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Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of I Heart Radio. Yo,

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Speaker 1: Elizabeth Dudden, I got a quick question for you. Got

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Speaker 1: a second. Do you know what's ridiculous? I do? I do? Well?

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Speaker 1: You see me sitting there. You're going to share it? Okay,

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Speaker 1: So not a product mashup, and it's not a mashup

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Speaker 1: in any way, shape or form. Oh really, are you okay?

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Speaker 1: I'm fine. We got an email from a listener named Steph.

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Speaker 1: She has um uh stuff they don't want you to know.

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Speaker 1: Code name Tall Pockets. Okay, she wrote us the following email.

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Speaker 1: Oh hey, I just listened to the yap Lavish episode

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Speaker 1: and had to share it with all of my coworkers.

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Speaker 1: I work for a company that sells collectible coins, and

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Speaker 1: let me tell you, there is no shortage of dumb

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Speaker 1: criminals and their attempted hijinks. Y'all had a lot of

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Speaker 1: questions while going through this story, and I have some answers.

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Speaker 1: I love answers. Billionaires do make their own phone calls

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Speaker 1: to broker slash coin dealers. It's typically the dentists and

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Speaker 1: lawyers who have money but not millions or billions, that

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Speaker 1: make their secretary or assistant call. Interesting as you mentioned,

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Speaker 1: they have more money than they could ever spend, so

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Speaker 1: why not spend money on money? Makes sense? C N Right,

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Speaker 1: I'm so sorry. More often than not, the wealthiest customers

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Speaker 1: have too much time on their hands and are just bored.

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Speaker 1: They want someone to talk to and they call up

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Speaker 1: their coin salesperson. This was especially true during the pandemic.

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Speaker 1: Right other businesses were struggling, but coin and precious metal

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Speaker 1: sales went through the roof, Some bought out of boredom,

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Speaker 1: others to prepare for the quote end times. And yes,

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Speaker 1: people tell us all the time that they bury their coins.

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Speaker 1: That is the thing that still happens. Very important, anyho,

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Speaker 1: Incarcerated persons frequently tried to buy coins. We receive mail

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Speaker 1: from penitentiaries at least one a week. Once we received

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Speaker 1: a request to buy gold coins that was written on

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Speaker 1: used dryer sheets. We've also been told to send the

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Speaker 1: bill to God. But what about the crimes? The most

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Speaker 1: common is attempted tax fraud, which we see when they

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Speaker 1: try to reroute their shipment to a different state, probably

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Speaker 1: with a higher tax rate while own route. Customers would

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Speaker 1: straight up tell us that's what they were doing. But

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Speaker 1: tax rod is boring. What's the i R S going

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Speaker 1: to do anyway audit them. What gave us the biggest

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Speaker 1: headache where the people taking advantage of a system in

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Speaker 1: place to help disabled persons and using it to make

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Speaker 1: fraudulent purchases relay call scams. If you're not familiar with

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Speaker 1: relay calls, it's basically a service that allows deaf, heart

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Speaker 1: of hearing and deaf slash blind people to use a

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Speaker 1: keyboard to place calls via an operator service. This was

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Speaker 1: a way to get around recorded calls because the operator's

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Speaker 1: voice was the one being recorded and would be different

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Speaker 1: every time. All the information provided by the customer was typed,

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Speaker 1: so the usual verbal cues and hesitations aren't visible to

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Speaker 1: the salesperson. Every now and then the operator would interrupt

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Speaker 1: the call and tell us that they felt something was

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Speaker 1: off or suspected a scam. We were usually tipped off

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Speaker 1: that it was a relay call where the person was

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Speaker 1: buying bullion and not more collectible items as it's harder

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Speaker 1: to trace. I think my favorite though, is when I

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Speaker 1: was doing the identification verification for the company. Yeah, and

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Speaker 1: I got to see the absurd fake documents that people

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Speaker 1: tried passing off. Is real. The best was the person

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Speaker 1: who sent in a copy of her photo I D

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Speaker 1: that had a picture of a twentysomething blonde and listed

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Speaker 1: her age is seventy eight. Also, her quote home address

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Speaker 1: was a vape shop that had been only been in

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Speaker 1: business for six weeks. This same woman tried buying under

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Speaker 1: about twelve different aliases, but she never bothered to change

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Speaker 1: the email address on account I knew it was you,

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Speaker 1: hot little mama. Anyway, I love the show and I

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Speaker 1: really got to kick out of this story in particular.

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Speaker 1: Please let me know if you have any pressing collectible

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Speaker 1: coin questions, because I can promise you the answers are

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Speaker 1: probably ridiculous. Yes, I got a question, So that was

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Speaker 1: ridiculously cool. All of our listeners are amazing, and I

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Speaker 1: love you know when they send us stuff like this.

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Speaker 1: So stuff, I got a question, professor, what's another word

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Speaker 1: for pirate treasure? I think it's booty? All right, Well

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Speaker 1: that's a damn good one, Thank you. Yeah, I really

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Speaker 1: like that. If you got a second, I got one

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Speaker 1: for you. Oh excellent. Now, you and I we both

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Speaker 1: liked the actor writer ombudsman step Stephen Fry. Stephen Stephen Fry,

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Speaker 1: Stephen Fry but if you've have you ever heard about

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Speaker 1: Stephen Fry's crime career. No, yes, so Stephen Fry, I

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Speaker 1: caught this in a BBC interview, transcribed this for you.

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Speaker 1: They said, and I quote he said, rather and I

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Speaker 1: quote the emotional turmoil, adolescents kicked in and all the

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Speaker 1: other things, and I ran away, and I suffered through

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Speaker 1: a terrible scrape with other people's credit cards and went

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Speaker 1: to prison. He went to prison, Yes, wild right. I

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Speaker 1: had no idea what that. Stephen Fry had street knowledge.

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Speaker 1: I was like, man, Stephen, where have you been now?

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Speaker 1: When all came crashing down, it took the Bobby's and

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Speaker 1: that's British for police. It took the Bobby's three months

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Speaker 1: to catch up with all of the paperwork because Stephen

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Speaker 1: Fry is a little mad crime spree it stretched across

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Speaker 1: seven or eight counties in England. Wo, this is ridiculous crime.

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Speaker 1: A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists and cons.

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Speaker 1: It's always murder free and ridiculous. You damn right? Yeah, alright, Lizabeth.

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Speaker 1: Remember when we drove across country and we listened to

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Speaker 1: Stephen Prize podcasts. Yes, the Great Leap years, Yes, Okay,

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Speaker 1: I remember how dope that was. It was amazing, how

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Speaker 1: smart and just like random, they just went everywhere. It's

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Speaker 1: incredible and it was really cool that I found it

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Speaker 1: to put on. Yes, that is true. Points to you. Also,

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Speaker 1: you and I were both fans of the British quiz

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Speaker 1: show q I that he hosted from two thousand three

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Speaker 1: to six. Yeah, now can you still watch it? I

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Speaker 1: haven't really watched it since he's occasionally I'll check it out,

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Speaker 1: but I'm not with you know, regularity. Now, I also

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Speaker 1: think of him as Microft Holmes to Robert Downey Jr's Sherlock,

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Speaker 1: and like that whole him swanning around the Victorian mansion

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Speaker 1: Stark naked, sipping on his morning tea. That's how I

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Speaker 1: picture st Fry naked with tea. Now, I've always liked

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Speaker 1: the guy, obviously, but I recently learned I liked him

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Speaker 1: way more than I thought when I found out about

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Speaker 1: his crimes free so I wanted to share it with you.

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Speaker 1: So that same BBC interviewer who I mentioned up top,

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Speaker 1: they asked Stephen Fry would may be the success that

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Speaker 1: he is if he hadn't gone to prison, And so

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Speaker 1: Stephen Fry was like, hmm, that's a fascinating question to consider,

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Speaker 1: and the actual redemptive, restorative, rehabilitative process of prison worked

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Speaker 1: for him, right, Yeah, So Stephen Frye agreed and he said,

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Speaker 1: and I quote, that's such an interesting question. I don't know.

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Speaker 1: I really don't know. But as I will point out

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Speaker 1: in this story, he does know. Okay, So, being the

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Speaker 1: ever eloquent Stephen fry when he was asked about it,

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Speaker 1: he goes and he quotes from Oscar Wilde to kind

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Speaker 1: of put a frame on this and Oscar wild apparently

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Speaker 1: I didn't know this, but Stephen fry educated. He once said,

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Speaker 1: at the very moment when society should embrace you as

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Speaker 1: you leave prison having served your sentence in Britain, that

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Speaker 1: is the moment when your sentence begins. Right. So after

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Speaker 1: he after he service his sentence, Stephen Fry never forgot

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Speaker 1: about the people still inside. So he's like, he writes

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Speaker 1: them letters, He constantly works with prison charities. It was

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Speaker 1: like a really formative time for him. Right. He also

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Speaker 1: thought of it as a time to teach, which I

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Speaker 1: thought I thought of you with which is like he

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Speaker 1: goes into like that I could open minds. I can

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Speaker 1: connect with people. I can tell them about things that

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Speaker 1: they have never experienced, which is a really interesting way

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Speaker 1: to think about prison. But you know, being Stephen Fry,

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Speaker 1: he also had a great little bit of humor about

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Speaker 1: his time in prison. And uh, I caught him on

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Speaker 1: a British nighttime chat show. But the host name was

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Speaker 1: Big Nasty, because like British for big, big Nasty. So

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Speaker 1: Stephen Fry explained how and I quote, I was a

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Speaker 1: turbulent and troubled team, Mr Nasty. I'll be honest with you.

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Speaker 1: I went on a kind of borrowed credit card spree.

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Speaker 1: Now forgive my Steven Fry impression, but there you go.

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Speaker 1: Big Nasty. He was curious about Stephen Fry's time behind bars, right,

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Speaker 1: so he's like, which yaw did you go? Right now?

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Speaker 1: For the Americans, he's like, which prison were you in?

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Speaker 1: So but Stephen Fry, he catches his drift. He's like, oh,

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Speaker 1: the jail was called Puckle Church, which sounds and the host,

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Speaker 1: Big Nasty, interrupts, He's like, it sounds lovely, sounds like

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Speaker 1: they played tennis right Puckle Church and sees like, actually,

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Speaker 1: I think it was actually closed down because it was

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Speaker 1: a violent place, so he was like in real prison, right,

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Speaker 1: So laughs, all around very British. Everyone's excited, and then

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Speaker 1: he goes and he sketches out for them his criminal

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Speaker 1: career in bold brushstrokes, and Stephen Fry says, and I quote,

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Speaker 1: I'd stolen these credit cards and I'd gone all over England,

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Speaker 1: staying in the hotels, buying suits. That gives you a

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Speaker 1: little idea of what we have in store for right now.

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Speaker 1: He also gets compared to by the host, big, big nasty.

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Speaker 1: He says, you're like the talented Mr Ripley, right, and

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Speaker 1: Steven Fry is all like, you know, cheesed by that

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Speaker 1: when he's like that kind of was right, and it's

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Speaker 1: just like kind of cool to me because you know,

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Speaker 1: you don't normally think of people telling them you're just

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Speaker 1: like talented Mr Ripley, and they're all excited to be

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Speaker 1: told about like, yeah, that's right. But anyway, he's like,

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Speaker 1: you know, he'd been raised and going to boarding school,

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Speaker 1: and he actually compared once again, I quote from Stephen Fry,

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Speaker 1: I'd been in boarding school since the age of seven,

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Speaker 1: so prison was a breeze that just tickled me. I've

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Speaker 1: never been to boarding school. But as I told you,

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Speaker 1: the Stephen Fry was the aforementioned host of q I

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Speaker 1: and so while he was doing this talk show run,

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Speaker 1: you know, explaining his time in prison, I also got

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Speaker 1: to learn something from him that, um, you know, was surprising,

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Speaker 1: surprised me, I thought, Elizabeth, you're good with words. I'll

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Speaker 1: run this one past year. Do you know the derivation

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Speaker 1: of the word poppy cock poppy cock? No, I don't.

