#40 - Ali Plumb: Life as BBC Radio 1's Film Critic, Career Authenticity, Creating Great Media and How to Interview Harrison Ford

Today’s guest earned his early entertainment industry stripes working as a journalist for publications including Digital Spy and Empire before gaining what must be one of the world’s most fun jobs as Radio 1’s very own film critic, a position he has held since 2016.

Since then, his career has only risen with recent projects such as hosting the red carpet of a little-known awards show called the BAFTAS and the BBC’s new series ‘The Film Fans Guide’.

My guest is Ali Plumb.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Mike: Hello Mike here, you may know today’s guest Ali Plumb as the cheery face of BBC Radio One’s film review shows but in this episode we delve deep into his journey into the business, his thoughts on having authenticity in your career, how to get the reps in to create great media, his number one piece of life advice (and of course a few stories of interviewing movie stars like Robert Downey Junior too)

[00:00:58] That’s enough of me, let’s get going. 

[00:01:00] Today's guest earned his early entertainment industry stripes, working as a journalist for publications, including Digital Spy and Empire, before gaining what must be one of the world's most fun jobs as radio one's very own film critic, a position he has held since 2015. Since then, his career has only risen with recent projects such as hosting the Red Carpet of a little known award show called The BAFTAs and BBC's new series.

[00:01:25] The Film Fans Guide to my guest is Ali Plumb. How you doing today? 

[00:01:29] Ali: I'm doing great. Thanks for that. That felt rather lovely to hear. I think I got the job in 2016 though, or maybe I was given the job at Radio One. They said it's yours in 2015, but I only put my boots on and started talking to Nick Grimshaw and Greg James and.

[00:01:43] Talking on that radio. Yeah, 2016, which is both yesterday and a million years ago, cuz of that pandemic, that still continues to be kind of a thing. But yeah, those three years meant for some weird movie reviewing for me. Mm. Remember 2020 when it was like . We have no new movies. How about that? Tiger King.

[00:02:02] Um, but yeah, 2016, it's been that long.

[00:02:06] Mike: Amazing stuff. I'll have to fire LinkedIn for that one, do, do. I asked all of my guests the same first question, and that is, what did your parents do and did it affect your career choices moving forward? 

[00:02:15] Ali: My parents, ~uh,~ did not have anything to do with the media in any fashion and.

[00:02:20] That's just how it goes really. My dad was an accountant, is an accountant, and my mum was a nurse. Is a nurse, and yeah, no connections, no through lines. I don't have an in or a buddy or a uncle or a sister's, cousin's, wife. I don't have any of that. So how I got the job isn't in any way nepotistic. I had an interest in movies early on for two reasons.

[00:02:43] One, my best friend, a man. A boy at the time called James Midgley, ~uh,~ lived sort of up the road from me and his dad was a sound mixer. And if you really, really, really know your onions in this world, you'll go, oh, yeah, James Midgley's dad. Yes. John Midgley. He's a legend. He's won an Oscar, he's done some Star Wars.

[00:03:02] He's done some, he's did Hug Hugo. He's worked with SCEs, he's worked with, you name it. He's a, he's a legend in his own lunchtime, and he, as you might imagine, had a lot of movies on VHS and DVD and. I could just sit down and watch them. I remember watching Terminator two Judgment Day, and I couldn't have been older than 10 or 11.

[00:03:20] Just to remind you, that's a movie where someone in a dream sequence is atom bombed to bits as they hold onto a chain link fence, so, yep. Learned a lot there. Learned a lot there. And the other reason why I kind of got into movies early that had nothing to do with my parents was that,~ um,~ at my school, one of the teachers there was like a really big film buff as well.

[00:03:39] Mm-hmm. And so when you have a collection of, of movies that become sort of, you know, part of your life, it's just normal to be watching relative classics. And the idea of circling things in the back of the paper going, oh, well, Lawrence Arabia's on. Channel four, BBC one, wherever it was. My mum was very good at that, but it's not a job thing.

[00:03:59] There was no like angle and getting the gig was a sort of studied English literature at Warwick University and then what Warwick does or did at least is allow for you in your second and third year as long as you're staying within the humanities bracket that they deem acceptable. You can do different types of courses as long as you have at least two of your like units.

