Camp Icons
Welcome to CAMP ICONS! Join Nick and Liz each episode as they take a tongue in cheek look at the life and times of a different Camp Icon, as well as watching and reacting to some of their campest moments! Watch along with the videos linked in the episode description to get the full camptastic experience!
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Camp Icons
Su Pollard
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Join us as we take on fashion icon Su Pollard, discussing her chart success, her unexpected hosting gigs and what happens when she has one too many lemonades - as well as some full blown fashion deep dives!
Watch along with with our video section at the link below!
Back In The USSR - https://youtu.be/_USx5mt3ERg?si=OA_oLvOFnjufJK0p
Starting Together - https://youtu.be/kwuCqJtdxpw?si=MxofZFj6hRz-8FC7
Su Pollard at Live Aid - https://youtu.be/HkP03DzhYUo?si=3Th6PLAsZPTWjUUu
Friendship (with Rose Marie) - https://youtu.be/pQUoKQkISEI?si=CyoGg1GTMUS6G4kp
Walking On Sunshine - https://youtu.be/i41E0Ne-QE0?si=KWxDqEnIbp0U1_mo
We are indebted to those who have originally uploaded these videos, this podcast wouldn't be possible without them!
Follow us on social media for more nonsense:
Instagram - @campiconspodcast
TikTok - @campiconspodcast
Facebook - Camp Icons Podcast
Hello and welcome to Camp Icons. We we made it to week two.
SPEAKER_00Hooray.
SPEAKER_02Is that a good thing? Do you think?
SPEAKER_00Well, I think it is.
SPEAKER_02I think it is too.
SPEAKER_00We don't know about the listener yet.
SPEAKER_02No, we've got out of that awkward pilot phase.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_02And we're we're back for for episode two. In this podcast, each week we take um a camp icon, as the title would suggest. Uh we talk a little bit about their lives and what they've done, and we also watch um some of their campist moments and uh provide you with a little bit of review and assessment. Um I am Nick. And I'm Liz. So as we watch the videos, there will be a small pause, and we encourage you to go and watch the videos along with us so you are seeing what we are seeing.
SPEAKER_00You wouldn't want to miss out.
SPEAKER_02No, we want to put you through it as well. In some cases.
SPEAKER_00I've seen things I can't forget.
SPEAKER_02So without further ado, let's dive into this week's episode. Today we are looking at Soup. Heidi Hi!
SPEAKER_00I forget the correct response. Is it Hody Ho? I'm I'm not sure. Have you have you watched it?
SPEAKER_02I've never seen Heidi High.
SPEAKER_00You've never seen it!
SPEAKER_02Not a full episode. I've watched I've watched clips of it.
SPEAKER_00Um I used to watch it a lot as a kid. And um can you tell that about me?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I can.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. I I don't think I ever enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_02Oh, okay. Okay, okay.
SPEAKER_00It was just on, you know, something just there. It's just a fact of life.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and I've seen clips of it.
SPEAKER_00But the person we're doing today is absolutely great in it, I think.
SPEAKER_02I really Well, I would go so far as to call them the breakout star of Heidi High.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02Today we are looking at Soupard. I'm very excited. Yes, I can tell. How can you tell, Nick? I can tell by the way you're dressed. We've we've both sort of, I think, embraced the the fashion styles of Soup Pollard.
SPEAKER_00I've embraced it so much I've scared myself because I didn't have to buy anything or or these are just my clothes.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00And I just put on too many of them. Well, I too many accessories.
SPEAKER_02I will describe exactly what I'm seeing across the table from me. I'm seeing a sort of um it's a yellow dress. Yes. What shade are we calling that yellow? I'd say m a strong strong mustard. It's a mustard dress, and underneath there is a blue sort of sheer, shiny thing.
SPEAKER_00I've got I've got a mesh shirt, which is a kind of oil slick colour change effect.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um which I bought and then had no idea uh why or if I would ever wear it, because I don't I don't know nightclubbing or anything, I'm too old. Uh but then I just put it on under this. This is the first time I've actually worn it. I've tried it on so many times and gone, no, that's the moment you at all. And then the yellow dress had a small stain on it.
SPEAKER_02Right. Oh, that's why we've got the the squash brooch.
SPEAKER_00So I said, what would Sue do? And I thought she'd put on a large flower, but I didn't have a flower. So these are pumpkins. Pumpkins, I would say, on the brooch. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02On the brooch. We've also got the the chunky yellow necklace.
SPEAKER_00Yes, that's from my Aunt Annie. I never met her. Oh, because she's actually my three times great aunt.
SPEAKER_02Cool. We've got um some brightly rimmed glasses, which is the signature Sue.
SPEAKER_00Oh yes, and these are my own, yeah. Oh not a prop. These are prescription.
SPEAKER_02And then I mean the pieces done. We've got pom pom earrings, and when I say pom poms, I'm talking the size of a a medium apple. Yeah, they're quite they're quite heavy.
SPEAKER_00Yes, like a tennis ball, maybe.
SPEAKER_02Heavy pendulous pom-poms.
SPEAKER_00Yes, yes. I've always wanted pom-pom earrings. Yeah. Um, the only problem is I don't have a neck.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_00So they just sit on my shoulders. Yeah. But I've just got to go with it. Yeah. And this is what I think Sue would do.
SPEAKER_02Yes, absolutely.
SPEAKER_00She looks at something, she goes, I like it, it doesn't work, I'll go with it anyway. That's why she's a style icon for me.
unknownYes.
SPEAKER_02I I'll be honest, I struggled, I think, a little more than you. So I've gone with sort of clashy patterns rather than I've got tartan trousers on, I've got a star print jumper and a sequin jacket.
SPEAKER_00I think it all, you know, doesn't work.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And therefore works.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_00That's the whole point.
SPEAKER_02The whole point. So tell me what you know about Sue Pollard beyond Heidi High.
SPEAKER_00Beyond Heidi High and how she dresses.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely nothing. Oh, okay. I really feel like she's one of those people who just turns up, she looks absolutely insane, which I love, I love about her, but then I don't know where she goes the rest of the time. They just put her back in a cupboard, I guess. She just pops up, doesn't she? You just see her and there she is. She's wearing a rubber glove on her head and then she goes away, you know? Yeah. I don't think I know anything about her.
SPEAKER_02I so research-wise this week was not as straightforward as Scylla.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02Sue has released a memoir.
SPEAKER_00Right, okay.
SPEAKER_02Uh she released it in 1989.
SPEAKER_00Well, it's up to date then.
SPEAKER_02Uh well, I discovered literally last night she's releasing another one in August.
SPEAKER_00Is she? August 26th.
SPEAKER_02Sue Pollard, fully charged.
SPEAKER_00It's a shame we're a bit we might have to do a part two.
SPEAKER_02Well, we might have to do a part two. But the book that she released in 1989 is called Hearts and Showers, which I'm I'm showing to Liz now. I'm showing her the cover.
SPEAKER_00Can you um it's possibly the most 1989 cover that has ever been.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um yes, she looks like uh something off uh Barbara Cartland and a fitness video combined with Mr. Muscle. I oh yeah, what does hearts and showers mean? Do we both?
