What do we have in common? Short attention spans...
JOOLS HOLLAND AND JIM MOIR, (VIC REEVES), TELL MARION McMULLEN ABOUT THEIR FUN NEW PODCAST
You’ve been friends for more than 35 years and are now doing new podcast Joyride. What traits do you have in common?
Jim: We’re both very excitable and intrigued by things and .... Jools: (Laughs) We’ve both got quite short attention spans. Jim: We’re very inquisitive and I think doing the podcast helps... We do things that we like doing. I think the only way things can work well is if you enjoy doing them. Jools: Exactly. You’ve got to love what you do and love the people you’re doing it with. Jim: When we first started doing it I don’t think we had much of any plan to be honest. You follow the trail and see where you go with it.
Guests include Bob Mortimer, Jane Horrocks and Chris Difford. How would describe the podcast?
Jools: It’s like having a chat with friends. These are people we know and love, but might see once a year in the pub or at a party and it’s great having time with and having a chat. I hope the listener feels they are at the table with us. Jim: (Smiling) It’s eavesdropping. It’s travel and transport, but it’s really just a route to yarns and what we can prise out of guests. Jools: In a formal chat show you get someone flogging something. Here you get people telling stories and get a sense of who they are, which is great. Jim: I think some people were thinking it’s all about cars, but it’s not in the slightest. It’s quite the opposite to be honest. Food and travel, that’s what everyone does isn’t it, so everyone has got a story. Jools: Once people know it’s me and Jim, I think guests realise that the podcast is going to be fun and easy and relaxed.
Has it been hard staying at home because of the pandemic?
Jim: I can travel around my land, I can go a short distance in a car and go for a walk. I miss getting on a train and going places, but we’ll be back to normal before you know it. Jools has his model railway so he can travel quite some incredible distance. Jools: Yes, I can go from my model of St Pancras onto my model Eurostar all the way across Europe to Berlin in the space of about 60ft, but I did find it bit upsetting when I realised I couldn’t do it in reality. I was re-enacting something no longer actually possible to do.
Most of my travelling, which I enjoy doing, is 98% through my work because we are travelling to shows around the British Isles and Europe. That’s my world, but we can’t do that now.
When I’m on tour I make a point of seeing sights and maybe taking an extra few days somewhere if it’s somewhere nice, so I do miss that.
What do you miss most?
Jim: The thing I probably miss most is going to a restaurant. I’m not much of a pub-goer, but I do like a restaurant so that’s me.
A year ago Bob (Mortimer) and I went on a mini tour about eight dates, eight places, just telling stories of our lives in showbusiness.
It was kind of organised because I said I’d like to go to Buxton and just have a nose around there.
We’ve done this before. I’ll be sitting in a van with Bob and will say ‘Can we go to Melton Mowbray to try the pork pies?’
That’s what I want to do. Just go somewhere and nose around. Jools: I like being on tour and sightseeing, but not everyone likes looking at stuff. There’s a great singer, Louise Marshall who sings with us, but hates travel. We’ve taken her to a lovely castle or gardens to look at or a sacred site, or a few stones from the Neolithic period in a foggy field somewhere and you never get her out the car.
We went to one of those fantastic abbeys up in Yorkshire noted to be one of the most beautiful sites in Britain. It was ravishingly beautiful and she just went ‘Urgh’ and threw a blanket over her head.
What is on your travel wish list?
Jim: I’ve been thinking about this, especially this past year. You put things on a back burner and can end up in your grave and not done anything.
I’ve always wanted to go to Yosemite National Park and I think I’ve just got to go and do it. Jools: Yosemite is where I believe they have the gigantic redwood trees and they have an arch carved out of them.
There are photographs from 1960s of a bloke with all his family all waving out of them. I was so impressed by this that, when we built the studio where we now do the podcast, I put one of those trees there by the entrance so eventually it will grow into this great thing and you’ll be able to drive through it.
But apparently you’ll have to wait 500 years. Jim: I went to Sequoia National Park which has the General Grant Tree which is the biggest tree in the world and it’s a sight to see. The top of it is in the clouds. It’s like 5,000 years old or something.
I’ve got a lot of places I really want to go and see before it gets too late.