This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Rich Hawkins: Do you think I'm like public enemy number one to the Dorothies?

[0:03] Jessica Daley: No, you put us on the map.

[0:06] Rich Hawkins: I don't think I'd put you on the map, I think you put yourself firmly on the map.

[0:18] Rich Hawkins: Hi everybody, welcome.

[0:20] Rich Hawkins: Episode one, I can sing.

[0:21] Jessica Daley: I can't sing.

[0:22] Rich Hawkins: Um really big week.

[0:24] Rich Hawkins: I got my official Lisa Scott Lee merch through in the post.

[0:28] Rich Hawkins: Uh I went to see Sunset Boulevard, Nicole Scherzinger kills it.

[0:32] Rich Hawkins: But most importantly, Mamma Mia! I Have a Dream dropped episode one.

[0:36] Rich Hawkins: Very exciting, which is what we're here to talk about, although the Lisa Scott Lee merch may pop up from time to time.

[0:42] Rich Hawkins: Um but before we do that, I have to introduce my wonderful guest.

[0:46] Rich Hawkins: She is a West End star.

[0:48] Rich Hawkins: She has done, she's done Les Mis, she's done Evita, she's done Mamma Mia, and iconic for me, she is one of the Dorothy Divas.

[0:48] Rich Hawkins: She is one of the originals. Welcome, Jessica Daley.

[1:00] Jessica Daley: Hello, thank you for having me.

[1:02] Rich Hawkins: Thanks for getting up on this rainy, rainy morning to talk to me about silly, silly TV.

[1:07] Jessica Daley: My absolute pleasure.

[1:09] Jessica Daley: I'm fantastic.

[1:11] Jessica Daley: I'm very tired because I'm just about to go on tour again.

[1:14] Jessica Daley: So I had to drive from London to Middlesbrough last night with a lot of my stuff.

[1:19] Jessica Daley: Um and I got home at half past midnight.

[1:22] Rich Hawkins: Oh no.

[1:22] Jessica Daley: So I'm okay.

[1:23] Jessica Daley: I'm okay.

[1:25] Rich Hawkins: I imagine the main thing that's in your mind right now then is um Mamma Mia! I Have a Dream.

[1:29] Jessica Daley: So this is perfect.

[1:30] Jessica Daley: Oh my god. Can't stop thinking about it.

[1:35] Rich Hawkins: Um what are you going into tour?

[1:37] Rich Hawkins: Let's do plugs, plug, plug, plug.

[1:39] Jessica Daley: I am about to open um well, we're about to go into tech for I Should Be So Lucky, which is the new Stock Aitken and Waterman musical.

[1:48] Jessica Daley: Um filled with lots of uh camp 80s classics, Kylie classics, so your gal, your gal Kylie came to visit us in uh rehearsals one day.

[1:59] Rich Hawkins: Yes.

[1:59] Jessica Daley: Yeah.

[2:02] Jessica Daley: Oh my god, absolute babe, and like so beautiful and so teeny and so fantastic.

[2:10] Jessica Daley: Like she was just at one point she's like slut dropped onto the floor, like dancing with everyone.

[2:15] Rich Hawkins: I'm like, oh that's kind of Kylie.

[2:19] Jessica Daley: Yeah, she's great.

[2:20] Rich Hawkins: Before we talk about Mamma Mia!, I obviously have to talk to you about Over the Rainbow.

[2:24] Rich Hawkins: For anyone listening who does not know why I why I'm even here.

[2:29] Jessica Daley: I read well, I loved Over the Rainbow when I when it was on TV, but I rediscovered it in lockdown and I watched all of it and then the Nancy's and then the Josephs and the Jesuses and the Maria's uh on YouTube and then started posting clips about it on TikTok, which lots of people watched and it became a bit of a thing.

[2:47] Rich Hawkins: Follow me, the boldest bitch, thank you so much.

[2:50] Jessica Daley: Um I listen, do I mildly, mildly take the piss out of it?

[2:56] Jessica Daley: Yes.

[2:56] Jessica Daley: Yes, I do, but with a true uh true love for the entire thing.

[3:01] Rich Hawkins: Um what are your like big reflections on that show?

[3:04] Rich Hawkins: Like what your main memories were like do you love it?

[3:07] Rich Hawkins: Like what's what how are you feeling about it?

[3:09] Jessica Daley: It's a lot of mixed feeling to be fair.

[3:11] Jessica Daley: Um majority was love, love, love.

[3:15] Jessica Daley: I mean, I am kind of slightly traumatized and didn't and didn't realise how traumatized I was when I've approached pop songs when I've come to sing pop songs since.

[3:26] Jessica Daley: Um because the whole singing pop songs as musical theatre will forever just be one of the ickiest things to me.

[3:35] Jessica Daley: I don't know, it's very, very strange, like how my feeling towards it has developed as the years have gone on.

[3:41] Jessica Daley: But um I actually was in a singing lesson over lockdown with um my singing teacher Dan Chalfin who is a legend, absolute wizard.

[3:50] Jessica Daley: Um and I was like do you know what today I haven't really got a song I need to work on but I'm gonna take the voice within because I've not touched I've not even wanted to touch that song since week two of Dorothy where Sheila Hancock put really put me through it.

[4:09] Rich Hawkins: Did she do it?

[4:11] Jessica Daley: Oh it was hideous I mean I don't think Sheila was my biggest fan anyway but it was just it just had so much trauma that week and I went to sing it and I was like my whole body reacted.

[4:24] Jessica Daley: It's really strange how like that's 12 years on or 13 years on or however long it was that my body was still reacting in that way.

[4:31] Jessica Daley: So I I clearly hold some little bits of trauma from it.

[4:35] Jessica Daley: I mean it is an intense thing right like you're on Saturday night telly and also this is in reality TV land like yeah 12 whatever years ago when kindness was not the top of everybody's uh agenda so it was like it was quite brutal at times.

[4:49] Jessica Daley: People were yeah it was and I t like I just turned 18 when I went on that show.

[4:56] Jessica Daley: Like I turned 18 in the November before and we were all so young I think um and because of that actually and I do see that within the Mamma Mia! show they're also young and quite tight knit from the first week what I can gather.

[5:14] Jessica Daley: And I think we all just wanted to get on and we all kind of formed this sisterhood which was so beautiful and it's it's such a unique kind of bond that we created because only the eleven of us will have experienced that particular thing.

[5:30] Jessica Daley: Um so that that was such a massive bonus, I think, and uh being at that age, and I will say the one thing that we are all so very grateful for during that time, the producers and the team made us delete all of the social media so that we weren't kind of focused on the water.

[5:48] Rich Hawkins: So you weren't looking at it all and whatever.

[5:50] Jessica Daley: Yeah, no, we weren't looking at it.

[5:51] Jessica Daley: I mean, we didn't have time to look at it.

[5:53] Jessica Daley: We were in the studio every every day till like God knows when, but it was we were kind of protected in that way from the world of social media, and I think it's vastly different now, and it's something that we all have spoken about and reflect on and are so grateful for that they really looked after us, especially because we were so young.

