Alan Dedicoat

The voice of Strictly & Dancing with the Stars fears for the BBC – but shares his love of quizzes, buses and awards bashes.  

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Jeremy Lee 0:16

I'm sitting here today with the king of voiceovers. In fact, I don't even think that's enough. I think he's the emperor of voiceover. He is the legend that is Alan Dedicott. I'm gonna trot through your CV, Alan, because I think it's always good to have a reminder. Born in Hollywood, trained to be a solicitor, but drawn in by hospital radio, then local radio in Birmingham, Plymouth, Exeter, before you eventually became chief announcer on Radio 2, and Terry Wogan's sidekick, known as Deadly. Of course, to many, you are the voice of the balls. That I don't know how you did it, but you managed to do for 30 years. And now, Strictly Come Dancing, I think I'm right in saying still dancing with the Stars, the partner show in the States. You now have a show on Victory Radio in Portsmouth. And also, and this is the bit of the CV that grabs me every time I think about it you're the co-owner of Rootmaster buses. The ones where, you know, you could still jump on and off. Am I right, Alan? I can imagine you with your co-owners playing conductor. Am I right or am I right?

Alan Dedicoat 1:33

You are right. You are absolutely right. Excellent. An excellent clippy. That's exactly what I do.

Jeremy Lee 1:39

We might come on to that, but I want to start with the secrets, the misbehaviour on strictly working with Keir Starmer to bring out the personality. Okay, alright, I made that up. But actually, while I was thinking about it, I thought, goodness me, I wonder what Alan would do to bring out Starmer's personality. Would you take it on? What would you do?

Alan Dedicoat 1:59

Well, it might be a challenge. I do like challenges, but equally what I do like is being live. That's the whole point. Most of what I've done since I came into this business that we call show is live stuff. I like the fact that it's live and that you do take a risk. And sometimes things do go wrong, like lottery machines not starting. I don't think I've put my foot in it in any massive way in the past, but generally speaking, I've always got in my mind, Jeremy, and this is a little clue for you here, I'm always thinking to myself, what if, what if, what if? And then you've got most of it covered. And that's what being an announcer on the radio involves as well, because things don't always go according to plan.

Jeremy Lee 2:39

Did you ever have number or word blindness? Did you ever think, oh my god, what do you call that number?

Alan Dedicoat 2:47

Not quite that, though. But I did call in the 30 years, and I still do it, I still do it at the lottery. You can hear me at about 8.15 on ITV on Saturday nights, reading out the winning numbers. But it's a much reduced show these days. And I do believe that the new company that's taken over the lottery, it's called All Win, they are planning to bring it back big time on the TV. I understand, don't correct me if I happen to be wrong about that, but there's a word on the street that they want it very high profile once more. So I give that information to the Jeremy Lee podcast for free.

Jeremy Lee 3:23

The important thing is, Alan, this is just between us. So our listener won't share it with anyone.

Alan Dedicoat 3:29

Well that's good. So it could be coming back. But only in those 30 years I only miscalled the number twice. The first was an occasion we were on an outside broadcast, and they'd given me the world's tiniest television set, a little tiny monitor, and I couldn't see whether it was six or a nine, because if you think about it, they're both white balls, 06, 09. So you have to look to find out where the zero is first, and then look to see where the digit next to that is. Is it an 06? Is it an 09? But I was able to correct it fairly quickly, and we carried on with the show, and all was fine. So, yeah, a couple of occasions, it hasn't quite gone according to plan. But again, that's the whole point. You're live, so you have to deal with it and talk your way out of it. That's what I'm sort of good at, because as I'm demonstrating to you already on this podcast, I can talk for England.

Jeremy Lee 4:22

This is about you, it's not about me, but I in the previous century did a little bit of radio, and the presenter of this show suddenly turned to me and said, Take us up to the news, which was 20 minutes away. It was in a nightclub. That's a bit harsh. And it was harsh, thank you, Steve Allen. Actually, what came out of my mouth without me knowing it was let's have a talent show. Which was very weird. Anyway, I want to just quickly touch on Strictly because well, because it's such a big show over here. You do still host uh Dancing with the Stars in the States, is that right?

