117: From Green Party Victory to War in Iran

0:00I'll see you guys in the next video! Hi everybody, welcome to episode 117 of the Alexi Cell podcast. Just me and the team man this week that's a lot of potty potty y'all with my crew and so yeah that's supposed we should concentrate on current affairs I the first of all I said just

1:01what a joyous day it was Friday really I was doing some filming I had to go fairly and I was about the driver to put on radio for today program when it started at 6 a.m. and it was just joyful to listen to the news of the the green selection yeah I mean with Bob you know I got I quickly caught it on the TV just before I left and yeah it was it was a wonderful day really and on the way back I listened to five 5 p.m. show on ready for again the call going back and it's just you know by then they you know they're starting to you're very secure but it's you know it's you it feels highly significant really that I mean by 5 p.m. they started to what well they were kind of you know

2:02getting in their excuses and there was more you know you know more more centrist pundits being wheeled out to you know save it it's very crap yeah but you know it really it hints at the I mean you can you can think you can thank your party in a way that I sort of feel like your party awaken this consciousness amongst people you know the launch of your party in the age of a thousand do registered you know they're interested them you know then that dissolved into kind of infighting and people were left looking for a home and the greens were there to offer that and I think there's a you know it's really potentially really I mean seismic I think because it also shows that the people were united to keep out reform and they were now united around the greens rather than the stinking late party so you know I don't you know I mean there's a long

3:07way to go yet but I'm always reluctant to make predictions but it feels really it feels really significant I mean I hope that God the late party is finished but it it you know it was just a joyful day and then of course Saturday back back back to less than zero really I mean yeah but I mean it's it's I mean it's I mean it's been apparent I mean in terms of you know the issue that the you know concerns us the most which is well because it's a it's a moral well whether this issue of Israel I think it seemed for a long time that the the destruction of the apartheid state of Israel is not going to come via military means so that those military forces that the powers of Israel vestibule the

4:10secular forces the you know popular fronts with liberation and all that and then these lambist forces have been you know are in retreats or being defeated really that the the the the destruction of of Israel as an apartheid state is kind of conform surely is kind of come from the west and a green government in Britain would be would go a long way I mean and obviously I mean support for the Zionist state is also collapsing in the United States it's difficult to see how that confined I mean a majority now I think and a majority of people in the United States are supportive of Palestinians opposed Israel that's it that's a that's a stunning change now how they find expression for those views seen as I mean our politics is obviously obviously to a degree bought and paid for by Israel lobby but this that is much more the case with the Democrat party in the United States so I don't know how people find expression for that I mean

5:13Zora Mandami shows that it can be done but the need you know you really need to somehow remove I mean I'm not an expert on your response expert you clearly need to remove those dinosaurs of people like Chuck Schumer and see how you know those terrible terrible people I do notice that in the Guardian today it's at the Gavin Newsom the governor of California and somebody who is you know running to be the presidential candidate for the Democrats actually referred to Israel as an apartheid state which is quite a oh quite a I think it's slightly caveated but it's quite a it's quite a statement coming from a kind of centrist Democrat isn't that the leap from what his usual start massive yeah I don't know whether he might be whether he'd try and walk that back on up but yeah it is it seems significant really and I mean if if if yes he likened Israel to

6:20an apartheid state while he's brooding his memoir it breaks my heart because the current leadership in Israel is walking us down that path where I don't think you have a choice about that consideration when thinking about the military partnership with Israel he said that to say this in America's interest to say this in America's interest at a time when affordability is at crisis level you have an administration that literally got elected saying this is exactly opposite of what they would ever consider doing it's true because Trump yeah bloody murdered himself as the peacetime president I don't know whether he's doing it because you know he's Israeli his Israeli backers million adults and the people who've given him hundreds of million dollars are demanding that he go along with the I don't I don't I don't you know I can't really speak to Trump's motivation whether he just I mean but it is clear that Israel is winning the you know that it is winning militarily but one can see that in

