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00:00:01I know, you couldn't tell them, could you? You know, you'd try.
00:00:04Morning. Yes, just casually hanging out with my llama friends.
00:00:09Meet Indigo and Barnaby, stars of the silver screen
00:00:13and recently seen taking centre stage
00:00:16in Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club.
00:00:18They'll be spilling the beans on their stardom later.
00:00:21It's time for Love Your Weekend.
00:00:24Come on, then. So, what was Pierce Brosnan really like?
00:00:30Good night.
00:00:38Bye.
00:00:40Bye.
00:00:44Bye.
00:00:46Bye.
00:01:04Go on, breathe it in, that crisp, fresh spring air with a tang to it.
00:01:12The fields are stirring, the buds are bursting, and everywhere you look, the British countryside is waking up around you.
00:01:21However you measure it, spring has officially arrived.
00:01:24Thanks to the equinox on Friday, we now get more than 12 glorious hours of daylight a day.
00:01:31As the late, great Robin Williams once said, spring is nature's way of saying, let's party.
00:01:37And here on the farm, we know the way to celebrate.
00:01:41Coming up, she made Head's Turn in the hit drama Cutting It back in 2002, and she's been making Head's
00:01:47Turn ever since.
00:01:48Sarah Parrish on teaming up with Rupert Penry-Jones for her latest theatrical foray.
00:01:54And he's led a rock and roll life.
00:01:56Peter André, currently celebrating 30 years since his big breakout and back with a brand new album.
00:02:03And whether you're a houseplant addict or completely devoid of any green housemates,
00:02:08houseplant expert Claire Lowry returns to the farm with her top houseplant first aid tips for your indoor greenery.
00:02:16And they already have an abundance of humps, but now they're adding stripes into the mix.
00:02:22We visit friend of the show, Daisy Fawcett, in Warwickshire, to see how some new arrivals at the family farm
00:02:29are overshadowing the camels.
00:02:36But first, the stage is set for today's guests.
00:02:40First lady of this parish, local Hampshireite and man-of-farm favourite, Sarah Parrish.
00:02:45And with her, a man who's been entertaining us for 30 years, unbelievably, with his genial personality and natural native
00:02:53charm.
00:02:53Welcome to Peter André.
00:02:56How do you find something in common between an Australian and someone who lives in Hampshire?
00:03:00And the answer is, unbelievably, Somerset.
00:03:02Yes.
00:03:03That's right.
00:03:04Australian, but Somerset now.
00:03:06Yeah, Somerset.
00:03:06So, I mean, my wife's family are all from Somerset, Taunton.
00:03:12And actually, my wife's father is a urologist and he operated on my kidney.
00:03:17And that's how I eventually met my wife.
00:03:20I thought we were getting to the realms of oversharing, but I see why now.
00:03:24You were, because actually, had he known then what he knows now, he might have done a different operation.
00:03:30I love Somerset.
00:03:32I love that whole area.
00:03:33Isn't it lovely?
00:03:34I love it so much.
00:03:35And whenever we want to escape, that's where we go.
00:03:38But you know, it's becoming very popular now, Somerset.
00:03:41Yeah, but lots and lots of people moving there.
00:03:43I can't leave the fact that you said, so he did the operation and then you married his daughter.
00:03:49Yeah.
00:03:50You know when you wake up from the operating, in the operating theatre and they have that big bright light
00:03:54and he was standing in front of it, looking down to see if I was right.
00:03:57And I honestly, I thought it was Jesus.
00:03:59I just, I just didn't know where I was.
00:04:02We became really good friends with his family for two years.
00:04:06And two years later, we were all together.
00:04:08And I literally realised I had feelings and I thought, what do I do?
00:04:13What do I say?
00:04:14And I asked his permission if I could ask Emily for a date.
00:04:17And we did.
00:04:18And we went for a date.
00:04:19And that was that.
00:04:20Oh, that's so romantic.
00:04:21We're married 10 years now.
00:04:23Gosh.
00:04:23Goodness me.
00:04:24Yeah.
00:04:25What a lovely story.
00:04:26Yes, what a nice boy.
00:04:28Well, he's a good man.
00:04:29And we're still best friends.
00:04:31Well, with the whole family, they're lovely.
00:04:33So, Sarah, which operation did you have to meet Jimmy?
00:04:36Yes, I didn't, unfortunately.
00:04:39But no, Somerset, it is a lovely, lovely place.
00:04:41I mean, I don't very often go down there now.
00:04:44Obviously, both my parents have passed.
00:04:46But when I do go down, it's that sort of very lovely nostalgia.
00:04:52There's a smell about Somerset.
00:04:54There's something about it that calls me back.
00:04:57How long were you there?
00:04:58I lived there for 18 years.
00:05:00Gosh, right.
00:05:00Yeah, and then moved up to London after that.
00:05:03But I've got such fond memories of Somerset.
00:05:05It's a beautiful place.
00:05:06But also, I'm delighted that you both at least show an interest in gardening.
00:05:10I mean, I've either got to take an interest in it or just, you know, get somebody else to do
00:05:14it.
00:05:14But also, Mum and Dad are from Cyprus originally, and I bought land there maybe 20, 25 years ago.
00:05:21And I built a house there, and my gardens there are my pride and joy.
00:05:26And I only noticed it when Dad first, Dad designed it, and he put all the trees in their place.
00:05:31And I used to say to Dad, yeah, this is all great, but what do I know about this stuff?
00:05:35And he said, just wait.
00:05:36And now, 20 years later, I go there, and I can't wait to just, that's where my real pride and
00:05:42joy.
00:05:42Now, Sarah, I remember you having a veg patch.
00:05:44You were quite keen on veg patch.
00:05:45I did, when I lived not far from here, actually.
00:05:48I had a big veg patch.
00:05:50It was great.
00:05:50I loved it.
00:05:51And we grew all our own veg.
00:05:53We had chickens, and, you know, they would, oh, it was just great.
00:05:57It was lovely.
00:05:58Now, Jim and I are too busy for the veg patch, unfortunately.
00:06:01So, we have brought a gardener in, which I feel very embarrassed in front of you to say.
00:06:05That's all right.
00:06:05No, don't do that, because it just supports the industry.
00:06:07Exactly, exactly.
00:06:08That's fine.
00:06:09But, no, I loved it.
00:06:10I loved doing my veg patch.
00:06:12And I love pottering about in the garden.
00:06:13It's just lovely.
00:06:14It's intriguing to have an actor and, you know, well, an actor, but also a musician,
00:06:19because I've noticed when I've been sort of keeping an eye on what's going on,
00:06:22you've both actually done crossover, because Peter's done some acting,
00:06:25and you've done some singing.
00:06:27And in MacDonald and Dodds, there was an unforgettable moment
00:06:31where Sarah Parrish became Tina Turner.
00:06:35Oh.
00:06:56So, what's singing Simply the Best on camera?
00:06:59Fun or absolutely mortifying?
00:07:02It was incredibly embarrassing having to do that, because I'm not a singer.
00:07:07And she's not supposed to be a singer.
00:07:09She isn't supposed to be a singer, but it was so much fun doing it.
00:07:13I loved it.
00:07:15But, no, you can see I won't be doing any musicals in the future.
00:07:19I bet you could absolutely do that.
00:07:21That was the character you were playing.
00:07:24Yeah, it was fun.
00:07:25It was really good fun to do.
00:07:26Would you fancy a new backing singer?
00:07:28Well, by the sounds of it, I'm going to have to be a backing singer.
00:07:32Well, I've done it to you, so I've really got to do it to Peter as well.
00:07:35So, shall we have a look at your acting plays?
00:07:37Oh, yes, let's have a look.
00:07:37Well, this might have been my favourite, depending where you're going.
00:07:40We're going to Footballers Wives.
00:07:42That was, like you, that was the one I just wish had never seen the light of day.
00:07:47Let's see.
00:07:48Let's have a look at it.
00:07:48Here we go.
00:07:51Peter, darling.
00:07:55How are you doing?
00:07:56You must be out.
00:07:57How are you going?
00:07:58Good.
00:07:59I'm a little confused, though, because my agent said something about Conrad,
00:08:02and you had a business proposition for me at some point.
00:08:05Conrad?
00:08:07Typical agent, say.
00:08:09No, it's just me, sweetheart.
00:08:11But why don't we talk shop over dinner?
00:08:13Right.
00:08:14Champagne?
00:08:15Yeah, all right.
00:08:17You see, the thing about a collaboration is there's got to be some sort of connection,
00:08:22you know?
00:08:24Spiritual.
00:08:25Well, that's why I think we could do it, because, well, I'm very spiritual, Peter.
00:08:32And I think Hal looks so complimentary.
00:08:34I could be your mysterious girl.
00:08:37Yeah, you could.
00:08:38A rather gruff and frustrated version of yourself, I feel there, Peter, very much wondering what
00:08:44she was going to say next.
00:08:47Yes.
00:08:47Were you the footballer or the wife?
00:08:49Well, I don't know what I was, but I just, it was one of those where I, because it was
00:08:55one of the first things I'd done, like 20, that was like 20-something years ago.
00:08:58Yeah.
00:08:59And I remember sitting next to my cousin, and he said, have you done acting before?
00:09:02I said, well, I studied it as a kid, but I've been doing music for 20 years.
00:09:06Yeah.
00:09:06And he said, yeah, just stick to music.
00:09:08I remember him saying that.
00:09:09And then, of course, since then, I've done film, but that was 20 years ago.
00:09:13I thought it was pretty good.
00:09:14No, that was shocking.
00:09:15Did you?
00:09:15Yeah.
00:09:16Thank you very much.
00:09:18Thanks for embarrassing us.
00:09:19That's all right.
00:09:20Well, I thought we had to do it both ways, really.
00:09:22That was great.
00:09:23The thing they always say, they always call the filming business hurry up and wait.
00:09:26In other words, you've got your, and then it's ages.
00:09:30What do you both do?
00:09:32Do you play games?
00:09:33Do you embroider?
00:09:34Or what, Sarah, what do you do to fill those borings up?
00:09:37Gosh, all sorts, really.
00:09:39I mean, I always have a book on set so I can read.
00:09:42Obviously, I run a charity as well as acting, so if there's any emails to do, I've got my
00:09:46computer with me.
00:09:47I can, you know, shoot off some emails, things like that.
00:09:50But, yeah, generally, I try not to get on my phone all the time, because all actors now,
00:09:55we've all got our phones, and we just, and in the olden days, you'd all sit and chat
00:09:59to each other, which was great.
00:10:00You got to know the crew, you got to know everyone, and that doesn't happen so much
00:10:03now, so I try not to take my phone on set.
00:10:05Of course, you're instantly isolated, aren't you, at the moment you're doing it?
00:10:08Yeah, yeah.
00:10:09Peter, what do you do?
00:10:11Well, so I've been with the same manager for 30 years, and I remember at the start,
00:10:16when things were really going well on the music front, she said, oh, I'm going to get
00:10:19you into presenting.
00:10:20And I said, but why would I want to do presenting?
00:10:22I want to do music.
00:10:23And she said, because there'll come a time when the music will slow down, and you need
00:10:26to have all these different avenues.
00:10:28So the benefit of that was I get to do loads of different things, but the downside of that
00:10:33is there's never, there's never downtime.
00:10:36Obviously, I'm very grateful for it, but it just, my brain's constantly going, I need
00:10:41to do something else.
00:10:41I can't sit still.
00:10:44So I don't really, the downtime is when we all, as a family, go somewhere.
00:10:50That's the only time.
00:10:51But apart from that, I'm just constantly thinking, what's next?
00:10:54What do I do next?
00:10:55What do I do?
00:10:56More coming up from Sarah and Pete a little bit later.
00:10:59Now, pull up a hay bale and grab yourself a caramel slice.
00:11:02Still ahead, adequate light, sufficient water, and a strong root system.
00:11:06It's a houseplant's rescue, Claire Lowry, and the houseplant hacks to help revive your
00:11:12leafy favourites, just in time for summer.
00:11:15Also coming up, long eyelashes, banana-shaped ears, upturned mouths, and stocky bodies.
00:11:21We'll be catching up with our movie star, llamas, currently taking the spotlight over
00:11:26in Paddock 2.