[6:14] Rich Hawkins: Um obviously I have to ask you about the way that they eliminated people on that show, because to it to be honest, the reason I w started watching it again during lockdown was because I remembered that and I was like, no, surely I misremembering what's happening here.

[6:30] Jessica Daley: And then I rewatched it, and so for anyone listening who doesn't remember, when somebody was um what I don't know what the polite way of saying it was, like eliminated.

[6:39] Jessica Daley: Eliminated, victory, evictor, dispigrate off.

[6:44] Rich Hawkins: Um they had to stand there and then the others would sing, we thank you very sweetly.

[6:49] Jessica Daley: You've killed her so completely, no, ditched her so completely.

[6:52] Jessica Daley: Then take your shoes off, give them to the other person who then gives them to Andrew Lloyd Webber, who's in a throne, and then you're in a moon.

[7:02] Rich Hawkins: Why are you in a moon?

[7:03] Jessica Daley: No one knows.

[7:04] Jessica Daley: I guess it's is it symbolic of a bubble?

[7:05] Rich Hawkins: We don't know, and then float it off, never to be seen again, at least by the audience.

[7:11] Jessica Daley: It's camp perfection to the viewer's point of view.

[7:16] Rich Hawkins: At the time, did everybody realise how absurd it was?

[7:20] Jessica Daley: Um, I think we were all just kind of riding the wheel.

[7:23] Jessica Daley: Um so I don't I they were just like, yeah, there's gonna be a moon.

[7:27] Jessica Daley: We were like, oh I was like, I'm scared of that.

[7:29] Jessica Daley: Yeah, I hope we strapped you in safety first.

[7:31] Jessica Daley: This is gonna go this is gonna go well.

[7:33] Jessica Daley: Um we had um we had a rehearsal, like a tech rehearsal with the moon, and I remember I've got like pictures from someone's digital camera at the time of like different people on the moon, like and all you had was like you sat on the on the perch and you just had a wrist strap.

[7:50] Rich Hawkins: Oh no, and that was it.

[7:51] Jessica Daley: And you hold the side.

[7:53] Jessica Daley: Can you imagine if someone had fallen?

[7:55] Jessica Daley: Like it was terrifying.

[7:57] Rich Hawkins: That would have been awful.

[7:59] Jessica Daley: Like in a big dress as well.

[8:00] Jessica Daley: We had a big dress, it was quite scary.

[8:02] Jessica Daley: But like also you couldn't when you were singing when you were going up, you couldn't hear anything.

[8:07] Jessica Daley: So I was like, oh my god, I can't did I sound crap?

[8:10] Jessica Daley: Like, did I sound good?

[8:11] Jessica Daley: I I don't know.

[8:12] Jessica Daley: Um, but yeah, it was it was daunting.

[8:15] Jessica Daley: It was very, very daunting.

[8:17] Jessica Daley: It was wild, it was wild, it was wild.

[8:18] Rich Hawkins: Anthony Lloyd Webber in a throne forever, forever.

[8:21] Jessica Daley: I mean listen, where he deserves to be, but I'm not I'm not taking it away from him.

[8:25] Jessica Daley: And I mean, I lost out to the winner, so I give my shoes to the women.

[8:29] Rich Hawkins: You did, so like listen, if not her, good.

[8:32] Jessica Daley: I think that's the way it goes.

[8:34] Jessica Daley: We're good, and she's one of my best mates now, so yeah, are the Dorothies all friends?

[8:38] Rich Hawkins: Is there a WhatsApp group? What's going on?

[8:39] Jessica Daley: Yeah, we we did have a WhatsApp group over lockdown.

[8:42] Jessica Daley: I think everyone's kind of doing their own thing, but we all are very good friends.

[8:46] Jessica Daley: And if we were to be back in a room together, it'd be amazing.

[8:49] Jessica Daley: We were actually before the pandemic, we were we'd got together and made this WhatsApp group because we were gonna do a little tenure reunion concert, um, which we thought would go down a storm.

[9:01] Rich Hawkins: I'd be there.

[9:02] Rich Hawkins: I'd have my tickets, don't you worry about that.

[9:04] Jessica Daley: Front row, front row.

[9:06] Jessica Daley: But um obviously the pandemic hit when we were like, oh, what can we do?

[9:09] Jessica Daley: So then we thought, let's do obviously jump on the video bandwagon, um, get people involved.

[9:15] Jessica Daley: We were like, should we just try and get in touch with Andrew, see see if he'll play so many and he did, and it was amazing.

[9:21] Jessica Daley: Yeah, it was for that like brief moment in lockdown we came back together again, it was really, really lovely.

[9:26] Jessica Daley: Um, but yeah, we're really we're good, we're good pals still.

[9:29] Jessica Daley: Everyone's still kind of good.

[9:31] Rich Hawkins: It's nice to check in with them now and then.

[9:32] Rich Hawkins: Is there like a street gang rivalry with the Nancy's?

[9:35] Rich Hawkins: Are we all like that would be a musical.

[9:39] Jessica Daley: Oh my god, the Nancy's are so glorious.

[9:42] Jessica Daley: Imagine.

[9:43] Jessica Daley: Oh I wouldn't know where to go.

[9:45] Jessica Daley: No, I'd be Team Dorothy, I think, but it'd be it would be a struggle.

[9:49] Jessica Daley: To be fair, with that, with the whole like Nancy's Maria's thing, it's you you bump into these people over the years, and it is like an unspoken kind of bond that you have.

[10:00] Jessica Daley: Like I remember, I think it was before I sang Cabaret on the live show, um, and the VT was rolling, and I was setting up on stage, and I looked into the audience and I saw Sam Barks and Neve Perry sat together and they were like, Woo!

[10:13] Jessica Daley: And I was like, Woo and then like ever since, like I I kind of had that interaction uh with them.

[10:20] Jessica Daley: I mean, when I was working at Art Ed, Sam popped in to watch a show at Art Ed one day, and I was working behind the bar and she was like, Oh my god, hello!

[10:27] Jessica Daley: Like, and it's just this unspoken bond that when you work with these people, you're like, I know what you went through.

[10:33] Jessica Daley: And obviously, so many people have gone on to have these amazing stage careers, which is actually I was thinking about it like for a reality competition show, it's quite rare that a large number of people who go on who go on those shows end up doing the career that they're trying to do like think about X Factor like there's a little mix and there's like a few but and most people don't become pop stars whereas loads of um the alum of those shows have gone on to have these amazing careers yourself included like it's a nice it is a really nice um it's nice to see people out there doing well I guess.

[11:04] Jessica Daley: Yeah doing well it's it is and it's really nice to follow people um and especially like when before I went on the Dorothy programme like I grew up watching the Maria the Josephs and Nancy's like and to watch them go on and do great things like I was such a huge fan of Jessie Buckley like such a huge fan like her performance of the man that got away is like a car memory for me like watching it on that Saturday night and thinking oh my god I love that song I think she's absolutely wonderful and she's really inspired me and then to see how her career is just absolutely catapulted.