7:26its greatest moment of triumph maybe it's maybe also be it's it's greatest moment of defeat really there I think people I imagine the average person is appalled by the you know torpedoing the warship in international waters for instance yeah the destruction of the you know the expansionist aims in southern Lebanon and the bombing of Terran really is that that all really I mean leads you know any any right-minded person to be you know even if they're not politically engaged it's just repelled by these actions and we can we can only you know we can only maybe have done in that I'll say that moment of greatest triumph is also their moment of greatest defeat we know that war time is what makes people just kind of support whoever's in charge or like

8:27rally behind their government well yeah I mean I mean I think this is exceptional I know Linda said there was an article in Harris yesterday saying that the young people in in Israel are even more right-wing and reactionary and you know ethno fascist and the older generation if that is possible and that that is a disparity you know but I mean I mean to deliver a policy obviously of the right of Netanyahu to keep his rather than the state of permanent war and therefore to ensure support for them really yeah I think it's less true in the United States because it isn't it isn't a sort you know that I don't know I mean that you know militarism is I mean the United States is not at risk you know the United States is doing this after choice and

9:28it's a long way away and I think you know I think people I don't feel that but well I yeah polls show the people of I've not the fact that is that the United States is bombing Iran has not led to an absurd patriotism in fact it's led to the reverse really it feels more like a Vietnam than a rock this time yeah they don't have like this 9-11 to hang there are exactly and they're also is you know Gavin Newsom points out really they're also you know this is this every miss every half million dollar missile is money that's coming out of their health budget out of there I mean life expectancy is plummeting in the United States I mean I think the average Chinese person now lives 20 years longer than the average person in the US the infrastructure I imagine as people tell me I've been there for years but people tell me you see a lot of

10:30really crumbling infrastructure again this is all money that is being spent to aid Israel and in its apartheid ethnic cleansing ambitions you know these millions and millions of dollars billions trillions of dollars being expended money that is clearly coming out of social care and infrastructure in the United States to to bolster the aims of this insane ethno fascist state in the Middle East and I you know I think that again the neutral of the right-thinking person in the United States would see this really and really want to do something about it so it's at the beginning I was hearing a lot of people saying that this was all just a distraction from the Epstein you know Malaki yeah how much of that do you think is actually yeah

11:34I don't know I mean it's possible I think I don't know how much trouble he's in with that he's certainly he just kind of denies it and side tepsis I don't know I mean it's certainly a possibility that this is all that this is all being done or it's partly being done to dive in from me partly yeah seems a lot more thought out now that you consider that you know they secured the Venezuelan oil in time to start this war in the Middle East yeah maybe they were even thinking about it from back then I wonder sometimes an easy win you know like the West doesn't easy winning Kosovo and when it's you know against the Serbs and then in Liberia and that led them into the Murat thinking that they would have an easy win in Iraq which turned out in a sense not to be the case so I honestly don't know enough about you guys politics

12:35mind you think says it's all everything all roads lead to Israel really because like Iran was the last kind of anti-Israel stronghold in the Middle East all the other Arab countries at Kowtow and yes they're taking their ties and their deals with Israel normalized relations in Iran were the only one but what I hate seeing is this kind of rallying behind the Islamic Republic as if there are some heroes yeah I mean we should remind ourselves that of course when the the Islamic Republic the Revolution of 1979 was achieved in association with the you know the lot of substantial communists and socialist forces in Iran and then once the revolution was once the Shah would be in deposed Khumayni then turned on the on the left and I don't murdered imprisoned or drove into exile those forces and instead brought in

13:38obviously a hard line sea of critique regimes that we shouldn't be yeah sometimes I mean I understand the impulse in a way I'm not you know or Palestine is such an issue that drives that people's passion drives them behind supporting Palestine and sometimes they're blindsided they just see anyone supporting Palestine and think they're automatically a good guy and really in this situation none of the players are good guys apart the civilians on the ground you know ones getting bombed you know so yeah yeah it's a really tricky one yeah the the the obviously the Islamic theocracy and the the Revolution of Galkor and the besiege militia they're not they're not good people you know they are people who have been oppressed in their home yeah it's just you know but I do understand that impulse to want to of course you know