Alan Dedicoat 4:57

I'm one of the voices, yeah. I'm the British voice, British Bri D-I-S-H, as they say. Can we get that British guy? Too right you can get that British guy. I was there like a shot. I'm still there, still clinging to the wreckage, as Wogan used to say.

Jeremy Lee 5:12

I know it's the same format. Yes. But it must be different in certain ways. How different is it in America? Are the so-called stars, well, are the so-called stars, are they more ruthless? The competitors with each other. Well, they're American.

Alan Dedicoat 5:27

And I think that's a good thing. That's why I asked the question. At least I think that sort of answers your question. In a way. Everything's bigger, louder, larger, stronger, all that sort of stuff. The reason I got the booking for that show, as you so rightly said, the format is very similar, because they took a BBC crew over there to show them how to do it. The ABC in America said we quite like the look of that, and it's hugely successful in Britain. How can we do it over here? So they said, can we borrow some BBC people to show us how to do it? And you know, this many years later, coming up to 20 years for them, there are still people out there because they like living in Los Angeles. And I can't say I blame them. And when I first auditioned, well sort of auditioned, they said, send across something special just for the American version of this show, so I did. And I did a sort of dancing with the stars and all that sort of stuff. And they no, no, whatever you do, don't do that. That's exactly what we don't want. We've got hundreds of people who can do that in America. Just be terribly British, if you would. So I have to do all the extended A's, dancing with the stars and all that sort of stuff. So if anything, I overcook it just for America. They're very friendly, they're very nice, and they still pay me, and I love America.

Jeremy Lee 6:40

Let's talk about how we know one another, Alan, because we met and have spent a long time together over the years on award ceremonies.

Alan Dedicoat 6:51

Yes. That's what I do mostly now, that because Radio 2, I left the BBC staff in the year 2015, and I stopped doing the Wogan show when Wogan moved to Sundays and was sort of bowing out in favour of Chris Evans. So I've sort of disappeared from the wireless for a while. I do a little program. It used to be called Sunday Supplement on a channel called the Wireless, and now I've moved to Victory. It's just to keep my larynx moving and doing what I enjoy the most, which is the radio, just talking to people and being friendly and nice and all that sort of stuff. I'm sort of just enjoying myself, Jeremy, to be honest. And you, ever so many years ago, it must be at least 20 years ago, I would have thought, had set up this company. 34 years ago, Alan. Is that when I joined, though? Is that when I joined? 34 years. I wasn't far behind everybody else, I don't think, you and Tom looked after me. And that's exactly what I do now, and I thoroughly enjoy it. And one of the reasons is that it's live again and it's reacting to situations. You know, the last few days I've worked with Lucy Porter, I've worked with Hal Crutenden. Hal Crutenden only last night, actually, which was good, up in Birmingham, at the National Conference Centre, which used to be the motorcycle museum by the NEC. And, you know, I tootled back in the middle of the night because I don't like traveling on motorways when they're busy. And I was just so contented and happy with life generally, the way it's been to me. I've been so, so lucky in my X years in the business, 30, 40 years. It's been great.

Jeremy Lee 8:29

Let's talk a little more about awards. What many people don't know, and why should they, is that award ceremonies are pretty much the best business model you could come up with from an organizer's point of view. Because you have three ways of making money. You sell the tickets by table, you get sponsors in a busy year for each individual award, and you also charge people to consider their nominations. And there's no cost against that because the judges, in order to ensure no corruption, are unpaid. So when times are busy, and at the height of the ad industry, I'm not in tune with how busy it is now, but there might be hundreds of nominations for each category of award. So the thing was that you know what people have Having heard all that, I'm gonna put up my fees. I'm saying nothing. I have waited a very long time to tell you that. Yes. So the awards business, people might think of awards and automatically think of the Baptists or the Oscars or whatever.