[11:40] Jessica Daley: Oscar norms incredible, absolutely incredible. And like they give her loads of stick, like so much stick. Like I remember just because she wasn't a dancer and she wasn't a mover and she had very little experience at the time, but then look at her now, she is just flying and it's just incredible.

[11:58] Um, it's amazing, but yeah, it is. It's great and it's weird. Like I had the full circle moment, the show of doing the Wizard of Oz last year. And when I got that job, I mean when I got the job and didn't get to, there's nothing to do with Dorothy. I was like, this is where I'm meant to be. I'm meant to be the witch. And it just all makes sense. Not everyone's Dorothy. Some of us are witches. And I think we should live, yeah, and stand in our truth, loud and proud.

[12:29] Rich Hawkins: 100%, yeah.

[12:30] Jessica Daley: I think I've always related to the witches. You've seen my TikTok. Do you think I'm like public enemy number one to the Dorothys?

[12:40] Rich Hawkins: It sits heavy on my heart.

[12:42] Jessica Daley: No, you put us on the map.

[12:45] Rich Hawkins: I don't think I'd put you on the map, I think you put yourselves firmly on the map.

[12:48] Jessica Daley: No, but it's like, it's so funny how lockdown brought everyone back together watching it. And then to see your TikTok, I was like, no, this is comedy.

[12:59] Rich Hawkins: Because it is comedy.

[13:00] Jessica Daley: It is comedy. It is just the definition of camp.

[13:03] Rich Hawkins: It really is.

[13:04] Jessica Daley: No, I love, I absolutely love your TikTok. It really made me laugh. And that's why I was like commenting, like, notice me, notice me.

[13:10] Rich Hawkins: And then I did.

[13:11] Jessica Daley: I was like, no, not top five, Dorothy.

[13:16] Rich Hawkins: And here we are.

[13:17] Jessica Daley: Here we are. So, Mamma Mia, the new one. Let's talk about this episode.

[13:22] Rich Hawkins: So, first of all, it opens with a really long exposition about what Mamma Mia is. And I'm feeling like we all know what Mamma Mia is.

[13:30] Jessica Daley: They do this really long explanation. I'm like, who's watching this show being like, oh no, never heard of ABBA? Um, but you know, I guess nice to set the scene. And then we meet our stars in the way that I think is the only way we should have met them, which is in a group performance of I Have a Dream, where one of them's building a table out of wood, one of them's on a boat, one of them's pegging the washing out.

[13:52] Rich Hawkins: Beautiful.

[13:53] Jessica Daley: It's just beautiful work. I just thought, I love all of this. I mean, the production value is through the roof, isn't it?

[14:00] Rich Hawkins: Like, this is not a Saturday night at Fountain Studios.

[14:03] Jessica Daley: They have found the budgets.

[14:06] Rich Hawkins: They have budget.

[14:07] Jessica Daley: Um, do you know what? I was super impressed with that opening. But I was like, oh my god, it's like the movie.

[14:13] Rich Hawkins: Yeah, it is like the movie.

[14:15] Jessica Daley: It's exactly like the movie. I was hooked. I was absolutely hooked. Um, yeah, I was a big, big fan of how they did it, and I think it was a really solid representation of what Mamma Mia is.

[14:28] Jessica Daley: I also, um, I controversially don't like that song. Um, and there's not many ABBA songs I don't really like, but for something about that one, I think because I associate it with the Westlife version, and I love Westlife, but it doesn't work for me.

[14:40] Rich Hawkins: Like I don't know that that Westlife song, and so I've blamed Benny and Bjorn, I think.

[14:43] Jessica Daley: I'm not sure, I don't want to unpack it. But I thought it was beautiful. I thought it was a really nice way to open a show, set everybody up, give everyone equal screen time, doing odd jobs around the hotel.

[14:56] Rich Hawkins: Pegging out, pegging out the...

[14:57] Jessica Daley: Listen, someone's gotta put the washing out. Like there's a lot of contestants, a lot of costumes. It's a cost of living crisis. There are no tumble dryers. What can we say?

[15:09] Rich Hawkins: Yeah, they are in Greece.

[15:10] Jessica Daley: That's another thing. They're in Greece. I'm like, okay, we're not in Wembley now.

[15:14] Rich Hawkins: Yeah, are you absolutely living?

[15:16] Jessica Daley: I suppose where would you have gone though? I mean, they're not gonna send you to like the Emerald City, are they?

[15:20] Rich Hawkins: So send me to Kansas.

[15:22] Jessica Daley: Oh yeah, oh yeah, Kansas. Send me to America, you know, like no.

[15:28] Rich Hawkins: Um, I'd be terrified of tornadoes, to be fair.

[15:30] Jessica Daley: That's great, and that's why I'm not right for Dorothy, terrified of tornadoes.

[15:34] Rich Hawkins: Then they all go to their villa. Um, I feel like every reality TV show nowadays is a group of 18-year-olds living in a villa.

[15:40] Jessica Daley: It can be any genre, they always live in a villa.

[15:42] Rich Hawkins: Literally. Lucky them.

[15:43] Jessica Daley: And then Zoe Ball walks in.

[15:45] Rich Hawkins: I love Zoe Ball.

[15:46] Jessica Daley: She's so funny.

[15:46] Rich Hawkins: I love Zoe Ball.

[15:47] Jessica Daley: I love her.

[15:49] Rich Hawkins: I just love her on the radio.

[15:50] Jessica Daley: Yeah, her radio show is so warm. I just think she's perfect for the show as well, I think, for that reason.

[15:54] Rich Hawkins: I think she's absolutely wonderful.

[15:56] Jessica Daley: Very like mothering person. I feel like she'll be nice to all of them, and that's what they need.

[16:00] Rich Hawkins: How do you, so at this point they don't really know what the format's gonna be, I presume. How do you think they're feeling about this whole process?

[16:10] Jessica Daley: I mean, they are probably like, I'm in Greece, I'm living my best life. What is happening? At this point, I'm kind of like, I look back on my experience and how I felt and I just kinda, I don't know whether it's because I knew that I'd got into drama school and that if everything didn't work out then I'd be like fine. But I just really roared the wave and the role of Dorothy was actually just kind of just a part of it.

[16:45] Rich Hawkins: Weirdly.

[16:46] Jessica Daley: Weirdly, yeah, I just kind of wanted to stay in to have a great time. So I don't know whether they would be so focused on the actual like I wanna be Sophie or whether they're just like I just wanna soak this up as much as I can because they're in Greece. It's like all expenses paid. They're living their best life.

[17:07] Rich Hawkins: Then we meet our judges.

[17:09] Jessica Daley: So we meet Samantha, she gives us her little taste of Frozen, um, which I saw her in.

[17:15] Rich Hawkins: It's great.

[17:16] Jessica Daley: Um, I haven't seen it.