14:40because you see anybody's your post is United States and the post is Israel and you kind of want out you know you feel super thick towards them but yes it's certainly yeah blanket support for just yeah just think for carefully before you throw all your support behind someone like yeah you can oppose like it's more than one thing can be true you know yeah this war is unjust and this war is illegal and and Trump and Israel aren't acting on the behalf of humanity in starting this war they've got their own fucking interests but you know you know it's Humeini should never should not be the leader and it's but now it's he's just been replaced by his identical son which is quite weird to see how how how copypaste he seems like they're not good guys either and you know really fucking winds me up is that oh you know when you can't help

15:47after these two and a half years we've been through when you see those bombs falling in Tel Aviv a part of you is kind of like fish pumping yeah and it then I just catch myself in that brief moment where I feel kind of passion like I'm happy to see a place being bombed yeah and I'm like how look what they've made me like yeah I'm so angry at them for making me enjoy the sight of this like yeah fucking far have they pushed me where I'd never in my life feel like the sight of a bomb hitting a city something to celebrate me about and and even even if a fraction of me is celebrating the sight of it it's just it's a horrible feeling not quite they've turned us into I know it's true how dare they make me yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah they're they're cruelty you know I hope that the cruelty of Israel doesn't get forgotten in all of this

16:47over the last two years no well they they can't assume time but like I say I mean we'll we'll see really I don't know I don't know where this ends I mean it's interesting developments supposedly that the the the Israelis and the United States are organized in there you know I kind of an incursion by the kids in the North I think oh yes from Iraq coming in from Iraq yeah obviously aware that you know what a what a what a what a two-faced ally that Roger what I've shown them that that you know that the United States is is is is not necessarily an ally that it's very precious ally and we'll drop them in it I want in fact you know I mean George W. Bush in Iraq won the edge the kids and the March Arabs to rise up and then

17:47they were then slaughtered by the forces of Saddam Hussein so I think I'm sure the kids understand that I don't know which brand of Kurdish fighters it is who are being encouraged to attack with I don't know whether it's our guys in in the in the PKK or whether it's some more right wing Kurdish factions maybe an expert can so we know many many experts of you know geopolitics that this is podcast is there first listening on the Saturday morning the Chatham House and the various you know the CIA you know the intelligence services and they tune they they they're eagerly download our podcast and analyze it for the insights that it brings and so if one of those wants to even anonymously if one of those wants to you know contact us with further

18:50information about that we would be delighted to hear it well they seem to be perhaps the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan right between 25 and 35 million Kurds inhabit a mountainous region straddling the borders of Turkey Iraq Syria Iran and Armenia that's a lot more than I thought yeah and in the last or just today Iran has been increasing intensifying attacks on the region yeah so there's a there's a kind of you know there's a mind-fucked airway you know do you support in that scenario really they're obviously the Kurds have been used as a tool of US and Israeli imperialism but they have a reason to be so beneficial because they've suffered decades of discrimination and repression you know the Kurds have been wanting

19:55independence from literally everyone yeah I mean not just from Iran I don't know how they should any around but obviously from Turkey and so I wonder yet Trump may be promised them their own little states yeah I wonder why they're followers of where their followers of Oculan in which case we would support them or whether there's a more centrist or right wing Kurdish fighters again anybody you know I know that this podcast is eagerly downloaded on the Saturday morning in all the major capitals of the world and in all the revolutionary bases that the people in Rojava on a Saturday morning gather around their laptops to listen and then in the the free areas of Myanmar on a Saturday morning it's it's obligatory yes that's one of the things I feel I felt a bit guilty there I was just reaching for something I was

20:57reprimanded by a listener I I was re I was trying you you're you're an antennae a time I never would just talking to you I just wanted to inject a piece of stupidity into the discourse there so I was just had that bit about the wind up radio in my mind and it didn't really work and I apologize yes to the memory of Sir Trevor Bayless I'm sure that you could listen to it over the clockwork didn't really make a noise and it was just an entirely mullet joys explain that's the listener taking a bit a bit too seriously I know I know I know I feel you know I want to walk I want to walk it back really I'm sure the the clockwork radio was a yes saying actually actually the clockwork radio liberated the yeah accessibility for world media for a lot of yeah maybe you could have a clockwork laptop I don't know what what how