SPEAKER_02I've got no idea.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_02I yeah, I saw Hearts and Showers and I was like, maybe it's one of those titles that you understand when you get to the end of the book.
SPEAKER_00Exactly, yeah.
SPEAKER_02It's not.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_02I don't remember a shower being mentioned.
SPEAKER_00Because I I don't know whether it's like being showered with love or like a golden shower.
SPEAKER_02That's those are my two I assume it's showered with love. Okay. Um is that present in the book? Well, so this is the thing about the book. I've read a couple of memoirs before that right at the beginning they've said, I'm not gonna discuss my love life because it's none of your business.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_02This book tells me nothing about her apart from her love life.
SPEAKER_00She really wants you to know the gory details.
SPEAKER_02Sh mmm, yes, yes, she does. Um and so I got to the end of the book and I sort of thought, I still don't really know anything about her. To be completely honest.
SPEAKER_00Amazing.
SPEAKER_02And I mean if you've ever heard Sue Pollard speak, um it's quite sort of chaotic. Yes.
SPEAKER_00She um it's it's distinctive.
SPEAKER_02It's distinctive, yes.
SPEAKER_00I would say it's sort of um breathy and rushed and Yeah, she it feels like she's got a lot to say in a small amount of time.
SPEAKER_02Right. Yes.
SPEAKER_00Exactly, yeah.
SPEAKER_02That's exactly how the book reads. It's it's written. Put it this way, I don't believe there was a ghostwriter, because I don't think anyone else could write in the voice of Sue Pollard.
SPEAKER_00That would really be a challenge, wouldn't it? To be capture capture Sue Pollard. Yeah. I I sort of hope, um 'cause 1989 what's that? It's like 40 years ago. Um I sort of hope that in the update it's exactly the same.
SPEAKER_02Oh, so do I.
SPEAKER_00It's still just her fucking just going around fucking Well, I'll give you a couple of excerpts from the uh Please do, because I haven't read it myself and now I'm just I'm so jealous.
SPEAKER_02Right, so uh this is a description of her science teacher, Mr. Matchin.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02He had this habit of unzipping his flies and putting chalk inside his trousers. I used to be mesmerised every Tuesday by this event and couldn't concentrate on cutting pig's eyes up at all. I had dreams about him. I was always the sacrificial lamb on the biology table, and he was always the seducer, but always carrying this chalk. Anyway, it was gorgeous, and I sent him a Valentine card. In fact, I sent him about twelve one year.
SPEAKER_00I uh there's a lot there to our. It is it is sort of like the way she dresses. Like she's given me 15 things and I don't know what to do with any of them.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um see I um the the the science teacher with the chalk in his pants.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's uh not good. No.
SPEAKER_00I went to an all-girls school and um there was really a problem with um any teacher that was in any way attractive, and they weren't even opening their flies to put chalk in. I'm just saying, any of them that were under the age of about you know 45, girls would be obsessed with them. And I c I can pretty much imagine a tiny Sue Pollard just absolutely like you know, breathy. Oh Mr. Matchin. Oh, Mr. Matchin! I've got twelve Valentines here. I um yes, um it it sort of strikes me that she was herself from a very young age. Do you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I know exactly. She knew who she was.
SPEAKER_00Yes, yeah, not necessarily in a good way, but I do think this is one of the things that makes you an icon is being very much yourself and like living that. And um it's it's sort of iconic, isn't it, to set the teacher to a she's a child sexually harassing an adult. It's really quite an impressive feat. Nick's already thinking about editing that out.
SPEAKER_02I shan't.
SPEAKER_00Um, Mr. Machin. I love the way you put that chalk, can you fly?
SPEAKER_02Um, this is how she described one of her earliest boyfriends. Paul walked me to the bus stop and tried to kiss me. I wasn't sure I wanted to lose my face in his mouth. I couldn't believe how big his lips were. They were like Michlin X tyres. I had visions of my whole head disappearing in this cavernous hole.
SPEAKER_00I can't tell if she's enjoying it or not.
SPEAKER_02I The vibe I get is that she wasn't, but that she was possibly intrigued.
SPEAKER_00I I sort of understand that because um Victoria Wood's got a joke where she says um I was kissing him because it was preferable to them talking to him. And I think that is one of the jokes that explained my entire life to me. I hearing that, it's like you you you sort of like really want to have like sexual experiences and to enjoy that side of life, but unfortunately that means you have to get very close to men, which is never a good thing. So it's like there's a terrible curiosity there, but it's actually absolutely disgusting when you have to do it.
SPEAKER_02Speaking of what was she describing when she said this? When it was over, I felt all tingly anew, like I'd just had a bath.
SPEAKER_00Oh, is it her first orgasm? It is her first orgasm. It's amazing how I knew that. But really that I don't know if she shared that, but it's too much.
SPEAKER_02She did share that, of course. It was with another person.
SPEAKER_00Oh really? Yeah, okay. Not for all of us, but anyway. Still waiting. No, I'm judging.
SPEAKER_02Oh, you've had a bath. Yeah. Love a bath.
SPEAKER_00Mmm.
SPEAKER_02Not sure it compares.
SPEAKER_00No, but do you know, women have different types of orgasms.
SPEAKER_02Oh.
SPEAKER_00Do you know about this? No. Well I don't I don't know if we should go into it. This might be too much for people.
SPEAKER_02I tell you something I don't want to go into.
SPEAKER_00But I know exactly the one she means. Like it is one that's like an all-body one that kind of you just go, oh, it's lovely. I feel refreshed, like I've had a lovely bath. It's not the knee trembler, it's just like, oh, that was nice. Lovely. I feel all all jazzed up, ready for anything.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_00I know it's too much for you, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02Half past two on a Thursday. Right, so so the memoir, like I I didn't get a lot.
SPEAKER_00It's just it's just non-stop sex from Sue, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02It's just it's she like at one point she mentions being in the Heidi High Stage show.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02And it's the first job she ever mentions, like, in the acting world.
SPEAKER_00Amazing.
SPEAKER_02She began her career at a rubber factory.
SPEAKER_00She's just a she's just an innuendo machine.
SPEAKER_02Yes. And while she was there, uh this is the description in the back of the book. While she was there, she began her career in entertainment and was the first person to sing Ave Maria in public in hot pants.
SPEAKER_00Who was keeping a record of that?
SPEAKER_02I mean, I don't know, but I don't think any of the sort of the great opera divas were necessarily doing it in hot pants.
SPEAKER_00Do you know what? If we weren't doing this podcast and somebody had said to me, who was a per first person to sing Arthur here in hot pants? I think I don't think it would have taken me more than, you know, five guesses to get to Soup Hollard.
SPEAKER_02I don't think it would have taken five. Um she appeared on Opportunity Knox in 1974. Right, love it. And came second to a singing Jack Russell.
SPEAKER_00Do we know what she was doing?
SPEAKER_02She was singing I Can't Say No from Oklahoma.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I can imagine that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's that seems very her.