Alan Dedicoat 9:40

There are awards for everything.

Jeremy Lee 9:42

My contention, I want to know whether you agree with this. You know, I get that the big flashy industries, advertising PR, and whatever, have their big bashes, but for me, the most touching were always the least glamorous.

Alan Dedicoat 9:58

The brick awards, the national brick awards. One of my favourites. Love it. They might look like household bricks to you, but there are actually award-winning bricks. Yeah. My absolute favourite The National Pest Awards. I'll put it to you. The National Pest Awards, cockroaches, that sort of thing.

Jeremy Lee 10:15

That's what I deal in. It beats mine. My favourite was the meat packaging awards, which weren't about meat and they weren't about packaging. They were entirely and exclusively about where meat meets packaging. Excellent.

Alan Dedicoat 10:30

Absolutely wonderful occasions. There was an occasion at Grosvenor House, which is one of the biggest places, certainly West London, to hold these events, and you can book it five years in advance, or at least you can try to, because it does that amount of business. But there was one occasion when protesters got in, dressed properly, and somehow managed to get past securities, they had got dinner jackets, bow ties, all that sort of stuff on, and they promptly sat at a table which wasn't theirs. And we couldn't actually start the show because we needed to remove them because we didn't know what they were going to do, and also that table was needed by the people who'd paid the money for the table. But we had to keep going, and I sort of explained roughly what was going on to one end of the room, the other end could see what was happening. But I had to sort of hold the thought a little bit there whilst we dealt with them, and I just said that there are a number of people in the room, ladies and gentlemen, who will be leaving us very shortly. And then what the hotel did is with some strong security men they lifted the table away from the people who were just then in a ring of chairs, and they were escorted out. We proceeded after about twenty minutes, took us twenty minutes to deal with her. But by that stage, of course, no star, no turn on the stage, just me, little old me, left in charge. And I didn't really ask anybody, I just did it. Because most of the people I work with, thanks to uh your good offices, are people who trust me over that twenty or thirty years when I've been doing it.

Jeremy Lee 11:57

I mean, I think that is I genuinely think that dramatically underplays what you bring. I don't think it is support. I think it's the glue that holds the whole thing together. By the way, the protest might have been about animal rights.

Alan Dedicoat 12:10

I think it was, yes. You probably remember it then. They do get into a number of papers and all that sort of thing. And also the thing is, this may sound slightly arrogant, but I think the great British public, trust me, we did a survey once as part of the lottery commitment that I got. They were checking on whether they'd got the right person for the job. And what they said in this survey is, what do you feel about the voice that you hear? And they said, It's a voice I can trust. Now, that's partly brought about by the fact I've been knocking around in this business for years. So I got into most people's heads in the 19 late 80s, early 90s. Certainly I got into people's heads because what I was doing then is doing lots of stuff on the tele without your knowing what my name was, because you didn't give your name then, it was TV trails I used to do, so I would get very enthusiastic about Thursday night on BBC One begins with Top of the Bops, then at 7.30 there's trouble at the Queen Vic in East Enders. And when I do that in front of people now, they say, Yes, it's you, you're that voice. I did it solidly for about two or three, possibly four years, I suppose. And I got into people's heads, psyches and all that sort of stuff. So I've been around and they sort of trust me. And people are now coming up to me at that award ceremonies and saying, You're part of the soundtrack of my life. And what an absolute honour that is to hear that. They also say that they still miss Terry Wogan and stuff like that. But there are times when I get more people coming to me at the back of the room to say hello and say nice things, than do the people who are on the stage who are getting paid an absolute fortune and skidaddle off into their cars at the end of the night. But I tend to sort of linger a little bit and speak to some of the people who've who can be bothered to come up and say hello and thank you and all that sort of stuff.

Jeremy Lee 13:56

You talked about recognition before. Do you ever get recognized by your voice in supermarkets, for instance? I never go in supermarkets. But that's That's why I said super. I knew I knew you were going to ambush me there.