[00:04:22] Within the thing that's above the door. So if you're studying French, you need to do two. Okay, sure. French courses. Modules. And then the other two can be history of art and like America. Like cinema. Yeah. But they're not viewed as minors. I wouldn't, I wouldn't have on my degree. Yeah, minor and film. But that was wonderful to have a sort of introduction to film and more whilst I was at Warwick and I wouldn't have had the cas to actually apply for a film.

[00:04:48] Course. Mm. And it was just really, it really, really, really helped me out. So yeah, I love my parents, but they didn't help me get here in that 

[00:04:56] way. 

[00:04:56] Mike: Interesting. You mentioned Warwick there and I've of course wanted to ask about it, and most specifically, I wanted to hear about Rule 12:51 AM. What were your memories of student radio and what did you learn there about making good radio content 

[00:05:09] Media?

[00:05:09] Ali: You have to make a lot of really bad radio content media. You need to be a terrible and inaccurate and awful self facilitating media node, and you might tell yourself that you are fantastic and you've got loads of talent and you're full of enthusiasm and you really know your music and you really know you're whatever.

[00:05:24] But in reality, I think if you're good at anything, you have to have a decent chunk of time and space and opportunity. You need to have these opportunities to be rubbish. Mm, and I was rubbish. I'd have this middle of the night, Tuesday night. Terribly named show called Mr. Plums beautiful blues named after a eels ~uh, ~song.

[00:05:43] All right? And it was just dreadful. I remember on my first day, first time I did it, ~and you were left to your own devices cuz no one was listening. And ~ I had a clicky pen and the whole thing, I was going, oh no, dreadful, dreadful, dreadful, dreadful. ~Um, ~but you need to do it, care about it, realize it's rubbish, and then grow taste interesting self-awareness.

[00:06:02] And the ability to see what you've done is good, and what you've done is bad. And I think the best advice I can give anybody is read, read, read, read, read, watch, watch, watch, watch, watch, assess, assess, assess, assess and reflect. Reflect, reflect. It forces you to be very neurotic and self-critical. But it is to me, the best way of improving.

[00:06:21] You can't just far your way through and say, yes, yes, I'm brilliant. You can't, I think you have to sort of loathe yourself a bit and that. Forces you to not give up when it comes to improving or staying on top of the game, or not using old terms of phrase or feeling hokey or or not caring. It forces you to continue to care, and I think listeners can really tell.

[00:06:40] So I think Raw 12:51 AM was brilliant for a number of reasons. Main one allowed me to be rubbish at infinitum. Also, it allowed me to be in the company of other people who similarly, really cared about the media at that age. Made good friends, friends I'm still friends with today. Went to their wedding, one of their weddings the other day and I, I loved it there.

[00:06:58] It was good gang. It's like a good clubhouse. And we were at the top of the student's union, and again, no one was listening, but you could pretend that they were. I was head of music in my third year, unbelievably, considering I'm the movie guy now, and we hosted a show called Compact Disco. Really? Wow. Oe, which was a singles woo review show.

[00:07:17] ~Um, ~and I loved it. I loved it. It was ridiculous and self-involved and self-indulgent, and I had a really great time. 

[00:07:22] Mike: It's an interesting thing you've picked up on there. Cuz there's a creator online called Julian Shapiro and he talks about this creativity stuff and he calls it the creativity faucet.

[00:07:33] And he's noticed that in certain top performers like Ed Sheeran and Neil Gaiman, they all talk about this exactly in the same way you did. Where it's about ~turning, he's American, ~turning on the tab, the faucet, and basically just let all this dodgy water come out and it comes out and it comes out. And then ultimately you get the gold.

[00:07:47] John Mayer does the same thing. There's a really good video of him. Doing it online. So it's interesting that you've picked up on that. I wondered if, I guess you probably did the late night shift. Did you do any of that stuff at university or was that something that you probably had to do later on? 

[00:08:00] Ali: No. Um, the late night shift is in doing a late night show.

[00:08:03] Yeah. They do that almost immediately when you arrive they just put you in the worst times, three o'clock on a Tuesday. Four o'clock on a Friday cause no one's listening. So you just go ahead and do it. It was essentially a slot where, and the tech team at RAW are and work great where it would automatically record as a digital file and then you could kind of pick it back up later.

[00:08:21] That's so good. So helpful. And allowed you to get used to faders and decks and you know, all these buttons and knobs and just be comfortable behind a mic. . It's easy to over commentate and kind of go, wow, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it has to become normal for it to become normal for the listener, particularly in a podcast world where that radio vibe .