SPEAKER_02But this led to her first job, which I I think it's one of the things that surprises me about her is that you sort of think of her as this big personality that goes on talk shows and things, but she was a she's like a musical theatre performer.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Her first job was the a National Tour of Godspell.
SPEAKER_00Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_02And then she went on to play Chacha in Greece, which I don't I struggle to see that.
SPEAKER_00I was gonna say, because I don't know Godspell well enough to know who she was playing in. And Chacha, I sort of I can see it. She that's the thing, she does she is like in my mind just Sue Pollard, and I can't imagine her disappearing in any other role. No. But I suppose when you see her in Heidi High, she is playing a character. She just she's very like she's just she has to be a comedy character, really. Like she has to have that, I think. She's just too too big and too fun not to be a comedy character. Like I can't see her playing Juliet in Romeo and Juliet or uh, you know, being very dramatic.
SPEAKER_02So while she was doing Heidi High, she was a West End lead.
SPEAKER_00Was she?
SPEAKER_02In Me and My Girl playing she was playing the romantic lead.
SPEAKER_00Wow, okay.
SPEAKER_02I I don't know Me and My Girl that well. I like I think when I say romantic lead, it's not like a Maria in West Side story.
SPEAKER_00It's probably a bit of comedy, a romantic comedy.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00But yeah, well this is this is the thing, like, you know, people can surprise you. She must she must become more Sue Pollard as time goes on.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00Like a sort of Pokemon that evolves.
SPEAKER_02Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I'm thinking of her in like her almost fully evolved state, where there's like, you know, clothes made of dusters popping out of every orifice.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00And we we've got to we've got to go back and think of her as uh a new I don't know any Pokemon.
SPEAKER_02Uh she's we've got to think of her as a as a bulbasaur.
SPEAKER_00Bulbasaur?
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00Although he I I do I do think I know him and he is already accessorized, isn't he?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_00He's already wearing a flower.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. You see She's more of a squirtle then perhaps.
SPEAKER_00Does seem that way from what we've learnt so far. Anyway, she's you know, yeah we're back at the the the the new sous polard where she you know She's in her squirtle phase. She hasn't where we can imagine her in these other rocks.
SPEAKER_02She hasn't achieved full blast voice yet.
SPEAKER_00No, exactly.
SPEAKER_02Um so while she was in Heidi High, um she was asked to sing a theme tune for a TV show called The Marriage.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02Which was like a very early fly on the wall kind. It was like following a couple in the early stages of their marriage.
SPEAKER_00Like a real couple.
SPEAKER_02Like a real couple, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And they wanted Sue Pollard to sing the theme tune.
SPEAKER_02And it reached number two in the charts.
SPEAKER_00Oh, really?
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_00Are we gonna listen to that?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yes, we are.
SPEAKER_00Ah, I thought so. I thought so.
SPEAKER_02And on the back of that she released an album.
SPEAKER_00They were just letting anybody do albums back then.
SPEAKER_02I'm gonna read you this quote from the official Sue Pollard website.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Despite numerous requests, Sue never recorded or released a follow-up album.
SPEAKER_00That's it.
SPEAKER_02That's yeah.
SPEAKER_00I'm so sorry to laugh, Sue. Because I assume she'll be listening. Um I I I don't mean to laugh.
SPEAKER_02I just um yes, I think she's got a very particular voice and Yeah, uh again, sort of similarly to when we discussed Scylla, there are recordings and songs that I've found, none of which we'll be listening to today, where I am sort of surprised at the kind of softness and the quality of the voice, because again, she's you think of her as someone that sings very earnestly.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_02Um Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I I think there was a different sort of like celebrity back in the day who was like an entertainer.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00And they would do everything. And you know, there there's different skills that were more important to each one. And you know, you think of like Bruce Forsyth and presenting the generation game and he loved a bit of tap dancing and he did sing, but mostly, you know, he was in bed knobs and broomsticks. He was, yeah, one of my favourites. Yeah. Um and I just think, you know, um soup hard, I think of her more on the comedy and the acting than I do the singing, and I'm aware that she has a go at it. I I don't know how big those demands were for the second album. The difficult second album. I hope it would have been just all punk.
SPEAKER_02Yes, I can see her doing a punk album.
SPEAKER_00She I think I think that like, you know, being yourself is a bit punk and you know, she does she she just doesn't play by anybody's rules from what I can see.
SPEAKER_02No. No.
SPEAKER_00I love that.
SPEAKER_02Yes, which I which brings us on to the um this question of camp.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_02Like she absolutely does just live by her own rules.
SPEAKER_00She does, and I don't know, I I feel like the the look and the style is a big part of it. Um there's something about how colourful she is.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00Because I was I I there's there's this book I want to read. I haven't I haven't read it yet, yeah, but I did see a very informative TikTok. Um where this guy um I I can't remember the name of it, Chromacast I think it's called. We writes about colour and the theory of colour and how like it disappears because um, you know, the neutrals are the classy, tasteful, rich kind of thing. And then if you have multiple colours, it's sort of associated with like this childishness or it's tacky or whatever, and so there's something really kind of like um you know, colour is like being diminished in the world because it's it's associated with all these things, and I think colour is really associated with camp because camp is subversive to the mainstream, yeah. So like if uh camp is like camp is colourful, I think, yeah, and the mainstream if it's like too tasteful and you know few colours and boring, camp comes in and undercuts that with loads of bright colours and textures, and she does this, she's a one-woman camp look machine, she's got all these bits of accessories, things that she's obviously made or that like are totally one-off, and so she'll put together a look that nobody else could do, and I think that is really like that's what ri has always fascinated me about her.
SPEAKER_02It puts me in mind of the RuPaul quote about using all of the colours in the crayon box, yes, yeah, yeah, which is sort of what he says about drag queens, but I think it certainly it it can apply to the aesthetic of anyone, really. Like I I like wearing colour. I don't know why, I don't know where it's come from, but I just when I when I see a shop full of neutral looking men's clothes, it makes me angry.
SPEAKER_00Well, it makes me feel like a prison, you know, like and I think colour is like self-expression, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Being able to wear all these like multiple colours and to be unafraid.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Because there is something of like trying to blend in if you're doing the very, you know, tasteful, neutral, whatever. And she's never blending in. That's absolutely not what she's trying to do.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely not.
SPEAKER_00I I love that about her. I think the looks I we should do a whole look book of Sue Pollard.
SPEAKER_02I I feel like when we come to watching the videos this week, we are gonna have things to say about the fashion.
SPEAKER_00Oh yes. Yes, yeah, okay. I want to drill down into that. I'm I'm excited to see.
SPEAKER_02Yes. So in 2025, Sue celebrated her 50th year in show business.
SPEAKER_00I was I was gonna say she's got to be older than that. 50 years in show business. Yes, that's incredible.
SPEAKER_02With a tour called Still Fully Charged.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_02Which I saw.
SPEAKER_00Did you?
SPEAKER_02Yes, I went to see it.
SPEAKER_00Exciting. What was it like?
SPEAKER_02It was everything you would imagine it would be.
SPEAKER_00Tell me more because I don't know why I would imagine.