Alan Dedicoat 14:11

I'm not coming out of a TV speaker or a loudspeaker on a Hi-Fi or anything like that. I'm not coming out of where they normally expect it. So I don't sound quite the same. But they know the voice from somewhere. So it's as near to that as I get. I get asked that a lot, really. And unless I was sort of selling something or delivering it in a sort of ladies and gentlemen, please now take your seats if you will, and all that business. When I'm speaking normally, and this is sort of as normal as you're gonna get, then they don't know. They don't really know, but they know it from somewhere. Where on earth do I know that voice from?

Jeremy Lee 14:44

I want to move away from voiceovers. I want to touch on the world of quizzes, because I have seen you many times host quizzes, and you are an absolute master at it. So what I want to ask you is, you have undoubtedly hosted hundreds and hundreds of quizzes. What advice do you have for quizzes or indeed for question masters and mistresses?

Alan Dedicoat 15:10

Well, you want to be asked back again because normally you're working for a charity or some sort of organization that needs the money. So don't irritate people, whatever you do. I draw up the questions as well, that's the point. So I know that I've double checked all the answers. It is tricky because everybody is an expert in the current world in which we live. And I always say right at the very beginning, the question master is right even when he's wrong. So get that line out early on in the sequence.

Jeremy Lee 15:41

What do you do when you discover somebody's cheating with their mobile phone? Twenty pounds instantly to children in need.

Alan Dedicoat 15:48

Love it. Just find them. I mean the trouble is very often in events that I do, there are people who have childcare issues and that sort of thing. So they are constantly in touch with home. All I ask them to do is to have the decency to go out of the room and make the phone call. Don't let me see you doing it. If I see the phone, or a newspaper or a diary, or something like that, I will just say it's an instant £20, thank you very much indeed. But I don't throw them out or anything like that. We're doing it for fun. We're doing it for the kitties. Who are we doing it for? The kitties. That's the way. Keep it light. It's not the end of the world if somebody does cheat a little bit.

Jeremy Lee 16:21

Which quiz format, radio or telly, do you think makes the perfect quiz show and would you like to host it?

Alan Dedicoat 16:28

I quite like Only Connect, because it's quite complicated. But I score more on that when I play it at home than I do on University Challenge. And they actually follow each other these days on BBC Two on Monday nights. But Only Connect is so random. And there's a round in it, I think it's round three, where they have there's on the screen all sorts of different answers, and you have to try and work out what the connections are. And there are deliberate red herrings thrown in there. The walls, I think they're called, aren't they? And I like that one. I like that because I can sit and look at that and see what those words have in common. But there are so many quizzes now, you can't move for them on daytime television. And because I've got no um mainly I'm I'm out in the evenings these days doing the award ceremonies and that sort of stuff. So I'm at home during the day, and as I say, I can't move for them.

Jeremy Lee 17:20

Can we talk a little bit about the future? And not just your future, which I imagine is gonna be running a bus company, but we'll come on to that. Does radio have much of a future outside news and phonens?

Alan Dedicoat 17:33

Well, if it left to younger people, it may not in the form that it is at the moment. They need to produce for the likes of TikTok and Instagram, where you have to do all that swiping business, they need to change their formats for that and produce bite-sized chunks of news or discussions or whatever. I think it's a bit frightening what's happening generally at the moment, and it's partly social media to blame because people have gone wholeheartedly into social media all the time, and it doesn't include a diet of news or anything like that, which is to me is shocking. I know the BBC and the other channels are always accused of chasing a non-existent audience of youngsters, but they do need to try to connect with them because otherwise what has been done for a hundred years or so will wither on the vine if you're not careful. So we've got to try and find a way of connecting with youngsters. I mean they will just grow older, I suppose, but just think that they will not know about television and radio in the form it is. At the moment, television is about to change dramatically. In the next ten years, everything will be streamed. But I don't like the fact that we used to have a program called Line of Duty, which I think has got another series in the offing at some point. But in the last series, Jed Mercurio sort of held on to the last episode as best he could, so that we all talked about it. Who was H? That was what we needed to know. Who is H? And we were trying to work it out. As it happened, it was a slightly disappointing ending, if I may be so bold. But the thing is, we all talked about it, it was in the papers, it was the water cooler moment on a national scale. And what happens now is when you sit down to watch a drama, they'll give you episode one, and at the end of it, the announcer will say, and if you want to see all the other episodes in this series, they're available now. And you think, No, I don't want that. I mean, I personally haven't got time to binge watch through till the next morning what it would happen. I just think we're missing out there. I think we're missing out on something. If you can't wait a week, for binge watchers, it's simple. Do it the other way round. Let the series play out and then binge watch, if you must binge watch. But don't destroy the build up to the end of a series like Line of Duty and a few other things besides. We're doing it the wrong way round. Don't release them. All in one go after episode one. Idiots.