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Speaker 1: According to Stephen Fry, it actually means something. It's from

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Speaker 1: the Dutch and I quote poppacock. It means soft, and

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Speaker 1: we turned it into poppy cock like it's the most

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Speaker 1: middle class thing, a word for nonsense, Oh, poppy cock.

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Speaker 1: But it actually means soft. So I was like hot

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Speaker 1: Stephen at their dropping tird word knowledge. I just appreciate that.

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Speaker 1: So now we've all learned something new today, Elizabeth. So,

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Speaker 1: leaving out the Dutch words for booty fruit, let's focus

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Speaker 1: on Stephen Fry. Now, if you'd like to learn more,

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Speaker 1: there is a book about all of this. He wrote

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Speaker 1: a memoir back in ninety seven. It's called Moab is

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Speaker 1: My Washpot. Great title. Now, when he sat down to

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Speaker 1: write his memoir, Stephen Fry had to consider how honest

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Speaker 1: should he be, right, because he has like some as

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Speaker 1: you'll find, some messed up stories. But he decided, you

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Speaker 1: know what, I had a little bit of a dark

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Speaker 1: pass when I was like adolescent. I'm going to use

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Speaker 1: humor to be able to go as far as I

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Speaker 1: want into my darkness. Right. So what he says, and

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Speaker 1: I quote, making a light of something heavy makes it

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Speaker 1: easier to bear, is it is not always the right

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Speaker 1: thing to do, but unending gravity is as tedious as

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Speaker 1: unending levity. I thought you'd like that. So anyway, he

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Speaker 1: frames his tails and all the proper context, which is

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Speaker 1: it is meant to tell the story of a foolish

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Speaker 1: period in the life of an often very foolish man.

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Speaker 1: So please bear that in mind, Elizabeth as we dig

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Speaker 1: into Stephen. Now, when he started out as a boy,

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Speaker 1: like can you imagine a young Stephen Fry tall? Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: Well apparently, according to one of his former schoolmasters, he

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Speaker 1: was quote feckless, fickle, flamboyant, and evasive. I just I

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Speaker 1: like that. And he had another schoolmaster who called young

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Speaker 1: Stephen Fry out for his colossal nerve and quote sheer,

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Speaker 1: ruddy cheek I have never met anyone to metch you see.

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Speaker 1: I think we look back on this and it sounds

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Speaker 1: so delightful, and it is, but I'm sure that if

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Speaker 1: you're the teacher then dealing with this, it's not delightful.

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Speaker 1: I pity all my teachers, all my former teachers, so

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Speaker 1: I definitely feel for his now. He also, he's like you.

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Speaker 1: He was really into crossword puzzle, so as a young

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Speaker 1: man he could bang out the London Times crossword puzzle

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Speaker 1: and that sound like a lot of adults couldn't do

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Speaker 1: it right. So here he is. He's this power nerd.

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Speaker 1: He's like you. He's bored, he's restless. Schools kind of

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Speaker 1: beneath him, but it's like they doing much for him.

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Speaker 1: So unlike you, he didn't turn to punk rock. He

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Speaker 1: decided to turn to being a punk ass. So Stephen

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Speaker 1: Fry goes full crime, you know. But it's also kind

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Speaker 1: of wild to me that he made that choice, because

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Speaker 1: it wasn't like he's from the streets of London. Stephen

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Speaker 1: Fry was not some poor up commerce driver. He wasn't

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Speaker 1: in an East Ender, he wasn't some dickensiean youth. He

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Speaker 1: was out there in the sticks. He grew up in

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Speaker 1: rural England, and this is a world I've only ever

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Speaker 1: seen in documentaries. I know nothing about rural Lngua. And

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Speaker 1: I said that, actually it's not entirely true. I've taken

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Speaker 1: trains through modern rural England, but I have nothing about

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Speaker 1: the nineteen seventies rural England, which imagine is starkly different.

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Speaker 1: But anyway, what I do know what it still exists

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Speaker 1: as all the old Victorian homes. So he grew up

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Speaker 1: one of those, and just imagine it filled with spiderwebs

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Speaker 1: and dustin, you know, and it's a world of lawn

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Speaker 1: parties and bad mitton and all white. This is all

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Speaker 1: from his memoir, right, so you get a good idea

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Speaker 1: his parents. They're basically wealthy, perfectly rural English countryside types, right,

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Speaker 1: all about you know, saving face and doing the right

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Speaker 1: thing and you know, step up. Now. I don't know

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Speaker 1: what any of this means when he was saying this,

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Speaker 1: but apparently Stephen Fryk said about his mother quote she

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Speaker 1: was more cheerful than Pickwick, Pollyanna and Mrs Tiggley winkled

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Speaker 1: on a sunny day and happy. This does that mean

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Speaker 1: anything to you? So Tiggy Winkle, Mrs Tiggy Winkle. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's the Beatrix Potter book. I don't know, I know,

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Speaker 1: like the Rabbit story she did. Yeah, yeah, but then

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Speaker 1: there's all she has other ones, Tale of Too Bad Mice,

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Speaker 1: some good stuff, right, I got a reading list of dude,

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Speaker 1: Mrs Tidlie Winkle. Yeah, I'm sorry, unfamiliar. Yeah, familiarize yourself.

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Speaker 1: I'm going to add it to my reading list. So

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Speaker 1: Stephen Fry, he apparently read it too, because he knew

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Speaker 1: all about Tiggy Winkle, compared his mom to her. I

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Speaker 1: don't know whatever. So he compared himself though to a

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Speaker 1: quote wretched thirteen year old. This I understand. This I get.

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Speaker 1: And he quote also credited his quote anger, his fury,

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Speaker 1: his verbal arrogance, and his pride, and he turned them

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Speaker 1: basically into weapons. This I also understand. So then he

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Speaker 1: also gets into his issues of identity that he had

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Speaker 1: he was struggling with. So he's basically a nerdy, gay

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Speaker 1: Jewish kid living in rural England at a time when

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Speaker 1: any one of those would pretty much put a target

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Speaker 1: on your back. So he's got like a neon target

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Speaker 1: on his back. Yeah, so he's like, you can see

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Speaker 1: why he was angry and you know compative, right, So

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Speaker 1: he did what I did when I was a thirteen

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Speaker 1: year old. He went on the attack. He decides to

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Speaker 1: become fluent with insults, quick dismissals, memorable turns of phrases.

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Speaker 1: He's the one who's going to stick you with a

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Speaker 1: nickname that everyone will remember. You gotta you gotta strike

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Speaker 1: first in those situations, exactly, exactly, So he's trying to avoid,

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Speaker 1: as he quotes, all of this bullying, mockery and rejection.

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Speaker 1: So underneath all of this, though, there's still this roguish

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Speaker 1: side of him that it's just conniving to get free

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Speaker 1: of all the constraints of rural England, the bullying, you know,

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Speaker 1: peer group. And so when he's seventeen years old, he

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Speaker 1: finally gets out there and he's like, you know what,

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna go get free, stretch my legs and do

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Speaker 1: some criming. So he runs off on his month long

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Speaker 1: crime spree, and his ticket to ride was a stolen

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Speaker 1: credit card. It was a passport for him to a

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Speaker 1: different life. And so much like the talented Mr Ripley,

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Speaker 1: Stephen Fry grabs onto crime with both hands and goes

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Speaker 1: give me that good life. Now, Elizabeth, I would like

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Speaker 1: to take a short break. You'll dive deep into the

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Speaker 1: crime spree. You're ready, I'm ready, all right back in

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Speaker 1: flash Welcome back, Elizabeth. Ready for some more Stephen Fry action. Okay,

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Speaker 1: I got some frizzle Fry for your girl. Okay, we

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Speaker 1: are in ve just to put this time frame and

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Speaker 1: Stephen Fry. He's in school at Norfolk College of Arts

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Speaker 1: and Technology and summertime rolls around. He's contemplating what to

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Speaker 1: do with his life. He feels the tug of depression

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Speaker 1: pulling on both of his coat sleeves. He's been battling

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Speaker 1: that throughout his adolescence, and he decides, I'm gonna go

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Speaker 1: visit some family friends for the summer. He backles off

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Speaker 1: to this family, the Brooks family. Then he has a

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Speaker 1: good meal visit. When he goes to leave, he goes

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Speaker 1: to take a coat with him. And at this time

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Speaker 1: during the summer, he's basically a homeless kid. I was

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Speaker 1: the British say. He's sleeping rough, so he's outside, so

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Speaker 1: he takes this coat to like go be warm, even

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Speaker 1: though it is, you know, summer. At night times he

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Speaker 1: wants to be warm, you know. So he reaches into

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Speaker 1: this coat pocket of the coat he's taken from the

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Speaker 1: Brooks family, and boom, he feels a credit card and

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Speaker 1: Stephen Fry writes in his memoir quote, I took with

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Speaker 1: me Patrick Brooks diners Club cord and the insanity really

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Speaker 1: took hold. In those days, any credit card purchase under

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Speaker 1: the value of fifty pounds was a simple matter of

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Speaker 1: signature and a roller machine. There was no swiping, an

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Speaker 1: instant computer connection. I took some self justifying comfort in

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Speaker 1: the thought that as soon as the loss of the

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Speaker 1: card was reported, Mr Brooks account would not be demited,

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Speaker 1: only that of the diners Club Inc. But what does

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Speaker 1: that mean? Which is an excellent question. What do any

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Speaker 1: of the rules of banking and credit mean? Really? And

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Speaker 1: those rollers, oh my gosh, I remember those. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: totally remember those. I was like to But the time

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Speaker 1: before the credit card machines, when I was I worked

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Speaker 1: as a Chinese delivery driver in l A. I just

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Speaker 1: have to carry one of those machines with me to

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Speaker 1: people's houses and like balance it on my knee, put

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Speaker 1: a little like carbon paper in there, put their card in.

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Speaker 1: Go chunk, chunk, and then one time I almost tried.

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Speaker 1: I tried to use it a self defense because I

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Speaker 1: was convinced this person was trying to drag me into

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Speaker 1: their house. It was a whole time. I had one

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Speaker 1: of those with me at Woodstock, did you because we

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Speaker 1: were selling Mother Jones subscription. Oh my god, So I

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Speaker 1: had it like in my backpack and I don't think

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Speaker 1: I sold any Oh my god, I got one for you.

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Speaker 1: I was once at the Forest Seasons Hotel in Beverly

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Speaker 1: Hills delivering Chinese food and I was like, this guy,

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Speaker 1: he looks damn familiar, per favorite of yours. It was

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Speaker 1: Slash from Guns and Roses. His credit card did not

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Speaker 1: say Slash obviously, it said Saul whatever. His last name is, Yes, Hudson,

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Speaker 1: like the university. So I saw it recognized at the time.

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Speaker 1: I was like, oh, that Slash. And also he looked

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Speaker 1: just like Slash, and it was just like, oh, here's

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Speaker 1: Slash banding in front of you. And he had a

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Speaker 1: bottle of Jack Daniels on the table. It was so perfect. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you totally would have fainted. I had to like hold

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Speaker 1: my breath so I could like stay standing anyway. So

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Speaker 1: Stephen Fry he's moving around with his stolen credit card

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Speaker 1: in the era of the credit card machines or before

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Speaker 1: the credit card that we know of, right, So this

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Speaker 1: means it takes days, possibly weeks for any of these

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Speaker 1: slips he's generating to get back to the company. And

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Speaker 1: that also means that they at the time, they weren't

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Speaker 1: really canceling cards. If the card was stolen, they would

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Speaker 1: just tell you, oh, yes, that card is stolen, Like

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Speaker 1: all throughout this story. I find it amusing when they're

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Speaker 1: like they would tell people, oh, yes, thank you, that

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Speaker 1: jet card is stolen, like do you guys don't cancel it?