00:11:27I'll see you with our llamas and more, right after I've invited Peter to indulge himself
00:11:32with a fond and fancy overpunt.
00:11:34Sorry about that.
00:11:35Already?
00:11:36I should have waited for my cue.
00:11:40Look at that.
00:11:41That's a fond and fancy and a half, isn't it, really?
00:11:46Have yourself.
00:11:47Sarah, do you want to be the Battenberg?
00:11:48I will have a Battenberg, actually.
00:11:50Lovely.
00:11:50Look at that.
00:11:51Lovely.
00:11:52Lovely.
00:11:54Lovely.
00:11:54Lovely.
00:11:54Lovely.
00:11:54Lovely.
00:11:54Lovely.
00:11:57Lovely.
00:12:00Lovely.
00:12:01Lovely.
00:12:02Lovely.
00:12:06Lovely.
00:12:07There's an old country saying, told to me, by Percy Thrower, no less.
00:12:12March dust, worth a pound a peck.
00:12:15Meaning that a dry spell and a good covering of blue sky right now can mean great things for
00:12:21the season ahead.
00:12:22After the wettest start to the year on record,
00:12:26a few days of settled weather isn't just a good omen for growers.
00:12:29It's a real spirit lifter, isn't it?
00:12:31You just feel a whole lot better. Your shoulders come down.
00:12:34And we've lots to lift the spirits and lower your shoulders on today's show,
00:12:38including a man who oozes natural charisma, likeability,
00:12:42and boasts a large fan base.
00:12:45No-one likes a show-off, Peter.
00:12:46Peter Andre, sharing the stories and the songs
00:12:49from the illustrious 30-year career.
00:12:52And forget the Cocteau Twins. Remember them?
00:12:55Today we bring you the Cocktail Twins.
00:12:58They're not twins, but never let facts get in the way of a good title.
00:13:02Master mixologists Hannah and Siobhan make their manor farm debut
00:13:06with some citrusy sippers in this week's Master British.
00:13:11Now, we've welcomed a cacophony of animals to our paddocks in recent years,
00:13:16all enriching our understanding of the great British countryside.
00:13:19Today's visitors may be less recognisable than some we've met,
00:13:24but these herbivores certainly rival any when it comes to personality.
00:13:29A South American relative of the camel,
00:13:32llamas were first brought here in Victorian times as zoo attractions.
00:13:37Today, they're predominantly kept as pets,
00:13:39but some owners do specialise in breeding and offer llama experiences,
00:13:45trekking through the English countryside.
00:13:48It's exactly what Sarah Brown from Katanga Llamas in Northampton, she does.
00:13:53She joins me now with indigo and Barnaby.
00:13:57It's very interesting.
00:13:59Normally, all animals present their bottom to camera.
00:14:02We've got half a tail here.
00:14:04We've got half and half.
00:14:05Sarah, let's clear this up first of all.
00:14:07Difference between a llama and an alpaca.
00:14:09What is it?
00:14:10Alpacas are half the size.
00:14:12Yeah.
00:14:12They're slightly more timid.
00:14:14They're not as outgoing and, you know, confident as llamas,
00:14:18and they're predominantly a fibre and meat producer in South America,
00:14:21whereas the llama is the all-round utility animal, so pack llama.
00:14:25They do use their fleece as well,
00:14:28and they use their dung for heating and cooking.
00:14:31They're just the all-rounder, basically.
00:14:33They've never ridden, are they?
00:14:34But they're beasts of burden.
00:14:35They carry stuff.
00:14:37Yeah, so they can carry up to about 25 kilos,
00:14:39so they trade with other communities around the Andes.
00:14:42I'm going to say, look, this is...
00:14:43This is indigo, who you met last time.
00:14:45Hello, indigo.
00:14:46I met you before.
00:14:47Do you know, they're beautifully soft?
00:14:48They are.
00:14:48And you stroke them gloriously.
00:14:50And I love this hum.
00:14:52You're very handsome, aren't you?
00:14:54He is.
00:14:55Mm.
00:14:57This is indigo, that's Barnaby.
00:14:58And this is Barnaby.
00:14:59Ages here, Sarah?
00:14:59Indigo is 17, and Barnaby is 16 this summer.
00:15:04And how long can they live?
00:15:05Late teens, early 20s.
00:15:07Yeah.
00:15:07I mean, we've got a 23-year-old at the minute,
00:15:09and his grandfather lived to be nearly 27, so...
00:15:11Graciously.
00:15:12Yeah, really.
00:15:13If you look after them, they can go into their 20s.
00:15:15But average is about 18, I'd say.
00:15:17And people come to you to go trekking?
00:15:20Yes.
00:15:20Long country walks with a llama carrying your bag?
00:15:22Yeah, so we do an on-farm trek and a half-day experience
00:15:26where we go cross-country,
00:15:27because we've got 20-acre woodland at the farm.
00:15:30And they're just really, you know,
00:15:32confident companions to trek with.
00:15:34They have a reputation, even as all llamas.
00:15:36They spit, don't they?
00:15:37They do have a bad reputation for it,
00:15:39but it is just a bad reputation.
00:15:41They do spit, but they should never, ever spit at people.
00:15:44And it's because of a lot of petting zoos
00:15:46and places where they're prodded and poked all day
00:15:48and quite, you know, stressed, but...
00:15:51They have the most wonderful eyes and eyelashes
00:15:53that most women would kill for, you know.
00:15:56You're getting hungry.
00:15:56But they're a large...
00:15:58They're a broad animal, aren't they?
00:15:59It's quite a broad back.
00:16:01Hence the beast of burden bit.
00:16:02They are, but actually, under all of that fibre,
00:16:05it's quite a small body, really.
00:16:07Yeah, they look bigger than they actually are,
00:16:09but they, yeah...
00:16:10Excuse me while I do this, won't you?
00:16:12Yes, I'm just saying...
00:16:13It is very dense.
00:16:15It's up to there.
00:16:16Yeah.
00:16:16Yeah, look at that, really...
00:16:19There's loads of it there.
00:16:20Yeah.
00:16:21It's really, very extremely deep.
00:16:23Quite coarse.
00:16:24Is it coarser than alpaca?
00:16:26Yeah, so alpacas just have one coat,
00:16:28which is all down hair.
00:16:30Llamas have a double coat,
00:16:31so they have down hair next to their skin
00:16:33and then they have this outer layer of guard hair,
00:16:35which protects the down hair, so...
00:16:37The neck is particularly soft.
00:16:39Yes.
00:16:39How long have you been working with them?
00:16:4113 years now.
00:16:42Gosh.
00:16:43Yeah.
00:16:43And you'd rather be with them
00:16:44than pigs, sheep and cows?
00:16:46Well, I used to be a pig farmer.
00:16:47Did you?
00:16:48Yeah.
00:16:48What a difference.
00:16:49Yeah, yeah, so I have...
00:16:50I used to be a pig farmer
00:16:51and then I've gone to llamas.
00:16:53It's a lot less stressful.
00:16:54They have one baby.
00:16:55Yeah.
00:16:56Right, so they have one baby.
00:16:57Generally speaking, when?
00:16:59So we're coming up to the crea season now.
00:17:02The young are called crea.
00:17:03Yes, so we'll do our first in April.
00:17:07So they're induced ovulators,
00:17:09so they don't have a season,
00:17:11so they can actually get pregnant any time of the year.
00:17:13So we breed them spring, summer,
00:17:15for a spring, summer baby the following year.
00:17:17And the climate's much better for them.
00:17:19Yeah, because it's an 11-and-a-half-month gestation,
00:17:21so it's a long time.
00:17:22Yeah.
00:17:23Wonderful.
00:17:23Now, they've got this ability,
00:17:25because they're from the Andes,
00:17:26to cope with high altitude.
00:17:29Yes.
00:17:29I gather.
00:17:30They're particularly adapted to that then, presumably.
00:17:32Yeah, their blood corpuscles are elongated,
00:17:34so they take in more oxygen,
00:17:36so they can be at such higher altitudes than us.
00:17:38They actually donated blood for cancer research years ago,
00:17:43because they were studying, you know,
00:17:44because they fight off viruses and infection
00:17:46a lot more than we can because of that.
00:17:48So they actually donated blood to cancer research because of that.
00:17:52So if somebody wants to keep llamas,
00:17:54as you say, more often it is alpacas,
00:17:57but what do they need in terms of accommodation?
00:17:59As long as they've got the right amount of grazing
00:18:01and field shelter or barn for them to come in.
00:18:04The right amount of grazing is what?
00:18:05Well, if you're having just a few llamas,
00:18:08you'd need at least an acre or two,
00:18:10and you'd need to be able to split the paddocks
00:18:11so that you can rest the fields.
00:18:15Wonderful.
00:18:16You're a sweetheart, aren't you, really?
00:18:18They're also television stars, aren't they?
00:18:20They are, yeah.
00:18:20Both of these are, actually.
00:18:22What have they been on?
00:18:22Come on, give us your CV.
00:18:25So, I mean, they've done lots, but we're recently...
00:18:27Apart from Indigo being on Love Your Weekend,
00:18:30which, of course, is top of the list.
00:18:31They recently did the filming for the Thursday Murder Club,
00:18:35on Netflix, which aired at the end of last year.
00:18:37So, Indigo and Barnaby went and did that.
00:18:40And then Barnaby has actually just done something else for Netflix,
00:18:44but we're not allowed to say yet,
00:18:45and that comes out at the end of this year.
00:18:47Right.
00:18:47But, yeah, that's quite a big one as well.
00:18:49When they come back,
00:18:50do you notice them being particularly starry?
00:18:52Oh, yeah, he's a terrible diva now.
00:18:55Look, I mean...
00:18:56As you can tell.
00:18:56I'm not standing still.
00:18:57I'm just going to strut me stuff.
00:18:59He's gone straight to his head.
00:19:00Are they always the same colour?
00:19:01We've got here really quite dark legs.
00:19:02No, these two are very similar.
00:19:04Yeah.
00:19:04They have got the same dad but different mums,
00:19:06but you could put two white llamas together and get a brown.
00:19:09It's very random.
00:19:10So, yeah, you have no idea.
00:19:13We've got spotty ones, pure white ones, brown and white...
00:19:16You know, it really varies in colour.
00:19:18How many are you looking after?
00:19:20I think we've got about 38 at the minute.
00:19:22We've got three babies due.
00:19:24Now, diet, I mean, clearly they graze.
00:19:26Do they browse as well?
00:19:28Yes, they're browsers rather than grazers, actually.
00:19:30Rather than grazers, yeah.
00:19:31So, obviously, if there was hedges and trees,
00:19:33they'd be straight in there.
00:19:34But they're continuous grazers and then they obviously ruminance,
00:19:37so they do have to eventually stop grazing and chew the cud.
00:19:41Right.
00:19:41But, yeah, grass and hay, ad-lib, but they are grazers, so they do...
00:19:46And supplementary feeding during the winter?
00:19:47The older geriatrics we give extra feeding for
00:19:53and, obviously, the pregnant mummies and the youngsters.
00:19:57But these trekking boys are really hardy,
00:19:59so in South America they'd have really sparse vegetation,
00:20:02so, actually, they can get too fat in this country,
00:20:05so you do have to watch their weight.
00:20:07They are really hardy because they're from the Andes.
00:20:10And presumably winter cold means nothing to them with a coat this thick.
00:20:13Do you use them as sort of therapy animals as well?
00:20:17Because a lot of animals now, horses, dogs particularly,
00:20:20are used for therapy.
00:20:21Yeah, we do have lots of groups come with various special needs.
00:20:25We've had blind groups and, you know, all sorts.
00:20:28And I think also being head level with a calm animal
00:20:32that's not intimidating gives a lot of people confidence.
00:20:36We have a lot of children come as well, so...
00:20:38Yeah.
00:20:38They're all rounders.
00:20:39It is interesting because, as you say,
00:20:42when you're in close proximity with this glorious head
00:20:44and these glorious eyes and that little hum...
00:20:49They call it Lama Karma.
00:20:50It is Lama Karma.
00:20:52Certainly calming Lama.
00:20:54Yeah.
00:20:54Lama Karma.