[17:17] Rich Hawkins: Oh, it's so good, it's really good.

[17:19] Jessica Daley: I wasn't sure because I don't, um, I don't not like Disney movies, but I'm not like bothered.

[17:24] Rich Hawkins: Um, but it's actually really good.

[17:26] Jessica Daley: The only part of it though, it's like hmm, the um, the dress reveal is amazing, the way they do it, like because obviously she goes into, but I go to see a lot of drag shows, and so they do a dress reveal unlike anybody else.

[17:39] Rich Hawkins: Well, I was like, this is amazing, but like I know a few people lose.

[17:42] Jessica Daley: But you need to watch and learn things.

[17:44] Rich Hawkins: Yeah, literally.

[17:45] Jessica Daley: Um, then obviously Samantha talks about Nancy and her coming out of one of these shows. I think it's amazing for her that to have that trajectory that she's been on over like Nancy was a few years before yours, right?

[17:57] Rich Hawkins: So like 16, 17 years.

[18:00] Jessica Daley: Um, she's had an incredible run.

[18:03] Rich Hawkins: Yeah, she's had an incredible run, and I think like again, she's just so talented but so lovely and so warm and humble, and I think that's really served her well over the years.

[18:14] Jessica Daley: Um, Jessie Ware.

[18:17] Rich Hawkins: Oh my gosh, I'm such a fan of her.

[18:18] Jessica Daley: Jessie Ware is everything. I love her.

[18:21] Rich Hawkins: She had that was a the lockdown kind of moment.

[18:24] Jessica Daley: I feel like she really emerged in lockdown.

[18:26] Rich Hawkins: Um, my gosh, the album, um, what's uh, what's the album called?

[18:30] Jessica Daley: It's called, it's called, hang on. I can't remember.

[18:35] Rich Hawkins: Can't remember the name of the album, but it's a great album.

[18:38] Jessica Daley: But every day I had that album on in lockdown. Every day in my car. Jessie, um, is so, uh, she's I think she's very naturally like this, but the way she like serves gay people everything they want.

[18:52] Rich Hawkins: Like there's something about her, and it's like just everything about her.

[18:56] Jessica Daley: You can just tell she has a lot of gay friends. I think it's probably just that, but like she's very, uh, she's kind of camp, she's very like musical theatrey, her pop music, like even the fact that she self-defines in that VT as like hi, I'm Jessie Ware, I'm a pop star.

[19:09] Rich Hawkins: I'm like, I know you are a pop star, but that's very funny.

[19:14] Jessica Daley: She's great. I love her. And she just always looks incredible.

[19:17] Rich Hawkins: She's always given me like Liza.

[19:20] Jessica Daley: Like you know, like the sequined Liza era.

[19:25] Rich Hawkins: Yeah, she is.

[19:25] Jessica Daley: She's very, uh, well, I suppose she does a lot of disco music, so maybe that's what she's channeling, but I see that sequins all over the place.

[19:31] Rich Hawkins: Oh, she's so talented. Love her.

[19:34] Jessica Daley: Um, Amber Riley, who I am not a Gleek, but I did see her in Dream Girls, and it blew me sideways.

[19:44] Rich Hawkins: Her voice.

[19:45] Jessica Daley: Yeah.

[19:45] Rich Hawkins: Oh my god.

[19:46] Jessica Daley: Are you a Gleek?

[19:48] Rich Hawkins: Um, I'm not a geek.

[19:50] Jessica Daley: Like I wasn't obsessed.

[19:51] Rich Hawkins: I watched it.

[19:53] Jessica Daley: But then, yeah, I wasn't like, oh my god, I love everyone.

[19:56] Rich Hawkins: Like I wasn't an obsessed fan.

[19:58] Jessica Daley: I just, I didn't look that deeply into it.

[20:01] Rich Hawkins: Yeah, I mean, but I didn't enjoy it.

[20:02] Jessica Daley: I appreciate it.

[20:03] Rich Hawkins: I wouldn't overanalyze it.

[20:04] Jessica Daley: The Britney Spears episode is quite good.

[20:08] Rich Hawkins: Overanalyzing Glee. What does it all mean?

[20:10] Jessica Daley: Nothing.

[20:11] Rich Hawkins: What does it mean?

[20:11] Jessica Daley: Nothing doesn't mean any technique.

[20:13] Rich Hawkins: But um, no, the Britney Spears episode is...

[20:16] Jessica Daley: And as I said, Amber Riley and Dream Girls. I don't know if she ever does it again. Everyone needs to go and see it. It's incredible.

[20:21] Rich Hawkins: Incredible.

[20:23] Jessica Daley: Um, and then we have Alan Carr, who I think is amazing because I love in his VT, he was just like, listen, everyone's gonna be like, you can't sing, you can't dance, why are you here? Well, look at all my awards. I'm on the stage all the time.

[20:33] Rich Hawkins: But I get it.

[20:34] Jessica Daley: I get having someone like that on the panel because he's obviously very successful from having a presence on stage, and I think it's really important.

[20:46] Rich Hawkins: I think there are so many, um, you can have all of the talent and the skill in the world, but if you go on stage and you can't sell it, he owns it.

[20:55] Jessica Daley: Even like when Adele had to go and get a makeup fix and he stood up and sang for her, like hilarious.

[21:02] Rich Hawkins: Shouldn't have been hilarious.

[21:04] Jessica Daley: Yeah, what was he singing?

[21:05] Rich Hawkins: Um, was it like make you feel my love? Like a really big song, but like I wouldn't attempt for sure.

[21:12] Jessica Daley: Yeah, but I think he's, I think he's funny.

[21:14] Rich Hawkins: I think Alan Carr is great.

[21:15] Jessica Daley: I do too.

[21:16] Rich Hawkins: I love Alan Carr.

[21:16] Jessica Daley: So I think it's actually a really fun judging panel. It feels like they like each other.

[21:21] Rich Hawkins: Yeah, when Jesse and him are just sat there watching this, yeah, just fully taking the piss.

[21:26] Jessica Daley: They are a little bit.

[21:27] Rich Hawkins: Yeah, talking of, so then they all go into their rehearsals with Martin and Anthony, who I truthfully don't know, but they seem nice.

[21:36] Jessica Daley: Anthony is a leg.

[21:37] Rich Hawkins: I mean, I'm not overly familiar with Martin.

[21:40] Jessica Daley: Um, but Anthony is, I've met him once when we were in Mamma Mia. We did the 15th anniversary of Mamma Mia, like at the Oliviers, so we did a performance with Benny and Bjorn.

[21:52] Rich Hawkins: Um, no big deal.

[21:54] Jessica Daley: I know, no big deal. Rocking to work on a Sunday on the day off, and it was like on the tick list in like signing in list. It's like Benny tick, Bjorn tick. I was like, oh casual.

[22:05] Rich Hawkins: Um, but yeah, and Anthony is, um, he came in to do a bit of choreography and stuff, and he's, I mean, he's worked wonders, like he's incredible.

