00:00Good morning. My name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Lovely to
00:06speak to Jan Ravens this morning. Really exciting time for fans of Dead Rings. You are about
00:12to go on the road, dates all over the place, to celebrate the 25th anniversary. That's
00:17a remarkable achievement, isn't it? And we were talking a bit about the longevity of
00:22the show and the fact that you can celebrate this quarter of a century. You're saying it's
00:26all about the fact it's remained fresh, hasn't it? It's had to. Well, I think, yeah, it's
00:31had to because it's a different show every week and you're always reacting to the news.
00:37You know, it's responding on a weekly basis when it's on, you know, and I think that's
00:44what people love about Dead Ring is they love to sort of, you know, wonder how we're going
00:50to interpret what's happened that week. And the amazing thing is that the sort of the
00:57love for it just seems to have grown. And, you know, when we have, we've done a couple
01:02of dates already, one in Edinburgh, and, you know, the people just loving all these characters
01:08that they've known over the years on the show. And, you know, because some of them, there
01:15are some weeks where you think, well, I don't know how the writers are going to deal with
01:19this. You know, this is really dodgy if it's, you know, particularly when it's a sort of BBC
01:23scandal or something like that, you know, and yet they find a brilliant way of doing it.
01:30Like, you know, there was a sketch just recently where Duncan Wisby did a brilliant Mark Rylance,
01:36you know, in Wolf Hall, going to King Henry VIII and saying, you know, I'm sorry, you know,
01:43your majesty, you know, you've been cancelled, you know, for inappropriate behaviour and the
01:48King saying, inappropriate behaviour, you know, what are you talking about? Well, you
01:51know, inappropriate touching and beheading, you know, and so it's just kind of like, you
01:59know, a sideways way of kind of taking on a story.
02:03And with this, it's a chance to look back over those 25 years, isn't it?
02:07I know, it's kind of...
02:08Look back at a very different world when you started.
02:10Yeah, well, when we started doing it, well, maybe just after we started doing it, you
02:15know, there was like, you know, W, George W. Bush in the White House saying, you know,
02:20my fellow umbrella stands, you know, and Tony Blair doing all his kind of, you know, slick,
02:26slick statesman-like shtick.
02:29And, yeah, I mean, it was another world and a world where, you know, you know, like John
02:38does this very funny joke where, you know, something like, you know, he's doing George
02:42W. and he sort of says, you know, you thought I was bad, you know, because what people have
02:47got now is just like, oh my God.
02:51So without giving away too much, who are some of the people that you personally are going
02:55to be bringing to the party?
02:57Well, obviously I'll be bringing Liz Truss.
03:01I know.
03:03And, you know, Theresa May, you know, doing her diplophonic, doing her own descant voice
03:10where she does her two voices at once.
03:14You're saying there's a tension you have to get with her, isn't it?
03:17Yes, yes, that's right.
03:18It's like she wants to, she wants to smile, but the rest of her face won't let her.
03:22And, yeah, she's, so she's, she's a, she's a good one.
03:27And old kind of favourites like, like, like Anne Robinson.
03:33So, you know, who's been doing this show for much longer than is good for her?
03:38And, yeah, I can't even think.
03:41Yeah, loads of them.
03:42But there's lots, lots of, you know, Charlotte Green from Radio 4 back in the old days.
03:47It's the crumbliest, flakiest radio station in the world.
03:52And who else?
03:54There's, yeah, lots of them.
03:56Absolutely.
03:57And the show is tinged with sadness, isn't it?
04:00Sadly, you did lose the producer of the show early this year.
04:03But it seems absolutely right that you should carry on in tribute.
04:07Yeah, Bill Dare, who sadly died earlier this year, he created Dead Ringers along with lots of other shows.
04:15But he, he always really, he always had really loved impressions because he previously produced Dead Ringers.
04:21And, and, and when, when he died very suddenly earlier this year, we kind of thought, oh, no, we can't, we can't possibly go ahead.
04:32But, but actually, he, he would have wanted us to.
04:35He was, he was very kind of, oh, yeah, you know, of course, of course you must, you know, he would be, he would be very like that about it, I think.
04:43And it's a tribute to him.
04:45And we do make a tribute to him during the show.
04:48And, yeah, I think, I, I mean, it's so sad, because, you know, it was his, his idea and his baby.
04:58And he would just love seeing all these people all over the country, you know, embracing it so much, I think.
05:05Which is the perfect reason to do it, isn't it, of course?
05:08It is, but it's, it's also so sad that he's not there to see it.
05:11Absolutely, well, from the audience's point of view, it's a lovely prospect, 25th anniversary, dead ringers on stage.
05:18Jan, really lovely to speak to you.
05:21You too, Phil, thank you.
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