[00:08:44] Has kind of gone, if not entirely gone, so, It's tricky. You have to maintain a different type of voice, a more panami voice when you're on air, on breakfast, people are driving their kids to school or doing whatever, going to the shops, and you sort of have to be a bit more up there so that people can pay attention.

[00:09:00] And then conversation like this here with you today, I can be a bit more like, this is you and me at pub. ~Um, ~yeah, know your own voice, get used to hating it and then sometimes learn to love it and ~uh, ~I think you'll be fine. I hope. 

[00:09:11] Mike: One of the things funny enough I wanted to ask you about is this. Podcast is about people's careers and strategies that have gone through it and things like that.

[00:09:17] It's not necessarily about asking you your most azzi celebrity anecdote. And one of the things I did want to ask about was the notion of authenticity. Mm. Which is something I've seen you speak about in other interviews and something I'm really interested in. ~Um, ~

[00:09:31] could you speak to that through your own career as well? Because you are your own, I guess, brand as Ali Plum, and that's what. ~Uh, ~people are listening in for, and much like as you say, you kind of need to find that as well, don't you?

[00:09:42] Ali: Yeah, 

[00:09:43] when I first started back in 2016, I was adamant that I shouldn't really be present.

[00:09:48] I was actually unbelievably reasonably shy and I was panicky, and you get told, okay, X, many million people are listening right now. Mm. And then you get told, do not search your name or ever you do. Do not go on Twitter and search your name. Needless to say, you do it, you burn, you burn. Really, you burn. You ride in the flames and you just think, oh, this is awful, awful, awful, awful.

[00:10:09] The, you know, anonymity of these people getting to spit out whatever they think, but why shouldn't they? It's how they feel. And I was the new person replacing another person. And change is scary, but authenticity, there's a criticism side where I might be talking to somebody and I don't care for the movie.

[00:10:26] ~Mm. Right. ~So Sam, I'm talking to Robert Downey Jr. About Dolittle. The movie is not great, but I love Robert Downey Jr. He's a really good interview and he's a fascinating guy, so you just have to sort of pick and choose. You have to be like a good dinner party guest and go, look, I don't love this food, but I can tell you the salad's.

[00:10:40] Great. . Am I gonna nuke it? Come I gonna destroy it on air. Probably not my vibe. Radio one isn't here to go. Like that's dreadful and that's rubbish, and we're just gonna obliterate it. . It's gotta be, to my eyes, a little bit of, you might have been looking forward to this, but I'm sad to tell you it hasn't worked out.

[00:10:56] Every filmmaker, every creative enterprise is trying to do something brilliant. Now, there are outliers like cats where you go, what were they thinking? Like, this just doesn't make any sense. And they've become a sort of like, you know, punchline. But authenticity on that side of things in terms of like impartiality working for the bbc, just changes everything and allows me to sort of say, look, here's how it's, and as long as you're not vitriolic and you're not like awful, and not like destroying people, I think people will take criticism you.

[00:11:25] You just have to find that voice and remember that other people are humans, but in terms of authenticity, On air as a personality. When I got started, I wanted to fade into the background, and I think even still to this day, you'll notice it's the clothes I wear. A very dark blue shirt, black shirt, gray shirt, a suit, but not too bright, and then kind of outta the pandemic.

[00:11:45] I went, no, I'm gonna come back. And I think, I think people are starting to press play on my interviews, even if they don't know the talent. , i e the talent being, you know, whatever. Amazing. Scotty Hansen a little bit more. And I notice people responding more to some of my jokes and some of my interactions more than they did.

[00:12:00] Oh, that was a great question. Mm-hmm. What people have to remember about my stuff, if you know my stuff at all, is that I think there is Flatteringly a lovely impression that I get 45 minutes with everyone I speak to, and then we will it down to 10 and that might be nice for hot ones or chicken shop dates or other chicken based interview shows, as well as obviously Graham Norton and the Bigwig big dogs like Fallon.

[00:12:21] But you know, I did a Harrison Ford and Phoebe Waller Bridge interview that's just gone live today, and I got eight minutes with him and I was very, very grateful for those eight minutes. That was the access. What you see on the screen is what we got. Yeah. And so I. I don't often have the time to go right on the fourth day of the fifth week and you were shooting this and then this, and then this, and then I read this here, you don't really have it, so you have to sort of walk in, be as you as you can be, give them the energy you want given back, try and show some sort of wit.