[22:14] Jessica Daley: And then, yeah, my favourite part of the rehearsals was when Samantha Box and Amber Riley jump up to help with very serious, helpful critique and advice, and then Jessie Ware and Alan Carr just sit and take the piss.

[22:26] Rich Hawkins: Just like I feel like there's probably a bottle of wine offshot, like they're just very chilled, which is actually really weird because Jessie Ware's an amazing singer and probably has a lot to say offer, but is sitting back at this point, especially within the world of like the musicality of the show.

[22:43] Jessica Daley: I think because, as we say, it's like I say this is a traumatic part of the whole competition thing, but it's something that I've learned over the years since doing that competition. It's having the style correct but then also being able to cross over to the musical theatre side of things without giving up the style.

[22:56] Rich Hawkins: Yeah, yeah.

[22:57] Jessica Daley: And I think musically in order to do that, and I think this is why Jessie Ware's so brilliant because it's a pop musical. Um, in order to do that you have to immerse yourself and you have to be really familiar with pop music. I always say this, like when I'm teaching people, when I've got new students at home, I'm like, if you want to get good at a certain style and you want people to not only go, oh, they can sing that style, but oh wow, they really own that style, you have to immerse yourself within the world of that style and listen to a lot of that music and that you can't help but then channel it through because you've heard stuff and you've took stuff on board.

[22:56] Jessica Daley: So, um, I think having her as a pop star and kind of bringing them back into the pop side of things, yeah, is really useful to nail the style because when you audition for Mamma Mia, they're like no vibrato and people are like, oh, people from the world of musical theatre are like, oh that's really scary, like no vibrato because that's what you're taught at college to sing with vibrato and it's musical theatre and it's Broadway belt, but actually when you listen to the style and if you inhabit the style that comes out naturally and you don't even think about.

[24:31] Rich Hawkins: Okay, Judy Kramer arrives.

[24:33] Jessica Daley: Oh Judy!

[24:34] Rich Hawkins: That's intense for them, I imagine. I wish I I'm I feel like I want her to not maybe not be a judge, but I want her on a throne. I feel like that's part of the legacy of these shows that I want to bring back. Put Judy on a throne.

[24:46] Jessica Daley: I get the vibe that's not really her personality. But that would be fun for me.

[24:50] Rich Hawkins: No, but it would be really good TV.

[24:53] Jessica Daley: Wouldn't it? Like just the four judges there and then her just on the throne.

[24:56] Rich Hawkins: Yeah. Do you know what? I have a really vivid memory of Judy. I met I think I met her once, like at the opening of our opening night or whatever. And all I remember is there was three pims and I kind of nearly dropped my pims and I think it splashed on her shoe and I just was terrified.

[25:16] Jessica Daley: Oh, not Judy.

[25:19] Rich Hawkins: I feel like she has very expensive shoes. Her outfits on the show looked amazing, so I feel like I mean she always looks incredible, but she's lovely. She's really lovely.

[25:27] Jessica Daley: It's um but I was like, Oh my god, I like spill pims on her shoes. I'm gonna get fired. That's all I remember. When I think of Judy Kramer, all I think is Oh shit, I spilled pims on her shoes.

[25:40] Rich Hawkins: Um I feel like someone probably did that on this recording because they're all sat around their pretend restaurant. Alan Carr's probably got the red wine on the go.

[25:48] Jessica Daley: Yeah. Um they go into their performances. Before we do that, imagine you were gonna do an ABBA song. Like what's your on a on a stage? What what would be the one?

[26:00] Rich Hawkins: I've always loved Thank You for the Music.

[26:03] Jessica Daley: Oh, okay. Later, ABBA.

[26:05] Rich Hawkins: Alright.

[26:06] Jessica Daley: Yeah. Yeah, I it's something about that song I just always I always sang it growing up. Um I think I don't know, I've such a do you know I l I used to love that um the big pop mix that all of them.

[26:21] Rich Hawkins: Yeah, Steps, Cleopatra, Tina Arena, a bunch of them, yeah.

[26:25] Jessica Daley: Yeah. And I it finished on Thank You for the Music, and I think I just used to The thing about Thank You for the Music that I always think is a bit brutal is because it's like um I'm nothing special, I'm a bit of a bore. Um it's written by her ex-husband. By that point they've divorced and then he's written a song for her that's like I'm really boring and no one likes me, but I'm a good singer.

[26:48] Rich Hawkins: Like Benny or Bjorn, whichever one it was. They were like crazy.

[26:54] Jessica Daley: I feel like I would want to do Fernando.

[26:58] Rich Hawkins: Oh I'd want to be dressed as Cher in Mamma Mia 2.

[27:02] Jessica Daley: I would wanna spot somebody from across the Taverna and just go Fernando?

[27:09] Rich Hawkins: Fernando And then go into it. Like I wanna re I only want to do that whole scene because it's I mean it's my I think it might be my favourite thing that's ever happened in a movie. Like the way they that that character only exists so that at the end of the movie Cher can spot him and then say Fernando Uh so iconic.

[27:29] Jessica Daley: It's honestly Cher is the fact that she said what does she say? She says something about little girl. She says, um well so Sophie says to her, uh But grandma, you weren't invited.

[27:41] Rich Hawkins: And then she goes, Well that's the best kind of parody little girl.

[27:41] Jessica Daley: Well that's the best part of kind of parody little girl. Oh who cast Cher and Mamma Mia, I need to give them flowers or something. Amazing.

[27:53] Rich Hawkins: So good. Um okay, so then we go into our performances. Um we start with money, money, money. Stephanie's our panto queen, Maddy is our Bolton bar worker. Love.

[28:03] Jessica Daley: My favourite thing was when she said, So I must leave, and then she backwards one dived off the piano. Very Cheryl Cole on the voice, which I appreciate.

[28:15] Rich Hawkins: Uh that was my favourite moment of the song. Loved it. Um I actually used to love that song growing up. I've just like kind of had a weird nostalgic feeling of like, oh, I was singing it in my house. It's quite a fun one to sing. Like if you're at home alone, you can just like really charge around the house, you know?

[28:30] Jessica Daley: Yeah. And oh I d on our last matinee of Mamma Mia, this is quite naughty. So, like last matinees, I don't know if you know. On a last matinee, sometimes that's when everybody does pranks and and changes stuff. But you have to do it cleverly, like within the realm of like people in the audience wouldn't notice, but people on stage would.

[28:49] Rich Hawkins: Um and me and my friend Steph, who were Ali and Lisa, weren't in that number on stage, but we learnt it for the last matinee, and we went on. We're like, ah, duh do whatever it is. It's like money, money.

[29:06] Jessica Daley: Um yeah, that was funny. It just made me think of that.

[29:08] Rich Hawkins: That's funny. Our judges give basically no notes on money, money, money. They don't have a whole lot to say. They are being very positive and very kind.

[29:17] Jessica Daley: Yeah.

[29:18] Rich Hawkins: But they don't have tons to say. The only person who really has a note was Amber, who said, um of the meaning.