Jeremy Lee 20:03

I completely agree. And I suspect quite a lot of people who enjoy bitch watch bitch watching? Did I really say that? I haven't seen that one, which is Disney Plus. Watching the whole thing in one. I suspect they'd probably agree with you as well.

Alan Dedicoat 20:22

I'm not asking them to agree with me. I wouldn't give them the choice. All you've got to do, if you're going to binge watch, do it when the whole series is finished. Why not hold the final episode? You still hold the final episode, but just leave it for the rest of us to catch up, if you like, on a weekly diet of these things. I quite like the fact that what's the programme I was watching the other day? Celebrity Manhunt, I think it was, or whatever it's called. Celebrity Hunted. I like that series. Because you think, well, I can wait another week to see how they get on, whether they get caught or not. I don't have to see it all in one go. What's the point?

Jeremy Lee 20:56

Yeah, I agree with you, and I think we agree on social media as well. By the way, just try this idea up. You spent much of your career at the Beeb, and doubtless you have opinions that you might or might not want to share. But how about this one? I think the Beb should start its own online social media platform. And I think they should call it Beb. And I think they should use BBC worldwide where its trust is not so scrutinized, or rather not so much in question as it is in this country. And then I think it might actually generate some money to help with a license fee, and it can use BBC Verify or whatever, because we can't ignore social media. For the foreseeable future, it's here to stay. So why not have a trustworthy, sufficiently funded with a worldwide brand to challenge what the tech bros are doing at the moment, which is only I appreciate there are occasionally good examples of what's happening in social media, but most of it's destructive discuss.

Alan Dedicoat 22:00

Well, to start with, the BBC hasn't got enough money to do what it's already doing. So to set up a social media platform would just knock it out, really. And that problem is caused by the fact that the BBC now has to pay for the World Service television and radio, which it didn't have to do before. For many years it was a grant in aid from the Foreign Office, and the government decided that it should be paid for out of the license fee. As far as I'm aware, nobody actually told the audience that this was happening, and that's why the licence fee doesn't go quite as far as it used to. So that's the reason. I'd like it just to focus on what it does. The reason I joined the BBC ever so many years ago is because I quite liked what it did. It super served small audiences. So you get lovely programs, like Gardener's World, for example, which ITV and Channel 4 and Channel 5 wouldn't necessarily do. They've got to create audience for advertisers to be attracted. And so the BBC does Gardener's World. It's a really high-quality program, lovely pictures, lovely images. If we were starting colour TV again, it would be the ideal show to be on 24 hours a day. And it's so relaxing to listen to. So I would start by sorting out a bit like the NHS. I'd start all over again to a certain extent and just get the BBC back on course. At the moment, I think, because of the lack of money, is trying to trim back on what it does and do all of that well. It's been criticized about its website many, many times because there are so many recipes on it, and people say, well, what's a broadcaster doing recipes? So it's already tried doing stuff other than its core activities. But I just want its television and its radio to be good. And I would super serve those of us who know what television and radio is all about. I think it's probably for somebody else to sort out the younger audience and what they do. I think the BBC should show interest in it and be interested in any sort of offshoots that that come from that. I'd rather the BBC was just left alone and not bullied quite so much and allowed to get on with its core activities. Social media, I think it'll always be a problem because we've given a voice to people who shouldn't have a voice really. And that's what happens when you open the doors generally. And if you don't police it in some way, and of course the people who operate social media channels are not that keen to police it because they want everything to be unedited. It's all very well saying that. But it can be destructive. It can involve the word I used earlier, bullying of kids, school kids, that sort of thing. Horrendous. I'm so glad there was no social media when I was at school, because I would have been bullied undoubtedly. I can't remember why now, but I would have been I agree with you.