[00:12:52] You need to indicate that you thought through your questions in a way that isn't just rot. And here's another one. Here's another one. Here's another one I often quote Kalan Moran, who was an inspiration for me when I was starting out, and a fantastic writer. Needless to say.

[00:13:05] And she said in terms of coming up with questions and coming up with column ideas or or, or just ideas. Full stop. You need to think of the fifth thought. I cannot tell you how many times I've told people about this, but it really means something to me, which is you have to look at your questions.

[00:13:17] You have to look at your plan. You have to look at your essay. You have to look at your pitch. You have to look at your everything and go, okay. Right. What will the first person think? Straight out the gate. What will the second person think? Straight outta the gate. What will the third person think? Third time around when they've thought about it four times but five times and you kind of have to go right Once you get to the fifth onwards, only you will have thought of those thoughts.

[00:13:36] Only you will have thought them cuz it's ex eccentric enough or detailed enough or there's a sort of bit of you in there that makes you wanna ask that question to Harrison Ford and no one else would. So as long as you balance your, I've gotta ask these questions cuz they're obligation questions with a little bit of the fifth thought you're already doing yourself justice.

[00:13:55] And the other tip I often have about writing questions or doing interviews is write them all down on a piece of paper and then double under the line and circle the questions or. Or notes or ideas, you would be upset if you didn't bring up. If you walked out the room today and you went, oh, I really wanted to ask that, why didn't I?

[00:14:11] Well then make sure that doesn't happen. Cause if they really matter, circle them. Because you will give that question more emphasis and it'll feel more authentic and more real because you're like, actually I'm really genuinely curious about this and I've gotta ask you this. So that, that is an important part for authenticity, is sort of planning to let yourself show your enthusiasm.

[00:14:29] And I think my superpower generally is I care. If I'm interviewing somebody about, ~ uh,~ Doolittle, but it's Robert, Danny Jr. I care about Robert, Danny Jr. And I want him to feel that, and I don't want the audience to feel that. So that's my authenticity. And if you find yourself not caring, stop. Interesting.

[00:14:44] Mike: That was an 

[00:14:44] amazing answer, Ali. Thanks for that. It's very long. It was long, but it was very good. Thank you. And I guess , my takeaway from it as well is that the gold is often in the depth and the, the truth of the thing. And the truth is in that fifth thought, 

[00:14:55] isn't it? 

[00:14:55] Ali: It's in the you of it. It's in the little bits you've noticed and the quirks when you are telling stories of your mates or when you were asked at the pub and you had a joke.

[00:15:04] Just it's, it's that stuff. Often people respond to a question, which is ultimately. Tell me a story about being on set, but you might say, tell me a story about being on set, but you go, I noticed in the blooper reel for the last film, you kept high fiving that person. Was there a similar vibe to this one?

[00:15:22] Tell me a story of being on set. Yeah, it's the same thing, but you've given them a sort of cue or this is the sort of thing that I'd like you to answer with, and I've paid attention and done my research and I'm reminding you of a fun thing you did. So your brain immediately goes dopamine. High fiving.

[00:15:39] Yeah. You know, so you just have to give people the energy you want back, whether that's in the question or in the room. And it doesn't hurt if you're a massive people pleaser who can't live their life for themselves and have to work out a sense of purpose through other people smiling and being happy and clapping.

[00:15:56] So enjoy the therapy bills, but it is, it is part and parcel of what I do is,~ um,~ trying to make people like me four minutes at a time. 

[00:16:03] Mike: Amazing. How do 

[00:16:04] you find that line between being your authentic self and asking those questions where you do have to go, wow, it's the rock, you know? It is the rock.

[00:16:13] Ali: It's 

[00:16:13] a difficult, you kind of, I often tell people that my job is essentially improv.

[00:16:19] You will have your PLA prepared questions. You'll have your player questions. They'll be on a sheet of paper. Mm-hmm. You'll have in your mind's eye how you'd like the interview to go. I'll ask this. They'll say something like that. You kind of have planned it. You have to sort of in your head also be editing.