00:20:55They're lovely.
00:20:55Bless you.
00:20:56Thank you very much for bringing them in.
00:20:57You're welcome.
00:20:57Indigo, nice to have you back.
00:20:59Glad you've made such a fuss of me.
00:21:02And Barnaby, you too.
00:21:03And we look forward to your appearance
00:21:05on the top secret Netflix drama, whatever it is,
00:21:10come the end of the year.
00:21:12But lovely to be...
00:21:12I could just stand and gaze at these all day, you know.
00:21:16I love the...
00:21:17I know.
00:21:17You're very calm.
00:21:18I know.
00:21:19And you're very beautiful.
00:21:21And I think you know that.
00:21:23Oh, he is back.
00:21:24Is that a good thing or not?
00:21:26I'm not sure about that.
00:21:27I'm backing off now.
00:21:28OK.
00:21:28You've got my number.
00:21:30Thank you, sir.
00:21:31Thank you, Indigo.
00:21:33Thank you, Barnaby.
00:21:34Coming up, ahead of their retirement,
00:21:36we catch up with the zebras,
00:21:38currently residing at one Warwickshire farm.
00:21:41And it was the year they cloned Dolly the sheep,
00:21:44the Euros ended in disappointment,
00:21:46and the Macarena went viral.
00:21:49Do you remember that?
00:21:50Ooh, I don't know.
00:21:52You're not a fella, thank you.
00:21:53But to his adoring fans,
00:21:55the biggest revelation of 1996 was this.
00:21:58Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
00:22:01No, no.
00:22:02Peter Andre talks 30 years since the UK release of that song.
00:22:06And much more right after this.
00:22:09Oh, oh, oh, oh.
00:22:13Mysterious girl, move your body close to mine
00:22:23Welcome back to Love Your Weekend.
00:22:25And still aired, she's arguably the doyen of alpha female roles,
00:22:29having starred in hits like Bancroft, Broadchurch and my favourite W1A.
00:22:35Hampshire local Sarah Parrish on cornering the market in TV baddies.
00:22:39Isn't she so nice in real life?
00:22:42Also coming up, how your trash is nature's treasure.
00:22:45TV carpenter Wayne Perry brings us everything that's great about the green, brown
00:22:50and the beautiful world of compost bins.
00:22:53The glamour of telly.
00:22:54Now, my next guest is a bona fide household name,
00:22:57who for 30 years has toured his way around the world and along the way,
00:23:02he's also picked up a rather successful TV career.
00:23:05But it's music that will always be his home,
00:23:08as he's about to release his most personal album yet,
00:23:11his 11th studio album, to be precise.
00:23:15Before we say hello or g'day,
00:23:17let's take an astounding trip back to the 90s.
00:23:21If you're down, throw your hands up in the air,
00:23:24the match back with a flavor of the air.
00:23:26Here we go, there's a party over here.
00:23:29Oh, yeah, it's coming in.
00:23:30Slay me down, throw your hands up in the air,
00:23:33the match back with a flavor of the air.
00:23:35That's right, I'm kicking you a flavor.
00:23:37Oh, yeah, it's coming in.
00:23:45All right.
00:23:47Oh.
00:23:47This is event.
00:23:48This is event.
00:23:52Come on.
00:23:54Oh, yeah.
00:23:56Oh, mystery.
00:24:01Yes, yeah.
00:24:02I want to be close to you.
00:24:19I mean, be honest, Peter Andre, you never ate, did you?
00:24:23You just did not eat anything.
00:24:24You just spent your life in the gym.
00:24:27Well, you do.
00:24:27You really think it's an interesting thing.
00:24:31Back then, I used to train to try and look a certain way.
00:24:34Now I train to feel a certain way, and there's a big difference in that.
00:24:37Well, your baggy trousers aren't quite...
00:24:39Well, I mean, who wears jeans in a waterfall?
00:24:43I still sometimes see that video and think,
00:24:45why didn't anyone say, can you take your jeans off?
00:24:48Probably better I didn't, actually, thinking about it.
00:24:51Yeah, they were good days.
00:24:53They were good days as much as I can remember.
00:24:55A lot of it's a bit of a blur now, but great times.
00:24:5811th album, Legacy, with old hits, new stuff,
00:25:03you write as well as perform.
00:25:05But you've had a chance to sort of revisit the old things,
00:25:08re-orchestrate them, you know, and use Friends on the album too.
00:25:11Yeah, so basically the first song I wrote, I was 13.
00:25:14I was riding my bike home from school, and I wrote it.
00:25:19The whole thing really quickly ran home,
00:25:21said to my brother Chris, who is an incredible musician,
00:25:24what song is this?
00:25:25And he said, well, it might be yours.
00:25:27And I said, what do you mean?
00:25:28He said, well, you've probably just written a song.
00:25:30And I didn't know I could do that back then.
00:25:32So that was it.
00:25:33The obsession started.
00:25:35And some of the songs on the first album,
00:25:37we're talking 11 albums ago,
00:25:39was songs that I'd written when I was that young,
00:25:42and I eventually got to record them.
00:25:43And it was this summer, 30 years ago,
00:25:45that Mysterious Girl became a worldwide hit.
00:25:47So I thought, why don't I do something to celebrate that,
00:25:51revisiting some of those old songs,
00:25:53and then writing some new songs.
00:25:55And that's what we did.
00:25:56Who are we heroes?
00:25:58Who are your heroes?
00:25:59I mean, looking back, and you've met a few of them, I guess.
00:26:01Yeah, well, I was six years old
00:26:03when I first heard Off the Wall album, Michael Jackson.
00:26:07And I remember it being this unbelievable sound,
00:26:10because it was all Quincy Jones production, wasn't it?
00:26:12And I remember playing it at home on a record player,
00:26:16and my dad walked in in his strong Greek accent,
00:26:18and he said, who is this woman singing?
00:26:22And I said, Dad, what do you mean?
00:26:24This is Michael Jackson.
00:26:25This is the greatest singer of all time.
00:26:26And he said, wait.
00:26:29And he went and he got this record of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin,
00:26:33and he said, this, listen to this.
00:26:35And back then, I didn't appreciate it,
00:26:37because I was into what I liked.
00:26:39And, you know, the songs were great, Michael Jackson.
00:26:41Of course, music was incredible.
00:26:43But I grew up understanding what my father listened to
00:26:46and what my brothers listened to.
00:26:47So I had a lot of heroes.
00:26:50But you're also, you know, utilising now the music of Frankie Valli.
00:26:53Frankie Valli.
00:26:54Frankie Valli in the Four Seasons.
00:26:56I mean, my daughters, when we took them to see the Jersey Boys,
00:26:59you know, they said, but we didn't know those songs came from that long ago.
00:27:02They knew the songs so well.
00:27:04Yeah.
00:27:04They knew from discos and things like that.
00:27:05But Frankie Valli, you've also been enjoying that kind of music.
00:27:07I am.
00:27:08And when I first got approached to do it,
00:27:10I remember saying to the producer, that's really kind of you,
00:27:13but I don't really know any Frankie Valli songs.
00:27:14And he said, yes, you do.
00:27:16Yes, you do.
00:27:16And I realised that when we were kids on the Gold Coast,
00:27:20that the speakers, they used to have speakers on the beaches
00:27:22and they used to play local radio stations, used to play music.
00:27:26I always thought it was the Beach Boys, and some of them were.
00:27:29But what I didn't realise was a lot of those songs
00:27:32embedded in our childhood were Frankie Valli.
00:27:34So it was a real honour to take that on.
00:27:36Yeah.
00:27:36You've done various genres over the years.
00:27:40The people you've encompassed within your act
00:27:43also were encompassing people like Jack Sparrow.
00:27:47And I can never forget this scene...
00:27:50I know what you're talking about.
00:27:51..from Strictly Come Dancing,
00:27:53when Peter Andre suddenly descended.
00:28:25There you are.
00:28:26Oh, your best Jack Sparrow, your best Johnny Depp,
00:28:28Janet Menrara there.
00:28:29I mean, that music.
00:28:31I mean, you only have to hear that, don't you?
00:28:33And you all feel you could dance like that.
00:28:34Well, it's such powerful music.
00:28:37That was, I have to be honest, of all the TVs I've ever done,
00:28:41Strictly was the scariest experience I've ever had in my life
00:28:44because you're being judged by real dancers.
00:28:47You're not being judged by, you know, celebrities.
00:28:50You are being judged by people who know their craft.
00:28:53And when they tell you your foot's wrong, your foot's wrong.
00:28:56So you try so hard to do it properly.
00:28:59And it's really scary, really scary, but very rewarding as well.
00:29:04You get to do different things with different people
00:29:06and different skills.
00:29:07I mean, Jeanette, they're a brilliant dancer,
00:29:08but it's very intriguing watching Jill Scott with you
00:29:14doing Mysterious Girl in A League Of Their Own.
00:29:16Here we are.
00:29:18You know, I said earlier that we hadn't booked Peter Andre
00:29:20to come out and sing with you.
00:29:22I was lying.
00:29:23It wouldn't be a league of their own without making dreams come true.
00:29:26It is time, Jill Scott, for your duet with Mr. Peter Andre.
00:29:37Good job!
00:29:40Come on, Jill.
00:29:41I want you to sing it with me.
00:29:43You promised me you would.
00:29:53Are you going to do the rap?
00:29:54Here we go.
00:30:06You know, she covered about three different keys there,
00:30:10but she just managed to do it perfectly.
00:30:12She got all the words right.
00:30:14I can't get all those words right.
00:30:17She's such a lovely person.
00:30:18I've met many times, really lovely person.
00:30:21Isn't it wonderful to be able to bring joy into someone's mouth?
00:30:23She really had no idea that you were going to spring that on.
00:30:27And this is the thing that I think is wonderful
00:30:29about the industry that we're in.
00:30:31You know, we get to do so many different things, like you said,
00:30:33and I feel very, very blessed to be able to do that.
00:30:37And we've met over the years a few times,
00:30:39but it's amazing to think 30 years later
00:30:42I could sit here on the sofa with you and chat.
00:30:44It's wonderful.
00:30:45We're both very old now.
00:30:47Well...
00:30:47That's probably why.
00:30:48Some of us are older than others.
00:30:49My dad said it's only the first 100 years that are tough.
00:30:52He reckons it gets really easy after that.
00:30:54After that.
00:30:54So we're OK.
00:30:56How old's your dad?
00:30:56He's OK for now.
00:30:57He's 93.
00:30:58OK, not so great for him, but it's great for us.
00:31:02It's the variety, the things that you go on.
00:31:05And you're doing musicals as well.
00:31:06You've done various musicals.
00:31:07You've done Grease.
00:31:08Now, you had an acquaintanceship there with Olivia Newton-John.
00:31:12I know you were a great fan of hers.
00:31:14Well, I mean, I had the pleasure of working with Olivia Newton-John one night at the Spina...
00:31:20We did a Spina Bifida concert in Australia, in aid of Spina Bifida.
00:31:25And we all performed on stage together.
00:31:27And she was exactly what you wish she would be like.
00:31:31She just radiated from the second she'd walk in, was kind to everybody.
00:31:36And so, you know, I got to see her a few more times over the next few years after that.
00:31:42And she was always just that lovely person.
00:31:45I mean, who didn't have a crush on Olivia Newton-John?
00:31:48She was just...
00:31:49Agreed.
00:31:50You know, just...
00:31:51And she's always been so lovely.
00:31:53Well, I can't bring you Olivia Newton-John from Grease.
00:31:56I can give you Teen Angel.
00:31:58But on Loose Women.
00:31:59Here we are.
00:32:00Brilliant.
00:32:01Baby, you blew it.
00:32:03Baby, you blew it.
00:32:04You put out good and vice to shame.
00:32:07How could you do it?
00:32:08How could you do it?
00:32:09Bet you did, Abby, you'd say the same.
00:32:12Cause there's no way to get through to you.
00:32:16No matter how I try.
00:32:22Might as well look back to that old shopping.
00:32:38A pink girl, pink wings.
00:32:41I have to tell you this.
00:32:43I'm so sorry.
00:32:44Four years before that, five years before that,
00:32:48I was offered the role of Danny Zuko and I couldn't do it.