Jeremy Lee 24:45

I'm I'm at the risk of name-dropping. Go on then. I had lunch, well, not meant to impress you. I had lunch with the late Douglas Adams in the mid-90s. We were talking about a speech. He was a dreadful speaker, by the way. Couldn't understand how to stay in the light. And he was talking about what was happening on the internet and was evangelical about its promise of enabling the many to talk to the many. He foresaw social media in that one sense.

Alan Dedicoat 25:18

I mean, I don't I don't in any way I mean he was right in a way if he was saying that what it will bring us is fantastic because it's the most wonderful encyclopedia that we could ever have had delivered to our homes. In fact, a couple of years ago I was moving flats and I managed to snap my remote control to my television in half. In half, Jeremy. And I thought, oh, how am I going to solve this? Well, I just looked at the remote control, which is one of my lovely televisions, and I just took the model number, typed it in on the internet, and there they were. Lots of replacements for that particular remote control. It took me less than five minutes, and I'd ordered it and it arrived the next day. Now, without the internet, and I know the internet, you know, is supposed to be global and world protective and all that sort of stuff, and Star Wars, all that business, not interested. My remote control was there the next day, and that is the brilliance of the internet. But when you get people involved, and you say, you know, people talking to people, you can't have people talking to people because some people can't be trusted to talk nicely to other people. That's the problem. Well, we're back to the T-word, aren't we?

Jeremy Lee 26:29

Trust. Yes. Which you represent in spades. Which the BBC has, to a considerable degree in its own country, lost.

Alan Dedicoat 26:41

Well, I think that's I don't know whether that's necessarily the fault of the BBC. I think it's to do more in this country with the politicians who haven't left it alone. The BBC's got various things to control it, including Ofcom these days, but it's got its governors and all that sort of stuff. Just leave it alone, but they use it as a political football, a tool, if you like. And they get narky because they're not able to say exactly what they want to say when they want to say it. You know, I'm not advocating BBC without any control at all. But be a little bit less obvious about it, politicians, if you would. That would be nice. Well, they will be listening.

Jeremy Lee 27:18

Um let's hope the current lot can do better at resisting the temptation. We don't know. I wanna finally, Alan, I wanna come back to you. Because you've been knocking around for a while.

Alan Dedicoat 27:34

I reckon around for a while.

Jeremy Lee 27:37

We've both been knocking around for a while. Yes. What remaining ambitions do you have? We haven't done the buses, by the way. Well, this is your opportunity.