SPEAKER_02So it took you through kind of all the different stages of her career. Yeah. It was um she went through a lot of costume changes. A lot of costume changes. Good. And while she was going off and changing, you would get sort of videos, like video montages of stuff that she'd done. Um she sang, she did a scene from Heidi High dressed as Peggy.
SPEAKER_00Nice, yeah.
SPEAKER_02It was and it was a really fun evening, actually. And again, kind of the the strength of her voice surprised me.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, especially as she's getting older, that's it. Yeah. Wow.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and I met her afterwards.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_02Um, had my picture taken, so I might pop that on the old Instagram. I think you should. Yes, absolutely. Um but she just had this presence.
SPEAKER_00Really?
SPEAKER_02Like she came out and she's she is watchable. And there's something that just draws you in.
SPEAKER_00Well, that is really cool. And it wasn't like um when you met her afterwards, she just goes, Oh, it's very nice of you to come, and just drops the act. That really is.
SPEAKER_02No, no, no, not at all. She had her flower headband on. Yeah. She had a jacket on that was sort of almost it had like a regal quality to it. It was sort of like sort of a bit like a beef eater.
SPEAKER_00Not the regal, I thought you'd be.
SPEAKER_02But like sort of fashion beef eater.
SPEAKER_00Fashion beef eater. Yeah. They're all doing it.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah. Um, and the other thing is panto.
SPEAKER_00Panto, yeah.
SPEAKER_02She's been doing panto pretty much as long as she's been working.
SPEAKER_00I I suppose I did sort of associate her with panto, yeah. That's the other thing I would have like thought about with her.
SPEAKER_02She's well she's got the um the energy that you need for a panto.
SPEAKER_00What does she do though? She's not um she's not the like evil one, is she? Yeah. Is she?
SPEAKER_02She normally plays she has played evil a lot. Before that, she was principal boy or principal girl.
SPEAKER_00Because she almost like almost is like a panto dame, like, yeah in her real life.
SPEAKER_02I the the year so last what was last year? 2025, she was um the teapot in Beauty and the Beast. Nice, okay. Um which yeah, is that sort of damey kind of has got that damey quality to her.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, because we obviously like associate the Panto Dame with being a man, but I just think she's living that truth the rest of the year. Yes, let her have a go.
SPEAKER_02Fair. Fair. Right, I think it's time. I almost that we had a watch.
SPEAKER_00I almost don't want to talk anymore because I'm so excited about the clips, I just want to watch her.
SPEAKER_02Fine. Um our first clip today is from 1984, and it is Sue singing a classic hit from a legendary band.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_02Here we go. So there we have Sue Pollard singing a cover of Back in the USSR by the Beatles.
SPEAKER_00Yes, we do, don't we? Now you've done nothing but talk up her voice. And I have to say, it's exactly what I thought it would sound like if Sue Pollard covered the Beatles.
SPEAKER_02I have talked up her voice. I don't know that that's the best representation of it.
SPEAKER_00I would suggest that it isn't, because I don't think that song suits her at all.
SPEAKER_02Uh so I don't know the original.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02I imagine it doesn't sound like that.
SPEAKER_00No. No, no, I think they've taken some liberties with the arrangement. I it's sort of like a a workout uh fitness video version.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00Because uh I have to give her props, she's doing a lot of moving, including at one point just jumping.
SPEAKER_02Jumping and totally losing the ability to sing, it just comes out is the bit where she's trying to go ma and she tries to do a little jump on every every syllable.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah. And I just not I don't I I it isn't the 80s anymore. I don't need things to be that active.
SPEAKER_02Uh talk to me about what she's wearing.
SPEAKER_00Yes. Well, I have to say, when I got dressed today, yeah, I didn't need to Google any pictures of Super Heart or any references. Yeah. I just felt it in my bones. I do feel like validated because she's got the big chunky beads that I've got. And she has very large earrings. Um, not pom-poms, I wouldn't say. I think they're flat, but they are overly large. The glasses, again, incredibly large, like the glasses my dad had, like in the nineties, where they I think they were just standard size in the nineties, weren't they? The very early, yeah, late 80s, very early nineties. Your glasses just covered half your face.
SPEAKER_02It's sort of I mean it's characterised by Deirdre from Coronation Street, really.
SPEAKER_00That's how I think of it. Yeah. And I think our generation does. I think some of the younger ones have tried to bring it back, but I can't not look at that and see my dad. So uh even as I'm looking at Super Heart, um, who has wild blonde hair in this.
SPEAKER_02It's big.
SPEAKER_00Big.
SPEAKER_02It's big hair.
SPEAKER_00She I would suggest she doesn't have very thick hair because it looks wispy.
SPEAKER_02Do you know what she says that in the book? She's because she's quite open about that.
SPEAKER_00Does she?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It is a cloud, a thin, wispy cloud of hair. And then, yeah, there's a sort of um well, pink tights, um, and then a little dress over that of Is it a rah-ra? Maybe a rah-ra. Not much ra Just a little rah. Just a little ra skirt. And yeah, quite a quite a bold print. I mean, in many ways, it's tame for Sue. Not for anyone else.
SPEAKER_02I mean I do see where you're coming from. It is at least all the same colour.
SPEAKER_00Yes. Yeah. There's a colour story.
SPEAKER_02I the choreography is a lot of hips.
SPEAKER_00Hips.
SPEAKER_02And a lot of jumping. I think those men are having the time of their lives. Do you think so? I do. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I I I think they're having a better time than her with the choreography. Because there's one point there's about there's four of them, right?
SPEAKER_02There's four of them. And there's one. Were you about to talk about the partner work piece? Yes. Yes, I thought you might mean.
SPEAKER_00See, I'd I d I you're a a dancer and I'm not.
SPEAKER_02Um okay, well, I don't know if I'd say I'm a dancer, but you know.
SPEAKER_00You know a lot more about it than I do. Um, but I would characterise that partner work section as um stressed.
SPEAKER_02I see, I what I was gonna say is that it's sort of drunk aunt at a wedding.
SPEAKER_00Yes. Come on. Come on up, you get thrown about by the male relatives.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Who are all gay and absolutely loving it. Though they they see they're doing their job, they're the dancers and they're perfectly competent. But she's sort of like being thrown between them. And she is she is doing the choreography. Yes, but there's a kind of uh I don't know, a harassment that I feel as she's thrown from one to the other.
SPEAKER_02She she joins in with a lot of the choreography.
SPEAKER_00She does, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um even if it's just you know I was I was about to say a subtle hip, nothing subtle in that skirt. But no, no. But yeah, she she's she's she's doing a lot. She's doing a lot, which in itself is camp.
SPEAKER_00It is camp. And also back in the USSR as a song choice, I would suggest um it's kind of like uh you know, when the Beatles do it, it's kind of a bit political and it's um, you know, meant to be quite cool. Um and the fact that she's doing it in this incredibly cheesy version with absolutely no respect to what the song is, just doesn't doesn't care. Um I love, I think that's quite camp in itself.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and there's a there's a couple of bits where I feel like she slightly loses the rhythm.