00:32:50How could I not do it?
00:32:51I couldn't do it.
00:32:52Whatever the reason was, it was a...
00:32:55Six or however many years later, they came back and said,
00:32:58would you do Grease?
00:32:58And I said, of course.
00:33:00I told everybody, I'm playing Danny Zuko.
00:33:03I rang my in-laws.
00:33:05I rang my parents in Australia.
00:33:06I'm going to be Danny Zuko in Grease.
00:33:08I said, wow, you know, a little bit old, but okay.
00:33:11I said, no, what are you talking about?
00:33:12I can do it.
00:33:13You know, he's Italian.
00:33:14He wasn't.
00:33:15But anyway.
00:33:16So I told everybody.
00:33:19And what I didn't realise until the day of the photo shoot,
00:33:22they sent a message saying,
00:33:24can you please bring tight white jeans and a tight white vest top?
00:33:27And I thought, well, Danny Zuko doesn't wear that.
00:33:30So I turned up and they said, well, who told you you were Danny Zuko?
00:33:33I said, I just presumed.
00:33:36They said, you're slightly too old for that.
00:33:38So I was a teenager instead.
00:33:39I still loved it, but I didn't get to fulfil my Danny Zuko dream.
00:33:44And tell me about working with Madonna.
00:33:46I mean, goodness me, support up for Madonna.
00:33:49And I bet you thought, no, I don't really.
00:33:52Does that one bite your hand off time?
00:33:54Yeah, absolutely.
00:33:55When I got the call to open for the girly tour,
00:33:58it was all around Australia in stadiums.
00:34:01Now, I'd never, I mean, most people don't start at stadiums.
00:34:04They start at the bottom and eventually get there.
00:34:06I started at the top.
00:34:07There was only one way it was going to go.
00:34:09It was, where do you go from that?
00:34:11I mean, that was Madonna.
00:34:12And it was the most incredible experience.
00:34:15She was lovely.
00:34:16Yeah, we did a six-week tour, I think, together.
00:34:19When you're working with somebody like that,
00:34:20watching how they operate,
00:34:22how they operate on stage and operate off stage,
00:34:25it must be quite interesting seeing how they carry themselves,
00:34:29how they relate to an audience.
00:34:30Can you learn from working with someone like Madonna?
00:34:32Well, yeah, of course.
00:34:34I mean, you learn from all the greats.
00:34:36You see how it all works.
00:34:38You know, of course, when you've got a budget
00:34:40and you can put on the production that...
00:34:42But you still need star quality.
00:34:44You do, yes.
00:34:45And if you haven't got that...
00:34:46Yes.
00:34:46..all the bells and whistles don't really mean anything.
00:34:49Yeah, that's right.
00:34:49Well, she's definitely got...
00:34:50I mean, the songs.
00:34:51Good to have you with us.
00:34:52Good luck with the album.
00:34:54And Frankie Valli, fabulous.
00:34:56Thank you, Peter.
00:34:57Delight.
00:34:58Now, then, a wonder through nature,
00:35:01courtesy of you at home.
00:35:03It's time for Walk on the Wild Side.
00:35:05Walk on the Wild Side.
00:36:02Walk on the Wild Side.
00:36:05Walk on the Wild Side.
00:36:45Oh, thank you for all your wonderful pictures there.
00:36:48Please do keep sending them in.
00:36:50It's a very special part of this programme.
00:36:52Still ahead?
00:36:53If you think your houseplants need some CPR,
00:36:56that's care, pruning and refreshing,
00:36:58houseplant guru Claire Lowry has it covered.
00:37:01How to repot, rescue and revive your plants.
00:37:04Coming up...
00:37:19There really is no season like spring and as our gardens wake from their winter sleep,
00:37:26it's no wonder that displays of our early risers can put a smile on anyone's face as we hope we
00:37:33will today.
00:37:34Coming up, spoilt, psychopathic, salt of the earth.
00:37:38She's led a variety of characters.
00:37:39Here's Sarah Parrish on mixing it up when it comes to choosing her roles.
00:37:44But first, it's time for your voice of nature.
00:37:47Today, it's the turn of Patience stars Ella Mae Purvis and Nathan Welsh with Hope by Edith Nesbitt.
00:38:04Oh, thrush, is it true?
00:38:06Your song tells of a world born anew,
00:38:09of fields gold with buttercups,
00:38:12woodlands all blue with hyacinth bells,
00:38:14of primroses deep in the moss of the lane,
00:38:17of a princess asleep and dear magic to do.
00:38:21Will the sun wake the princess?
00:38:23Oh, thrush, is it true?
00:38:25Will spring come again?
00:38:26Will spring come again?
00:38:28Now at last, with soft shine and rain,
00:38:31will the violet be sweet where the dead leaves have lain?
00:38:35Will winter be past?
00:38:36In the brown of the copse will white-wind flowers star through,
00:38:40where the last oak leaf drops,
00:38:43and the daisies come too.
00:38:45And the May and the lilac,
00:38:47will spring come again?
00:38:48Oh, thrush, is it true?
00:38:58Thank you, Ella and Nathan.
00:39:00Lovely words capturing that anticipation of spring renewal
00:39:05that we all feel when the sun comes out.
00:39:07Now, they've filled our shelves and populated porches for decades,
00:39:12from the exotic specimens in grand Victorian glasshouses,
00:39:16to the humble spider plants on 1970s windowsills.
00:39:20Our love affair with houseplants shows no signs of fizzling out.
00:39:25But after a long and dusty winter,
00:39:26it's time to give your leafy friends some TLC.
00:39:29Thankfully, we have just the woman.
00:39:31Welcome back, houseplant expert, Clare Lowry,
00:39:35here with her rejuvenation masterclass
00:39:37to get your houseplants prepped, primed and positively thriving.
00:39:42Welcome, Clare.
00:39:44Thank you for having me back.
00:39:45It is, isn't it?
00:39:46Because there they sit, like bits of furniture,
00:39:48the occasional flick-over with a feather duster,
00:39:50lobs of water.
00:39:52But now they're a bit weary, aren't they?
00:39:54They are.
00:39:55I mean, you actually, you just mentioned about the flick-over
00:39:57with the feather duster,
00:39:58and one of the first things I was actually going to touch on
00:40:00is plants that don't get a dusting enough.
00:40:03Ah.
00:40:03And I think especially as the days kind of start to pick up
00:40:06and the light is beautiful,
00:40:08you really want to be kind of optimising that
00:40:10as much as possible so the plant can photosynthesise.
00:40:13And so I've got a very dusty plant here.
00:40:16I mean, I typically don't let it get this bad,
00:40:18but when it starts to kind of get quite dusty,
00:40:20because I think a lot of the time people kind of think,
00:40:22oh, no, my plants aren't dusty, they look absolutely fine,
00:40:24but you don't realise, in the same way as your skirting boards
00:40:27build up dust, your plants build up dust as well.
00:40:30Besides the fact that, obviously,
00:40:32you can't kind of allow them all the light that they need,
00:40:35it's kind of like having a sheer curtain over them.
00:40:37They can't absorb the light.
00:40:39They also are far more susceptible to pests.
00:40:42Right.
00:40:43So, yeah.
00:40:43So clean them.
00:40:44Yeah, so I'm just using,
00:40:46literally, just some lukewarm water.
00:40:48Look at that.
00:40:49Oh, yeah.
00:40:50Hey, as Larry Grayson used to say,
00:40:52hey, the muck in here.
00:40:54But it looks totally different.
00:40:57It literally shines.
00:40:57And you don't need anything other than water.
00:40:59I know.
00:40:59I know.
00:41:00It's amazing.
00:41:01They used to say in the elders,
00:41:02do them with milk,
00:41:03and you'd think, well, actually,
00:41:04it then starts to smell a bit cheesy after a while.
00:41:07I've had all of these.
00:41:08But just from what?
00:41:08But hairy plants, of course,
00:41:10you wouldn't do that with.
00:41:11You have to be a bit careful with hairy plants,
00:41:12because obviously they're much more susceptible to mould, mildew.
00:41:16If you are going to wipe them down,
00:41:17I personally would recommend just dusting.
00:41:19Yeah.
00:41:20But if you do need to wipe them down,
00:41:21if you are dealing with pests or something like that,
00:41:23I would just make sure you've got really good airflow
00:41:25to allow the leaves to kind of dry off
00:41:27so that they don't start to...
00:41:28Isn't that gorgeous?
00:41:30It's beautiful, isn't it?
00:41:31I mean, fresh and...
00:41:31You can...
00:41:32It's sort of...
00:41:32Oh, Claire, thank you so much.
00:41:34Listen carefully and you can hear it.
00:41:36Yeah, it's like a whole new plant.
00:41:37It is.
00:41:38It is.
00:41:38The other thing that I was going to mention,
00:41:40this is a very...
00:41:41You actually mentioned spider plants at the beginning.
00:41:43The spider plant is obviously a very common house plant,
00:41:46and this one has been throwing out plantlets for months.
00:41:50This is great to start with this, isn't it?
00:41:52And start children off, too,
00:41:53because each one of these make a separate plant.
00:41:55It's fantastic.
00:41:56I think the reason that this one is probably doing it
00:41:59is because the plant is actually stressed,
00:42:01because this one hasn't had a repot in quite a while.
00:42:05And if I just...
00:42:06Oh, yes, there's a lot in there.
00:42:07There's a lot in there.
00:42:08And if you've got that plant looking that healthy
00:42:10in that size pot,
00:42:11you obviously feed it really well,
00:42:12because it's still glowing with health.
00:42:14I mean, it's...
00:42:15The amount of water this plant's requiring at the moment
00:42:17is ridiculous,
00:42:18because just look at those roots.
00:42:21They are crazy.
00:42:24So before I pot it up,
00:42:26I'll show you the soil mix that I quite like to use.
00:42:29This is, for me,
00:42:31just kind of like a generic soil mix
00:42:32that I'll use for most of my house plants,
00:42:35terrestrial house plants that grow from the ground.
00:42:37No, you can buy it in bags
00:42:38or only mix it.
00:42:39You mix your own.
00:42:40To be honest, I do a bit of both,
00:42:42but I do quite...
00:42:43There's something quite therapeutic
00:42:44and I don't know,
00:42:45just quite nice about getting your hands in the soil
00:42:47and mixing everything up yourself.
00:42:49So what have you got for?
00:42:50So this is just a peat-free soil mix,
00:42:53and I'm going to put all of that in the bowl.
00:42:55And then I've got two different types of orchid bark.
00:42:58This is orchid bark with tree fern fibre,
00:43:00so it's really, really nice
00:43:02at adding aeration into the soil.
00:43:04So that's the orchid,
00:43:05but what about the bigger chips?
00:43:07Yeah, this is just much chunkier,
00:43:09and typically if I'm working with an epiphytic plant,
00:43:12so a plant that naturally doesn't grow out of the ground,
00:43:15and it grows...
00:43:16On a tree.
00:43:16Yeah.
00:43:16Not a parasite,
00:43:17but an epiphyde just clings on.
00:43:19Yeah.
00:43:19Exactly.
00:43:20So I would typically add a lot more kind of chunky things
00:43:23like sustainably sourced sphagnum moss
00:43:25and stuff like that as well
00:43:26to really kind of replicate its natural growing conditions.
00:43:29For this plant,
00:43:30I think I'm just going to stick with the fine stuff.
00:43:34And then this is perlite,
00:43:35and when you're using perlite indoors,
00:43:38it's really important to make sure that you hydrate it first.
00:43:41Because it's very dry and fluffy.
00:43:42It almost blows away.
00:43:43It's almost like polystyrene granules.
00:43:44It feels different,
00:43:46but it's as light and fluffy, isn't it, really?
00:43:48Yeah, completely,
00:43:49but also the dust is really bad for you to breathe in.
00:43:52I mean, you can actually see
00:43:53just from how I've hydrated it already
00:43:55how it's kind of holding the moisture,
00:43:57and this just means that I'm creating a really nice, airy mix
00:44:01that also is very moisture-retaining,
00:44:03so I'm not hopefully going to need to have to be watering this plant quite so much.
00:44:07It's that seeming contradiction with compost.