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Speaker 1: But they can't because as long as a person has

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Speaker 1: the card, they can because there's no connection saying it's

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Speaker 1: been denied. So as long as he keeps moving, he

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Speaker 1: looks like someone calls in while they're holding the card,

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Speaker 1: then they have to get out the giant scissors exactly. Yes,

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Speaker 1: you're a big fear Yes, so, Stephen Fry, is that

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Speaker 1: basically why we have the safeguards now that we have

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Speaker 1: in banking, Well, not him personally, but like him, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: him and all the other pioneers of that area a right.

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Speaker 1: So Stephen Fry, he steals the coat. He's got the

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Speaker 1: credit card in his pocket. Now he's got his ticket

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Speaker 1: to ride. So what does he do? Stephen Fry heads

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Speaker 1: off to grab him some of that crime life, and

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Speaker 1: I quote from his memoir, the next few weeks passed

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Speaker 1: in a kind of cacaphoric, if there is such a word,

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Speaker 1: a buzz, which is just to say, a state of

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Speaker 1: joylessly euphoric wildness, what a psychiatrist would call the upswing

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Speaker 1: of manic depression or bipolar cyclothemia, or however they choose

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Speaker 1: to designate it. Now the functional opposite, in other words,

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Speaker 1: of the listless misery that had caused me to scoop

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Speaker 1: up a suicide idle bowl full of pills a few

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Speaker 1: months earlier. Yes, like I told you, he was like

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Speaker 1: going through it. So there is this youthful episode of mania,

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Speaker 1: and he decides just to go for it now again

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Speaker 1: following Stephen fries lead, where you, I don't mean to

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Speaker 1: make fun of his mental illness. I'm not trying to

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Speaker 1: make light of it. I'm not trying to minimize it.

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Speaker 1: But he takes the perspective of using some levity to

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Speaker 1: counteract the gravity of situations. So I'm gonna follow his lead,

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Speaker 1: and we're just gonna take this as a fun story

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Speaker 1: that he looks back on as a spree of corps

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Speaker 1: if you will. Okay, So young home with Stephen Fry

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Speaker 1: outside sleeping rough decides my credit card. Now, hell was

399
00:20:32,920 --> 00:20:36,840
Speaker 1: sleeping outdoors. That's his first step. So at a quote,

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Speaker 1: I know that I went to London and transferred my possession,

401
00:20:40,200 --> 00:20:43,080
Speaker 1: such as they were books, mostly from my rolled up

402
00:20:43,119 --> 00:20:45,520
Speaker 1: sleeping bag to a brand new suitcase. I stayed for

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Speaker 1: a while in the Imperial Hotel in Russell Square, applied

404
00:20:48,840 --> 00:20:51,119
Speaker 1: for a job as a reader of talking books for

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00:20:51,160 --> 00:20:53,959
Speaker 1: the blind, and made regular visits to the American bar

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Speaker 1: of the Ritz Hotel. Right had become friends with the

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Speaker 1: bar man Ron, whose passion was Renaissance pain eating. He

408
00:21:00,680 --> 00:21:03,199
Speaker 1: could remember P. J. Wodehouse sipping a cocktail on the

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Speaker 1: corner and F. Scott Fitzgerald leaping over the bar, drunk

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00:21:06,400 --> 00:21:08,879
Speaker 1: as a skunk, snatching up a bottle of whiskey that

411
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Speaker 1: he brandished like a woodman's axe. All kinds of juicy

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00:21:12,600 --> 00:21:18,520
Speaker 1: and wondrous moments. So he's just enjoying exactly. I'm like, dude,

413
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Speaker 1: what a way to kick off a crime? Spree. So

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00:21:21,960 --> 00:21:25,479
Speaker 1: he embraces a good life, true talented Mr Ripley style,

415
00:21:25,880 --> 00:21:28,400
Speaker 1: and he's just doing it. And he's another quote from him,

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Speaker 1: I drank glasses of tomato juice and smoked Edward the

417
00:21:31,359 --> 00:21:34,560
Speaker 1: Seventh cigars in my new blue suit and felt for

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Speaker 1: a while that this is where I belong when he

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00:21:37,200 --> 00:21:42,480
Speaker 1: was I love that, right, It's amazing. So this spot

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Speaker 1: that he loves, the American Bar of the Ritz Hotel.

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00:21:46,320 --> 00:21:49,600
Speaker 1: It has since been turned into a casino club. Yeah.

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00:21:49,720 --> 00:21:51,919
Speaker 1: So but he and your man Hugh Laurie, they go

423
00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:55,000
Speaker 1: there to this day to gamble and they blow their

424
00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:57,040
Speaker 1: money on blackjack, now that they both have some money

425
00:21:57,080 --> 00:21:59,399
Speaker 1: to lose, right, and the fact he wants to get

426
00:21:59,480 --> 00:22:01,520
Speaker 1: kicked out because he was wearing these white rebox and

427
00:22:01,520 --> 00:22:03,640
Speaker 1: they're like, you cannot gamble in here with those shoes.

428
00:22:03,680 --> 00:22:06,200
Speaker 1: He's like, these are my lucky Reeboks. But just imagine

429
00:22:06,240 --> 00:22:10,760
Speaker 1: Hugh Laurie saying it. Anyway, So now that Steven Fries

430
00:22:10,800 --> 00:22:13,680
Speaker 1: out there enjoying the lush and the plush life, he's

431
00:22:13,840 --> 00:22:16,320
Speaker 1: gonna get smart about it. Right. He knows to keep moving,

432
00:22:16,320 --> 00:22:18,360
Speaker 1: so he doesn't just like hold up in the hotel.

433
00:22:18,560 --> 00:22:20,320
Speaker 1: So he's like, Okay, where's my next stop? And so

434
00:22:20,359 --> 00:22:21,960
Speaker 1: he's like, oh, I'm gonna go back all off to

435
00:22:21,960 --> 00:22:24,840
Speaker 1: this place called you lee u l e y maybe

436
00:22:25,080 --> 00:22:28,240
Speaker 1: not pronouncing that correctly. Anyway, he feels that, you know,

437
00:22:28,320 --> 00:22:31,560
Speaker 1: he's called to this town he keeps describing as this,

438
00:22:31,640 --> 00:22:33,720
Speaker 1: like you know, sirens called, and he wants to go

439
00:22:33,800 --> 00:22:37,080
Speaker 1: stepping back into the past, like some kind of Proustian fantasy. Right,

440
00:22:37,320 --> 00:22:40,000
Speaker 1: So he writes that quote, maybe he will find some

441
00:22:40,080 --> 00:22:43,320
Speaker 1: kind of something, any kind of anything, a clue, an

442
00:22:43,359 --> 00:22:46,439
Speaker 1: opportunity to lay an unknown ghost what I believed I

443
00:22:46,480 --> 00:22:48,879
Speaker 1: was looking for. I cannot say. I can only assert that,

444
00:22:48,960 --> 00:22:52,040
Speaker 1: as in a novel, the locations with which this story

445
00:22:52,119 --> 00:22:55,440
Speaker 1: climaxes are the same as the locations with which it begins.

446
00:22:55,800 --> 00:22:59,560
Speaker 1: Life is sometimes novel shaped, mocking the efforts of those

447
00:22:59,560 --> 00:23:02,639
Speaker 1: authors who, in an effort to make their novels life shaped,

448
00:23:02,920 --> 00:23:07,840
Speaker 1: spurn the easy symmetry and cheap resonance of reality. That's beautiful, right,

449
00:23:07,880 --> 00:23:11,080
Speaker 1: don't you love the cheap resonance of reality? Dude? His

450
00:23:11,240 --> 00:23:13,760
Speaker 1: like the language. It's like juicy as an orange cutie.

451
00:23:13,760 --> 00:23:16,640
Speaker 1: I'm like, bro, come on with it. So he gets

452
00:23:16,640 --> 00:23:19,200
Speaker 1: to you credit card in hand. He keeps it rolling. Right.

453
00:23:19,359 --> 00:23:21,320
Speaker 1: This is a seasonal town that he's in. I've never

454
00:23:21,359 --> 00:23:22,520
Speaker 1: heard of it, but I looked it up. It's a

455
00:23:22,560 --> 00:23:25,080
Speaker 1: seasonal town, so it's mostly empty when he shows up,

456
00:23:25,640 --> 00:23:28,280
Speaker 1: just a bunch of folks in the pubs, hoisting pints

457
00:23:28,280 --> 00:23:31,119
Speaker 1: and doing like you know, pub life, right. So he's like,

458
00:23:31,320 --> 00:23:33,399
Speaker 1: that's not what I want. Sized to move on. So

459
00:23:33,440 --> 00:23:37,119
Speaker 1: then he bounces out to the Cotswalled Villages, which you

460
00:23:37,160 --> 00:23:42,440
Speaker 1: may recall as the home of Jack the Shaver of cotton. Yeah, yeah,

461
00:23:42,480 --> 00:23:48,200
Speaker 1: shaving British tabbies. So he hits up Cotswalled Villages and uh,

462
00:23:48,359 --> 00:23:50,560
Speaker 1: the ones he hits are Bourton on the Water and

463
00:23:50,600 --> 00:23:54,840
Speaker 1: the neighboring hamlet of Moreton in the Marsh. I just

464
00:23:54,920 --> 00:23:57,560
Speaker 1: love his names. You gotta start to think I'm from

465
00:23:57,600 --> 00:23:59,080
Speaker 1: you know, I was born in the South, and you

466
00:23:59,160 --> 00:24:01,879
Speaker 1: start to hear the like British and Scottish influences in

467
00:24:01,880 --> 00:24:04,159
Speaker 1: the South, because it's like, oh, yeah, it's all I

468
00:24:04,160 --> 00:24:06,040
Speaker 1: can hear that. But to be like in the South,

469
00:24:06,080 --> 00:24:08,920
Speaker 1: to be like, well you know what, well, well, y'all

470
00:24:08,920 --> 00:24:11,199
Speaker 1: could go down to a place board town that's over

471
00:24:11,240 --> 00:24:13,080
Speaker 1: in the water. You know or we go got more

472
00:24:13,160 --> 00:24:15,080
Speaker 1: Town that's over in the swamp, but we like to

473
00:24:15,080 --> 00:24:17,280
Speaker 1: call it marsh because we fancy, you know, we got

474
00:24:17,320 --> 00:24:20,000
Speaker 1: notions here right back. That's how I can just hear

475
00:24:20,000 --> 00:24:22,480
Speaker 1: it anyway. So Stephen Fry, he travels to the cots

476
00:24:22,520 --> 00:24:25,200
Speaker 1: Walled villages. He's over there, and Bourton on the water,

477
00:24:25,320 --> 00:24:27,760
Speaker 1: and Moreton in the Marsh, and Higgleby and the Piggledy

478
00:24:27,880 --> 00:24:31,000
Speaker 1: and whatever he's doing. Good fortune finds him, Elizabeth, I

479
00:24:31,080 --> 00:24:33,639
Speaker 1: know you're worried about this seventeen year old scamp. He

480
00:24:33,760 --> 00:24:36,639
Speaker 1: manages to get himself a bed and breakfast hotel that

481
00:24:36,760 --> 00:24:39,040
Speaker 1: is exactly what he wants. So he checks into the

482
00:24:39,040 --> 00:24:41,560
Speaker 1: Moreton in the Marsh Bed and Breakfast that I quote,

483
00:24:41,760 --> 00:24:44,680
Speaker 1: I happened upon my second piece of plastic. It lay

484
00:24:44,800 --> 00:24:47,720
Speaker 1: snugly in the inside pocket of a casually hung jacket

485
00:24:47,760 --> 00:24:51,000
Speaker 1: in the hallway, just sitting there for anyone, anyone like

486
00:24:51,160 --> 00:24:54,120
Speaker 1: me to steal. It was an access card, this time,

487
00:24:54,200 --> 00:24:56,119
Speaker 1: much simpler to use, and with a signature that I

488
00:24:56,119 --> 00:25:00,080
Speaker 1: could more easily reproduce than that of Patrick Brooke. So

489
00:25:00,160 --> 00:25:02,280
Speaker 1: he's like, all right, god too, let's keep it wrong.

