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Speaker 1: My Heart podcasts here, more Gold one on one point

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Speaker 1: seven podcasts.

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Speaker 2: Playlists and listen live on the Free iHeart app.

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Speaker 3: Jersey and Amanda jam Nation.

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Speaker 1: N Elton has entertained us for other thirty five years

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Speaker 1: with his humor, his wit, his life insights and his storytelling. Well,

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Speaker 1: he's now written an autobiography called What Have I Done?

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Speaker 1: And he joined us now. Ben High, Hello.

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Speaker 3: Thank you for having me on the show. It's always

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Speaker 3: good to talk to you.

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Speaker 2: What have it you done? And as I was reading

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Speaker 2: this book, I've read a lot of your fiction work,

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Speaker 2: which I always love. And as I was reading this book,

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Speaker 2: I thought, well, why was he didn't written a book

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Speaker 2: about himself before? It's almost You pretty much answered that

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Speaker 2: question straight away, And it was a pretty tough time

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Speaker 2: when you first embarked on writing a book back in

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Speaker 2: twenty twelve about yourself.

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Speaker 4: Yes, I'd never particularly up until quiet, well up until

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Speaker 4: twenty fourteen, really, I'd never thought about writing a biography.

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Speaker 4: I always thought it was a bit funny writing them,

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Speaker 4: you know, when they were really quite young. But obviously

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Speaker 4: you get famous, you get off of the book deal,

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Speaker 4: and I guess you do it. Sometimes people are write

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Speaker 4: more than one biography. My very dear friend Stephen Fry's

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Speaker 4: got three out and I don't think he's out of

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Speaker 4: short trousers yet. But anyway, I didn't think about it

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Speaker 4: for most of my life, but then after Rick died,

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Speaker 4: and also I had a particularly you know, I was

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Speaker 4: in a bit of a career slump and feeling very

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Speaker 4: slightly sorry for myself, which is unlike me, very kind

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Speaker 4: of angry about a lot of things about Rick's early death,

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Speaker 4: and so I dropped it. But then quite recently last year,

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Speaker 4: you know, my mom died, which left me a very

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Speaker 4: old orphan, and also there's quite a bit of dementia

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Speaker 4: out about and in my family, and I just thought

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Speaker 4: it was time.

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Speaker 1: I loved reading about your university years, and obviously the

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Speaker 1: places that you were living gave birth to the young ones.

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Speaker 1: But it's such a love letter to Rick mail. You

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Speaker 1: said the second you saw him, you pretty much fell

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Speaker 1: in love with him.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it was, it was.

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Speaker 4: I mean, it looked like a like all love affairs,

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Speaker 4: this one was very much a platonic love affair. But

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Speaker 4: I did love him. It was kind of love at

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Speaker 4: first sight. He was a third year, I was a

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Speaker 4: first year, so that was, you know, he was very impressive.

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Speaker 4: He was incredibly handsome. I'm not normally a great you know,

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Speaker 4: one who notices male beauty, you know, but no one

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Speaker 4: could ever fail to look at Rick and not be

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Speaker 4: incredibly struck by his sort of mesmerizing.

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Speaker 3: He was mesmerizing, and he had immense star quality.

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Speaker 4: And he was the star of a student show that

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Speaker 4: they put on for fresh a week, and I described

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Speaker 4: in the book just how even though he was a

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Speaker 4: kind of spotty twenty year old third year in a

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Speaker 4: cold big coat and a cold autumn day in nineteen seven,

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Speaker 4: he literally controlled the room so beautifully and we became

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Speaker 4: friends very quickly. Aid was in that show as well Edmondson,

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Speaker 4: and was also brilliant, but he was much more difficult

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Speaker 4: to get to know.

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Speaker 3: We've been close friends ever since. He came up with

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Speaker 3: the title what Have I Done?

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Speaker 2: And then that's what you said in the start of

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Speaker 2: the book. The BBC passed on a new show that

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Speaker 2: you and he were working on it in twenty twelve.

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Speaker 2: I find that extraordinary that someone would pass on Rick

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Speaker 2: Male and.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, had a BBC knocked him back. It was they

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Speaker 4: thought he was too big a present for BBC. One

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Speaker 4: they were aiming for a sort of family audit. I

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Speaker 4: don't know what they were aiming for.

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Speaker 1: I like how you're right about You knew you could

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Speaker 1: write gags, but writing a long form comedy or a

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Speaker 1: story was a different a different story and the length

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Speaker 1: and breath of how your brain works with Blackadder, I mean,

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Speaker 1: was it your Did you have a childhood love of history?

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Speaker 1: Where does the stuff come from?

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Speaker 3: I think, yeah, I talk.

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Speaker 4: I mean the book's you know, got lots of great

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Speaker 4: anecdotes in it, I hope, lots of stories. You know,

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Speaker 4: how I saved Stephen Fry's life, Robert de Niro eating

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Speaker 4: my food, George Harrison tried to get.

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Speaker 3: Me to drink my own weed. If you want to

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Speaker 3: know why, you'll have to look in the.

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Speaker 1: Book or come to see you talk about it exactly.

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Speaker 1: Going to be coming to Australia to talk about all

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Speaker 1: the stories in the book.

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Speaker 4: I am, indeed, And because of course there's a huge

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Speaker 4: Australian element of the book.

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Speaker 3: I mean more than an element.

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Speaker 4: I mean, when I was twenty eight, my life became

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Speaker 4: half Australian, you know, and it's partly because of Rick Mayl.

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Speaker 4: Rick Mail and I were coming to tour Australia, and

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Speaker 4: the Australian Unions in those days insisted on two Ozzi's

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Speaker 4: for every Pom on any bill, you are to employ

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Speaker 4: two Australians. And to our great good fortune, our our

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Speaker 4: Ossie promoter, Michael Edgeley booked an old girl banned from

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Speaker 4: Perth and I ended up marrying the bass player and

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Speaker 4: my life changed completely because you know here, I am

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Speaker 4: an Australian. I'm not just an Australian. I've got an AO.

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Speaker 3: I'm an Order of Australian. And let me tell you now,

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Speaker 3: the Poms haven't given me anything. That's for sure, a

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Speaker 3: ninety ball rick, can you believe that nothing? Anyway? So HG.

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Speaker 4: Nelson, my dear friend who was on my British show

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Speaker 4: back in the nineties with Roy is Coming, is going

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Speaker 4: to talk to me about my book on stage live

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Speaker 4: and we'll take some questions. So you know, if you

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Speaker 4: want to come along, I'm sure with HG there it'll

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Speaker 4: get it'll get rough and ready.

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Speaker 3: You could come along and see me canceled. It could happen.

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Speaker 3: You never know, because we're going to be being very honest.

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Speaker 3: I'm not going to stand in our truth.

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Speaker 2: Maybe if you go full gandy and start drinking a

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Speaker 2: cup of your own around there.

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Speaker 3: That could be a thing. Yeah, take George Harrison's advice. Finally,

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Speaker 3: it was very loving.

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Speaker 2: You might have missed You might have missed out on something, Ben,

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Speaker 2: It might be really good.

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Speaker 3: Did I've got to be honest, there's pretty much.

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Speaker 4: I pretty much do anything for a beetle, but not that.

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Speaker 2: Ben Elton. It's always great to talk to you. For

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Speaker 2: tickets to see Ben Elton on tour, head to fane

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Speaker 2: dot com dot are you and check out his new book,

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Speaker 2: What Have I Done? It's available right now. It's a

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Speaker 2: great read.

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Speaker 3: Ben, thank you for joining us. Thank you so much.

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Speaker 2: Good idea