00:44:10They need to be moisture-retentive but free-draining.
00:44:13Yes.
00:44:14And that means they're holding on to enough moisture
00:44:16but not too much to get soggy.
00:44:17I can tell from the way you're handling it,
00:44:19that has got a lovely feel to it now.
00:44:21That's gorgeous.
00:44:22It is lovely.
00:44:22It's really nice.
00:44:24It is.
00:44:24And I love the smell of it as well.
00:44:26I know that's weird, but...
00:44:27No, no, it's not.
00:44:27I just...
00:44:28I'm trying to be a gardener.
00:44:29It's not weird at all.
00:44:30Well, I don't think it's weird.
00:44:31It's quite normal.
00:44:32I'm sure no one at home also thinks it's weird.
00:44:35But yes, so I'm just going to get my hands in there
00:44:39and just try and work as many of the plants out as I can.
00:44:44And it's surprising.
00:44:45I don't think there's a decent lump root on them.
00:44:47You'll be okay.
00:44:48Yeah.
00:44:49They're all so knotted together.
00:44:50That's your problem, isn't it, really?
00:44:51I'm afraid this is an incense clay where I would go in with a knife.
00:44:55Would you?
00:44:55As long as there's a big enough lump with each.
00:44:57Oh, we're almost there.
00:44:58You're almost there, yeah.
00:45:00The bits that do get cut off and broken off,
00:45:02it doesn't matter, there'll be enough remaining.
00:45:05It's like when you get,
00:45:06particularly between November and March,
00:45:08you get things like bare root roses,
00:45:10and they'll be dug up from the ground,
00:45:11and the nursery rose,
00:45:12and they'll come to you with the top growth like that,
00:45:14and roots going down here.
00:45:16And you can take half of them off,
00:45:17because they're all going to die the bottom ends anyway,
00:45:19and new roots are going to come from the top half.
00:45:22So if you're planting bare root stuff,
00:45:23don't be frightened of shortening by a good half the root that's on there.
00:45:28Would you put that back in the same pot?
00:45:29You know what, I probably would.
00:45:30I brought some other pots, but it is about the right size.
00:45:34Yeah, and I'll propagate that in a second, probably.
00:45:38So, yeah, I'm just going to take a little bit of the soil mix
00:45:42and pop that in the bottom.
00:45:46There's a lovely line in Wind in the Willows, right?
00:45:48It says, one of the things about having a holiday
00:45:50is it's not just that you've got time off yourself,
00:45:52it's watching the other fellas still working.
00:45:55You know, it's very nice when I lean here as a gardener,
00:45:58watching another gardener.
00:46:00And then feeding it around the edge.
00:46:03Yeah, that's right.
00:46:04I mean, you can always feel that plant being grateful, can't you?
00:46:07Well, I really, I hope now,
00:46:10I mean, obviously it's a lovely, healthy section we've got here,
00:46:12but I hope the roots will just kind of expand and fill that pot.
00:46:15And then the little plantlets here,
00:46:17there's a few different ways you can propagate them,
00:46:19but my favourite and the easiest way,
00:46:22we just chop the thing off that's attaching them.
00:46:25I just pop them in a little bit of water
00:46:27and I've just got a little pot of water here.
00:46:30And I personally just really like watching the roots grow.
00:46:34Drop it in there.
00:46:35So you can literally pop it in like that.
00:46:37Can you put it on your windowsill?
00:46:38Yeah, exactly.
00:46:39Absolutely fab.
00:46:40Yeah, no, it's great.
00:46:41Thank you, Claire, all you like, learn from you every time you come.
00:46:45And it's wonderful to see all these things
00:46:46which can go together to make the compost, you know.
00:46:49And making your own compost, great fun.
00:46:51It is.
00:46:52Thank you, Claire.
00:46:53Not at all.
00:46:59Now, Joseph's Amazing Camels is no ordinary farm.
00:47:04They're the leading specialists in humped animals,
00:47:08the kind you'd expect to see strutting across the sands of North Africa,
00:47:11rather than grazing politely in Warwickshire.
00:47:15But just when you thought a camel in the Midlands was peak eccentricity,
00:47:19things took an even wilder turn.
00:47:22Enter the stripes.
00:47:24Yes, the farmers welcomed three eye-catching new arrivals,
00:47:28Aled, Maasai and Chad.
00:47:30And let's just say they didn't get the memo about blending in.
00:47:35To tell us more, friend of the show and young farmer, Daisy Fawcett.
00:47:47Camels are a usual on my parents' camel farm here in Warwickshire.
00:47:52I've been involved with this business since I was little.
00:47:55My parents started the company in 2000, so I've grown up with camels.
00:47:59We have the largest herd of camels in the UK.
00:48:02So we have 13 camels on the farm at the moment
00:48:05for events like racing and Christmas parades and obviously film and TV.
00:48:10I've got Mr. Baxter with me today.
00:48:12He is one of our film star camels.
00:48:14You might recognise him from Aladdin, for example.
00:48:18We also have some very special guests staying with us.
00:48:21These are my stripy new friends.
00:48:24They are Chapman zebras.
00:48:25So we've got Aled, Maasai and Chad.
00:48:29Aled is a little bit aloof.
00:48:31He's not too keen on people.
00:48:33I think he thinks we're giant carrots.
00:48:36Maasai is a real sweetie.
00:48:39The coolest thing about Maasai is his beautiful teardrop just underneath his left eye.
00:48:47And then Chad is like a giant dog.
00:48:49I just love Chad.
00:48:50He's probably my favourite.
00:48:51Don't tell the others.
00:48:51He's a little bit aloof, a little bit standoffish.
00:48:54But if you've got a carrot, you're his best friend for life.
00:48:58With their previous owners, they were actually film stars.
00:49:01And they've been around people their entire lives.
00:49:04Doing animal experiences.
00:49:05They've been on the set of Bridgerton.
00:49:07They're very, very cool.
00:49:09They are now retired.
00:49:10So we are a temporary home for them before they go to live their absolute life of luxury in a
00:49:17retirement home.
00:49:29And they've got some really distinctive patterns that make them chaplains.
00:49:48Their stripes go all the way down to their feet, which some zebras don't.
00:49:54But the biggest one is that they have something called a shadow stripe.
00:49:57It's a brown stripe between their white stripe.
00:50:00And this is a really distinctive feature that only the Chapman zebras have.
00:50:05Zebra stripes are actually a self-defence mechanism, which is so interesting.
00:50:09A herd of zebras is called a dazzle.
00:50:11And it's supposedly because they dazzle predators.
00:50:15So a predator can't pick one individual zebra out of a group.
00:50:19Even though I've grown up around camels, zebras are a completely different ballgame.
00:50:25Our zebras are very tame.
00:50:27But they really are wild animals and they have that real prey instinct in them.
00:50:31Whereas camels are domesticated animals.
00:50:33So they're a lot easier to handle in a lot of ways.
00:50:37These guys can be far more unpredictable.
00:50:39They are not pets.
00:50:41Any training with animals, whether it be a zebra, a camel or a dog,
00:50:45it's always important to give them a positive reward.
00:50:50Alid, one of the three zebras, has been trained differently to Chad and Masai.
00:50:55Chad and Masai have been trained traditionally almost like you would a horse.
00:50:59Alid has been clicker trained.
00:51:02So when Alid touches the ball with his nose, like that, he knows he gets a treat.
00:51:09It's a way of positive reinforcement.
00:51:12He won't let you put the head collar on unless you give him the tennis ball first.
00:51:17Oh, good boy.
00:51:18There we go.
00:51:20When they're on a film set, this cone and tennis ball trick
00:51:24really helped the previous owners get them into position
00:51:27because he will stand wherever that tennis ball is.
00:51:31One of the most common questions I have had on social media about the zebras is,
00:51:35can you ride them?
00:51:36The answer, absolutely not.
00:51:38Their backs are not made for it because they're wild animals.
00:51:41They haven't been bred to be able to ride.
00:51:43Baxter, on the other hand, very comfortable.
00:51:45I would ride him all day long.
00:51:49It's going to be really emotional letting these zebras go.
00:51:53They've really become a part of our family, like any animal that comes here does.
00:52:01Thank you, Daisy, and good luck to Aled, Masai and Chad in their new home.
00:52:07Coming up, when life gives you lemons, make a gin and tonic.
00:52:11So the proverb says, well, I can't promise a G&T,
00:52:14but I can promise some rather refreshingly zesty libations.
00:52:19Cocktail twins, Hannah and Siobhan, make their Manor Farm debut
00:52:23with a round of fruity botanicals.
00:52:25And it's a loss about compost.
00:52:28So many people are.
00:52:30Wayne Perry is here with his guide to what's hot and what's not
00:52:34in the world of compost bins.
00:52:36It's all here, you know.
00:52:38I'll see you with the TV carpenter himself.
00:52:40That's after this.
00:52:55The sale of compost in the UK produces roughly 100 million plastic bags every year.
00:53:02In a world where we're all trying to have less of an impact on the environment,
00:53:06one way of scaling back your plastic consumption is by producing your own compost at home.
00:53:12Here to show us how to turn pallets into compost bins, TV carpenter Wayne Perry.
00:53:18We're talking here about compost to enrich garden soil rather than potting compost,
00:53:22which you're still going to have to buy unless you've got a way of making your own.
00:53:25I don't think anyone should buy it.
00:53:27We can all make our own.
00:53:29The stuff to enrich the soil outside.
00:53:31Absolutely.
00:53:31So we've just got a few things here that you need to make perfect compost.
00:53:35I love the orange theme here.
00:53:36Your jumper, my jumper, and the carrots.
00:53:38It's like we planned it, Alan.
00:53:39It is really.
00:53:40Carrot, do we?
00:53:41So what goes in?
00:53:42So you've got the brown and green.
00:53:44So brown is obviously your twigs.
00:53:46It's your hard barks.
00:53:48It's things that are going to take a little bit more time to break down.
00:53:50One of the best things I ever bought was a shredder to shred those and it all then goes in.
00:53:54It all goes in.
00:53:55It mixes out.
00:53:55But also your cardboards, your egg boxes.
00:53:58We did have, I've got a shredder at the front of my door for my paper and letters that I
00:54:03don't want.
00:54:04They get shredded.
00:54:05We were going to put them here.
00:54:06It's a bit windy.
00:54:06Blowing away.
00:54:07We didn't want it.
00:54:07So it's a good idea to get you some of that stuff as well.
00:54:09But then you've got the green stuff, which is obviously your vegetable peelings, your old flowers.
00:54:14And once they're all mixing together and turned in, you know, and keep layering them like lasagna.
00:54:19And mixing.
00:54:20Mixing is the big thing.
00:54:21Not to put in thick perennial weed roots or any food like potato, you know, processed food.
00:54:28Yeah, any processed food.
00:54:29Cooked food.
00:54:29Chickens or anything like that.
00:54:30Nothing, yeah.
00:54:30And also just bear in mind, if you have any diseased plants, you don't want to put those in there
00:54:33either.
00:54:34You know, you want to, it's got to be gorgeous stuff for your plants.
00:54:37So mixing, keep it moist and firm.
00:54:38And once you've collated all of those and you've got them together, we then need to put them into a
00:54:43compost bin.
00:54:44So this is your entry-level compost bin.
00:54:47It's, you can get from B&Q, 32 pounds.
00:54:50Standard, it's recycled plastic.
00:54:52The lid comes off.
00:54:53The lid comes off.
00:54:54Throw your rubbish inside.
00:54:56Little flap at the bottom there that you can lift up if you want to access it so you can
00:55:00see how it's going.
00:55:01But what's great about it is on the ground, the worms and microorganisms are coming through, they're working their way
00:55:08up.
00:55:08So that's 32 pounds from most of your DIY stores.
00:55:12I love this one.
00:55:13Beehive.
00:55:13The beehive.
00:55:14So the idea of this is if your, if your compost bin needs to be on display, it could be
00:55:20in a border, it could look pretty, you could paint it.
00:55:22This is from Bloom.
00:55:23So we, they, they're a small independent company who make them bespoke.
00:55:28They started off doing bins and storage bins for your front of your house to look pretty.
00:55:32But this one, it's a stained wood, it's pressure treated wood, 195 pounds.