490
00:25:02,640 --> 00:25:04,320
Speaker 1: They want to do is look at the back where

491
00:25:04,359 --> 00:25:07,680
Speaker 1: where you signed it. So he's reloaded, restocked and ready

492
00:25:07,720 --> 00:25:10,000
Speaker 1: to hit the road again. Oh my god. So he's

493
00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:12,600
Speaker 1: not collecting plastic like you know, I don't know, like

494
00:25:12,720 --> 00:25:15,520
Speaker 1: somebody on the Venice beach do good or on the

495
00:25:15,520 --> 00:25:19,399
Speaker 1: beach exactly thank you. I couldn't think of what the

496
00:25:19,440 --> 00:25:22,760
Speaker 1: word was, do good or that's what they're called. So

497
00:25:22,840 --> 00:25:25,320
Speaker 1: now the spring is gonna run longer. And he's like, quote,

498
00:25:25,359 --> 00:25:27,480
Speaker 1: I had a suitcase, a suit ide bought in London,

499
00:25:27,520 --> 00:25:30,879
Speaker 1: a few other clothes, some books and unlimited spending power.

500
00:25:31,160 --> 00:25:33,920
Speaker 1: It was time now to head for the Reading Festival. No,

501
00:25:34,080 --> 00:25:37,040
Speaker 1: a reading reading festival. Now I only know reading from

502
00:25:37,080 --> 00:25:39,760
Speaker 1: the Nirvana playing the show in that I watch on

503
00:25:39,760 --> 00:25:42,160
Speaker 1: YouTube clips all the time. You have you ever been

504
00:25:42,160 --> 00:25:43,879
Speaker 1: to the Writing Festival or you've been to Reading? Do

505
00:25:43,920 --> 00:25:45,760
Speaker 1: you know what about it? I mean, I know it's

506
00:25:45,760 --> 00:25:47,720
Speaker 1: a big music festival. Yeah, is it like is it

507
00:25:47,840 --> 00:25:49,720
Speaker 1: kind of something like you know the British you're good

508
00:25:49,720 --> 00:25:52,639
Speaker 1: all excited about or let me hear about it. I

509
00:25:52,640 --> 00:25:55,000
Speaker 1: figured it has to be like the coolest okay. So

510
00:25:55,080 --> 00:25:57,800
Speaker 1: he heads out there and at that time it's like

511
00:25:57,920 --> 00:26:01,680
Speaker 1: you know, these death the Nation for basically late late

512
00:26:01,720 --> 00:26:04,000
Speaker 1: stage hippies, you know. So we are in like the

513
00:26:04,080 --> 00:26:08,400
Speaker 1: end of the aquarious era. So they're like, yeah, he's

514
00:26:08,440 --> 00:26:10,320
Speaker 1: gonna be a big show at it Stonehenge, which is

515
00:26:10,320 --> 00:26:12,960
Speaker 1: apparently close to reading. So that's what he's So he's

516
00:26:12,960 --> 00:26:16,040
Speaker 1: on while he's on his way on the run Outlaw,

517
00:26:16,080 --> 00:26:18,480
Speaker 1: on his way to Redding, Stephen Fry stops overing this

518
00:26:18,560 --> 00:26:21,960
Speaker 1: nameless little town in between there in Stonehenge, I guess,

519
00:26:21,960 --> 00:26:23,879
Speaker 1: and he's like, oh when he walks into what he

520
00:26:23,920 --> 00:26:27,840
Speaker 1: describes as a waking nightmare. No, So I'll lay it

521
00:26:27,880 --> 00:26:30,439
Speaker 1: out for you. I had a quote, my journey to

522
00:26:30,480 --> 00:26:32,800
Speaker 1: Redding was broken in a town whose name I cannot

523
00:26:32,840 --> 00:26:35,840
Speaker 1: even remember. I stayed overnight in as dreary a post

524
00:26:35,880 --> 00:26:38,360
Speaker 1: house hotel as you have ever seen, even in your

525
00:26:38,400 --> 00:26:41,920
Speaker 1: worst nightmare. Your worst nightmare, of course, is the precise

526
00:26:42,040 --> 00:26:46,040
Speaker 1: inspiration for designers of this species of hotel. So I

527
00:26:46,040 --> 00:26:48,119
Speaker 1: don't know what he was like looking at, but he's like,

528
00:26:48,200 --> 00:26:51,000
Speaker 1: keeps talking about like all this stuff and everything he

529
00:26:51,080 --> 00:26:54,040
Speaker 1: describes like a poorly decorated hotel to me is my

530
00:26:54,119 --> 00:26:58,199
Speaker 1: best nightmare. I'm like, that's not for him. This is

531
00:26:58,240 --> 00:27:00,600
Speaker 1: it now kind of reminded me of your dreams, Like

532
00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:04,040
Speaker 1: it's just like, oh, that's terrible. Like you're like when

533
00:27:04,040 --> 00:27:05,600
Speaker 1: you get nervous to you, you'll tell me like a

534
00:27:05,920 --> 00:27:08,400
Speaker 1: bad dream you've had. I was like, oh, man, I

535
00:27:08,440 --> 00:27:10,760
Speaker 1: wish that nobody even had a gun. You're like, oh,

536
00:27:10,880 --> 00:27:12,760
Speaker 1: you're talking about like I had to eat something I

537
00:27:12,760 --> 00:27:14,480
Speaker 1: didn't want to eat. And I was like, I think

538
00:27:14,640 --> 00:27:17,119
Speaker 1: because I came into headquarters the other day and I

539
00:27:17,160 --> 00:27:19,800
Speaker 1: was telling you about how I was panicked because I

540
00:27:19,840 --> 00:27:22,439
Speaker 1: had this dream where I was supposed to be swallowing

541
00:27:22,480 --> 00:27:26,720
Speaker 1: antiperspirant stick, but like they weren't like deodor it was

542
00:27:26,760 --> 00:27:30,040
Speaker 1: they were like the size of like a Craola marker tape.

543
00:27:30,560 --> 00:27:32,000
Speaker 1: And I was supposed to have a box with him

544
00:27:32,040 --> 00:27:33,679
Speaker 1: next to my bed and I couldn't find him, and

545
00:27:33,680 --> 00:27:35,240
Speaker 1: I was like I had to do it or I die.

546
00:27:35,840 --> 00:27:39,360
Speaker 1: And I was panicking, and then I woke up. Yeah,

547
00:27:39,359 --> 00:27:40,760
Speaker 1: and then I woke up and I was looking around.

548
00:27:40,800 --> 00:27:43,080
Speaker 1: I was supposed to like swallow him like a snake,

549
00:27:43,800 --> 00:27:45,600
Speaker 1: and I couldn't find him, and I was like, I

550
00:27:45,800 --> 00:27:47,840
Speaker 1: had like about ten minutes of panic, and then I

551
00:27:48,200 --> 00:27:50,280
Speaker 1: that was a dream. I'm sure that is terrifying, but

552
00:27:50,359 --> 00:27:55,000
Speaker 1: it just sounds like like a cartoon to me. Alright, alright,

553
00:27:58,080 --> 00:28:01,960
Speaker 1: you don't have to ever swallow anti purse for its ticks. No,

554
00:28:02,119 --> 00:28:05,359
Speaker 1: it hasn't lived here and has not come up yet.

555
00:28:05,440 --> 00:28:07,720
Speaker 1: I've had to like drive busses off of bridges and

556
00:28:07,760 --> 00:28:14,040
Speaker 1: then down mountains and stuff like both not pressing. That

557
00:28:14,240 --> 00:28:17,840
Speaker 1: bus did not farewell. Okay, well, where was that Stephen Fry.

558
00:28:17,960 --> 00:28:21,040
Speaker 1: He's in his Nightmare hotel. He realizes he's nearly missed

559
00:28:21,080 --> 00:28:23,640
Speaker 1: a major moment in the course of his life. It's

560
00:28:23,680 --> 00:28:27,240
Speaker 1: the day he legally became a man. So, returning to

561
00:28:27,320 --> 00:28:32,080
Speaker 1: his memoirthday exactly exactly, not his like Jewish became a man,

562
00:28:32,119 --> 00:28:35,000
Speaker 1: because I mean, there's a legitimate point. Wait, he already

563
00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:36,440
Speaker 1: as a man, but that and I'm like, okay, well,

564
00:28:36,640 --> 00:28:40,680
Speaker 1: according to the law England in this case, so Stephen

565
00:28:40,720 --> 00:28:43,800
Speaker 1: Fry loaned his Nightmare hotel. He says, quote. It was

566
00:28:44,280 --> 00:28:46,360
Speaker 1: only as I was finishing my dinner of steak and

567
00:28:46,480 --> 00:28:49,240
Speaker 1: salad and beer in the dining room of the Soulless

568
00:28:49,280 --> 00:28:52,560
Speaker 1: Assembly of Melamine and our text that I realized at

569
00:28:52,560 --> 00:28:56,600
Speaker 1: the date that day was the August ninety five, my

570
00:28:56,800 --> 00:28:59,640
Speaker 1: eighteenth birthday. It was my eighteenth birthday. I had come

571
00:28:59,680 --> 00:29:03,520
Speaker 1: of a here in this place. So here he is

572
00:29:03,560 --> 00:29:06,200
Speaker 1: a man, a criming man, man with great taste, and

573
00:29:06,800 --> 00:29:09,000
Speaker 1: he decides, you know, I'm going to celebrate my eighteenth

574
00:29:09,040 --> 00:29:12,040
Speaker 1: birthday like a man. So alone in my room, I

575
00:29:12,120 --> 00:29:14,520
Speaker 1: ordered a half bottle of whiskey from room service, and

576
00:29:14,520 --> 00:29:16,479
Speaker 1: for the first time in my life, I made myself

577
00:29:16,520 --> 00:29:21,960
Speaker 1: completely drunk, drunk in the most dismal, appalling, and lonely conditions.

