Midlife Youth Club: An introduction

They've been pals since they were teenagers, now in their 50s they're still trying to get the hang of being grown-ups. Sarah's a writer & psychologist, Cameron’s an award-winning actor. Join them for chat, laughs & midlife palaver. Everyone welcome.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Hello and welcome. We thought we'd just do a little episode to explain who we are and what we're doing.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

A teaser, if you will. A teaser.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

So then tell me who you are. This is Walter, by the way, the most important person. This is Big Walter. We can't shift him, so we thought we'll work round him.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

But the human sat next to him.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

It's Cameron Jack.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Cameron Jack, you say.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

From Scotland.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

From the Scotland.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

And this is Mike. Sorry, our podcast, Midlife Youth Club. Sing it.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Midlife Youth Club.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

It wasn't really sung, it was more spoken rhyme. Um, why are we doing this?

SPEAKER_00 0:54

You've not said who I am yet, have you?

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Let's see how.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Oh, it's all about him. All about this is how it is.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

I'm so used to just focusing on myself. Who are you?

SPEAKER_00 1:03

My name is Sarah Simons.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

Where did we meet?

SPEAKER_00 1:06

We met at drama school 400 years ago.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

Name that school.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

It was Mount View Theatre School.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

Did you have a good time there?

SPEAKER_00 1:14

Yeah, yeah, it was up and down. It was it was tricky, but you know, we were very, very young. We all make mistakes.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

I didn't make any.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

Maybe we should say about what we do.

SPEAKER_01 1:24

I am a film and television actor. Now the reason I say film and television.

SPEAKER_00 1:31

Oh I was just lifting my hand back up then.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

The reason I say film and television is because I have done a lot of theatre, I've done a lot of musical theatre, done a lot of straight plays, done the Shakespeare, and it's not something that particularly fills me with any joy. I get a huge amount of satisfaction out of the TV and film stuff. So I am typecast as a drug dealer, gangster, arsonist, murderer, and have been for about 26 years, which I'm fine with in the last few years. I've been in things like the Wheel of Time, and I'm returning this summer to one of the biggest kids' BBC shows, which is Jamie Johnson FC. In which I play quite a nice bloke.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

So that's unusual. And of course, one of the other big things in your life is that you're a dad.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

I am 54 years old, and I'm dad to a beautiful six-year-old called Alba, who is the love of my life. Yeah, so being a dad at 47 wasn't in the script. Pardon the pun. Hey, but uh I'm loving it.

unknown 2:34

Brilliant.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Best thing about being alive. Oh, that's lovely. So yeah, I write as well. Um, hoping to shoot a film later this year that I've written. Now tell me what do you do?

SPEAKER_00 2:46

Well, I went to drama school with you, as you as you can recall.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

And then you went into Coronation Street.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

I did. I was an actor for about 10, 15 years, and then I started doing some screenwriting and did that for a while.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

You wrote a sitcom.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

The world's worst sitcom.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

Um, how old were you when you wrote it?

SPEAKER_00 3:05

27.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

You wrote it with the brilliant uh Anthony Courtney from Corrie.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

And it was watched by about 15 people on BBC 3. Yeah. Well, it but it got me a really good agent, which I still have now, at United Agents, and I recently, after 15 uh 18 years of teaching, writing for the Times educational supplement.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

Raising your kids.

SPEAKER_00 3:35

Raising my little boy who's my big boy now. I've recently gone back to screenwriting. Yes. So I'm back involved in that world again now. During that time, I've done quite a lot of education. I've done some degrees of um stuff to do with education studies, and I've done one in English and yeah, I did a degree in that, and I've done a master's in psychology.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

And as my handbag goes up, you're about to do a what? A P what?

SPEAKER_00 4:06

H D. H D. But that's a little while off yet.

SPEAKER_01 4:11

And that'll be in psychology.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

Yeah, yeah. It'll be a long while getting through that because I'm going to do it part-time, and so it'll probably be three or four years.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

Proper clever, aren't you?

SPEAKER_00 4:18

I didn't realise for a really long time how much I enjoy learning stuff. And the more I learn, the more I know, the more I find out that I know flap all about anything, which I find dead exciting because there's always something new. Why are we doing this podcast, Cameron?

SPEAKER_01 4:33

Well, I feel it. So nobody else does podcast. Anybody's why's nobody thought of it? We feel there may be a little gap in the market for a couple of people like me and you, don't we?