22:00technically I remember around a similar time yeah there was an equivalent thing for a laptop I didn't build gates pioneered and I could be wrong there maybe wasn't Bill Gates but there was this kind of like really cheap laptop that like did the fucking job and they made millions of them and gave them to school kids all around that right that was a nice little read that one was it no no just a nice little plastic thing with a screen raspberry I think doesn't have a screen that's just a compute a bit that you can attach to stuff yeah and I think it was the laptop equivalent of the wind up radio we obviously had to plug it in yeah I think it had a chargeable battery in it right well that'd be interesting what's happens I know that this podcast is on a Saturday morning the major technical institutions MIT in the United States Boston that on a Saturday morning people gather around and download this podcast the first thing they do with the five time difference and so if

23:04anybody there in the Institute Sciences Institute in Moscow or Beijing we listen to this podcast first and they do on a Saturday morning if they want to get in touch and let's know what the state of play is with the wind up Cockwick laptop I'd be eager to know and like a like a clockwork radio I have now wound down that got me through about 15 minutes a bit more and I've kind of like like a clockwork soldier in the ballet the Bolshoi ballet I've just found a I maybe it wasn't Bill Gates it's found an article of Bill Gates saying the laptops of the poor is a joke he was mocking the hundred dollar lap really yeah one laptop per child foundation the one hundred dollar

24:08laptop is the iconic exo laptop founded by Nicholas Nekloponte of the MIT Media Lab in 2005 designed for education and developing nations there's a rugged low-power device intended tool yes got a simple black-and-white screen you could do all your homework and it was the rugged like you could throw it out rock and it would supply all right yeah one laptop little child Bill Gates probably sabotaged Bill Gates hated it he was roasting it well yeah well yeah get no argument for me about that yeah Bill Gates oh my god guess what what there was a second-generation prototype and it had a fright on it but it proved unviable yeah wow one laptop per child

25:14Bill Gates didn't want that he just wanted to his intellectual property so anyway that's the world situation of week of we covered that or we could go back I say it was very exciting the greens and sacralansky and you're now genuine yeah they were very quick to blame the greens victory on like sectarianism and even rage yeah like what would they I seem so long ago now family voting family voting yes pushing your grandma into the booth and saying yeah well greens you mother fuck or else no tuna sandwich for you later I'll slide in the family stone voting yeah and like husbands are oppressive Muslim yeah forcing their wives under indentured servitude these arranged marriage wives forcing them to vote for greens yeah and they didn't really stick I mean that's one of the it's like you know they don't stick at all yeah you know they're trying they're trying

26:14they're trying to stick sacralansky with the the old anti-Semitism accusations that they made against Jeremy and they really don't stick at all I think everybody's wise to that yeah and of course the police said that's called voter fraud two people aren't allowed in a booth yeah that's ever seen it's reported to the police yeah we didn't see any of that happened no no yeah it's funny and gay Jewish man is now the leader of the Islamist yeah population I think it is it is shaping up to be an interest in landscape because I mean there is not only the greens there is also whatever now your party is you know I mean we'll see what happens with that whether it you know but I think the that whole surge you know from the lawns of your party is also that there are really interesting experiments in kind of local

27:19I mean obviously I know London more that in in Hackney the Hackney's independent socialist scenario in Camden with as you find in the Camden people's alliance that these are really interesting experiments in in you know finding a kind of politics which is rooted in the local community and I know these were proto branches of your party but I think they have decided to stay away from that and just be at local parties and in doing that whether consciously or unconsciously they seem to be you know echoing a lot of the ideas of Otsulan and of Murray Bookchin and this kind of local localized kind of hyper democracy you know and and I think there's a really you know it in tandem with the greens I think I think there can be some really exciting they could really

28:20work together very well I think the your your party is as a member and I've seen what the emails I get and what the forums and the website say it's like the almost like they've their attention is gone away from winning elections and it's more about the local issues and they will be talking about now the your your party all right they seem to be um stating their election bug by holding all these internal elections like different different actions and councils and boards and all that so you're voting for all these different people but it's actually just internal your party elections and they seem to be focusing on just getting counsellors out there organizing doing local events and and setting up local groups and activism and then in the Gordon and Denton election they fucking said go vote for greens yeah yeah green so like do they even want to win