SPEAKER_00There's a lot of words in there.
SPEAKER_02Can the USS Bah can the USS I mean it's a lot to fit in, don't get me wrong. But there is a I think there's something quite camp about taking a song and um obviously I've researched other stuff that we've got coming up, and there seems to be a theme of taking a song and changing the phrasing of it and not necessarily sticking to a beat or a rhythm.
SPEAKER_00She don't play by the rules.
SPEAKER_02She don't play by the rules.
SPEAKER_00Not of fashion, of music, of choreography, none of them. She does her own thing. What do they say? They she marches to the beat of her own drum.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00And that that beat is not the same beat as everyone else is playing. So there you go. That's yeah.
SPEAKER_02No. Love it. Speaking of drums.
SPEAKER_00Oh.
SPEAKER_02Speaking of drums.
SPEAKER_00Is that a good segue?
SPEAKER_02It was a good quite a good segue, actually. Um we're off to Live Aid. Oh. It's 1985.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02And Sue Pollard is at the after party.
SPEAKER_00Oh, of course she is.
SPEAKER_02The caption on this video suggests that she may have had a couple of lemonades. I'll let you uh be the judge of that. Oh. Do you think she's had a lemonade?
SPEAKER_00She mentions that she's had a lemonade and I think is going for more lemonade.
SPEAKER_02Yes. I venture there's quite a lot of gin in that lemonade.
SPEAKER_00Yes, there's definitely something. She might not even know what it is. Oh, she's yeah, three sheets to the wind, as my mum would call it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, she um it that clip sort of for me exemplifies that idea that she's got a lot to say in a small amount of time to say it in.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah. And I mean, when I get drunk, I have more to say uh than usual, and I have to get it out.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And so Sue Polar Drunk is just that's is wonderful. I do like the the because there's a a real thing of when you go back and see those like um 80s clips of like a uh some sort of music journalist interviewing a woman, they really patronise them, but she's so on her own plane he can't even he's not on her level basically. No she's just steamrollers right through it, he doesn't know her name, doesn't get her name right, doesn't matter. She just goes r straight on.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00They have to pull the camera back to show her whole outfit.
SPEAKER_02Yes, they do.
SPEAKER_00Because he's so excited by the fact that she's got different shoes on.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, different colour shoes. She's not like one heel, one flat.
SPEAKER_00Might as well be. She's got one blue and one red.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And it it kind of shows me like this thing of people are so afraid to do anything slightly different because he's so excited by the fact that one shoe is blue and one shoe is red. Yeah. And she um She can't tell which one is red. She can't tell which is which. She's too drunk. She wouldn't pass one of those like uh sober tests that they do for the drivers, like do you walk from here to here? Because she can't tell which foot is which.
SPEAKER_02She also um in that clip confuses Elvis Costello and Elvis Presley. Yes. I will say the way that he sets up the question.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Because the thing about Elvis, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Is when I say Elvis, you think of Elvis Presley.
SPEAKER_02Yes, 100%.
SPEAKER_00Um he mentions Elvis and just calls him that, but he's talking about Elvis Costello.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Elvis Costello is never referred to as one name.
SPEAKER_02No.
SPEAKER_00Because there's a much more famous Elvis.
SPEAKER_02Yes, but she's so drunk.
SPEAKER_00She's so drunk.
SPEAKER_02She thinks they've resurrected Elvis for live aid.
SPEAKER_00So drunk that when he says that, she just considers the fact that Elvis, who's been dead for like eight years, I think, might have come back to life.
SPEAKER_02Yes, for live aid. I mean who wouldn't. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well they did get some really big guests. They did. But I don't think they got anybody who had died. It was uh No. Couldn't get them couldn't get them back from that. No. No.
SPEAKER_01No.
SPEAKER_00I do um I also like that she kisses him at the end.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00Because again, you know, the patronising of of women is quite rampant in the eighties, and there's a lot of like there's a lot of uh in in the 70s, there's a lot of game show hosts that just snog women. She just goes for it herself. She's like, I'm turning the tables, I'm just gonna kiss you. You didn't ask for it, you don't seem to enjoy it.
SPEAKER_02I I feel like I feel like early on there's an attempt from him to patronise her.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_02And that's when she says that he looks like Paul McCartney.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_02Because the first time I ever watched it, as soon as his face flashed up, I thought he looks like Paul McCartney.
SPEAKER_00He does a little bit.
SPEAKER_02And he tries to say, Oh, no one's ever said that. She could not care less.
SPEAKER_00No, she doesn't. I really like that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Because he doesn't look like him in the way that you would confuse them, like you can tell it's not him, but he looks enough like it that I think he probably has had it before.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And uh it's just quite nice to see him, you know, like he can't handle her. No. I love that.
SPEAKER_02No, and when she leaves, he's quite flustered.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I can't tell if that's because she was uh drunk or because of the kiss or just the whole interview basically, I think, has not gone the way he wanted.
SPEAKER_02No, no. But I think I've watched some other interview footage of Soup Hollard, and I think that's a common theme with interviews with her that they don't quite go the way that the host is expecting.
SPEAKER_00No. The other thing we learn is that she um like she fancies David Bowie. Yes. And has liked him since his pre-trouser days. I I I mean, I don't know how familiar you are with David Bowie.
SPEAKER_02Not not that familiar, to be honest.
SPEAKER_00He does have, you know, various looks. I think all of them involved trousers.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean I sort of think of the iconic like cat suit looks.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I suppose But that's still shades in, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I don't know what she's picturing.
SPEAKER_02No.
SPEAKER_00At what state she's seen David Bowie in?
SPEAKER_02No.
SPEAKER_00Do we think, uh apart from the lemonades, that she's getting up to anything with anyone at Live Aid?
SPEAKER_02I think she's trying.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, she's definitely trying, yeah. Good honour.
SPEAKER_02I I No, no, she was married at this point.
SPEAKER_00I don't I really don't think that matters at all.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, fair.
SPEAKER_00I hope she was absolutely slamming through everybody at Live Aid. I really hope that. Good for her. That's what I would have done.
SPEAKER_02Well, she was probably looking for tips because looking for what?
SPEAKER_00Tips.
SPEAKER_02Tips. The following year she released her album. The theme tune to The Marriage.
SPEAKER_00Oh yes, you promised me a theme tune.
SPEAKER_02Uh yeah, we're gonna get that theme tune now. This is the song it's not on Spotify, I've looked. This is the song Starting Together.
SPEAKER_01Oh dear.
SPEAKER_02So my introduction to this song was during her show. Still fully charged. I'd not heard the song before.
SPEAKER_00No, I I haven't heard it before.
SPEAKER_02Um, and I d I feel like I want to preface this whole thing by saying she is wearing a jumper on her head.
SPEAKER_00Okay, it was one of the first things I needed to address because I was gonna say, as a hat, I don't have a way to describe that.
SPEAKER_02Well, it puts me in mind of a primary school nativity.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Well, just primary school, when for some reason you would put your jumper on your head.
SPEAKER_02Well, yeah, for hat.