00:55:38But you could put a liner inside of that so the wood didn't rot.
00:55:41So it didn't rot, it can keep, but what we've seen done with these before is because they look so
00:55:45pretty, sometimes once all your compost is in there, you can plant that up and just leave it.
00:55:49Use it as a planter as well.
00:55:51So it's a nice way of creating something, you know, compared to that one, which is, you know, black, but
00:55:56this one painted looks lovely.
00:55:58Like a WBC hive.
00:55:59Yeah, within your cottage garden.
00:56:01Now this one is all singing, all dancing.
00:56:03This is your hot bin.
00:56:05So the hot bin is insulated.
00:56:08So it gets hot inside there.
00:56:10It's a bit pricey.
00:56:11It's ÂŁ215.
00:56:13This is the smallest.
00:56:14They can go, this is 100 litre, it can go up to 700 litres.
00:56:17So you can go, go big with it.
00:56:18But the beauty of this one is these take about a year to turn.
00:56:23Once you've turned them every two months, a year to get some good compost.
00:56:26This one can take between 60 to 90 days for you to get some compost.
00:56:30And you don't need to turn it.
00:56:31So that's two or three months.
00:56:32Two or three months.
00:56:33It's really hot.
00:56:34There's a little thermostat.
00:56:35There's one on the top.
00:56:36It's like your meat thermometer.
00:56:38It's a joint done here.
00:56:40I don't know where the compost is.
00:56:41But when you say meat thermometer, what's great is once it gets to the temperature that you see there between
00:56:4540 and 60.
00:56:46When it's green.
00:56:47When it's green, it means you can throw in your meat waste.
00:56:50Whereas before you can't throw in your chicken bones.
00:56:52Once they're cut down, you can throw in anything in there and it'll heat it down and it'll work its
00:56:57way through.
00:56:58Again, you don't need to turn it.
00:56:59It's worth putting the layers in as you're adding stuff.
00:57:01I have to say, if life's too short to stuff a mushroom, I don't turn compost.
00:57:06If it's mixed and kept moist and firmed, a bit of old carpet oil on the top, I mean, enough
00:57:12to do with that turning it every two months.
00:57:13I mean, some people do.
00:57:14It's just a matter of opinion.
00:57:15You don't have to turn it.
00:57:16It's more important to turn it in tiny bins, I think, than in bigger ones.
00:57:19Mine's about two metres more than two metres.
00:57:21And also, you can access this.
00:57:22There's normally like a strap that goes around.
00:57:23You'll take the strap off.
00:57:24You can access it.
00:57:25And the little blue tap at the bottom collects all those juices.
00:57:28Oh, your liquid manure.
00:57:29Your liquid manure, liquid fertiliser.
00:57:31So, you know, it's a great product because it means it can turn it quickly.
00:57:36Fast.
00:57:37But of course, knowing you, you don't necessarily want to buy one that somebody else has made.
00:57:42You want to make one yourself.
00:57:43But free.
00:57:44Okay, let's have a look.
00:57:46The ubiquitous pallet.
00:57:48The pallet.
00:57:49The pallet.
00:57:50Our world is held together by pallets.
00:57:52You either love them or hate them.
00:57:53And I've got a varied relationship with them.
00:57:56But pallets are free.
00:57:57They're amazing.
00:57:58If you find four pallets that are the same, joyful, you can make one of these.
00:58:03One thing to look out for, you'll see a little stamp here.
00:58:05There's two letters, HT there.
00:58:08That means heat-treated.
00:58:09So they've been heat-treated so they won't rot.
00:58:11But they used to be covered in loads of chemicals and different things.
00:58:15So check that it's heat-treated because you don't want anything that's covered in chemicals.
00:58:18It's just going to leach into your gorgeous compost.
00:58:20So we've got three equally sized pallets here.
00:58:24And we've literally just screwed them, spiked them through into place.
00:58:28We hold them into place.
00:58:29The next thing you need to do is get yourself some chicken wire.
00:58:32And what I love about chicken wire, you can literally just cut it with some strong scissors.
00:58:36You don't need any pliers or anything like that.
00:58:38And the reason we have chicken wire is we're going to line the inside edge with it.
00:58:42So by...
00:58:43I'm going to hold it in place.
00:58:44Yeah, just by lining the inside edge.
00:58:46Do you want to stop with my fingers, Wayne?
00:58:48I haven't got your fingers.
00:58:50There's a deer.
00:58:51And this will go all the way around.
00:58:53And what this does, it allows the air circulation to go through.
00:58:58But it stops the soil or any debris falling out.
00:59:02Are you doing another layer of that then?
00:59:03Or you would do another layer of that?
00:59:04I would do another layer higher across that way.
00:59:07So the idea then is anything's collecting there.
00:59:10Again, it's on the floor.
00:59:11We want those worms to come through.
00:59:13We want all of that nutrients to come through the floor.
00:59:16And the next one, you could put a full pallet here.
00:59:18But I like to cut mine down.
00:59:20So I pre-cut this one down.
00:59:22And we offer this one into place.
00:59:26You can put hinges on there.
00:59:28You can put latches so it opens like a barn door.
00:59:31But I think if you can just...
00:59:32If you can use a drill, you can unscrew something.
00:59:37That's within my capabilities.
00:59:38Yeah.
00:59:39So I'm literally just going to hold this one in place for now.
00:59:41So a diagonal bit of a nail down there.
00:59:46And the idea that we've cut it down lower is, if you're coming along with your wheelbarrow,
00:59:50you can hook it up and throw it over.
00:59:52Yeah.
00:59:56Having this one in place so that you can unscrew it means that when you get in there, you can
01:00:00turn it.
01:00:01And then once that's done, put on...
01:00:04I've just got an old throw here.
01:00:07If you've got a piece of carpet or something, lay that on top.
01:00:09And then put some plastic on top just to stop too much moisture going in.
01:00:14Yeah.
01:00:14You don't want it to get too sodden.
01:00:15You want the air going through, you know more than me, but you want...
01:00:18Well, it's the three M's, isn't it, really?
01:00:20Mix it, moisten it and mash it.
01:00:23Keep it firm.
01:00:25And with those three M's, mix everything, rather than having a concentration of grass clippings
01:00:29in one place, just because it's brown and slimy.
01:00:31Mix that with everything else.
01:00:32And grass is great because it heats it.
01:00:34And so with all the things mixed up, with your browns, as you say, and your greens,
01:00:38and if you hire a shredder, it's really useful.
01:00:40It speeds up the moving of it.
01:00:42And then if you make sure there's three M's there, the mixing, the moistening and the mashing,
01:00:46you'll find it rots down.
01:00:48I always give it a year anyway, if it's safer.
01:00:49And how many of these bins would you normally have?
01:00:51I've got...
01:00:52Well, as many as you...
01:00:53Depends on the size of your garden.
01:00:55Yeah.
01:00:55But I always have a couple, at least, because then one is full and rotting, and the other's
01:00:59being filled.
01:01:00And you've got this system then, about a year on you're using that one, and the following
01:01:04year you'll be using that one while this one's filling up.
01:01:06I love the idea, though, of using the compost that you've created for your garden, and
01:01:12no, it hasn't cost you anything to get rid of it, you've just re-put it back and purposed
01:01:15it.
01:01:15And it's the natural cycle.
01:01:17When trees lose their leaves, they fall on the ground, they rot, the worms take them in,
01:01:20and that's nature.
01:01:22And you've been a nice part of nature, haven't you?
01:01:24And look for the HT.
01:01:26Heat treated.
01:01:27Heat treated, Wayne Perry.
01:01:29Thanks, Wayne.
01:01:35Now, many legendary thinkers and creators kept famous diaries.
01:01:40Leonardo da Vinci, whose notebooks contain sketches of inventions and anatomical studies.
01:01:47Charles Darwin, who documented his geological and biological observations.
01:01:51Alexander Graham Bell, who detailed his telephone experiments.
01:01:55Albert Einstein, who filled his diary with calculations.
01:02:00And Leslie Joseph is no different, as she takes a leaf out of all their books with the
01:02:06first of her nature diaries.
01:02:08Chapter 1, The March Hare.
01:02:14Hampshire, Sunday, the 22nd of March, 2026.
01:02:18Dear diary, it's been a week since my last diary entry, but I am feeling quite rejuvenated.
01:02:25The weather is most agreeable, as spring grabs hold of us, and winter seems so very far away.
01:02:31Enter master hare, dashing and deliciously naughty, with his large, long, powerful hind legs.
01:02:41Oh, dear diary, I itch in anticipation.
01:02:45I have been meaning to see the apothecarist about that, actually.
01:02:48Sorry, back to my diary.
01:02:51As I perch by the open window, absorbing the gentle spring breeze,
01:02:56the brown hare parades itself around, with a bouncy ease,
01:03:02along the heath and hidden in the grasses,
01:03:04running across fields and hiding in the marshes.
01:03:07The brown hare plays and strays, whilst having the occasional vegetational graze,
01:03:13glistening in the warm sun, embracing the hazy days.
01:03:19With long black-tipped ears worthy of a sonnet,
01:03:22no doubt having to poke two holes through a celebratory bonnet.
01:03:27With a super speedy and slick fast pace,
01:03:30the brown hare can certainly take on a race.
01:03:34I have a ball this evening,
01:03:36and word is spreading that Lord Biggins will be in attendance.
01:03:40Oh, I do hope he selects me to be part of his waltz.
01:03:45I hear he is quite the maverick on the dance floor.
01:03:48Now I must dash enough hare-related do-gooding
01:03:51if I don't put down the quill, who will make today's plum pudding?
01:03:55Oh, fare thee well, brown hare.
01:03:58It's been a treat.
01:04:00Thank you for continually making my heart beat.
01:04:04Yours affectionately as ever, Leslie.
01:04:09Thank you, Leslie.
01:04:10Well up to Einstein's standards.
01:04:12Did you know the expression
01:04:14mad as a march hare stems from their frantic mating behaviour,
01:04:17including high-speed chases, leaping and boxing?
01:04:21That peak in early spring.
01:04:24Fancy. It's an amazing sight when you watch boxing airs.
01:04:26Coming up, Sarah Parrish,
01:04:28back on stage in the bittersweet family drama Eclipse.
01:04:32I'll see you with Sarah after this.
01:04:47Welcome back to Love Your Weekend.
01:04:49Now, coming up, drinks duo Hannah and Siobhan.
01:04:52See us out in style with zesty botanicals,
01:04:55including a burnt lemon spritz
01:04:57and a chilled martini with an orange twist.
01:05:00Can't wait.
01:05:01But first, saucy storylines and devious divas.
01:05:05Scandalous, sexy and seductive.
01:05:08It was the hit series following the lives and loves
01:05:11of a group of 30-something girlfriends
01:05:13and featuring my next guest.
01:05:16Yes, lovers may come and go,
01:05:18but friends last forever.
01:05:20Or do they?
01:05:21Katie, multiple choice.
01:05:23Sex, love or kids?
01:05:24What, can I only have one?
01:05:27Um...
01:05:30Love.
01:05:34I think someone asked me out today.
01:05:37Really?
01:05:37Oh, yeah?
01:05:38Hello.
01:05:39Well, he's a new dad at school
01:05:41and I think he just got divorced.
01:05:43And we got chatting at the supermarket
01:05:45and he said that we should go for a coffee
01:05:48and I went, um, um, uh, um.
01:05:50Hang on a minute.
01:05:51He asked you out for a coffee in Sainsbury's?
01:05:53No, in Tesco's, actually.
01:05:55And, well, I'm not really sure he was asking me out.
01:05:59What did he say?
01:06:00Um...
01:06:01Exact words.
01:06:03Do you fancy going for a coffee?
01:06:04He said fancy.
01:06:05I think so.
01:06:06If he said that, he was asking you out.
01:06:07Oh, no, maybe he said want.
01:06:09Well, that's...
01:06:10No, that's different.
01:06:11That's more tricky to interpret.
01:06:12You see, this is exactly why I switched from English
01:06:14to modern languages.
01:06:17Mistresses, the deep bond and connection
01:06:19between the four of your characters
01:06:21with your shared sarcasm and ease with each other.