29:21an election now I'm not sure well I think in there are there are areas I imagine where they are strong or you know areas where they prove to be strong and then they'll stand in those areas yeah they'll stand and the greens will and you know reform a so clever at making you scared of them and think that's serious but now I'm like every time there's a big reform protest or or march or it's just the same 20 blocs from different parts of the country you know they got they got thrashed pretty heartily such an odious character they're Matthew Goodwin yeah he's gross and so maybe their support isn't as widespread as we thought maybe maybe we want to miss the gather and meet but they're coming from different constituencies and meeting up and putting on a strong face but in their own places there we wouldn't want them running running their neighborhood now well I think that I mean they are strong but the the anti reform

30:24coalition is stronger and as long as it coalesces around the greens or independent socialist rather than stinking labor party then you know that's a really positive development I think they're very exciting and you know and from that you know I was I was good I mean to I mean both in terms of domestic issues but also obviously in terms of Palestine that that is the way that Israel will be the apartheid design in state of Israel will be and it is by it will compensate it's a creation of the West you know it's a European it's a European solution to a European problem it will be the its demise will come well it's more likely I think to come from you know the West and from military you know either from those corrupted in there many several different ways that corrupted regimes in the

31:30Middle East I don't yeah so a funny meme of some like reform or Britain first people on a cliff top with binoculars looking at a a migrant boat small boat and he says oh looks like it's some refugees from Dubai and then he looks with the binoculars and it's just a bunch of like bikini models yeah yeah yeah I mean that has been it sort of I mean yeah he's shot and Freud or not that but there's all those fucking influences these and the right way is a battle out shot and that or yes this should be happening here or something yeah yeah fuck you what do you where did you think you were going yeah yeah it's not just a place on your phone screen it's a it's a golf state it's a golf state that yeah slavery is part of it's slavery in support of Israel and yeah

32:37you can all exist and so yes that has been a you know taken here's what I will say although about Dubai and Abu Dhabi it's also been the refuge for a lot of refugees yeah including a lot of my family have have found a home and built their families yeah and they become part of the middle class in those areas yeah it tends to be the expats immigrants who you know the white immigrants who go and get the upper class jobs yeah the property the finance and they don't pay taxes in the fucking live a life of absolute luxury whereas my cousins and aunties and uncles and second cousins and fucking third cousins I've got a ridiculous family and they're all the ones out there you've got oh my cousins have you because you've got like 63 cousins and I've got 68 but I don't know the other yeah I've got 68 first cousins yeah 68 first cousin they're all doing like the admin jobs yeah data inputting teachers you know managers of shops

33:45you know that's what my cousins out there are doing so there are there is a middle class out there even a worker's working class you know for sure and a lot of them were refugees from Syria from Lebanon and I worry for them yeah because there is some domestic buildings being struck out there in fact I have cousins who were just in London and they live in Dubai so they went home and they're from Lebanon so they went home via Lebanon to visit their family and then they're about to fly home to Dubai and then this war starts and Dubai starts getting bombed and all the flights get cancelled so and I was messaging going I hope you're okay because I thought they were in Dubai lies are all right oh we're fine and safe we're in the Lepidon yeah they said don't worry about us we are near route we're staying near route for a while is that okay and then suburbs are buried

34:46and then the next day they are really they were near the bombs like they were at the end of their street fuck the next day I see this and I'm like fuck they just told me don't worry I'm in Lebanon and next thing I know they're on a flight back to London like you know I think when people come back hang out in London for a bit so you know there are as much catharsism as you're getting from seeing you know deserving countries being struck finally you know who thought they were immune to this stuff there are in the always with war there's civilians who are in the middle man and their lives have been thrown upside down yeah yeah it's why great we haven't we haven't done a film club for a while have we we sort of let that drop nobody seemed not upset really no no one seems upset and we should think about reviving that well we have got a new series on our patron called

35:50Alexi reacts oh yeah that's what we did yeah there is that's on there now episode one of Alexi reacts which I realized was our pilots episode yeah um if that doesn't mean yeah yeah and it's Alexi reacting to puppet pilot for our pilot episode a sketch from the all new yeah and it's a very very funny sketch yeah and Alexi and me watch it yeah and react if that doesn't make you want to become a patron subscriber I don't know what will really it's really nice it's like 15 minutes long and we're gonna do it every week hopefully well that's the plan uh please send us your suggestions of what Alexi should react to Alexi cell podcast at gmail.com or message me on patreon.com board slash Alexi cell podcast and if you go to patreon.com forward slash Alexi cell podcast you support the show and gain access to exclusive content such as Alexi reacts and full video podcast