SPEAKER_00For whatever reason, that's what you'd do.
SPEAKER_02Um but no, she said that the costume department couldn't find a suitable hat. Yes, so she's wearing a jumper on her head.
SPEAKER_00Okay, well, I'm glad to know that because I just thought, you know, I've seen hats. I know the names of most hats, I would say. And I didn't have a name for that one. I'd never seen anything like it.
SPEAKER_02Because it's a jumper.
SPEAKER_00Because she her appearance, so the the the the jumper on the head is a dark sort of pink.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00And then she's got she's all in pink. Pink again.
SPEAKER_02She is, yes.
SPEAKER_00Pink tunic, a pink pussy bow, I call it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Pink leggings.
SPEAKER_02Um again, it's quite um I was gonna say demure, I don't mean that. But it's quite um coordinated.
SPEAKER_00It's coordinated, yes, certainly.
SPEAKER_02Um the giant glasses are back.
SPEAKER_00They're big, they're really big.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um and what I have to say in terms of the song, I do think, to give her her credit, her voice is the least worst thing about it.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_00She is doing a competent job of singing that song.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00The production on the song is absolutely dreadful.
SPEAKER_02If so, something I will admit to.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um every now and again I suffer with insomnia.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_02And in the depths of the night, sometimes my brain will just go, We're starting together. It's one of those songs that just I heard it once and it was just there.
SPEAKER_00So you're being haunted by it. And now about haunted by it. Now you want to share that with others. This is like a brain disease that you're passing on to at me and now the listeners. Because if they've gone away straight away to listen to it, they've already got it. Yeah. They're already infected.
SPEAKER_02I think if you said to me, I want a quintessential 80s song. Yes. I want everything that the sort of 80s sound is, I would play you that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I d I get that because there's all sorts of dongs and synth over production in the background.
SPEAKER_02Move in the 80s for dongs.
SPEAKER_00Dongs on a record, it was a thing.
SPEAKER_02Well, well, that's the other thing I was gonna say is it sounds a bit Christmassy.
SPEAKER_00Well, this is what this is another thing. She's walking through the snow the whole time, very much in the style of Wham last Christmas, their their video. Also, Shaking Stevens, I think, has a video where he's just in the snow. Um, it's but it's got nothing to do with Christmas, has it?
SPEAKER_02Not as far as I know. Like, I don't know when in the year it was released.
SPEAKER_00I feel like they were just hedging their bets. They're like, this is a load of old crap. And uh shall we release it at Christmas? Because at Christmas people will go for a load of old shit.
SPEAKER_02You really don't like it, do you?
SPEAKER_00I I really feel that she is singing well, yeah, but it's a terrible song because uh at some point they just run out of words and just have her say starting together over and over and over. And there's also a line in there about the vows that we can't break. Well, I am interested because you said this is from a TV show with a real couple. I I can't imagine that it's a good omen to have Sue Pollard's song be your theme tune for your marriage. I can't imagine they lasted.
SPEAKER_02I mean, I don't when you say theme tune to the marriage, I don't mean they don't imagine they were playing it on the daily.
SPEAKER_00Well, yeah, I uh that's the thing. You you just said you sometimes hear it at night. Do you think they don't? Like, I assume it was a weekly show because things were weekly then. Every week there's a show with them on it where they have to listen to super things starting together over and over. Starting together. Do you think they don't hear that sometimes when they're alone and staring into the abyss?
SPEAKER_02Would you say what you've just watched is camp?
SPEAKER_00I would have to say it's camp, yes. There's no other word to describe it really. With a jumper in on her head, stalking through the woods, singing this song, and then that's intercut with this real couple who look so disturbingly normal, like there's something really I don't un untelly about them, you know. Like back then they'll just put anybody on TV, you know, like now when you have a reality show, they're all um like full of plastic surgery and yeah, yeah, yeah. They're just real people, but they they they look so real, and I would I would suggest maybe the wife wanted to be on TV more because he looks a bit awkward in some of the scenes. Um there's one bit where I think Superlard is signing something for them and accidentally gets pen on his t-shirt and he seems really a bit bothered by it.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00I don't I just I don't feel I think they're called the Joneses. I don't feel hopeful for them.
SPEAKER_02Why so a lot of the stuff we've spoken about in terms of camp has been about excess.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_02I would argue comparatively to some other stuff that we've seen, there's not a lot of excess in this.
SPEAKER_00I absolutely agree, and yeah, I feel it's camp for some reason. Um I totally agree. It's kind of stripped back. It's just her jump on the head in the woods.
SPEAKER_02I think the I think part of the reason we might find it camp is because she's against snow. So it's quite a a sharp pink in an otherwise quite um neutral landscape.
SPEAKER_00Do you think there's also something about um an excess of intent? Like she's so earnestly singing this song about us and you know the the vows they can't break, they're gonna be for together forever. And then we see the shot of these two people who aren't gonna be together.
SPEAKER_02And I mean I guess actually, to be fair, the production of the song you know is over the top. Is yeah, there is something excessive about dongs.
SPEAKER_00Yes, it's excess, but but it's also like that thing I I think I said it to you last week of like where they've shot for a lot. Like they want it to be wham last Christmas, which actually is camp as well, but like they've shot for that and they've slightly missed and it's just it it is it is funny to see her with a jumper on her head and giant glasses and yeah, I I don't know. I think I mean camp doesn't necessarily have to mean funny, but there's something there's something there about um they really tried hard. Everybody tried their best, yes, but for me it's a miss.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_02I'm do you do realise I'm just gonna send you voice notes.
SPEAKER_00I don't want that, please.
SPEAKER_02Starting to get really scared. Okay, we're moving out of the eighties now.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02We are moving to 1997.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_02Uh to an Irish TV show called Something for the Weekend. Uh this is a duet between Sue Pollard and a lady called Rosemarie.
SPEAKER_00Lovely. I can see why you asked me if the last clip was camp. Because, in terms of camp, we have just leapt up a league or two. Yeah. Because this is one of the campest things we've seen yet. Yes.
SPEAKER_02You're always gonna have the word camp when you've got a Dalmatian print chaise long.
SPEAKER_00Yes, yes. I that was one of the main things that sold it to me actually. When I saw that, I was like, oh yeah, they've really, they've really gone for it. Yeah. Totally. Yes. It if you if you told me, if I didn't know either of them and you told me that was just two old queens doing their routine that they've been doing forever, I would just believe you. Like you would have to make no changes to that to make them drag queens.
SPEAKER_02It's just There's definitely um a sort of matching of energies.
SPEAKER_00Yes, very much. Yes. I think they're great together.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Like really incredible, genuinely, I've enjoyed that most out of any of them. It's fantastic.
SPEAKER_02They um So I know nothing about Rosemary.
SPEAKER_00I've heard her name.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00And I I wonder if she's done Eurovision uh or if I've just seen her on something Irish. I associate her with her Irishness.