[29:26] Jessica Daley: Sing out Louise!

[29:27] Rich Hawkins: Yes, exactly that. It is, that's the note.

[29:32] Jessica Daley: Um everyone else was just like, that was really good, we love it. Which is yeah, you know.

[29:37] Rich Hawkins: I sort of hope that they get I don't want them to get mean or make people feel bad, but I hope that they are able to relax into maybe giving a few more like constructive moments.

[29:47] Jessica Daley: Yeah, I well, I think do you know what? It was really hard. I what I wanted them to do solo from the get go. I think the format and how they're they did it I get it, and it's kind of replacing like the earlier stages within the audition process.

[30:03] Rich Hawkins: Um it's replacing the Dorothy farm. It's replacing the top 20 where where they do the four we did it in groups of four and I think it's really hard then you kind of know that nobody's gonna get voted off because I think it's really hard to judge that and vote somebody off from doing joint performances sometimes.

[30:23] Jessica Daley: Um and I know that you are they all had their kind of bit to sing but I'm here for the solos man.

[30:31] Rich Hawkins: I am too I can't wait well so if I was there I would want my solo moment I mean that I I think I but maybe it's more indicative of my personality than the need to change the format but I want my moment.

[30:31] Jessica Daley: yeah well you're on national TV and you want that it's really hard to then if you get like a line here and there to make your moment in the line and it's just it's hard it's harder than having a solo and just kind of owning your own moment um for like a minute and a half or whatever.

[30:59] Rich Hawkins: But um I think it is really hard to get a fair fair kind of critique yeah from it.

[31:06] Jessica Daley: I think so too.

[31:06] Rich Hawkins: Yeah and I mean the next group there's three of them which is even harder like they have to do SOS. So we've got Craig our beautiful beautiful man.

[31:16] Jessica Daley: Hello say hi.

[31:18] Rich Hawkins: Um Tobias Somerset boy and then um Marcellus who's 36.

[31:24] Jessica Daley: He's 36 he's older than me with that skincare routine. Like that is wild.

[31:29] Rich Hawkins: He's he's yeah, I'm gonna need that. Right.

[31:33] Jessica Daley: Um their performance. So they're doing SOS.

[31:38] Rich Hawkins: It's a lot of um back to camera, turn to camera, back to camera. It's very Westlife.

[31:44] Jessica Daley: It's very sort of early straight. Give me West Life.

[31:46] Rich Hawkins: It gave me West Life. And then the rain, the biblical rain give me West life.

[31:51] Jessica Daley: Yeah.

[31:52] Rich Hawkins: Um but I thought it was I thought it was really strong. I think they're all really strong. Obviously they had that they made the thing of, oh, they had an illness this week and which I d which happened to be which is quite funny.

[32:04] Jessica Daley: Um I completely lost my voice.

[32:05] Rich Hawkins: Yeah, but vocabulary.

[32:07] Jessica Daley: And I couldn't I couldn't sing all week. And the first time that I sung was on the dress rehearsal on the Saturday.

[32:12] Rich Hawkins: And then went on.

[32:13] Jessica Daley: And killed it.

[32:15] Rich Hawkins: Yeah.

[32:15] Jessica Daley: Yeah, she does. Smashed it, absolutely.

[32:18] Rich Hawkins: Absolutely destroyed. That is how you do it, ladies, Dorothy's.

[32:24] Jessica Daley: Um but yeah, go flipping back to the to the guys, I think like obviously it's always hard when you're not feeling 100%.

[32:30] Rich Hawkins: Um I think that's it's something that will inevitably be part of their careers moving forward. It happens to the best of us.

[32:39] Jessica Daley: Like it's about being able to grow reground and navigate and know your voice well enough to know, oh I can flip it into there or there or there and or knowing when to call it quits.

[32:51] Rich Hawkins: Um so yeah, as as they said, like they Amber said she had no voice and she had to do it.

[32:57] Jessica Daley: Yeah, I thought that and she said she got the b one of the best reviews of her life for and I am telling you, which is I mean, how do you say that with a bad voice?

[33:06] Rich Hawkins: But sometimes sometimes not overthinking and just working with I the one of the best pieces of advice that I got given from my singing teacher was wake up and work with what you've got that day.

[33:17] Jessica Daley: Okay, what have we got today? Okay, I'm working with this.

[33:19] Rich Hawkins: Okay, we're gonna work around that. And that just takes the pressure off.

[33:22] Jessica Daley: And I think if they can learn that, and if they did learn that from that week, then that's fantastic.

[33:28] Rich Hawkins: Um but yeah, I I loved Craig.

[33:31] Jessica Daley: Um I I thought they were all great. I did love Tobias.

[33:33] Rich Hawkins: I thought Tobias the pipes.

[33:35] Jessica Daley: I was like, wow.

[33:36] Rich Hawkins: I'm like, ooh, it's one time.

[33:37] Jessica Daley: Yeah, I think Tobias is one to watch. That voice is amazing.

[33:40] Rich Hawkins: I was really, really impressed. I mean they're all great, but Tobias in particular stood out and was like, okay, okay, singing.

[33:46] Jessica Daley: Oh yeah. I don't have any um I can't sing, and I have no knowledge of singing. So my my whole critique is like, okay, singing.

[33:55] Rich Hawkins: Good.

[33:57] Jessica Daley: Great singing. Very nice.

[34:00] Rich Hawkins: Yeah. Our next group is Knowing Me, Knowing You. So Darcy from Hampshire, construction worker, love.

[34:06] Jessica Daley: And Callum who's a dinner lady.

[34:08] Rich Hawkins: Oh, I love that he's a dinner lady.

[34:11] Jessica Daley: That is absolutely adorable.

[34:14] Rich Hawkins: It's so good. Just going to playground and like helping them just live their lives.

[34:19] Jessica Daley: I don't know. I love that. Callum's a meeting. Like breaking up breaking up the four-year-olds is what he said, didn't he?

[34:24] Rich Hawkins: Um, no, but I I think I mean Darcy's clearly like leaning man material. You can see that he kind of like oozes the charm.

[34:31] Jessica Daley: And I think Callum, I I'm always a fan of an underdog. I ain't gonna lie.

[34:36] Jessica Daley: Like, I think vocally, stylistically, he really brings something different and new and um not that this is the thing as well. I'm like, Sky doesn't really do I thought this when I went to see it the other day, I'm no one whispering into this mic. Um don't tell anyone, but I was watching it and I was like, he doesn't really have many moments. Like he's very there to support Sophie's story. He doesn't even have a solo, does he?

[35:04] Rich Hawkins: No, I mean he does that bit in Lay All Your Love.

[35:06] Jessica Daley: Yeah. But um, I mean, it's some lovely like acting moments, some lovely scenes and stuff like that. So maybe maybe we'll see more on that front in the weeks.

[35:14] Rich Hawkins: Yeah, it's a lot of acting, it's a lot of like there's that brilliant scene where they're all in their, like flippers and whatever, like marching along. It's like funny physical comedy and stuff to do.