[00:16:32] Okay. I know this footage is available for that moment. If I refer to this moment that's in the movie, but I also know that it's not available in the press pack, don't bring it up cuz they're not gonna be able to illustrate it. And it might be alienating for the audience. So you can have all these things going on in your head, but if you are feeling, oh my God, it's the rock.

[00:16:48] Let that flag fly. Like That's fair. Don't go overboard, but like have it out there. Like this Harrison Ford interview I just mentioned at the very end I was asking him. Why do you think, honestly, the Indiana Jones series has been so successful? You know, I said to him, it's the humor, it's the heart, it's the action.

[00:17:06] It's, it's kind of this perfect lightning in a bottle situation. But from your perspective, why do you think, how do you account for its success? And he was really enthusiastic and had loads of thoughts, and he was very fluent. ~Um, ~he was very fluent and fluid,~ uh,~ and like me, and he just, he, he's very sort of short sentence kind of guy, very dry, wet, not speaking very well today, very tired and.

[00:17:28] After that, I said, look, I, it kind of came to me. I hadn't written it down. I just said, look, this is not a question, but hearing your answer essentially, I wanna tell you how much your character and your performance means to us as the fans. We love these movies and you mean so much to us and it's been such an adventure.

[00:17:43] And if this is your final movie, thank you. It's, it's, it's been incredible. And, and basically thanks. And he responded cause I was being emotional to him and he was emotional back and he got misty-eyed and I got misty-eyed and it was all a bit kind of tearful. Wow. But that's because I fully felt it and he felt it too.

[00:18:00] If you mean well, people will respond well, and if they don't, that's on them. You 

[00:18:05] know,

[00:18:05] Mike: interesting. This all revolves around,~ um,~ who you are, authenticity and things like that. And I guess it comes into the current world of people coming up as journalists and film critics, which is during the rise of social media.

[00:18:17] Mm. Your careers come up through that. You started as a writer, now you are very prominent on social media and you've utilized it, I think particularly well, I've noticed in my research. ~Um, ~how has that connection with the followers sort of affected how you share your film insights? And also, do you have any.

[00:18:31] Advice to anyone coming up these days? Are you, do you have to be a YouTuber to be a film critic 

[00:18:34] these days? I would say you do? 

[00:18:35] Ali: Yeah. And I think it's unusual for me to not have a YouTube platform in which I sit behind a camera and say, here are my thoughts on movies. It isn't an out, it isn't output that I do.

[00:18:46] I have it on the podcast. We do spoiler specials. Yeah. As much as we can. And we do review roundups. I've got one planned for early next month, but I noticed, and you sort of follow the numbers. I work for a youth radio station. Radio one, BBC radio one, the legendary BBC radio one. Of course. And ultimately what the audience wants, we noticed was less, here are my insightful opinions on certain upcoming movies or movies that came out relatively recently even.

[00:19:12] They wanted to see. Their favorite superstars doing something fun or telling us something interesting or,~ uh,~ an anecdote or a witticism or, you know, here's how the sausage gets made, an actual practical answer, that's all fine. But they wanted to see the talent. And my job has become less about being a critic and much more about being a sort of interview facilitator or sort of energy transfer where I give people the best side of their favorite people.

[00:19:35] Hello? Brie Larson here. I'm going on with her. You're gonna feel like a mate. Yeah. ~Um, ~and. That's sort of where my job has kind of evolved. I've gone that way. So if you will, to become a critic, definitely, definitely YouTube letter box. You need to be all over it. You need to write and read and think and research.

[00:19:53] And I sometimes feel a bit weird calling myself a critic. Cause it isn't a core part of what I do professionally. It's what's what's on my business card, figuratively. And. That's more or less it these days. I've got tons of opinions and I say them as much as I can, but it isn't the prime objective of what I do.

[00:20:11] So yeah, I have thoughts. But yes, you do need YouTube and you need to really, really work hard cuz opinions are now free. And if you are gonna be the person who's selling free opinions, they better be really good you better really work hard to differentiate yourself from all the others who are doing something very similar. And it can't just be a pink hat, no dark blue shirts, no dark blue shirts there. No way. No beardie, monotone men can't. That is booked up. 

[00:20:41] Mike: Now to wrap up on every episode, I do a quick little questionnaire, which is my own ode to in the actor studio.

[00:20:47] Mm-hmm. With my own questions. So if you could think of the first things that pop into your head, Allie, if that's okay. The first question is, what is one of the best pieces of advice you've ever been given? 