SPEAKER_02Fair. Um they sort of set they're singing friendship from Anything Goes, but they kind of set it up as though they've got this rivalry going on.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Which I think instantly sets it up to be entertaining because you um you sort of know where the humour is going to come from.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And it's the well immediately they were like fighting and pushing each other.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Which there's something camp about that when they're all done up, like when women are like very dressed up, they're supposed to act in a certain demure sort of way, and they're immediately pushing at each other, and uh um and you get yeah, you straight away get that vibe.
SPEAKER_02And it's one of those things that I watched and I couldn't decide if it was intricately planned or if it was chaos. Because there's certainly some choreography to it. There are bits that they're doing in sync, and there are other bits where they're just sort of thrashing about.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I think that matching of energies is part of it, because I think maybe they just said we can have a bit here where we're just pushing each other, and they just both went for it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I think they're great. Do you want to talk about fashion again?
SPEAKER_02No, I think we should. Because Sue this time has got on a little sort of baby doll uh there was a bit when she was sat on that sofa when I thought I was gonna see everything.
SPEAKER_00Well, she sits with her legs quite wide apart. Luckily the camera angle is helping us.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But the breasts are quite out and she's moving around a lot, and there's there's danger at every turn, as they say.
SPEAKER_02Yes, there is, there is. Um I mean she makes Rosemary look demure.
SPEAKER_00Yes, and Rosemarie's got quite a um I don't know It's quite low cut. Quite quite a low-cut dress and high high cut. Yes, the other end.
SPEAKER_02It's it's not as high as Sue's.
SPEAKER_00No, it's yeah, she's more in. She's more in her dress. Yes, she's but I I I really love, I really love how frantic and chaotic that is. And that you know, Sue Pollard's tit could just pop out at any moment. It doesn't, but it could, and I like the I like the wild abandon.
SPEAKER_02Yes, and there's a certain amount of attack to it.
SPEAKER_00Yes, definitely. Yes, they're both um I couldn't s one of Sue Pollard's earrings reads sexy.
SPEAKER_02Does it?
SPEAKER_00And I couldn't read the other one. I don't know if it also says sexy or if it says something else.
SPEAKER_02Well let's have a look. I think they're matching earrings.
SPEAKER_00Right. Fair enough.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. But again, now I've got a visual on I've got a visual on Sue. Heart-shaped glasses frames.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00Immediately want those.
SPEAKER_02Yes, I bet.
SPEAKER_00There's no need to look at me like that. I d I yeah, the thing with the the her earrings in the last clip that we had were totally mismatched.
SPEAKER_02Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00And so that's why I wondered if these would be mismatched as well. But I I really when I saw her mismatched earrings with her mismatched shoes, or what was the clip before? Um, I did think I'm really, you know, I by wearing the same earring in both ears, I'm living half a life.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_00You know, I'm not living my full potential if my earrings match. That's how I feel. Having looked at Superhold, I really think I'm gonna look at her for inspiration.
SPEAKER_02I think you should.
SPEAKER_00Going forward.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You know how um Coco Chanel says before you leave the house, you look in the mirror and you take two things off. Yeah. But Coco Chanel's a Nazi, so she is legitimately. So I think Sue Pollard says put eight more things on, and I think that's what I'm gonna do.
SPEAKER_02I mean if Coco Chanel's a Nazi, then Sue Pollard is the people's princess as far as fashion fashion goes.
SPEAKER_00Yes, as far as insane women's fashion goes, and that's what I'm looking for.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Okay. I mean, well, again, you've set me up for a segue. Speaking of insane. Would it surprise you to learn that Soupard has hosted Songs of Praise three times?
SPEAKER_00Do you know before you set those words came out of your mouth, I was gonna say nothing would surprise me. And now I'm gonna say, yes, that would surprise me. Okay.
SPEAKER_02Well, we're about to watch uh Soupard do a number on Songs of Praise.
SPEAKER_00Do a number on Songs of Praise? Yes. I can't wait.
SPEAKER_02Quite a lot to break down there, isn't there?
SPEAKER_00There's so much. The amount of things that happen in that is absolutely incredible. I um This is songs of praise, you say.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00I'm not a regular viewer.
SPEAKER_02No.
SPEAKER_00But I assume it's not always like that.
SPEAKER_02Well, let me tell you something. After this aired, the BBC got complaints.
SPEAKER_00Wow!
SPEAKER_02Because it is not the sort of song that should be on Songs of Praise.
SPEAKER_00So it's it's Walking on Sunshine, which um it doesn't really mention God at all.
SPEAKER_02No.
SPEAKER_00Which I assume is what people are tuning in for.
SPEAKER_02We I presume so.
SPEAKER_00They want the they want the hymns.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00They want the classics.
SPEAKER_02And they got that.
SPEAKER_00They got Superlard in Cleethorpe's. Yes. With um well, one of the mascots uh is a dragon or dinosaur.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. A very yellow colour palette.
SPEAKER_00Very yellow. There's a th there's so much happening.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00She's at a fun fair.
SPEAKER_02Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00She, I think, throws coconuts at children.
SPEAKER_02Yes, she gets off with a seal.
SPEAKER_00Gets off with a seal. She also snogs some older bloke who seems alright with it. Well better than the seal anyway.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. She gives uh it looks like she's giving a child the heimlink manoeuvre.
SPEAKER_00Yes, I was unsure about that.
SPEAKER_02Um I don't really know what was going on there.
SPEAKER_00The heimlick manoeuvre is the most generous interpretation of what she's doing. Um She uh produces Kermit and Miss Piggy, don't know from where.
SPEAKER_02No.
SPEAKER_00They just pop up.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Um She changes the times of the tides.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_02Potentially endangering the lives of There's a train.
SPEAKER_00There's a little one of those like little toy train type of things. Um there's uh there's a bit where she's just sort of dancing and jumping. Yeah. Which I felt was very um I don't know, there's something a bit eat prey love. Um she's you know, Aunt Gina's finally free from the divorce and she's she's gone on a bender, she's at the seaside, she's jumping around. It's a real, you know, it's one o'clock uh sort of feeling.
SPEAKER_02There's a bit where she stood up on a pedalow. Yes. And I I just can't imagine doing such a thing. No I'd be in that I'd be in that pool.
SPEAKER_00She she's she's bold, she's fearless, fearless on that pedalow.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00There's there's there's there's also another mascot which she sort of seems to be in a like a teletubby land, with walking over the hills. Walking over the hills with it's not a teletybby.
SPEAKER_02It uh if pushed, yes, I would have to say it looks like Tweedledee or Tweedledum.
SPEAKER_00It's but but it's like it's like Tweedledee or Tweedledum if they worked in a bank. Like he's got a more sensible face, which is horrifying. Like a comic cartoony face would have improved it. His his face is too too human, it's terrifying. That was my least favourite part.
SPEAKER_02What was your favourite part?
SPEAKER_00Um I don't know, stood on a pedal probably.
SPEAKER_02Um for me it was the getting off with a seal. That was because it's one of those moments where I don't think she could have planned for that.
SPEAKER_00No, she seems delighted that she went with it. She really enjoyed it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02There's also we haven't addressed the sort of the prologue where she's kind of reclining in a beach hut.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that it's quite long.
