one one of you on each arm yanking him okay i'd love to ask you more about that whole era and um

01:01:04.38 alexei sayle is for yes So Yeah, so. And then they were so the bouncers just forced stuffed him into the festival of Roscoe, which was neither a festival nor particularly erotic, really.

01:01:22.88 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal ah Government backing the arts.

01:01:25.81 alexei sayle Yeah, it's not, yeah, I've always published.

01:01:26.73 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal and

01:01:28.29 alexei sayle I mean, that's why I did what I did and became what I'd, became a popular entertainer. I'd, you know, obviously I, all right.

01:01:34.13 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Well, but next time, although I'll ask you next time, I'm gonna make a note of the hanging fruits and we'll pick them up next time, okay?

01:01:36.91 alexei sayle All right. All right. Stay sponsored of the arts.

01:01:40.25 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal We've run out of time, Alexei.

01:01:41.83 alexei sayle All right. But I want to, I want to, all right.

01:01:44.66 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal No, enough. I need to plug the Patreon, all right?

01:01:47.97 alexei sayle All right.

01:01:49.41 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Uh, I forgot to plug it earlier. Uh, patreon dot.com forward slash Alexi sale podcast. Please support the show. Our patrons are growing. I'm so glad. This is one of the good things since we started doing it weekly is that we have been, uh, growing.

01:02:00.52 alexei sayle Yeah.

01:02:03.48 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal We've gone up 17 members.

01:02:06.16 alexei sayle yay

01:02:06.40 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Um, in the last month, we now have 285 members on the patreon.

01:02:08.54 alexei sayle That's good.

01:02:12.86 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal There is a ah community chat room there.

01:02:13.07 alexei sayle Yeah.

01:02:15.10 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal You can send me messages directly. I love you. Patreon dot.com forward slash Alexis help podcast support the show. Buy us a coffee a month. That's it. And you can help keep the show going and keep it regular.

01:02:29.34 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal ah 20 new people in the last month, actually, because eight of them upgraded from free membership to a paid membership. Lovely. Once we reach 500 members, we're going to do a live streamed episode and, and bring you guys will have, you can message me if you want to join the stream and ask Alexia question in person or just chat with us for five minutes.

01:02:42.44 alexei sayle Fucking right right, well that's One that's just gonna say bye-bye with as long enough in it.

01:02:52.86 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal We'll bring you into the stream. It will be crazy. Maybe we'll have surprise guests in it. We don't know. Um, all right. That's it. I've done the plugs. You can talk now, Alexi.

01:03:04.78 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal You're allowed to talk again.

01:03:08.85 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Go on then.

01:03:10.04 alexei sayle Hey

01:03:10.93 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Go on then.

01:03:12.37 alexei sayle bye- bye muscle um

01:03:14.95 Talaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalaltalal Nice salaam. Free Syria. Palestine next.

01:03:19.73 alexei sayle yeah love