578
00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:27,360
Speaker 1: Conceivable sounds horrible. I'm sorry. I just I'm tickled by

579
00:29:27,440 --> 00:29:30,120
Speaker 1: because I've been there. I'm laughing, not at him, I'm

580
00:29:30,200 --> 00:29:34,000
Speaker 1: laughing with him, exactly, exactly. Yeah, man, that's a tough

581
00:29:34,040 --> 00:29:37,000
Speaker 1: mirror to wake up too in the morning. So you know,

582
00:29:37,240 --> 00:29:39,280
Speaker 1: I think Stephen Fry and I would have great fun

583
00:29:39,360 --> 00:29:42,080
Speaker 1: driving around America or England wherever, I don't care, just

584
00:29:42,160 --> 00:29:45,440
Speaker 1: visiting hotels and ripping apart there like ugliestatics. Oh wait, no,

585
00:29:45,560 --> 00:29:47,960
Speaker 1: that's you. I think you two would have great fun

586
00:29:48,040 --> 00:29:52,240
Speaker 1: doing that. Okay, yes, but because I know you like this, here,

587
00:29:52,240 --> 00:29:55,600
Speaker 1: I'll give you a little snippet of his his assessment

588
00:29:55,640 --> 00:29:59,120
Speaker 1: of the hotel. Quote. A concrete and smoked glass traveling

589
00:29:59,160 --> 00:30:03,680
Speaker 1: salesman's shakedown and apocalypse of orange cushions, brown curtains, and

590
00:30:03,720 --> 00:30:08,400
Speaker 1: elastic cornered nylon sheets. Hardly had the whiskey gone down

591
00:30:08,440 --> 00:30:11,040
Speaker 1: my throat in heavily watered gulps. Then I added to

592
00:30:11,080 --> 00:30:14,800
Speaker 1: the bathroom seek heave after heave of sour sick to

593
00:30:14,920 --> 00:30:20,560
Speaker 1: the place makes them absolutely sad. I knew you love that. Anyway,

594
00:30:20,560 --> 00:30:22,920
Speaker 1: Happy birthday, big boy, and you're now a man. So

595
00:30:23,760 --> 00:30:25,880
Speaker 1: to make it a little bit more memorable, his first

596
00:30:25,920 --> 00:30:28,400
Speaker 1: ever birthday away from home, out in the world alone,

597
00:30:28,480 --> 00:30:30,920
Speaker 1: it was like enough for him to vomit. He was like,

598
00:30:30,960 --> 00:30:35,160
Speaker 1: oh man, this is amazing. I'm a man. Next day

599
00:30:35,160 --> 00:30:37,560
Speaker 1: he gets up and he's treated to his very first hangover,

600
00:30:38,160 --> 00:30:40,920
Speaker 1: big bang boom, and he heads off to the Redding Festival,

601
00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:43,280
Speaker 1: and he takes his suitcases with him and his blue

602
00:30:43,320 --> 00:30:45,800
Speaker 1: suit and of course he's stolen credit cards. And on

603
00:30:45,840 --> 00:30:47,920
Speaker 1: his way to reading, he hears word that I told

604
00:30:47,920 --> 00:30:50,440
Speaker 1: you that people are going to some show in Stonehenge.

605
00:30:50,480 --> 00:30:52,440
Speaker 1: He keeps hearing about this. He's like, Okay, I guess

606
00:30:52,480 --> 00:30:55,080
Speaker 1: I gotta go. It's the nineteen seventies. Let's roll out

607
00:30:55,080 --> 00:30:58,320
Speaker 1: to Stonehenge. And this is prior to spinal tap mind you,

608
00:30:58,640 --> 00:31:01,280
Speaker 1: this is real legit to go out of stone Engine Rock.

609
00:31:02,040 --> 00:31:04,560
Speaker 1: So Stephen Fry, he keeps bouncing around the aisle and

610
00:31:04,920 --> 00:31:08,800
Speaker 1: criming it up in his casual style, drinking, buying suits, shoes, whatever,

611
00:31:08,920 --> 00:31:12,440
Speaker 1: enjoying shows, and then he plans to head down to Salisbury.

612
00:31:12,520 --> 00:31:14,640
Speaker 1: Do you know Salisberry? Okay, the only thing I know

613
00:31:14,680 --> 00:31:17,880
Speaker 1: about it is it's famous for its cafeteria beloved steak recipe.

614
00:31:18,400 --> 00:31:22,480
Speaker 1: So that's to me. Salisberry is just brown sauce cathedral

615
00:31:22,520 --> 00:31:26,640
Speaker 1: there is okay, so not just brown sauce. Good? Yeah?

616
00:31:26,920 --> 00:31:30,560
Speaker 1: Is the cathedral like gothic? Is you did you go supergoth?

617
00:31:32,040 --> 00:31:34,440
Speaker 1: It has a lot of black eyeliner on, it's got

618
00:31:34,480 --> 00:31:38,120
Speaker 1: purple candles. So on the way to Salisbury, Stephen Fry

619
00:31:38,160 --> 00:31:40,640
Speaker 1: he stops in a town called Swindon and he checks

620
00:31:40,640 --> 00:31:43,280
Speaker 1: in in a quote grand looking hotel in Swindon, calling

621
00:31:43,280 --> 00:31:46,840
Speaker 1: itself I think the Wiltshire or the Wiltshire Country. So

622
00:31:46,920 --> 00:31:49,720
Speaker 1: it's a four star joint. It's the perfect place for

623
00:31:49,760 --> 00:31:52,440
Speaker 1: the artist as a young criminal to rest his head.

624
00:31:53,280 --> 00:31:55,800
Speaker 1: So he checks in. It's the night day of September

625
00:31:56,200 --> 00:31:59,240
Speaker 1: and things are about to get spicy. So let's take

626
00:31:59,240 --> 00:32:01,680
Speaker 1: a little break, I'll be back with all the spice

627
00:32:01,720 --> 00:32:24,880
Speaker 1: and dish to serve up to you. It alright, Elizabeth,

628
00:32:26,120 --> 00:32:29,400
Speaker 1: where were we? I was just totally grooven out to

629
00:32:29,480 --> 00:32:32,120
Speaker 1: some cool ads, nice, nice, really good. I was thinking

630
00:32:32,120 --> 00:32:35,280
Speaker 1: about Salisbury steak. Yep, that too. They were ads for

631
00:32:35,400 --> 00:32:37,320
Speaker 1: do we I think there are ads for Salisbury steak.

632
00:32:37,360 --> 00:32:39,840
Speaker 1: That's the only act. That's what I heard. All of

633
00:32:39,840 --> 00:32:44,120
Speaker 1: them are stuffers Salisbury steak ads. I asked. I asked

634
00:32:44,160 --> 00:32:47,440
Speaker 1: my heart to make sure that that's what happened. People

635
00:32:47,440 --> 00:32:52,680
Speaker 1: probabuld be heard number one go on the Salisbury steak guys,

636
00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:55,920
Speaker 1: they're all go, go move move. Yeah, that's cool. That's

637
00:32:55,920 --> 00:32:59,959
Speaker 1: what the helicopters are from. Okay, So here we are

638
00:33:00,280 --> 00:33:04,400
Speaker 1: in the Wiltshire County or the Wiltshire Hotel, four Star Hotel,

639
00:33:04,640 --> 00:33:07,600
Speaker 1: and uh are artist as a young criminal is doing

640
00:33:07,600 --> 00:33:10,480
Speaker 1: his things checked in. I told you night. They have September.

641
00:33:10,560 --> 00:33:12,800
Speaker 1: So if you think about this, that means school is

642
00:33:12,800 --> 00:33:15,320
Speaker 1: about to start back up. Young people should not be

643
00:33:15,360 --> 00:33:17,840
Speaker 1: wandering around and definitely not wandering around with credit cards.

644
00:33:17,880 --> 00:33:22,400
Speaker 1: He's going, but he is a grown ass man. He's

645
00:33:22,440 --> 00:33:25,720
Speaker 1: looking twice so instead of like you know and getting

646
00:33:25,720 --> 00:33:28,120
Speaker 1: ready for school. He's out there still enjoying his stolen

647
00:33:28,160 --> 00:33:29,520
Speaker 1: credit cards and he's like, you know what, I'm a

648
00:33:29,560 --> 00:33:32,040
Speaker 1: man now, I'm not stopping. So he just keeps on

649
00:33:32,080 --> 00:33:35,040
Speaker 1: bouncing around. He is at this hotel. He decides I'm

650
00:33:35,040 --> 00:33:37,479
Speaker 1: gonna check in and enjoy myself. So he checks in

651
00:33:37,560 --> 00:33:39,719
Speaker 1: and Stephen fry you know, gets his key, goes on

652
00:33:39,800 --> 00:33:42,280
Speaker 1: up the steps and uh, this is like, you know,

653
00:33:42,360 --> 00:33:44,520
Speaker 1: by the way to checking in at this point is

654
00:33:44,560 --> 00:33:46,400
Speaker 1: his routine for him. Now he just goes up and

655
00:33:46,400 --> 00:33:48,920
Speaker 1: he's like, yes, yes, Edward Bridges. That's the fake name

656
00:33:48,960 --> 00:33:52,120
Speaker 1: he's using. And so the reception says like, oh, yes,

657
00:33:53,280 --> 00:33:54,880
Speaker 1: you would you like a room, sir, And he's like, yes,

658
00:33:55,080 --> 00:33:57,040
Speaker 1: a room for the night. What what what? And so

659
00:33:57,080 --> 00:33:59,760
Speaker 1: then he's using his made up name. And then this

660
00:33:59,840 --> 00:34:02,680
Speaker 1: is either way to spare the actual gentleman the embarrassment

661
00:34:02,720 --> 00:34:04,520
Speaker 1: because he was using some guy's real name. So in

662
00:34:04,560 --> 00:34:08,919
Speaker 1: the book he uses a fake name. So this guy

663
00:34:09,080 --> 00:34:12,239
Speaker 1: Edward Bridges, Eric quotes Stephen Fryes like okay, yes, take

664
00:34:12,280 --> 00:34:13,879
Speaker 1: me up to my room. And he gets his key

665
00:34:14,239 --> 00:34:16,640
Speaker 1: and he's going and you know, right before he's about

666
00:34:16,640 --> 00:34:18,439
Speaker 1: to go up to his room, he has to finish out,

667
00:34:18,480 --> 00:34:21,520
Speaker 1: so he's doing his Edward Bridges thing, and returning to

668
00:34:21,560 --> 00:34:24,120
Speaker 1: his memoir, he says, quote, the usual procedure was gone

669
00:34:24,120 --> 00:34:27,239
Speaker 1: through the signing in the flexible friends slapping into the

670
00:34:27,280 --> 00:34:30,120
Speaker 1: bracket beneath the roller. The keys handed over with a

671
00:34:30,120 --> 00:34:33,640
Speaker 1: beaming smile. Charming, I said to the port who came

672
00:34:33,719 --> 00:34:36,960
Speaker 1: up with my suitcase as I surveyed the room, quite charming.

673
00:34:37,280 --> 00:34:39,759
Speaker 1: I slipped him fifty pence and laid down on the bed.

674
00:34:40,040 --> 00:34:45,359
Speaker 1: Tomorrow stonehenge right, I figure you'd be tickled by all

675
00:34:45,360 --> 00:34:48,359
Speaker 1: of this hotel. I would never do this myself, Like

676
00:34:48,360 --> 00:34:50,840
Speaker 1: I could not steal a credit card, and I could,

677
00:34:50,880 --> 00:34:53,680
Speaker 1: and I would be terrified to use it that you know,

678
00:34:54,239 --> 00:34:57,400
Speaker 1: special forces who comes, you know, repelling down from the ceiling,

679
00:34:57,520 --> 00:35:00,680
Speaker 1: and then I would go on my permanent record. Um,

680
00:35:00,719 --> 00:35:05,160
Speaker 1: but I'm very tickled by this. I'm enjoying his He's

681
00:35:05,200 --> 00:35:07,600
Speaker 1: not really harming anybody, He's just out there, you know,

682
00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:11,200
Speaker 1: and the chances are the credit card company will back

683
00:35:11,280 --> 00:35:15,360
Speaker 1: those charges out away from the owner of the card.

684
00:35:16,160 --> 00:35:20,680
Speaker 1: So you know, let's stick it to diner's clubs. So

685
00:35:20,800 --> 00:35:22,960
Speaker 1: before our hero can make it out to Stoneheads to

686
00:35:23,000 --> 00:35:26,680
Speaker 1: go rocking. He makes one fatal mistake in his crime spree.

687
00:35:26,920 --> 00:35:32,440
Speaker 1: He bought himself some fancy ass shoes. Yeah, here's the issue,

688
00:35:32,560 --> 00:35:36,480
Speaker 1: Steven Fry. He had big feet, like tall, tall fella. Yeah,

689
00:35:36,680 --> 00:35:42,680
Speaker 1: he's stretching. He's a long daddy, definitely terminology, total long daddy.