[35:22] Jessica Daley: So that'd be interesting to see. Yeah, there's a few good scenes, but singing wise, I mean like doesn't have to sing as much as Sophie does. Um and but I did think Callum's voice was I think I think I like an underdog. I like somebody who starts out like he's got potential and he can he could go somewhere.

[35:43] Rich Hawkins: Um, and I think that's maybe what we might see, hopefully.

[35:47] Jessica Daley: Um, but yeah. Very good. Well done, boys. Um next they had my song, Fernando.

[35:54] Rich Hawkins: Leah and Esme.

[35:56] Jessica Daley: Very good. Yeah, Leah, Leah is from my neck of the woods, so I'm like team Leah. Leah is an early fave for me. There's something about her. I think it's the I mean she's a great singer, but the charisma, she seems so charismatic and so um sort of uh you could just feel her like energy when she's performing stuff.

[36:15] Rich Hawkins: I really liked her.

[36:15] Jessica Daley: I was a big fan of the fan.

[36:16] Rich Hawkins: Yeah, it's that T-side charm, my friend.

[36:18] Jessica Daley: T T T Side. They don't make it like that anywhere else.

[36:21] Rich Hawkins: That's what we always say.

[36:22] Jessica Daley: Um yeah, she is she's really I I I did because she's again so young and she says that.

[36:28] Rich Hawkins: Um Yeah, she's 18, right?

[36:29] Jessica Daley: Oh sure. She's I think 20.

[36:32] Rich Hawkins: Okay.

[36:32] Jessica Daley: Still 20. Um, but I mean, I briefly spoke to her yesterday and just said like ride the wave and like you're repping our area. It's such a big thing for our area to have somebody on mainstream TV, and it's repping the area in the best way possible. And I was like, just like ride the wave. Love it, love it, love it. Smashing it.

[36:55] Rich Hawkins: Um so proud of her.

[36:57] Jessica Daley: Don't even like literally spoke to her for the first time yesterday and so proud of her already.

[37:01] Rich Hawkins: Yeah she's great.

[37:01] Jessica Daley: I love her a lot. They were both great.

[37:03] Rich Hawkins: And also they're they had the wind on this show is crazy. I feel like they go to Crete expecting this amazing but they then get this like Beyonce hair moment with that wind's going.

[37:12] Jessica Daley: I was like oh some people just carry it with them don't they?

[37:16] Rich Hawkins: I'm I I don't carry it with me. I don't have any hair so it doesn't work for me.

[37:21] Jessica Daley: Um next up we had Zach and Owen Waterloo.

[37:25] Rich Hawkins: Oh now this I feel like you can imagine how I feel about this.

[37:29] Jessica Daley: Oh the way they clung onto those menus they were not letting them go. The menus were front and centre. The acting on this is it's a big performance and I musical theatre really is like every word, every sentence, everything is acted out very physically um and I was obsessed with it.

[37:50] Rich Hawkins: So this is kind of what I wanted.

[37:52] Jessica Daley: The chemistry between them as well really was present. Like you could really tell they got on really well and you know that there is there is that in the show. I think it's because as much as Sky is the romantic lead there's all sort like the stag party and and stuff like that.

[38:11] Rich Hawkins: So it makes perfect sense and it worked really well.

[38:13] Jessica Daley: I yeah absolutely loved it. Great prop work, great choreo, camp it up I loved it. Big big fan.

[38:19] Rich Hawkins: We love a prop, we love a prop.

[38:21] Jessica Daley: The way it was like hold the menu to the front to the side up and down like yes keep that menu baby. I loved it.

[38:27] Rich Hawkins: Um and then our final one Chickatita, which I think is a very hard song because French and Solders ruined it for me by their parody of it is so funny that I can't I hear anything else.

[38:41] Jessica Daley: So every time that song comes on, I just hit see Dawn French as Julie Walters doing Chicken Tika, tell me what's wrong.

[38:50] Rich Hawkins: So good.

[38:51] Jessica Daley: Um iconic. So that's Stevie Desmondda and Maisie. Maisie's a factory worker. Nice little detail. Um great. They all sound amazing. Desmondda, I thought was amazing. Something about stern. Whoa, I was like, you have it.

[39:11] Rich Hawkins: Yeah.

[39:12] Jessica Daley: Well, she's been one to watch for a couple of years in the world of musical theatre.

[39:16] Rich Hawkins: Yeah.

[39:17] Jessica Daley: Um so to see a pop-up like this, I'm like, I'm not surprised. Like, I mean, she's perfect.

[39:22] Rich Hawkins: It's she's perfect.

[39:23] Jessica Daley: It was I think it was I think this vocally was my favourite of the night, the three of them. I think it came together really well. It felt like a almost like a girl band that they saw their voices really came together really nicely.

[39:32] Rich Hawkins: Um yeah, I thought individually they were all really, really strong.

[39:36] Jessica Daley: Um, and I really liked Stevie as well. I really like her voice.

[39:39] Rich Hawkins: Um, but yeah, I thought together the blender was great.

[39:42] Jessica Daley: The the festival choreo was killing me.

[39:46] Rich Hawkins: Yeah, like little folk festival, like where I come from in Dorset.

[39:49] Jessica Daley: I love that we have this like the Dorset folk festival, and everyone gets together and you like hold a ribbon and like run round a May pole, and then you do like it was really giving me like the the the yeah, the village folk festival.

[40:02] Rich Hawkins: It was giving me like dance festivals like when I was a kid, like the the 10 to 12 orphan national solo section, and I absolutely loved it.

[40:11] Jessica Daley: Um but again it's it's a prime example of like Mamma Mia adapting this just bonkers kind of collection of different style and like it just works.

[40:23] Rich Hawkins: The um the thing about ABBA as well, ABBA uh in all Mamma Mia or otherwise is that actually when you read the words to the songs, they're often like really sad or really like emotional, but then they've got these like disco pop beats behind them.

[40:36] Jessica Daley: So then you have to like dance along, you're like, oh, this person's living an awful life, but let's disco.

[40:41] Rich Hawkins: So that it was a l it was a little bit that maybe, but um I thought it was great.

[40:46] Jessica Daley: I was a big fan. The judges were like, we love it. They didn't have any the just were very enthusiastic, and I was like, hey.

[40:51] Rich Hawkins: 10 out of 10, no another.

[40:52] Jessica Daley: Correct, yeah. Correct, Jesse Ware, you're absolutely correct. Once again, we're on the same page.

[40:56] Rich Hawkins: Um that was it.

[40:58] Jessica Daley: And then we had this like pretend moment where they were like, Oh, maybe let's get Judy, everyone goes home. They're probably pissing, like, it's absolutely piss it down on them, so they're probably all soaked.

[41:08] Rich Hawkins: Judy comes over and leans over the desk and they do like a pretend discussion, I'm assuming.