Alan Dedicoat 27:47

All right. I didn't think it was going to be as quite rough around the edges as this has turned out to be, Jeremy, but it's been a delight, can I just say? In some ways. Because as a kid, I used to run around, and well I'm talking now being about five, six, seven, something like that. I used to run around a garden. I was born in Worcestershire, south of Birmingham, Hollywood, as you said, and we had quite a large garden, and I used to run around the garden edges, being a bus. And it was a Midland Red bus, and I'm still very keen on that company, because they did very well in the Midlands and covered a massive map area from Shropshire to almost into into Norfolk and places like that, Oxford into Manchester and various places. And I thought this is the life for me. I need to be a bus driver or a conductor. And I've sort of done it because with a friend, I I still own one. This is to bring you up to date. I still own one rootmaster bus. They are the ones that you could at traffic lights and whatever you could get on. And again, you see, you know, life has changed to the point where I'm not allowed to take the risk of stepping onto the platform of a double-decker bus anymore. That risk has been taken away from me because I might actually become as litigious as American people are. And I sort of resent that. If I hadn't gone into broadcasting, I was thinking of going into the law because it was a barrister I wanted to be, actually, because I wanted the wig. I still need the wig now, but I wanted the wig and I wanted the gown and I wanted to say, I put it to you, Malunt, that the man is guilty as charged. Now that could mean that I should have been an actor, I'm not sure. But when I was a kid there was a TV programme on the BBC called Misleading Cases. Roy Datrice starred in it, and he had quirky cases. They they'd found little twists of the law that you could get round, and they made whole programs about this lovely old man, Mr. Haddock, and Alistair Sim was the judge, and he helped Mr. Haddock to uh sort out his legal crisis, and every week Mr. Haddock would win. So if I hadn't done that, hadn't done broadcasting, hadn't done the law, then I think buses would be it really. I just like the fact that you know what they do, they take 50, 60, 70 people from A to B without too much hassle. I still use buses to this day. I travel on uh public transport, which leaves my throat exposed to all sorts of germs, but I still like it, and I like what public transport does and stands for. At one point we had as a group, myself, Ken Bruce, Charles Nove, Steve Madden, all from broadcasting, and it's not uncommon that that there is a strange interest in from broadcasters in means of transport. Well we owned six at one time. We used to send them out. You've got to pay for these things because they've got to be maintained and they've all got to have tachographs inside them and all that stuff. And they need a coat of paint, especially if they've been on the 73 before you bought them, and kids have kicked the panels in and all that sort of stuff, so you've got to spend money on getting them back to their 1960s glory. But it's well worth it, and they're such lovely things. In a way, the last thing that I wanted to do was transport on my list of things I wanted to do, bus driver, bus conductor. And I sort of done it really, and and and I proved it not so long ago, because I'm I'm also patron of the Withall Bus Museum near Birmingham, which has got loads of Birmingham Corporation buses and midland red buses. And because I'm now a patron, I was able to take a single decker bus to my brother's house, which is still in Hollywood, and I was uh able to pick him up and take him on a bus ride, and that was just fabulous. And he couldn't I said all I rang him up and I said, just go to the end of your road, if you would, and I'll be there shortly. Don't ask any questions, just do it. And bless him, he did. And he couldn't believe it. So this Midland Red Bus single decker turned up, and I stepped off it as the conductor, and I said, Your chariot awaits. That would have been it for me. In the field of broadcasting, I suppose I would love to have done big events, but because I chose to go into entertainment with dancing and lottery shows, I think that's why they shied away from me a bit. But I can be serious, as I probably proved far too much in this show, but I can be serious when required. So in a way I'd have liked to have gone into that to do programmes in and around the cenotaph and all that sort of stuff. But we never quite made it, but there's still time, of course. I'm a mere youngster in this business in many ways. But no, I've enjoyed everything I've done. There is nothing I've ever regretted doing. There was perhaps one thing I was offered because I was voicing the lottery in this country. I was offered the Euro Lottery, as it was going to be called, and I said, Well, I can't do it on a Saturday because I'm doing the UK lottery, and they said, Oh, it's alright, we're going to do it on a Friday, so we can fly you over to Luxembourg to do it from here on the Friday, and then we'll fly you back to London to do the London one later. So perhaps I should have had a go at that just for the fun of it. But you've got to be realistic and sensible and play the longer game, Jeremy. It's all about the longer game. I keep telling people that I've not regretted anything. I've enjoyed every minute of what I've done. And if it all ended tomorrow, and I should probably leave that, go out on that. If it all ended tomorrow, stop there. But no people would say, what happened to the end of the show? But yeah, if it all ended tomorrow, yeah, I'm not going to complain. I've loved it. Great fun.

Jeremy Lee 33:24

And I've absolutely loved talking to you today. Well, it's been a privilege to talk to a real insider and to have what I think has been quite a bit grown-up and lovely and warm conversation. Thank you, Ellen. That's all right, we've touched on a lot of things, haven't we, in that period, so that's good.