36:54episodes Alexi shooting guns and feels like a long time ago Alexi Lisa and Nigel watching the young ones um but Alexi reacts every week on patron oh my god I have to I have to do that this week yeah we'd have to do today I know you got to watch after this we could do it on Monday or Tuesday let's record one on Tuesday all right I want to try and put them out every Wednesday on the patreon okay what should Alexi react to next uh thank you for the plug time and what did that remind me of I'd love to hear Alexi's views on whether he thinks there will be a united island haha Toby asks on the patreon chat I would have thought so uh eventually I don't know it's still I don't know but I mean again my knowledge of Irish politics is lamentably I mean Ireland seems to

37:59be I mean comes a goat but you know it's obviously reacting better than Britain to Zionism and US imperialism and uh I don't know what the uh what the factors in play are there I think is religion still a very strong divider in Israel or Ireland I guess that's true is it enough to what yeah I guess there's a contingency in Northern Ireland who love being British isn't there well there's lawyers yeah the Protestants yeah yeah and also of course the financial supporters of Israel oh if you go around the loyalist areas of you know if you go around the the um uh the uh republican areas of Belfast you'll see you know Palestinian flag and similarly in the in the loyalist areas yes the Israeli flag sometimes on two sides of

38:59the same street isn't there yeah which is uh okay I think the loyalist are on a losing side on that one really which funny doing strangers on a train in their island in in Northern Ireland it we went from Belfast to um dairy slash London dairy and you know kind of had to be aware of the a lot of people seem to have government jobs um some of them I think in security the people I mentioned that you couldn't really talk in detail about what they did but also um you know you were aware that some of them had loyalist sympathies it wasn't my uh it wasn't my remit on that particular show to dig into that really it was a weird experience um avi or aval aval or avi on the patreon asks uh this is a shallow question but I'll ask it all the same has Alexi done an episode

40:04or would he consider doing an episode on comic strip the strike my son Sid and me watch it every year together quote the arse of it to offer far too often and it's in their top five things to watch ever favorite characters Alexi in it yeah well I mean most sublime pieces of comedy acting maybe we'll do an Alexi reacts about sure yeah well Peter Richardson you know the moving spirit behind the comic strip but he does these events um where he shows like things like the strike and stuff and then we talk about it afterwards really and in fact I'm doing I think four a little clump of four in brick airport darkness self-com and sometimes so I think in love I don't know April nor May um and so people should come along to those yeah avi if you're in one of those areas come along and I don't know whether it be showing he shows he likes it

41:07pretty some particularly likes one that was only shown on tv once called red nose accords which is about, which is essentially very good. It's about John Major, the former Conservative leader prime minister, whose father was in the circus and so it's a kind of strike style fantasy when I play. John Major is working both as a clown and as the leader of the Conservative government and I play as father. Right, I take my top off a few times, while we are, I was thinner then. I like going to the street. He sometimes shows that, sometimes shows strikes, sometimes shows, super grass, but yeah, I'd be happy to do it, you know, I mean, I'm happy to talk. You know, I always feel, you know, because I feel that my, you know, I think it must be dispiriting if you're some sort of 80s band and you're only

42:09outlet, is that kind of rewind circuit where you, you know, you play your hits to people who are now because, you know, getting close to being pensioners and men holding men who have fun in little hats that, like their baldness, but I feel that because I am also, you know, still an artist who is currently like this podcast, which is listening to on a Saturday morning and all the capitals of the world really. Yeah, it legally sounds like they're doing the embassies and the foreign, foreign foreign ministries. Yeah. So I feel that because I am, I don't mind doing nostrils just stuff because I also feel that somebody who remains relevant. So in the modern world, I mean, Martin Kemp's makes his bread and butter these days, DJing 80s parties. Yeah,