01:06:25Was it like that on set?
01:06:26You did seem...
01:06:26There seemed to be some kind of chemistry going on there.
01:06:28Oh, we had such a good time on that show.
01:06:30We were out in Bristol, the four of us,
01:06:33and we all shared a big house, which was great.
01:06:35So we were together the whole time.
01:06:37Um, yeah.
01:06:38And we really bonded on that show.
01:06:41It was a terrific show.
01:06:41And, you know, I get asked often...
01:06:43It's the one show that I get asked about all the time.
01:06:47I get stopped in the street with women saying,
01:06:49oh, when are you going to bring back Mistresses?
01:06:50We'd love to see something like that again.
01:06:52Why do you think?
01:06:53I think it's...
01:06:55It's a bit like Sex and the City, isn't it?
01:06:57I think women want to see themselves on television.
01:07:00So something like Mistresses obviously was very successful.
01:07:03And now they want to see where those women are
01:07:06at the age that they would be, which is in their 50s.
01:07:09But shot through with humour too.
01:07:11You've got to have humour.
01:07:12Yeah.
01:07:13You've got to have humour.
01:07:14You're splitting, as ever, screen work, both, you know,
01:07:18large and small, with theatre work,
01:07:20because you're now going into a play at Chichester Festival Theatre,
01:07:24Eclipse, which is written by the guy who wrote W1A,
01:07:28to which my wife and I were glued.
01:07:30And hilarious, thinking, how on earth could the BBC do this about themselves?
01:07:34I know.
01:07:34Because it's so accurate.
01:07:35You know, good for them.
01:07:37But so tell us about it, Eclipse.
01:07:39Well, yes, John Morton has written a play.
01:07:41It's the only play he's ever written.
01:07:43He wrote it 20 years ago.
01:07:45So he's been sat on this play now for 20 years.
01:07:49And he wrote me a letter, actually, and said,
01:07:52look, I've written this play and I'd really love you to be in it.
01:07:53And I immediately thought, oh, it's going to be hilarious.
01:07:56You know, it'll be really fast and funny and probably set in an office.
01:08:00Anyway, this play came through and it just shows what a brilliant, versatile writer he is.
01:08:07It's a very minimalistic play that happens over 24 hours,
01:08:12the last 24 hours of somebody's life.
01:08:15And it's about the brother and sister, the son and the daughter of this guy who's dying in the kitchen
01:08:21and just their relationship over this 24 hours,
01:08:25how they are with each other while their father is dying.
01:08:27So nothing happens and everything happens.
01:08:31It's one of those plays.
01:08:32And, of course, it's beautifully written.
01:08:34He's got such a wonderful way of writing.
01:08:37It's so naturalistic.
01:08:40It reads brilliantly.
01:08:41I'm surprised he's only ever written one play, really.
01:08:44So, yes, we're doing it at the Minerva in Chichester, so the smaller theatre.
01:08:48Rupert Penner-Jones is playing.
01:08:50Well, me wife will be there, though.
01:08:52I know, he's not ugly, is he?
01:08:54It's Rupert Penner-Jones, but he's in it.
01:08:55It's Sarah.
01:08:56So, yes, the two of us are brother and sister.
01:09:00So it will be a really lovely experience.
01:09:03You've got, you know, other TV things.
01:09:06Yes, yes, yes.
01:09:07There's all sorts going on.
01:09:08What was on...
01:09:09Piglets has been on again this year,
01:09:11which was a series that I do with Mark Heap about a police academy,
01:09:16which is quite funny.
01:09:18It's not my most attractive part.
01:09:21No.
01:09:21Now, tell me about this make-up for Piglets.
01:09:24We're going to have a look at it in a second.
01:09:26It's very funny.
01:09:27Well, when we were sort of trying to work out what Julie Spry would look like,
01:09:31they brought out a bag of wigs, and I was sort of trying on these wigs,
01:09:34and literally, it was like Cinderella's slipper.
01:09:37One wig came, I put it on, I went, there she is.
01:09:39That's it.
01:09:40And the make-up lady said,
01:09:41I think we could probably push her a bit further
01:09:43and maybe have some teeth as well.
01:09:45So we went for these comedy teeth.
01:09:48And then Julie Spry was born, yeah.
01:09:50I love playing her.
01:09:52She's so much fun.
01:09:53Here is Julie Spry in Piglets.
01:09:56Let's start with the traditional good cop, bad cop scenario.
01:10:00Which one do you want me to be?
01:10:01LAUGHTER
01:10:09Oh, I'm sorry.
01:10:15I can do bad.
01:10:21Oh, Jesus.
01:10:24Oh, fuck it.
01:10:25I don't know how you did that.
01:10:28I don't know.
01:10:29Doing it now.
01:10:32Do you know what?
01:10:32It's Mark Heave.
01:10:34It's so easy to work with an actor like that.
01:10:36He is a born clown.
01:10:37Some people have just got funny bones, haven't they?
01:10:40And he can't do anything without being funny.
01:10:44I mean, literally, I can't sit opposite him.
01:10:45I remember him being the postman in Lark Rides to Candleford.
01:10:47It was brilliant.
01:10:48And you just look at his face there.
01:10:49He's just funny.
01:10:51He was funny in Friday night, you know, Jim in Friday night dinner.
01:10:54He was boring.
01:10:54He's just a funny person.
01:10:55And it's such a fun show to do because we do get quite a lot of freedom
01:11:01and lots of, you know, that was all sort of, not all improvised,
01:11:05but a lot of it was improvised.
01:11:06And we've got time to sort of muck about and try things out.
01:11:10And it's lovely.
01:11:10Looking at those four younger people and looking at you,
01:11:15how they kept a straight face.
01:11:17Well, that must have been hard.
01:11:19It was, it was.
01:11:20There's a lot of corpsing in that show.
01:11:22It's good fun.
01:11:24You did.
01:11:24We heard you sing earlier on.
01:11:25I want to show a bit of you singing now because you sang in Blackpool.
01:11:29Yes, I did, yes.
01:11:31In Blackpool, it was called, in Blackpool, with David Tennant.
01:11:35Yes.
01:11:35Great cast.
01:11:36Gosh, that was a lovely show, you know.
01:11:39It's not, it's not often that you get a musical on TV.
01:11:44And I remember the read through.
01:11:45I remember it was me and David Morrissey and David Tennant.
01:11:47And we all met outside before the read through.
01:11:50So I said, do you think they're actually going to make us sing the songs
01:11:52in the read through?
01:11:53And I was like, no, of course they won't.
01:11:55They wouldn't do that.
01:11:56They did.
01:11:58They had a tape recorder and we all had to sing the actual songs
01:12:01at the read through.
01:12:02We didn't know each other.
01:12:03We'd never met each other.
01:12:04You know, it was hard work, but it was brilliant.
01:12:07It was so much fun.
01:12:08Peter Bowker wrote it.
01:12:09He's a fabulous writer.
01:12:12We were up in Blackpool for about five or six months.
01:12:15It was just a lot of fun.
01:12:17It was a lot of fun.
01:12:18Being able to, getting up every day, going to work and dancing and singing.
01:12:21It doesn't get any better than that.
01:12:23It doesn't get any better than this, does it?
01:12:24It doesn't get any better than that.
01:12:52It's staring into each other's eyes.
01:12:55There's something quite, it's quite difficult doing that, actually.
01:12:59It's, you know, and you've got to do take after take after take.
01:13:02So it was, it was a tough job, but it was really enjoyable.
01:13:05When you're not cavorting on the stage, or anywhere, or doing your TV, your original Murray Parish
01:13:13charity, in memory of your daughter, Ella Jane, has gone from strength to strength.
01:13:20I mean, Ella died tragically young in 2009.
01:13:23The charity's gone.
01:13:24You've changed the name of it now to widen it, because it's very much based in Southampton.
01:13:28It was, yes.
01:13:29It's now going to happen.
01:13:29So tell us about it now.
01:13:30So we, last year, it was our 10-year anniversary as the Murray Parish Trust, and we figured
01:13:37that we'd kind of done as much as we could down in the South.
01:13:40We'd predominantly worked at Southampton Children's Hospital, and we kept noticing
01:13:45there was a real lack of help for the mental health of seriously ill children.
01:13:50So we kind of thought, maybe now is the time, with all our experience, to expand and go
01:13:55national, and maybe have a rebrand and change our name so it's not just about Jim and I,
01:14:00it's something a little bit bigger, and just purely concentrate on the mental health of
01:14:06seriously ill children and their families as well.
01:14:08Because you often find that the child gets looked after, but the fallback and the fallout
01:14:15for the family is terrible.
01:14:16Talking of working, it seems to me the roles you choose have always got some kind of central
01:14:22spark to them.
01:14:24They're either completely bonkers, as in the character in W1A, you know, where you're just
01:14:29going, hmm.
01:14:30I mean, I can see you, you don't seem to want to play what you might call ordinary people.
01:14:35No, I don't get ordinary people, I mean, whatever ordinary people, I don't know what, but no,
01:14:40I mean, also as an actor, you pick what you want to do, don't you, and there are certain
01:14:45parts that I'm drawn to.
01:14:46I did go through a phase of playing quite a lot of psychopaths, which I bizarrely enjoyed
01:14:52a bit too much.
01:14:54I'm hoping to go into a nicer sort of, you know, time of my life, and maybe more gentle
01:14:58characters now, who knows.
01:14:59There are so many outlets as well now, not just BBC, ITV, but Netflix, I mean, Geek
01:15:04Girl, is on Netflix now, and that gives you, in a way, a longer life.
01:15:09Yeah, Geek Girl was great.
01:15:10I mean, Geek Girl looks fantastic, and the kids in it were wonderful, and it was a very
01:15:14funny, Jude was a great part to play, I couldn't turn Jude down.
01:15:17So tell us about Jude.
01:15:18Jude is the head of a model agency.
01:15:22She's a bit of a monster, but...
01:15:24Hang on, there's a sort of theme coming here.
01:15:28She's great fun, she had all the, you know, she had a lot of great lines.
01:15:32She's just a funny character, and yeah, I read it and went, oh, I'd love to be part
01:15:36of this.
01:15:36And it was also, the first series came out just when my daughter Nell was at the perfect
01:15:41age for it, you know, she was 14, I said, you're going to love this, and she did, she
01:15:45was absolutely glued to it.
01:15:46So it's a lovely series for that age range, you know, and older as well, I've had a lot
01:15:51of older people that have loved watching it.
01:15:53I should be looking it up now, Geek Girl.
01:15:56Go on.
01:15:58Let me do that one more time at this angle, just in case.
01:16:03Okay, right, right, right, just hold it there, just hold it there, you, have you ever worn
01:16:06glasses?
01:16:08No, I don't, I don't need glasses, I have 20-20 vision.
01:16:13It's fashion.
01:16:19Oh, okay, yeah, hold that.
01:16:22And me, chin down an inch.
01:16:26Actually, get rid of the feathers, get rid of the feathers.
01:16:31Right, just hold it there, Ray, just hold it one minute, just hold it.
01:16:48Oh, no.
01:16:49I can see what you mean by no expense spared, you know, quite a lot, but you like being cruel,
01:16:58don't you?
01:16:59I do, I'm good at cruel, aren't I?
01:17:01I'm good at cruel.
01:17:03Yeah, she's a really good, fun character.
01:17:04I've always wanted to play somebody in the fashion industry in those lovely clothes as well.
01:17:08It was a real treat.
01:17:09Look, always lovely to talk to you.
01:17:11And you.
01:17:11Thank you so much for coming.
01:17:12Good luck with the charity, which is now called Imagine This.
01:17:15Imagine This.
01:17:15I've got to get that in my head now, rather than Murray Prash.
01:17:17Let me see you.
01:17:18Let me to have Jim on last week.
01:17:19We'll take you in rotation.
01:17:20Yes, do.
01:17:21His turn next.
01:17:22Great.
01:17:22Let me see you.
01:17:24Time to pause, reflect, and take a moment to enjoy some wonderful footage set to some equally
01:17:30wonderful music.
01:17:31It's today's Ode to Joy.
01:17:32Ode to Joy.
01:18:03Ode to Joy.
01:18:34Ode to Joy.