[41:13] Jessica Daley: And then no one goes home. And I I think they should have just said nobody's gonna go home the first week.

[41:21] Rich Hawkins: It's an intro episode.

[41:23] Jessica Daley: I think like no fault of anybody involved, like the talent or anything like that, but I think we should have just said, oh, this is the introduction.

[41:31] Rich Hawkins: Yeah.

[41:32] Jessica Daley: Like you're not like strictly introduced.

[41:33] Rich Hawkins: Yes, where they do the couples, yeah, yeah.

[41:36] Jessica Daley: I agree. It should have been that.

[41:36] Rich Hawkins: It should have been that.

[41:38] Jessica Daley: It should have been uh instead of being that, oh no one's going home. I'm like still an intro episode.

[41:43] Rich Hawkins: It's so um it it's just such an anti climax because they build the episode around like um everyone's really nervous about who's gonna go, and they kind of do that all the way through, and then nothing nothing happens.

[41:55] Jessica Daley: Whereas I think you're right, if it was like we're gonna get to know everybody and then the competition really starts next week, then you'd be like you set the expectation.

[42:02] Rich Hawkins: I think that's what I kind of missed actually, is when you cut out the earlier auditions, you lose that kind of oh, you pick your favourite from the beginning, you follow their journey and you really get to know them, and you get to know different people, people have different like, oh, I'm from this neck of the woods and this is my favourite thing, and I'm like they go into their school and and stuff like that.

[42:27] Jessica Daley: And I feel like maybe that is to come.

[42:29] Rich Hawkins: Yeah.

[42:30] Jessica Daley: But I feel like from the get-go, you see people at the auditions, and you're like, oh, there's something about them that I really like, and then you follow them for the weeks.

[42:37] Rich Hawkins: And I think we've cut straight to the chase here, and we've gone straight into the main competition.

[42:42] Jessica Daley: And I kind of miss the charm of the old.

[42:47] Rich Hawkins: Yeah, I know what you mean.

[42:47] Jessica Daley: Because you don't even get because there's a lot of them there, and they were doing a lot of performances and and whatever.

[42:52] Rich Hawkins: We didn't even really, apart from very short VTs to tell us basically where they're from and what they do for a job, we didn't really even get to know like anything about them.

[43:01] Jessica Daley: So you slightly lacked up.

[43:02] Rich Hawkins: I don't know who they are.

[43:03] Jessica Daley: Like, I want to know, especially before those some of them start going home, which I imagine they're gonna have to do in chunks, because I think we've only got five weeks and there's fourteen of them.

[43:10] Rich Hawkins: So um I want to know them.

[43:12] Jessica Daley: And I think you're right, the audition thing, 'cause it does feel a bit like who are these people? Like you just picked seven boys and seven girls and then who we all have.

[43:18] Rich Hawkins: I just missed it a bit.

[43:19] Jessica Daley: Yeah.

[43:20] Rich Hawkins: I really enjoyed the episode.

[43:21] Jessica Daley: I thought it was really fun.

[43:22] Rich Hawkins: The talents were really strong, and it's a lot and it's not it, so you can't go wrong.

[43:26] Jessica Daley: But it does lack a like I I don't know what the story is of this show.

[43:30] Rich Hawkins: Like, what's the yeah and if you're not I'm intrigued to know how it rolls out.

[43:33] Jessica Daley: And on the previous ones, the story was the the public vote and like the jeopardy of who's gonna go home and stuff, which I'm sure was horrendous if you were in it, but from the public point of view, it gives us something to root for.

[43:45] Rich Hawkins: We're like waiting to know, and it's an anticipation.

[43:47] Jessica Daley: Well, we don't have that with this one, so you're like, I need something more.

[43:51] Rich Hawkins: Um how do you think they will do the eliminations?

[43:57] Jessica Daley: I would hope that they put them in a boat.

[44:01] Rich Hawkins: Yeah, we too.

[44:02] Jessica Daley: I want them to put them in dungarees and then just like kick them off a cliff into the ocean or something. Just no death, no death. Just like just the dramatic, or like I don't know.

[44:12] Rich Hawkins: Or like you know that bit where Merrill Street thrall falls through the roof and lands on a back.

[44:16] Jessica Daley: Yeah, fall through the roof.

[44:17] Rich Hawkins: Maybe maybe that?

[44:18] Jessica Daley: I don't know.

[44:19] Rich Hawkins: I mean, do you know what? Like, uh we can I think I'm more than qualified enough to be able to go in hard and want the worst.

[44:28] Jessica Daley: You uh I went through it.

[44:29] Rich Hawkins: Yours yours was truly the worst, the most brutal one.

[44:32] Jessica Daley: I think sailing away there's something so sad about there's like that awful yeah, it's like a an awful like Instagram filter where it's like somebody on a um you get that your head on this like boat sailing on a river.

[44:44] Rich Hawkins: It's like a weird like filter.

[44:47] Jessica Daley: Um and I feel like it'd be really funny if they're really funny, that's really mean.

[44:53] Rich Hawkins: But again, I don't think it's as brutal, so I'm allowed to say that.

[44:56] Jessica Daley: We need a little bit of like a few.

[44:57] Rich Hawkins: Yeah, sending them back to the mainland would be putting them on yeah putting them in a little boat and just pushing the boat away.

[45:04] Jessica Daley: Goodbye.

[45:05] Rich Hawkins: Like she does at the end of the show.

[45:06] Jessica Daley: Yeah, and they'd have to sing.

[45:07] Rich Hawkins: They'd have to sing.

[45:08] Jessica Daley: I suppose they'd have to sing I have a dream, which is very sad because it's like, well, you had a dream, but we've just sailed you away from it, so maybe you don't know You have a dream, oh but it's not coming true.

[45:22] Rich Hawkins: And that and that's the real world, honey.

[45:25] Jessica Daley: Welcome to theatre, darling.

[45:28] Rich Hawkins: Oh welcome to the business.

[45:31] Jessica Daley: Um but yeah, I'd be that'd be yeah, funny.

[45:34] Rich Hawkins: Um I think that's fine.

[45:36] Jessica Daley: Yeah, maybe maybe the boat.

[45:37] Rich Hawkins: Yeah.

[45:37] Jessica Daley: I'm looking forward to seeing I hope that it is something very, very inventive.

[45:42] Rich Hawkins: I feel like it's not gonna be, that's my truth, but we'll find out.

[45:45] Jessica Daley: We'll find out next week.

[45:46] Rich Hawkins: Yeah.

[45:47] Jessica Daley: And there we go. That was episode one of Mamma Mia.

[45:50] Rich Hawkins: I have a dream.

[45:52] Jessica Daley: Thank you so much for joining me and talking about a Mamma Mia themed reality TV show.

[45:58] Rich Hawkins: It was very fun.

[45:59] Jessica Daley: I mean, nothing more that I would want to do with my Wednesday morning off.

[46:04] Rich Hawkins: After a massive long drive last night.

[46:05] Jessica Daley: I'm sure, I believe you, yeah.