690
00:35:42,840 --> 00:35:45,120
Speaker 1: And he wears size twelve and a half shoes, which

691
00:35:45,120 --> 00:35:47,480
Speaker 1: in the English countryside they did not often have a

692
00:35:47,480 --> 00:35:51,120
Speaker 1: good looking loafer available to him. So he's all excited

693
00:35:51,160 --> 00:35:53,400
Speaker 1: that when he sees this one shoe shop they carry

694
00:35:53,520 --> 00:35:57,160
Speaker 1: large sizes. Can they have fancy shoes? He's like, oh, man,

695
00:35:57,200 --> 00:35:59,560
Speaker 1: I give myself some leather brogues. So he gives in

696
00:35:59,640 --> 00:36:03,680
Speaker 1: to temptation. He steps inside and quote, as if awaiting

697
00:36:03,719 --> 00:36:07,640
Speaker 1: my arrival, a pair of thunderingly sound black semi brogues

698
00:36:07,680 --> 00:36:10,880
Speaker 1: in a perfect twelve and a half excellent capital. I

699
00:36:10,960 --> 00:36:13,720
Speaker 1: walked up and down and inspected them in the angled mirror,

700
00:36:14,320 --> 00:36:16,799
Speaker 1: do you know, I said, handing over my access card

701
00:36:16,840 --> 00:36:19,600
Speaker 1: and casting a ruful glance at the cracked old pair

702
00:36:19,719 --> 00:36:21,920
Speaker 1: that lay on the carpet, looking for all the world

703
00:36:22,120 --> 00:36:25,239
Speaker 1: as if they were waiting for goodh These fits so well,

704
00:36:25,280 --> 00:36:27,759
Speaker 1: I think I'll wear them home. So he goes off

705
00:36:27,800 --> 00:36:30,760
Speaker 1: to wear his bright, new shiny shoes. He's all excited

706
00:36:31,000 --> 00:36:33,480
Speaker 1: and he's heading back to his four star hotel and

707
00:36:33,480 --> 00:36:35,560
Speaker 1: he's still basically a kid. You have to always remember

708
00:36:35,560 --> 00:36:38,799
Speaker 1: in this I'm not realizing how people see him, but

709
00:36:38,840 --> 00:36:40,759
Speaker 1: he's all ready to look good. And now he also

710
00:36:40,840 --> 00:36:42,359
Speaker 1: he's a kid, so he's ready for some chill time

711
00:36:42,360 --> 00:36:43,960
Speaker 1: and snacks. So I got to get back to my

712
00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:46,640
Speaker 1: hotel and lay now. So he's like, quote time now,

713
00:36:46,680 --> 00:36:48,480
Speaker 1: I think to return to the hotel for a spot

714
00:36:48,480 --> 00:36:50,839
Speaker 1: of television and a plate of club sandwiches. I picked

715
00:36:50,880 --> 00:36:53,800
Speaker 1: up my key from the reception desk and bounced cheerfully

716
00:36:53,880 --> 00:36:56,080
Speaker 1: up the stairs. All right. So he goes to his

717
00:36:56,200 --> 00:36:58,920
Speaker 1: room and there's a whole deal because there's someone in

718
00:36:58,960 --> 00:37:01,000
Speaker 1: his room. And it's like, oh, that's not right. The

719
00:37:01,120 --> 00:37:04,560
Speaker 1: cheek of this person, right, so the nerve of you man,

720
00:37:04,719 --> 00:37:06,839
Speaker 1: my good sir, and I thought this was a four

721
00:37:06,880 --> 00:37:10,480
Speaker 1: star hotel? What what? And so quote we'll take all

722
00:37:10,560 --> 00:37:12,799
Speaker 1: steve and tell it. I unlatched the door and was

723
00:37:12,840 --> 00:37:15,040
Speaker 1: surprised to see that there was a man in my room.

724
00:37:15,080 --> 00:37:16,840
Speaker 1: It's all right, I said, as I entered, if you

725
00:37:16,920 --> 00:37:19,680
Speaker 1: can come back and clean. Later, I'll leave the room

726
00:37:19,760 --> 00:37:22,640
Speaker 1: free for you. In about an hour, another man appeared

727
00:37:22,800 --> 00:37:25,920
Speaker 1: stepped sideways out of the bathroom. Two men in my room,

728
00:37:25,920 --> 00:37:30,240
Speaker 1: both wearing gray suits. Mr Bridges said the first. Yes,

729
00:37:30,800 --> 00:37:34,400
Speaker 1: Mr Edward Bridges. Now I'm guessing you know who these

730
00:37:34,440 --> 00:37:39,080
Speaker 1: two men are, the Flying Squad. Yes, our young anti

731
00:37:39,160 --> 00:37:42,799
Speaker 1: hero does not quote. Never for a minute crossed my

732
00:37:42,880 --> 00:37:45,680
Speaker 1: mind until they revealed themselves that they were anything other

733
00:37:45,680 --> 00:37:50,120
Speaker 1: than strangely dressed, engendered chambermaids. We are police officers, sir.

734
00:37:50,320 --> 00:37:52,319
Speaker 1: We have reason to believe that you may be using

735
00:37:52,320 --> 00:37:55,120
Speaker 1: a stolen credit card the property of a Mr Edward

736
00:37:55,160 --> 00:37:58,399
Speaker 1: Bridges of Solihull. I love that he thinks that their

737
00:37:58,719 --> 00:38:03,319
Speaker 1: room cleaners. And he's like, ah, I said and smiled. Oh.

738
00:38:03,400 --> 00:38:07,160
Speaker 1: At once a hundred thousand gallons of acid poison part

739
00:38:07,360 --> 00:38:10,239
Speaker 1: out of me and a hundred thousand pounds of lead

740
00:38:10,560 --> 00:38:14,319
Speaker 1: fell from my shoulders. So, like everybody we've covered, once

741
00:38:14,400 --> 00:38:17,520
Speaker 1: the lie is broken, he's like, oh, I'm set free.

742
00:38:18,719 --> 00:38:21,960
Speaker 1: Just don't anticipate that. You're like, dude, you're killing it.

743
00:38:22,120 --> 00:38:24,319
Speaker 1: But he's still feeling bad the whole time. So after

744
00:38:24,360 --> 00:38:27,040
Speaker 1: he confesses that he is indeed not Edward bridges. He's

745
00:38:27,080 --> 00:38:29,520
Speaker 1: free of all this weight of his lies. Right, So

746
00:38:29,880 --> 00:38:33,359
Speaker 1: Stephen Fry feels elated. He practically wants to hug these cops.

747
00:38:33,600 --> 00:38:35,759
Speaker 1: I mean, he's just like geeked on it right. The

748
00:38:35,800 --> 00:38:38,120
Speaker 1: cops tell him, if you wouldn't mind coming with us, sir,

749
00:38:38,160 --> 00:38:40,440
Speaker 1: I'm arresting you now and will shortly make a formal

750
00:38:40,560 --> 00:38:44,560
Speaker 1: charge at the station. I was so happy, so blissfully, radiantly,

751
00:38:44,680 --> 00:38:47,760
Speaker 1: wildly happy that if I could have sung, I would

752
00:38:47,760 --> 00:38:51,120
Speaker 1: have sung, and I could have danced. I would have danced.

753
00:38:51,320 --> 00:38:56,880
Speaker 1: I was free at last. I was free, right, little

754
00:38:56,960 --> 00:39:00,600
Speaker 1: m okay energy for that? You know, our less talented

755
00:39:00,680 --> 00:39:03,480
Speaker 1: Mr Ripley has finally been busted. And can you guess

756
00:39:03,520 --> 00:39:08,680
Speaker 1: how he got caught? Think about his shoes? But I'm

757
00:39:08,719 --> 00:39:10,800
Speaker 1: I don't know. Well, he had a credit card company

758
00:39:10,840 --> 00:39:14,839
Speaker 1: finally track him down, So perhaps someone else figured out

759
00:39:14,840 --> 00:39:16,560
Speaker 1: that an eighteen year old boy in a blue suit

760
00:39:16,600 --> 00:39:18,759
Speaker 1: and brand new shoes and a fistful of credit cards

761
00:39:18,840 --> 00:39:24,040
Speaker 1: might be a little hinky maybe kind of can you

762
00:39:24,080 --> 00:39:27,720
Speaker 1: guess what it is? Well? As Stephen Fry gets perp

763
00:39:27,760 --> 00:39:30,120
Speaker 1: walked out of the hotel, he gets his first hint

764
00:39:30,120 --> 00:39:32,120
Speaker 1: of how he got popped right. One of the hotel

765
00:39:32,200 --> 00:39:35,040
Speaker 1: receptionist smiles at him, and it's his big, warm smile,

766
00:39:35,080 --> 00:39:37,239
Speaker 1: and he's like, it's kind of odd, but he enjoyed it, right,

767
00:39:37,480 --> 00:39:39,160
Speaker 1: And then he's perp walked the rest of the way

768
00:39:39,280 --> 00:39:41,320
Speaker 1: down the street to the cop shop, which happens to

769
00:39:41,360 --> 00:39:44,080
Speaker 1: be about thirty yards away. So think makes a joke

770
00:39:44,080 --> 00:39:46,600
Speaker 1: about saving them the shoe leather, and then he's like,

771
00:39:46,640 --> 00:39:48,680
Speaker 1: you know, once he's at the police station, he's in

772
00:39:48,719 --> 00:39:52,319
Speaker 1: police custody. Stephen Fry still all cheer, good humor. The

773
00:39:52,400 --> 00:39:54,120
Speaker 1: kids killing it right at the cops are like, this

774
00:39:54,160 --> 00:39:56,680
Speaker 1: guy's awesome. So he's like, quote I said in my

775
00:39:56,680 --> 00:39:58,960
Speaker 1: little police cell, and I hummed a hum to myself.

776
00:39:59,080 --> 00:40:01,520
Speaker 1: I imagine that one they had totted up all the

777
00:40:01,600 --> 00:40:04,799
Speaker 1: depredations made on the access card. I would serve at

778
00:40:04,880 --> 00:40:07,200
Speaker 1: least two years in prison, two years in which I

779
00:40:07,200 --> 00:40:10,280
Speaker 1: could do some serious writing, perhaps even applied to retake

780
00:40:10,320 --> 00:40:14,759
Speaker 1: my A levels. I would emerge newly qualified, write a

781
00:40:14,800 --> 00:40:17,240
Speaker 1: postcard to my parents to let them know that everything

782
00:40:17,280 --> 00:40:22,280
Speaker 1: was all right, and then start life again properly. Right, Yeah, exactly.

783
00:40:22,320 --> 00:40:25,799
Speaker 1: It's like I need a hard reset. So he's like, okay, now,

784
00:40:25,840 --> 00:40:27,520
Speaker 1: the cops come in, they gank him out of the

785
00:40:27,560 --> 00:40:29,520
Speaker 1: cell and like, we need to take in an interrogation room.

786
00:40:29,520 --> 00:40:31,200
Speaker 1: And now might I say yank them They're like, you know,

787
00:40:31,480 --> 00:40:33,800
Speaker 1: hoisting them out of the chair. They're not American cops.

788
00:40:33,840 --> 00:40:36,239
Speaker 1: So this large, this young man gets taken in by

789
00:40:36,239 --> 00:40:39,680
Speaker 1: his interrogators and quote in the interview room, the same

790
00:40:39,719 --> 00:40:43,040
Speaker 1: two officers, a detective constable and a detective sergeant, played

791
00:40:43,080 --> 00:40:45,720
Speaker 1: that fiendish role game in which each of them adopts

792
00:40:45,760 --> 00:40:49,640
Speaker 1: a different stance towards the accused. The version they played

793
00:40:49,719 --> 00:40:53,799
Speaker 1: was nice cop and even nicer cop, each competing with

794
00:40:53,840 --> 00:40:57,120
Speaker 1: the other for the part of even nicer cop. So, no,

795
00:40:57,320 --> 00:41:00,680
Speaker 1: this is so far from my experience of police. Like, well,

796
00:41:00,680 --> 00:41:02,480
Speaker 1: I thought he was being sarcastic. When I read that,

797
00:41:02,600 --> 00:41:04,520
Speaker 1: I was like, oh man, I was like, waiting, he's not.