SPEAKER_00 4:44

People who've known each other for a really, really long time. We've known each other. I was a teenager when when we met, and now you know you're 36. 36 and I'm 52.

SPEAKER_01 4:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:56

And uh so we've kind of grown up and taken different paths, but we've you know we've stayed pals. And we want to talk about how we navigate modern issues, yeah, and and also what it feels like to be a middle-aged person now, and there's a whole like conflict between what we thought middle age should be and what it was when we were growing up, and when we were in our twenties, and we thought people in the forties and fifties were old, really old, couldn't do anything, they were past it, past it, they were you know, written off, and what we feel about all that sort of thing now we are that age. Yeah, because I feel like I'm just getting started. So do I, and it's pretty exciting, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

It is, uh absolutely as. So every week we're gonna look at various things. Yeah, icon of the week.

SPEAKER_00 5:46

Each week we will each pick an icon for that week, and it doesn't have to be a person, it might be a thing, it might be an animal, it might be an idea, even. So it's something that has focused us to go, that is amazing. Yeah, that is maybe a cultural moment or uh you know an entertainment moment or a world. Inspirational, yeah, yeah, inspirational. Yeah, as well as our icon of a wit of the week, we're having another regular segment.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

Yes, which I will tell you about because I'm Cameron Jack. Rabbit hole of the week. I guess it's to do with screen time and what are you hyperfixating? Good words. What are you hyperfixating on this week? So, for example, if you go down falling down a rabbit hole.

SPEAKER_00 6:33

Oh, I'm lost here, but like that.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

Oh, I'm in a big massive hole.

SPEAKER_00 6:37

So, and how we get into those cycles of getting stuck in sometimes silly things that we've seen on the internet.

SPEAKER_01 6:44

It could be serious things, could be serious. Sometimes it's heavy political stuff. Am I not allowed to talk about that?

SPEAKER_00 6:49

Yeah, you can, but you'll kill the mood.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

Oh god. That's me told. Thanks, everyone.

SPEAKER_00 6:55

Well, I'll tell you a few things that I get prixated on when I fall down the internet rabbit hole. Drag impersonators of Liza Minelli. People getting earwax out of their ears. Oh god. Dogs having rolled in a load of muck. What else is up my rabbit hole? Oh, boxes, so organisation of things in fridges in various boxes, preferably perspecs or glass boxes, so you can see them.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

I think my hole's much more interesting than your hole.

SPEAKER_00 7:26

Come on, tell us about what's up your hole.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

Well, as you can see, Midlife Youth Club is a place to come if you're mature. Oh, and incidentally, if you want to talk about rabbit holes or icons of your week, leave a little comment in the comment section.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

Underneath, yeah, you've got a point, you've got a point look underneath this.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

That's what the young people do.

SPEAKER_00 7:49

Underneath down here.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

Yeah. I went through a little phase of I say a little phase, it only lasted, I don't know, maybe nine months, where I loved watching internet videos of people A falling over, but my favourites were people jumping out on other people.

SPEAKER_00 8:07

Yeah, that's a good one.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

And the reaction of the people who were the shockees as opposed to the shocker. So I've met did I mention 80s music? That will come up again and again.

SPEAKER_00 8:17

Is that because you forget things? Yeah, it's just ADHD, yes. So we can't remember anything between us, we've got no memory.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

No, I'm Sarah Simons. I'm Cameron Jack. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

So tell us what is grabbing you on the internet. The final thing is each week we're having a theme, a big question that we're going to explore. So things like how do you know you're a grown-up?

SPEAKER_01 8:39

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 8:40

Is appearance important? Yep.

SPEAKER_01 8:42

Were things better before the internet?

SPEAKER_00 8:44

So if you have any ideas for those big questions, please do share with us.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

Yeah, it'd be so lovely to hear from you, and it can spark some brilliant um debate.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

So if you're like us, middle-aged, but feel like you're still quite youthful, or if you're a youth and you're thinking, ooh, I wonder what middle-aged people are like. No, we're covering all bases, we're covering all the bases.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

What do you think the demographic is for our audience?

SPEAKER_00 9:19

Probably just friends and family.

SPEAKER_01 9:23

We're not doing it for money.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

If it sounds like it's up your street, if it's right up your room, then join us.

SPEAKER_01 9:38

Join us on Midlife Youth Club with me, Cameron Jack, and me, Sarah Simon. Thanks for joining us. That went well, well done. Thank you. Oh god.