01:19:28Absolutely stunning pictures there of the Cairngorms.
01:19:32Courtesy of Sam Hales and set to the Symphony No. 4 by Felix Mendelsohn.
01:19:38Coming up, it's a juicy end to the show with this week's Best of British.
01:19:41Drinks experts Hannah and Siobhan prove that citrus tipples are the way to go.
01:19:47If you're having a springtime shindig, who am I to disagree?
01:19:51Zesty Botanicals, coming up right after this.
01:20:10Best of British time now.
01:20:12The days are longer, the soil's warmer, said the gardener,
01:20:15and the equinox has been and gone, which can only mean one thing,
01:20:19the unequivocal arrival of spring.
01:20:22And what better way to toast the new season
01:20:24than with an array of fresh and citrusy tipples
01:20:26sure to get you perked up and possibly even a little puckered?
01:20:30Behind the bar today, the Double Trouble,
01:20:33as we welcome for the first time not one but two master cocktail connoisseurs,
01:20:38Hannah Sharmancox and Siobhan Payne,
01:20:41founders of the London Cocktail Week.
01:20:44Why would you not found that?
01:20:46And here they are with their rounds of Zesty Botanicals.
01:20:50What have we got today, then?
01:20:51Well, you gave us a brief of Zesty Botanicals,
01:20:55so we've stuck to theme.
01:20:57We're going to start with this,
01:20:59which is the burnt lemon spritz in your wine glass.
01:21:03Ooh, nice.
01:21:04And this is celebrating the lemon, so it's very, very lemony.
01:21:08Yep.
01:21:09We're starting with, at the base of it, is a Cornish vermouth.
01:21:13It's made down on the south coast, near St. Oestal.
01:21:17It's called Nitor.
01:21:19I just love the bottle of this one, actually.
01:21:20It's so gorgeous, isn't it?
01:21:21It looks like a sort of Liebfraunel bottle.
01:21:23Yes, it does.
01:21:24I was going to say that.
01:21:25It was probably blue, none in the formula.
01:21:27It's a working winery.
01:21:29You can actually get married there as well.
01:21:30They make all sorts of English wines.
01:21:33Their Blanc de Blanc English sparkling is very highly awarded,
01:21:36but this vermouth is really delicious.
01:21:38It's really, really, it's really grown up.
01:21:42It's really interesting.
01:21:43It's really, yeah, it's great.
01:21:45But we've paired it with...
01:21:46Yes, so this is Rapscallion Burnt Lemon.
01:21:50So it's designed to be a grown-up soft drink,
01:21:53and it's made in Glasgow.
01:21:55And they've called it Juicy Wheatart,
01:21:58which I think is quite funny.
01:22:00But actually, it's designed, you can drink it by itself
01:22:03and it feels grown up.
01:22:05You usually think of vermouth as a mixer.
01:22:07You do, don't you?
01:22:08I mean, you know, the martini.
01:22:09So to have that as a base...
01:22:10Yeah, and it's a lovely summery drink, isn't it?
01:22:13Yeah, it is.
01:22:13You have that on a summer's day.
01:22:15And the good thing about vermouth as the base
01:22:17is that it means that the cocktail is lower ABV,
01:22:21so less alcoholics.
01:22:22It's quite a good lunchtime cocktail,
01:22:24if you want to...
01:22:25You can drink more.
01:22:25In the afternoon.
01:22:26You can drink more.
01:22:27Peter, you're sitting for a class.
01:22:27That is one way of looking at it, Sarah.
01:22:30Do you taste this, or...?
01:22:31Oh, it's lovely.
01:22:32This is delicious and fresh.
01:22:35Really lovely.
01:22:36Really lovely.
01:22:37Also, we thought we'd start with it
01:22:38because it opens your palate for what is to come.
01:22:41Oh, yes.
01:22:41This is a non-alcoholic cocktail
01:22:44and it is a twist on the Paloma.
01:22:46So classically, a Paloma is tequila
01:22:49with grapefruit and a bit of sugar.
01:22:50Oh, this is...
01:22:51But what we've done for this cocktail,
01:22:53because we wanted to do something not boozy,
01:22:56perhaps for breakfast,
01:22:58is mixed it with Bativo.
01:23:00Oh, that's lovely.
01:23:00So Bativo is made in Hertfordshire.
01:23:03That is lovely.
01:23:04And what it is is apple cider vinegar
01:23:06steeped in various herbs and spices
01:23:08and then sweetened with honey.
01:23:09So it's actually really good for you.
01:23:10This is a good food drink, yeah?
01:23:12It's unpasteurised ACV.
01:23:14This is really nice.
01:23:14And then mixed with grapefruit.
01:23:17Wonderful.
01:23:18It really is a beautiful soft drink.
01:23:20Isn't it gorgeous?
01:23:22Two out of two.
01:23:23Oh, good.
01:23:26All right, a more unusual citrus fruit for you.
01:23:29We're going to yuzu.
01:23:30Some people call it a Japanese lemon,
01:23:33but it's more of a hybrid, actually.
01:23:34It's kind of closer to a Mandarin, probably.
01:23:37So we've gone all out.
01:23:39Yeah, we wanted to really celebrate the yuzu,
01:23:41so we've gone double yuzu today.
01:23:42We have.
01:23:43So the base of the product,
01:23:45like similar to how we did with the spritz,
01:23:47the base is a sake.
01:23:48So it's a rice wine.
01:23:50Oh.
01:23:52So kanpai, which means cheers in Japanese.
01:23:55To you.
01:23:55They are, cheers.
01:23:56They are based down in the arches near London Bridge.
01:24:00Oh, all right.
01:24:00Yeah, it's lovely.
01:24:02That's nice too.
01:24:02Yeah, it's really, yeah.
01:24:03We've paired it with a yuzu mixer.
01:24:07And this brand of mixers called Kazimo,
01:24:10it's made by a bartender,
01:24:13so you know it's going to be good.
01:24:14They use yuzus from Japan,
01:24:16and they don't use any artificial colouring,
01:24:18so it's really, really good brand of mixers.
01:24:21Reminded me,
01:24:21because it just reminded me
01:24:23that I know a bit of Japanese.
01:24:24Oh, go into it.
01:24:25Come on then.
01:24:27Maindou gojousha arigatou gozaimashita.
01:24:29That means mind the gap
01:24:30when you're getting on the train.
01:24:34But the beautiful thing
01:24:35is that you can have that mixer just by itself
01:24:37and it still gives you that real yuzu flavour.
01:24:39Very nice.
01:24:40Yeah, very nice.
01:24:40Good for you, Sarah.
01:24:41That is really nice.
01:24:42Now we're moving on
01:24:43to celebration of Bergamot.
01:24:45Ooh.
01:24:46And this is a non-alcoholic cocktail as well.
01:24:49And we're using Everleaf Marine.
01:24:52So Everleaf is such a nice brand,
01:24:54and this is also created by a bartender,
01:24:57but he's also a conservationist.
01:24:59Oh, is that very nice?
01:25:00And actually,
01:25:01when I said we were coming on,
01:25:03we know Paul very well,
01:25:04who's the founder.
01:25:05He said that his dad might have met you, Alan,
01:25:09because he's the famous botanist Brian Matthew.
01:25:13And he said he might have...
01:25:14This is Brian Matthews.
01:25:16Brian and I used to work together at Kew Gardens.
01:25:18He's a famous botanist Brian Matthews.
01:25:19Yes, he is.
01:25:20Very accomplished.
01:25:20So he's head of botany for Everleaf.
01:25:22He taught his son well.
01:25:24Runs.
01:25:25Well done, Brian.
01:25:27Yeah, it's a really nice product.
01:25:29They've also got forest and mountain.
01:25:31This is marine.
01:25:32So this is lots of Italian Bergamot,
01:25:34but mixed with things like kelp
01:25:36to give it that sort of marine feeling.
01:25:38Yeah, you see, there's a seaside.
01:25:39Yeah, I can taste that.
01:25:41Yeah.
01:25:41And what we've done to give it the sort of mouthfeel,
01:25:44because obviously,
01:25:44because it's non-alcoholic,
01:25:46sometimes non-alcoholic cocktails feel a bit thin,
01:25:48so we've put some coconut water and some lime,
01:25:51and that gives it a little bit more body.
01:25:54Yeah, it's super...
01:25:55So clever.
01:25:56No, but I mean, obviously,
01:25:58I stopped drinking 10 years ago,
01:26:00and to be able...
01:26:01Never...
01:26:0210 years ago,
01:26:03would you go and ask for a non-alcoholic drink,
01:26:05and it would never taste nice.
01:26:07Yes.
01:26:07You'd be like, well, what's the point?
01:26:09Yeah.
01:26:09I mean, these are beautiful.
01:26:11Like, really beautiful.
01:26:13These two are my absolute...
01:26:16Yeah, those two are my favourite.
01:26:17But this one's so...
01:26:19It's such an unusual taste, isn't it?
01:26:20They're all quite distinct.
01:26:22So, from not boozy to the most boozy...
01:26:25Oh.
01:26:26Here we go.
01:26:27It would be very rude for us not to...
01:26:28You've done it in the right order, haven't you?
01:26:30Exactly.
01:26:30Exactly.
01:26:30It would be very rude for us not to bring our favourite drink,
01:26:32which is a martini.
01:26:34So, we have gone with...
01:26:36This is such a lovely producer.
01:26:39It's called Vault.
01:26:39Look at that.
01:26:41He's actually, much like everything else,
01:26:43he used to be a restaurateur,
01:26:44and then he got into production.
01:26:47So, it's a gin martini.
01:26:48It is...
01:26:48It's on the wet side,
01:26:50so it's not too strong.
01:26:52Blimey.
01:26:53And when she says wet,
01:26:55she means vermouth heavy.
01:26:56Vermouth heavy.
01:26:58That is, yeah.
01:26:59Good.
01:27:01The gin has got citrus leaves
01:27:04and orange blossom within it,
01:27:06and then the vermouth is a vermouth they call meadow,
01:27:09which is sweetened with Northumberland honey.
01:27:11Right.
01:27:12They also make...
01:27:13They make a coastal and a vodka,
01:27:15which is very chalky,
01:27:16so if you're into a vodka martini,
01:27:18like, that would be the combination of their products.
01:27:20But...
01:27:21Too much?
01:27:21No.
01:27:23It's just about enough.
01:27:26Yeah, this is...
01:27:26It's so rich and round,
01:27:29despite it looking like a very clear drink,
01:27:31like...
01:27:32But I can taste the honey in that.
01:27:33Yeah, can't you?
01:27:33Well, there's a nice, sweet twist to that,
01:27:36which is...
01:27:37It is the perfect martini.
01:27:39Your eyes are watering.
01:27:40Martini.
01:27:40Well, there were just two of you when we started.
01:27:42I can see about four of them.
01:27:46It's delicious.
01:27:47Really good.
01:27:48I mean, it's obviously very alcoholic.
01:27:50I don't think I could take two of those,
01:27:52but I'm very happy to take one.
01:27:55Well, it depends on the time of day,
01:27:57because I think if you're having one in the afternoon,
01:27:59maybe one's enough.
01:28:00But of an evening, after dinner, maybe?
01:28:03I mean, I tried this again.
01:28:04This is now becoming one of my favourites.
01:28:06It's really good, isn't it, that one?
01:28:08I really like that one, yeah.
01:28:09Thank you very much indeed.
01:28:10That's it for today.
01:28:11Thanks to all my guests,
01:28:13especially to the girls,
01:28:14to Hannah and Siobhan,
01:28:15and to Sarah and to Peter.
01:28:18We're not necessarily in that order after Martini.
01:28:21Joining me next week,
01:28:22Phil Daniels, Adam Garcia,
01:28:24and Raquel herself, Tessa Peake-Jones.
01:28:27Fletcher's Family Farm is up next.
01:28:28Till then, I leave you with these words
01:28:30from American inventor Thomas A. Edison.
01:28:33Our greatest weakness lies in giving up.
01:28:36The most certain way to succeed
01:28:39is always to try just one more time.
01:28:42So I think I'll try another sip of this,
01:28:45but only a sip.
01:28:46Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.
01:28:48Cheers, all.
01:28:48Cheers!
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