798
00:41:05,080 --> 00:41:08,520
Speaker 1: They literally were competing to get the role of nicer cops.

799
00:41:08,520 --> 00:41:11,200
Speaker 1: But they got what they wanted out of him. Oh yeah, totally. No.

800
00:41:11,520 --> 00:41:14,239
Speaker 1: The as a little friendly chack goes on, Stephen FBI

801
00:41:14,280 --> 00:41:16,239
Speaker 1: thinks to ask one question, the question I assume you're

802
00:41:16,239 --> 00:41:19,160
Speaker 1: still wondering, which is, how did y'all find right? So

803
00:41:19,480 --> 00:41:21,880
Speaker 1: I chewed my lower lip and pondered there was a

804
00:41:21,960 --> 00:41:24,279
Speaker 1: question that had been bugging me since my arrest. I

805
00:41:24,320 --> 00:41:26,399
Speaker 1: wonder if you mind me asking you something I said,

806
00:41:26,920 --> 00:41:30,000
Speaker 1: ask away son, Well, it's just this, how did you

807
00:41:30,080 --> 00:41:32,719
Speaker 1: find me? How did we find you? Yes, I mean

808
00:41:33,160 --> 00:41:35,240
Speaker 1: there you were in my hotel room. So the cops

809
00:41:35,239 --> 00:41:36,799
Speaker 1: were only happy to explain to it, like they're kind

810
00:41:36,800 --> 00:41:38,920
Speaker 1: of tickled by this really smart eighteen year old there

811
00:41:38,960 --> 00:41:43,520
Speaker 1: like it was your shoes, son, my shoes. And now, Elizabeth,

812
00:41:43,960 --> 00:41:46,440
Speaker 1: I'd like you to take a moment. I'd like you

813
00:41:46,480 --> 00:41:51,000
Speaker 1: to close your eyes and picture it. Yes, you're working

814
00:41:51,040 --> 00:41:54,239
Speaker 1: at the reception desk at the Wiltshire County Hotel. You've

815
00:41:54,320 --> 00:41:57,360
Speaker 1: left behind your life sweeping up elephant droppings at the circus,

816
00:41:57,680 --> 00:41:59,480
Speaker 1: and thanks to a cousin, you were able to secure

817
00:41:59,600 --> 00:42:02,239
Speaker 1: this sweet, sweet job. Now on this day, your keen

818
00:42:02,480 --> 00:42:05,400
Speaker 1: I earned you a promotion because there's all thanks to

819
00:42:05,480 --> 00:42:08,080
Speaker 1: your time at the circus and all those elephant droppings

820
00:42:08,080 --> 00:42:11,359
Speaker 1: that you knew to check the shoes. You see, you

821
00:42:11,440 --> 00:42:15,160
Speaker 1: always notice people's shoes because you become self conscious about yours.

822
00:42:15,640 --> 00:42:17,120
Speaker 1: You always want to know if there are any elephant

823
00:42:17,160 --> 00:42:19,799
Speaker 1: droppings when you're at work, So you're always checking your shoes,

824
00:42:19,840 --> 00:42:21,840
Speaker 1: and so became a habit. You looked at other people's

825
00:42:21,880 --> 00:42:24,480
Speaker 1: shoes and you notice the same young man who breathed

826
00:42:24,560 --> 00:42:27,200
Speaker 1: up to you earlier to the reception desk to check in.

827
00:42:27,280 --> 00:42:29,160
Speaker 1: You're like, oh, I remember him, and you watched him

828
00:42:29,160 --> 00:42:31,799
Speaker 1: walk across the lobby and his shoes they look like

829
00:42:31,840 --> 00:42:34,879
Speaker 1: they belong, in your words, to a tramp. So you're

830
00:42:34,880 --> 00:42:36,960
Speaker 1: watching him go across the lobby and you're just like

831
00:42:37,480 --> 00:42:42,239
Speaker 1: some tramp shoes, some busted up brokes. Right, so it's

832
00:42:42,239 --> 00:42:45,200
Speaker 1: not like the town trample who inspired Dolly Parton's whole Look.

833
00:42:45,239 --> 00:42:47,000
Speaker 1: I don't mean that type of tramp. I mean like

834
00:42:47,040 --> 00:42:50,000
Speaker 1: a hobo, right, Okay, So you watch this young man

835
00:42:50,080 --> 00:42:53,080
Speaker 1: walk across the hotel lobby, nice blue suit on. You're like,

836
00:42:53,160 --> 00:42:56,120
Speaker 1: suit looks nice, shoes, are busted up, has his own

837
00:42:56,120 --> 00:42:59,640
Speaker 1: credit card. That's interesting. He could afford shoes, yet they're

838
00:42:59,640 --> 00:43:02,520
Speaker 1: bust it up. So these shoes like he's like this

839
00:43:02,600 --> 00:43:05,000
Speaker 1: cat'smin ride in the rails. What's up with this? You know,

840
00:43:05,560 --> 00:43:08,839
Speaker 1: of course put in a British accent. Being nosy. You

841
00:43:08,840 --> 00:43:10,960
Speaker 1: look up his credit card information, the one he used

842
00:43:10,960 --> 00:43:13,400
Speaker 1: to pay for his room. You call the credit card company.

843
00:43:13,440 --> 00:43:16,000
Speaker 1: You say, excuse me, and I have this credit card

844
00:43:16,000 --> 00:43:17,640
Speaker 1: here and it seems to be a bit suspicious. They're like,

845
00:43:17,640 --> 00:43:20,000
Speaker 1: what does the name like? Oh, yes, that card has

846
00:43:20,040 --> 00:43:23,960
Speaker 1: been stolen. You're like, oh, dearie, that's overstepping. So you

847
00:43:24,760 --> 00:43:26,799
Speaker 1: up with a credit card company. You get out your

848
00:43:26,800 --> 00:43:30,239
Speaker 1: big scissors, and then you hop back on the phone.

849
00:43:30,239 --> 00:43:33,120
Speaker 1: You're like or actually, I'm sorry. You're rather like ship

850
00:43:35,040 --> 00:43:41,680
Speaker 1: ship ship. And then you phone the Bobby's and you're like, hello, man,

851
00:43:41,880 --> 00:43:45,640
Speaker 1: speak to a deputy inspector. Pickles put me on the line.

852
00:43:45,840 --> 00:43:50,720
Speaker 1: Pickles is flying squad? There where's DC? I Pickles? He busy.

853
00:43:51,280 --> 00:43:54,480
Speaker 1: So Stephen Fry would later say about you smart girls,

854
00:43:54,600 --> 00:43:58,520
Speaker 1: always look at the shoes first. You had busted him outright,

855
00:43:58,560 --> 00:44:02,200
Speaker 1: and the cops pointed out that Sherlock's Holmes once said

856
00:44:02,239 --> 00:44:05,440
Speaker 1: the exact same thing. So in Stephen Fry's eyes, you

857
00:44:05,480 --> 00:44:08,719
Speaker 1: are just as cunning as Sherlock Holes. Good on you, Elizabeth,

858
00:44:08,719 --> 00:44:11,080
Speaker 1: Thank you that going for you. I do thank you.

859
00:44:11,239 --> 00:44:14,799
Speaker 1: So Stephen Fry is being interrogated. He still hasn't told

860
00:44:14,800 --> 00:44:17,400
Speaker 1: the cops real name, so they don't quite know who

861
00:44:17,480 --> 00:44:20,160
Speaker 1: he is. They know he's Edward Bridges or whatever. So

862
00:44:20,239 --> 00:44:22,279
Speaker 1: they have no database of DNA to check and the

863
00:44:22,320 --> 00:44:24,400
Speaker 1: fingerprint data. They don't have anything they can go its.

864
00:44:25,440 --> 00:44:27,080
Speaker 1: So what are they gonna do. They have to get

865
00:44:27,080 --> 00:44:29,719
Speaker 1: his identity out of him, so they're like, well, we

866
00:44:29,760 --> 00:44:32,279
Speaker 1: gotta trick this kid somehow. So after they interrogate him,

867
00:44:32,400 --> 00:44:33,920
Speaker 1: the cops would leave in the room. One of the

868
00:44:33,960 --> 00:44:36,319
Speaker 1: cops sticks his head back of the room. This is

869
00:44:36,360 --> 00:44:38,920
Speaker 1: the even nicer cop. So even nicer cop tucks his

870
00:44:38,960 --> 00:44:40,719
Speaker 1: head and around the corner he says, oh, Stephen, one

871
00:44:40,719 --> 00:44:42,839
Speaker 1: thing I forgot to ask you, And Steven looks up, yes,

872
00:44:42,960 --> 00:44:46,360
Speaker 1: and he's like, so it is Steven, then huh Stephen

873
00:44:46,400 --> 00:44:50,040
Speaker 1: Fry and he's like, oh, dret So he got busted

874
00:44:50,080 --> 00:44:52,920
Speaker 1: on like the classic trek that people use like and

875
00:44:52,960 --> 00:44:54,920
Speaker 1: he even compares it to The Great Escape, which is

876
00:44:54,960 --> 00:44:57,799
Speaker 1: one of my favorite Stephen Queen movies. There's a suspicious

877
00:44:57,920 --> 00:45:00,400
Speaker 1: German guard at the end. Once they've made the escape

878
00:45:00,400 --> 00:45:02,200
Speaker 1: from the German prisons camp, they're about to get on

879
00:45:02,239 --> 00:45:04,319
Speaker 1: a train and one of the guys, the Englishman, he's

880
00:45:04,360 --> 00:45:07,920
Speaker 1: disguised as a German and the German guards like checking,

881
00:45:07,960 --> 00:45:10,120
Speaker 1: you know, paperwork for people getting on the train. He's like,

882
00:45:10,120 --> 00:45:12,319
Speaker 1: oh yes. He tells him, oh yes, good luck, and

883
00:45:12,360 --> 00:45:14,800
Speaker 1: the Englishman's like, oh thank you. We've been using German

884
00:45:14,880 --> 00:45:18,480
Speaker 1: up to that point. When speaks English, he like goes, yeah,

885
00:45:18,719 --> 00:45:22,560
Speaker 1: it's that whole like that wrote behavior. So Stephen fry

886
00:45:22,680 --> 00:45:25,520
Speaker 1: All people always respond to their real name, but not me.

887
00:45:25,600 --> 00:45:27,600
Speaker 1: I don't respond to my real name because I got

888
00:45:27,640 --> 00:45:29,399
Speaker 1: trained if I heard my name, Like, nothing good's coming

889
00:45:29,440 --> 00:45:32,759
Speaker 1: from this, so keep now, do you remember? Also though,

890
00:45:32,800 --> 00:45:36,360
Speaker 1: in The Inglorious Bastards, when Michael Fassbender holds up his

891
00:45:36,560 --> 00:45:40,799
Speaker 1: three fingers for counting for counting in Germany, the count

892
00:45:40,840 --> 00:45:42,960
Speaker 1: with the thumb is number one and then index fingers

893
00:45:42,960 --> 00:45:45,200
Speaker 1: two and we count index finger one. Yeah. I just

894
00:45:45,280 --> 00:45:47,640
Speaker 1: can always so tickled by those little cultural differences that

895
00:45:47,680 --> 00:45:50,239
Speaker 1: people can draw out. So the cops play that on him.