43:10to like old ladies in Benadorm, you know, it's, it's nothing, no shame, man. Well, I think some shame, but, um, if you heard, you know, when a person has a one hit wonder, yeah, like, for example, Rick Asley or yourself or, yeah, what's that? I am the one and only geezer called Hawke. Chesney Hawke. Chesney Hawke. There's like this cycle that seems to be unanimous amongst them is where it, you blow up, your song blows up, you become famous, you get you tore, your song is everything, it's everywhere, it's making you lots of money. And then nothing else you do seems to hit in the same way and resonate with people. You start to resent that song or that hit or that TV show or whatever, you know, you start to resent it. You get angry, you start doing shows refusing to sing it where where that's what everyone is coming to see. And you start getting

44:12angry with people who ask you to play it or sing it or do it. And then you get shunned and rejected, you feel bitter until the day comes when you realize, wait a second, I've bought this house, I've sent my kids to a nice school university, I've got a nice car and it is because of that song and you start to appreciate once again that song that brought you all this comfort in your life and then you spend that's that's the point where you spend the rest of your life going on towards singing that song as many times as people want with a brand new appreciation for it. Where are you on that song? No, you've not or you're not a one here. Well, I say yeah, I'm not, you know, but there must be something relatable there with the comic strips. I mean, I'm happy to to take part in those events. What was the strike about? The strike, I mean, it's particularly

45:12brilliant. I mean, it won the Golden Rose, it won a lot of awards. Yeah, and it is, I mean, certainly is the is the peak of the comic strip as an ensemble on TV. So I play a script writer who's from actually from South Wales, who writes a script about the minor strike of 1984. The script is then bought by and there's a lot of parodies there of like characters here now. I forgot my David Putnam and Keith plays a kind of David Putnam character. So that script is then bought by Hollywood and the film is then remade as with starring Al Pacino played by Peter Mel Street played by Jennifer as a kind of and it's about the craftness of Hollywood, it's about. So it works on several different levels. So you've got the you've got the story in the real world as it were of me as the script writer.

46:18One of the things I do in that film is that I underplayed everybody else is going so big with quite rightly with their characterizations that I pulled my performance back. So it's quite for me a very quiet, centered performance as Paul the writer. And so you've got the Paul's reality of writing this script for Al Pacino and then you've got the movie itself which is this huge lavish kind of sentimental starring Arthur Scargill played by Al Pacino. And then it kind of ends with Paul disillusionedly going back to South Wales and throwing his typewriter. It was then up in the air and you know discussed. So it's great to film that works. It's a really yeah it's really excellent. And we're all in it. Everybody's

47:23in it really which I think is nice as well. But you're taking a central kind of lead role in this. Yeah for once yeah yeah yeah I'm the kind of spot and I'm the core I mean yeah I'm as the writer of the film the strike I'm the core of it but kind of everybody's in it. Everybody else plays multiple roles. I only play Paul the writer but you know I mean I just say oh the whole gang are there. Don Jennifer. You know I mean everybody you know as Peter Richardson as Al Pacino as Arthur Scargill. So there's so many like multi-layered and film within a film. I'm very yeah I mean it was fun filming it again because the whole gang was involved. Maybe I'll put together a highlight reel and we can do an Alexi reacts to the strike. Sure. You can see a video as well of Eddie Isard talking about it with the BFI.

48:32Nobody told me about that. It was back in 2023. There you go Abby. There's a bit of strike. Yeah and at some point keep an eye out on Alexi reacts we'll talk about the strike. Something more. Okay. Oh yeah about 10 minutes ago I said oh shit and I never followed up with that. Confusing listeners at home. They've remade the bride Alexi. I don't think it's really a straight remake of my night whenever it was night what year was it? Me and Sting and Jennifer Beals. I don't think it's a remake of the it was based on a novel by I think it was based on a novel by somebody or other. But yours was in 1985. 1985 okay. Which I still haven't seen. I want to watch it with you. Oh yeah we should. I think I want to do a commentary track with you about it.