SPEAKER_02It's uh I presume it's supposed to be that she's dressed in like an old bathing costume.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02But it takes me back to Panto Dame, as we discussed earlier.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. The sort of mob cap and like Miss Muffet sat on a Tuffet or something. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah, it's supposed to be an old-fashioned swimming thing because that's what she's going on about.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But it's very boring. Um I mean that's that's the sort of stuff I do expect from Songs of Grace.
SPEAKER_02Yes. Fair.
SPEAKER_00So boring that she at one point just sniggers to herself, she just does a little snort of derision at the cramp that she's been asked to read out. She's saying, Let me get my s satin yellow bobber jacket on and let me hop around the beach. That's all I'm doing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, again, like for someone that we so identify as having this outrageous fashion, yeah, I'd say it's another another video where she actually looks quite a bit tame, do you think? Yeah. I'm guessing it's because it's songs of praise.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think I think they would have asked her to tone it down.
SPEAKER_02She still manages to look like a bumblebee.
SPEAKER_00Mmm.
SPEAKER_02That's the that's the palette that we're working with, the yellow and black.
SPEAKER_00Maybe they asked her to leave, you know, the wings and the stinger at home.
SPEAKER_02Maybe.
SPEAKER_00Production got her to take that off just before they just before they rolled.
SPEAKER_02Yes. I mean they let her do literally everything else.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, nothing was out of bounds. Cleethorpe's was hers that day.
SPEAKER_02I mean, I'm sure Cleethorpe's was happy for the tourism boost.
SPEAKER_00Well yeah, nothing else going on, was there? Sue Paul had come in, everybody take a day off.
SPEAKER_02And there's it like it's it looks sunny, but it looks like an artificial sort of sun.
SPEAKER_00Whacked up the contrast in post-production.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, definitely.
SPEAKER_00I don't associate Songs of Praise with special effects, but it is it is glowing, and I don't think Clevethorps has that kind of a glow.
SPEAKER_02I don't think anywhere in the UK has that kind of a glow.
SPEAKER_00No, maybe, you know, talkie once a year, but not uh they don't Cleethorpe, they don't call it the the British Riviera, do they?
SPEAKER_02It's not that I've heard.
SPEAKER_00It's not that it's not got that sort of uh you know, reputation. If you're from Cleethorpe and it is that nice, do write in.
SPEAKER_02We'll come.
SPEAKER_00Send a postcard with your £1.80 stamp or whatever it costs now.
SPEAKER_02Well send a fax. Send a fax, yeah.
SPEAKER_00A fax number will be at the end.
SPEAKER_02Um so why is it camp?
SPEAKER_00It's a good question. I mean if you want excess, there's too much in it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean it goes back to the silogram idea, I think, of so many ideas. Because it it like it cuts at a rate that I haven't seen since like a Baz Lerman film.
SPEAKER_00There was one point though where I did think, is this a straight person's idea of camp? Because it's just a lot of colour and noise.
SPEAKER_02Yes, true. I think the I think the presence of Sue Pollard elevates it to another camp level.
SPEAKER_00I d I do th I do agree. I do think that.
SPEAKER_02Like I can't uh who presents Songs of Praise now? I don't know. I don't I say this. Yeah. Alad Jones, I think he I'm sure he's done it. Can you imagine Alad Jones?
SPEAKER_00No, no, none of that. No He wouldn't feel comfortable kissing a seal.
SPEAKER_02What year do you think that was made?
SPEAKER_00Oh, that's a good question. Because um Sue's obviously older in that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Mm not as old as she is now. I think it gave me two thousand and five vibes.
SPEAKER_02Oh, okay. Later than I thought you were gonna go. Oh really? It's two thousand and one.
SPEAKER_00Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I think I I think that um there was just a very Teletybbies vibe to it. Yeah. I don't know why. Um that was that was just it could have it could have been made any time. Mm-hmm. Honestly, Sue kind of doesn't change. She has the same big glasses and the same vibe and whatever. But yeah, something about the um the wish to get the teletubbies in there. Was that the 2000s? It was, wasn't it?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, late 90s, early noughties.
SPEAKER_00Well yeah, but it takes time for stuff to filter down to songs of praise. That's why I put it a bit later.
SPEAKER_02What do you think Sue's legacy is?
SPEAKER_00Well well well well well I do I know you really tried to tell me on the singing. I'm I'm just not sure that that's gonna cement her place.
SPEAKER_02I mean I I think it will be the fashions.
SPEAKER_00It is the fashions, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02Yes, I think that's what she will be remembered for.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And Heidi High.
SPEAKER_00I we didn't talk as much about Heidi High, you know, as we could have done.
SPEAKER_02Um Maybe we should do a deep dive.
SPEAKER_00Maybe we should. It is a really you know, it is a show that like people really remember. Um I it's one of those ones where I know um my husband's uh family did Amdram.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And they did it as like a, you know, everybody in the village dressed up and came along to see like a production of it. And people are excited to put on their Ted Bovis jackets and the yellow jackets, I think they were, weren't they? They they they the yellow jackets, yeah, like the red coats from Butlins, but um the main guy um has these like Czech, very bold Czech jackets that he's known for as well. He's the one with like the you know quiff and everything. And then there's there's like uh the Ruth Maddock doing the I've seen her in a play. Heidi Hi Campus. You know, she's there there's so many iconic kind of characters from that, and quite camp characters.
SPEAKER_02Um Well that settles it. The the Heidi Hi Deep Dive is coming.
SPEAKER_00I do think we could do a deep dive on that. It's really yeah, it somehow it really cemented its place in kind of a certain era, and yes, it might not be re-watched as much now, and people aren't remembering it in that way, but it definitely was very iconic, and I think she was a big part of that, definitely, and it and it yeah, I think you said like that put her as like a breakout star. Um and I'm glad of that because that there are there aren't many people like her, and you know, it's nice to have a woman who's like entirely mental representative. No, it's really nice to have someone who's just doesn't care for the rules. Yeah, she dresses how she wants, you know, she's got her mismatched shoes that men want to make fun of, but she doesn't care. She's you know, kissing seals, she's going doing wearing a jumper on her head. She doesn't care about the rules, and I love that. I think that's what makes her into icon status.
SPEAKER_02Yes, and it certainly makes her camp.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely.
unknownWoo!
SPEAKER_02Well, everyone, that was episode two of Camp Icons looking at Sue Pollard. Um how do you think it went?
SPEAKER_00I loved it.
SPEAKER_02You loved it?
SPEAKER_00Yes, yeah. I I am frightened I'm gonna just become Sue Pollard now because I love her outfits and I love the whole the whole couldn't give a monkey's vibe. So that's what I'm gonna be channeling all week now.
SPEAKER_02Excellent. Um you can follow us on social media at Camp Icons Podcast. Uh that is at Camp Icons Podcast, and we are we're still persevering with that Facebook page. That is again Camp Icons Podcast. That's where you can find us. Uh next time on the podcast, we are doing someone that I believe Liz knows absolutely nothing about.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely nothing.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely nothing. So join us next week when we take a look at the campness of Noel Gordon. See you next week. Bye bye.