896
00:45:50,400 --> 00:45:54,080
Speaker 1: Its beautiful instinctual things. Yeah, So it's the nonchalant mistake

897
00:45:54,160 --> 00:45:56,280
Speaker 1: that gets him. That's how he gets caught, is first

898
00:45:56,320 --> 00:45:59,680
Speaker 1: by wearing incongruous shoes with his credit card and then

899
00:45:59,719 --> 00:46:01,879
Speaker 1: secondly being dumb enough to answer to his own name.

900
00:46:02,719 --> 00:46:05,640
Speaker 1: Young man's game stuff right there. So once he's busted,

901
00:46:05,640 --> 00:46:08,120
Speaker 1: it's even fight. He gets sent to prison. So this

902
00:46:08,160 --> 00:46:09,800
Speaker 1: is why they have to sort out all the charges

903
00:46:09,840 --> 00:46:11,680
Speaker 1: he's racked up because he's been moving around the country

904
00:46:11,760 --> 00:46:13,600
Speaker 1: and they're like, oh, we gotta find They gotta literally

905
00:46:13,680 --> 00:46:17,000
Speaker 1: track down all the paperwork. It takes the months. So

906
00:46:17,239 --> 00:46:19,000
Speaker 1: he goes off to prison and that's where his young

907
00:46:19,040 --> 00:46:23,200
Speaker 1: eyes lose their innocence. And I quote, the van stopped

908
00:46:23,200 --> 00:46:25,760
Speaker 1: at a large set of gates. What's this place called,

909
00:46:25,800 --> 00:46:28,520
Speaker 1: I asked the policeman cuffed to me. Didn't they tell

910
00:46:28,520 --> 00:46:32,560
Speaker 1: you a son, It's called Puckle Church. Puckle Church, I said, ah,

911
00:46:32,680 --> 00:46:37,279
Speaker 1: Puckle Church. But that's so friendly, it sounds so sweet. Well, lad,

912
00:46:37,360 --> 00:46:39,560
Speaker 1: said the policeman, getting to his feet, I don't think

913
00:46:39,600 --> 00:46:44,160
Speaker 1: that's precisely the idea. So Puckle Church is far from cute.

914
00:46:44,280 --> 00:46:47,040
Speaker 1: And while he's inside, he earns himself a prison nickname.

915
00:46:47,080 --> 00:46:50,200
Speaker 1: They can start calling him the professor because he's smart. Yeah.

916
00:46:50,239 --> 00:46:52,839
Speaker 1: I mean, the guy is an absolute genius totally, and

917
00:46:52,880 --> 00:46:55,239
Speaker 1: he wasn't like it's ridiculous house. Yeah, so like that

918
00:46:55,280 --> 00:46:58,440
Speaker 1: doesn't just suddenly show up in your twenties. I'm kind

919
00:46:58,440 --> 00:47:00,000
Speaker 1: of jealous, though, because I definitely want to be called

920
00:47:00,040 --> 00:47:08,120
Speaker 1: the professor if I was in prison, the dizzy will

921
00:47:08,160 --> 00:47:12,759
Speaker 1: Stephen France all walked out. Yeah. So he keeps his

922
00:47:12,800 --> 00:47:15,920
Speaker 1: sense of humor about him. And there's one favorite story

923
00:47:15,960 --> 00:47:18,000
Speaker 1: he likes telling on the talk show Circuit. I hinted

924
00:47:18,000 --> 00:47:20,719
Speaker 1: at it before, which is and I quote. I've said

925
00:47:20,719 --> 00:47:22,560
Speaker 1: it before in interviews and it's been taken as a

926
00:47:22,560 --> 00:47:24,800
Speaker 1: witty joke. But life in prison was a breeze for

927
00:47:24,880 --> 00:47:26,920
Speaker 1: me because at that point I spent most of my

928
00:47:26,960 --> 00:47:29,560
Speaker 1: life at boarding school. I didn't mean to suggest by that,

929
00:47:29,719 --> 00:47:33,200
Speaker 1: as was supposed that boarding schools are like prisons. I

930
00:47:33,320 --> 00:47:36,480
Speaker 1: meant that prisons are like boarding schools. I knew how

931
00:47:36,480 --> 00:47:39,000
Speaker 1: to tease authority enough to be popular with the inmates

932
00:47:39,000 --> 00:47:41,520
Speaker 1: and tolerated by the screws. I knew how to stay

933
00:47:41,600 --> 00:47:45,279
Speaker 1: cheerful and think up diversion scams and pranks. I knew, ironically,

934
00:47:45,800 --> 00:47:48,400
Speaker 1: given my inability to do so in real boarding schools,

935
00:47:48,480 --> 00:47:52,880
Speaker 1: how to survive. The boarding school had given him a

936
00:47:52,920 --> 00:47:56,000
Speaker 1: fully formed sense of life in prison. Always hear about

937
00:47:56,000 --> 00:47:58,200
Speaker 1: British boarding schools being hard like basically the British Navy

938
00:47:58,239 --> 00:48:00,640
Speaker 1: and British boarding schools two things I've never wanted to

939
00:48:00,680 --> 00:48:04,600
Speaker 1: have anything to do it, and he spent his whole

940
00:48:04,600 --> 00:48:08,200
Speaker 1: life up into that point creating all these like barricades

941
00:48:08,280 --> 00:48:11,279
Speaker 1: and safety measures in order to be him inside. So

942
00:48:11,320 --> 00:48:14,720
Speaker 1: he's used to pushing everything down to have like an

943
00:48:14,719 --> 00:48:18,560
Speaker 1: outside face to everything. Yeah, thank you know. He uses

944
00:48:18,560 --> 00:48:20,680
Speaker 1: his time inside to get ahold of himself and he

945
00:48:20,680 --> 00:48:22,440
Speaker 1: starts to figure out what it was that he really

946
00:48:22,440 --> 00:48:24,600
Speaker 1: wanted to do with his life, who he really wanted

947
00:48:24,600 --> 00:48:26,759
Speaker 1: to be other than like, you know, stealing credit cards

948
00:48:26,760 --> 00:48:28,880
Speaker 1: and buying blue suits. He's like, what do I really

949
00:48:29,080 --> 00:48:31,920
Speaker 1: want to be? He goes back to college. He then

950
00:48:32,080 --> 00:48:34,480
Speaker 1: gets into Cambridge after going to a city college, and

951
00:48:34,520 --> 00:48:36,759
Speaker 1: then that's where he meets you, Laurie, and the rest,

952
00:48:36,800 --> 00:48:39,839
Speaker 1: as they say, is history. So there you go. That

953
00:48:39,960 --> 00:48:43,600
Speaker 1: is his time idea. Right. He was a crimer and

954
00:48:43,680 --> 00:48:47,120
Speaker 1: part of the criming community. One of our is a

955
00:48:47,160 --> 00:48:52,480
Speaker 1: total rude dude. So what's our ridiculous takeaway, Elizabeth? Oh wow? Um.

956
00:48:52,520 --> 00:48:55,280
Speaker 1: I think what's interesting is that he was asked would

957
00:48:55,280 --> 00:48:58,320
Speaker 1: he have had his fame if he hadn't have gotten arrested?

958
00:48:58,360 --> 00:49:01,040
Speaker 1: And you think about at that time that that would

959
00:49:01,040 --> 00:49:03,120
Speaker 1: be the end of everything. Oh, now you've really blown it.

960
00:49:03,320 --> 00:49:05,759
Speaker 1: You've you know, done all these crimes. Now you're going

961
00:49:05,760 --> 00:49:09,799
Speaker 1: to prison, you have no future. And instead he just

962
00:49:10,000 --> 00:49:13,120
Speaker 1: opens it wide out and does what everyone would dream

963
00:49:13,160 --> 00:49:15,880
Speaker 1: of doing, of going to you know, an elite college

964
00:49:15,960 --> 00:49:19,560
Speaker 1: and creating this life for himself that is based upon

965
00:49:19,640 --> 00:49:21,960
Speaker 1: what he loves and what he's best at and what

966
00:49:22,000 --> 00:49:23,560
Speaker 1: he can give to the world. You know, he gets

967
00:49:23,600 --> 00:49:25,680
Speaker 1: to be his full self. Yeah, and he he meets

968
00:49:25,719 --> 00:49:30,760
Speaker 1: his best friend. So yeah, so and also, I know, ridiculous,

969
00:49:30,760 --> 00:49:35,240
Speaker 1: takeaway from me once again, thank you for asking. Prison

970
00:49:35,239 --> 00:49:37,359
Speaker 1: can be a good thing. I like, you will never

971
00:49:37,440 --> 00:49:40,160
Speaker 1: hear that from my lips, but apparently when it is

972
00:49:40,239 --> 00:49:43,200
Speaker 1: designed to be rehabilitative, and I don't mean the British

973
00:49:43,239 --> 00:49:46,640
Speaker 1: prison system. His view of prison, how he Stephen Fry

974
00:49:46,719 --> 00:49:48,480
Speaker 1: went through prison, He used it as a time to

975
00:49:48,520 --> 00:49:52,200
Speaker 1: better himself and then to re emerge and to rejoin

976
00:49:52,320 --> 00:49:55,360
Speaker 1: society as a version of himself that was not bitter

977
00:49:55,560 --> 00:49:58,360
Speaker 1: or angry, but instead was like, how can I become

978
00:49:58,480 --> 00:50:01,080
Speaker 1: the you know, somebody who can give to the community

979
00:50:01,120 --> 00:50:02,799
Speaker 1: what he ends up giving all of us, which is

980
00:50:02,800 --> 00:50:05,239
Speaker 1: his beautiful parts of himself, the best and brightest parts

981
00:50:05,280 --> 00:50:07,759
Speaker 1: of himself. And so in a lot of ways he

982
00:50:07,840 --> 00:50:12,320
Speaker 1: used the darkness to reveal his light. Yeah, well done. Anyway,

983
00:50:12,600 --> 00:50:14,600
Speaker 1: that's all I got for you. I love it. Thank you.

984
00:50:14,760 --> 00:50:18,040
Speaker 1: That's a good one pleasure. You can find his online

985
00:50:18,040 --> 00:50:20,520
Speaker 1: a Ridiculous Crime about Twitter and Instagram. Twitter, that's for

986
00:50:20,560 --> 00:50:24,000
Speaker 1: the discourse. Instagram that's where we put up pictures. Of course.

987
00:50:24,360 --> 00:50:28,600
Speaker 1: Now you can find hype pieces for both on Instagram

988
00:50:28,680 --> 00:50:31,840
Speaker 1: and Twitter, and you can always reach out to us

989
00:50:31,920 --> 00:50:36,000
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com. Once again, thanks for listening.

990
00:50:36,840 --> 00:50:44,840
Speaker 1: Thank you. Ridiculous Crime is hopsted by Elizabeth Dutton and

991
00:50:45,000 --> 00:50:47,640
Speaker 1: Zarin Burnett, produced and edited by the Lory to Our

992
00:50:47,719 --> 00:50:51,160
Speaker 1: Fry Dave Cousta. Research is by Nice Cott, Marissa Brown

993
00:50:51,239 --> 00:50:54,400
Speaker 1: and nicer Cop Andrea Song Sharpenedier. Our theme song is

994
00:50:54,440 --> 00:50:57,680
Speaker 1: by Thomas the Doctor Lee and Travis the Chef. Dot

995
00:50:58,000 --> 00:51:00,799
Speaker 1: Executive producers are Ben be Your Town on the Hill

996
00:51:00,840 --> 00:51:09,360
Speaker 1: Bowling and Nold Wine Town in the Hollow, Brown Dass

997
00:51:10,160 --> 00:51:15,799
Speaker 1: Quiet Say one more time We dequeous Crow. Ridiculous Crime

998
00:51:15,920 --> 00:51:18,360
Speaker 1: is a production of I Heart Radio. Four more podcasts

999
00:51:18,400 --> 00:51:21,480
Speaker 1: to my heart Radio visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

1000
00:51:21,600 --> 00:51:23,400
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.