49:34Yeah sure it is quite poor. We could watch it together and yeah. Okay so the bride 2026 is an American Gothic romance film. We're in a directed by Maggie Jillian Hall. Yeah. You're kidding me. Yeah we like her. I really like her. Why do you like her? I don't know. I just I feel like she's one of us but I might be mistaken about that. She gives off that vibe doesn't she? I think she's wonderful and she's written and directed this. So I'm Jesse Buckling Christian Bale. I don't know if it has any. That's what I'm trying to get to. The film draws inspiration from the 1935 film bride of Frankenstein which is based on Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein. So no mention of what's the book yours. I don't know if there was a book. I can't remember now. The 1985 movie with Sting and Jennifer Bill.

50:38And it's set in 1930s Chicago. Okay. The Frankenstein's monster asks Dr. Euphronius to create a companion for him. Together they give life to a murdered woman known as the bride. Sparking romance, police interest and radical social change. I want to see who what was the name of your character in the circus? Oh mega. I'm sure he doesn't reappear. Because there's a separate storyline about the Frankenstein's monster, the male monster escaping and joining a circus. I don't think that I doubt that they will have pursued that storyline and you say omega. Omega. I think I'm not seeing any mega. It seems to be they get involved with the mob, the Chicago mob as opposed to the circus. Yeah. No, I think you probably have a very

51:38little to the, oh, that's a shame. I'd rather iteration of the bride. I'm going to keep an eye on this bride business. Yeah. Yeah. Because they might owe you money, Lex. And I want to make sure you get it. Probably everybody does. Everybody owes me money. Okay. I think I'm going to go now, unless we've got anything else for this week. No, I think that'll do me. I think that'll do. Okay. Well, it's been quite a week. It's been a bloody rollercoaster week of emotion and elation followed by despair, really, just what they've done now, really. And of course, the genocide in Gaza is continuing. I think they've stopped and all that in any food getting. Oh, yeah. Immediately, they closed those those crossings, monsters, unbelievable monsters. Yeah. Those schoolgirls were the first victims in everyone. Yeah. Yeah. A way to start. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, they're getting good at killing

52:43children nowadays, right? It's, but at least people are, people, you know, a lot of people are seeing the true reality of that mergers, monsters regime. So, you know, take hope where you can, people cling to each other, maybe have some fruit, kimchi for gut health. I just, it's amazing how people can, you know, take something. Are the humans also keep some humans busy? They can be a dick about it, which is sort of like line bikes. You know, as a lifelong cyclist, the lineback user can be, you know, presents them. It's kind of problematic, really. You know, it's the way people, some people behave on linebacks. Also, I think it's, oh, it seems like I twice this week. I have

53:48stopped as a crossing, a zebra crossing for an old person to cross in front of me. And they've still shouted at me, because I think they're so frightened now because of bikes whizzing past them and not stopping. But they, they're just sort of yell at anybody and I stopped. I'm like, I stopped. I fucking stopped for you. Why are you shouting at me? And I'm coming down from Amsterdam's east last week, going south down. I think you target West Hill, a woman who I stopped for, a woman on stick shout at me. You're an old man. You should know better. Jesus, which is fucking, I stopped. I haven't run you down. I've stopped. What are you yelling at me? Jesus talking about something else. No, she was shouting at me. No, I know that you, but maybe she knows something. Oh, I see what you mean. Yeah. That's true. That's true. Yeah.

54:53But that, that sort of, that rang alongside Santa Claus face the old motherfucker. It was a, as a, a thing of being shot. You're an old man and you should know better. It sounds like Michael Kane, doesn't it? You're an old man and you should know better. You're a big man, but yeah, I do this for a living. You're an old man. You're an old man. And you should know better. So that's going to be, that's going to be my calling card. Now, that's my, that's going to be my non-degares. It were on my, on my, you know, parties, case 80s parties, 80s nostalgia parties, case before I'll come and do in the tight suit and go, hello, John, got any of my, my epithet will be, I'm an old man and I should know better. So with that, I will say goodbye, dear listeners across

55:54the world. And I'll see you, well, this Saturday morning, your next Saturday morning, and every Saturday morning, unless we can't be bothered. Bye, bye. You've been listening to the Alexis L. podcast. This show is produced and edited by Talaal Karkuti. Music by Talaal Karkuti. Thanks to all the Boom for hosting us. Please keep your emails coming in at Alexis L. podcast at gmail.com. Bye. Music by Talaal Karkuti.