117: From Green Party Victory to War in Iran

I'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

what 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

getting 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

way 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

secular 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

Zora 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

an 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

its 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

rally 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

it'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

really 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

I 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

mind 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

obviously 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

because 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

after 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

over 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

they 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

information 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

independence 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

reprimanded 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

technically 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

anybody 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

laptop 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

Bill 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

they'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

I 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

work 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

an 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

coalition 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

Middle 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

you 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

you 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

and 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

Alexi 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

episodes 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

be 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

the 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

or 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

pretty 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

outlet, 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,

to 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

angry 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

brilliant. 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.

One 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

in 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.

Nobody 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.

Yeah 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.

And 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

little 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

children 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

stopped 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.

But 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

the 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.