[00:20:57] Ali: Well, I mentioned that one from Catamaran, which is very good. The fifth thought. Mm-hmm. So I'll immediately mention that again, but ultimately, I said it before, read, read, read, listen, listen, listen.

[00:21:08] Consume, consume, consume, assess, assess, assess. Know that it is your passion. If you're going to work in the movies or TV or gaming world, you have to really, really care and just do it. Do it and listen and, and make it part of your day. Try to watch a movie a day or every two days or whatever. Just make it part of your routine because it's an easy habit to fall out of.

[00:21:32] You need to really, really put the work in and people, if you are putting yourself, yourself in a position where you wanna be thought of as an expert or a passionate person about a topic, do your homework. Do it. ~Um, ~so yeah, that, that would be my advice. Also, just like I mentioned earlier, be careful, but remember to assess yourself and work out what's good and what's not.

[00:21:54] Keep social media at a arm's length, if you can mute what you can. But also, if a note does come through the internet that you are a bit like this and you're a bit like that, it's gonna make you go, ah, screw down. That's awful. How could you, that's so bad. But then there might be actually something good in there.

[00:22:10] It might be delivered with barbs and spikes and, mm, it might hurt, but maybe that might actually help you give, give yourself a moment and go, okay, I can remember that there's, there's probably something there. Unless it's like fully. Bonkers. There might be something to it and I've, I've picked up a few notes like that.

[00:22:27] They 

[00:22:27] Mike: say that in screenwriting, the note isn't the note, it just shows that there's something there and then you have to work it 

[00:22:32] Ali: out. 

[00:22:32] Mike: Yeah. Right. Yeah. Number two, do you have a favorite film? 

[00:22:35] Ali: I do have a favorite film. It's The Big Lebowski and I often try to work out what the favorite film. You know, what, what does that mean?

[00:22:42] And to me, it, it could be interpreted as, oh, I've watched it the most times. Sure. ~Uh, ~but then if you do it that way, that's the Muppet's Christmas Carol, because I've watched it every single year for the past like 15 years. Yeah. So does that count? Probably not. So what is the movie that I would like to put on in any given mood?

[00:22:58] Probably singing in the rain. I, I'm never not in the mood. Pop that on. You're having a good time. But the big Leki has the quotes, the tone, the actors, the performances, the depth, the eccentricity, the Coness, the Jeff Bridges nurse. I just grew up with it with my brother, and it just, I've got all sorts of merch.

[00:23:18] I've got like a bowling ball shapes DVD case. I've got artwork on my wall. I've got. ~Uh, ~I've got a DVD that comes in a steel book that has its own miniature cardigan. I've got Wow. The works. I love the big Leers ski. ~Um, ~and if they'd allowed me, I'd have had it as my movie mastermind or rather celebrity mastermind topic.

[00:23:36] But the argument was that if it's about a movie, then the sort of cheating. Yeah , 

[00:23:41] Mike: . Playing your own game. Yet You still 

[00:23:43] Ali: won? Yeah, I still won cuz. Read, read, read, assess, assess, assess, worry, worry, worry, stress, stress, stress. 

[00:23:50] Mike: Number three is what gives you a reason to get out of bed every day for a 

[00:23:53] Ali: day of film reviewing.

[00:23:54] C. Nah. ~Um, ~the fact that my job is the best in the world and I'm very, very lucky and the idea that I could say anything else is an answer to that is ridiculous. It's absurd what I do and I'm so grateful to. Any and all gods that have allowed this to happen, and to my bosses and to the listeners, and to the viewers and to anyone who's ever said anything nice in a comment or on Twitter or on Instagram or whatever, it means so much to me and I want everyone to know if they'll ever let me tell them that I don't take this for granted, and I am having the time of my life and I'm hoping that my joy and happiness in doing what I do is something you can take a hold of and enjoy as well.

[00:24:32] Mike: Love that gratitude. It's beautiful. ~Uh, ~number four, which job in the industry would you do if you weren't doing yours? 

[00:24:37] Ali: Well, then you can answer that by going, well, the upgrade of mine. So if someone said, okay, Graham Nors put his hat on the stand and he's off. Obviously I'd love to do that. I think James Corden's left.

[00:24:48] Maybe they need another white Brit man to come over and take that job. No, they don't. But yeah, I suppose that's the easy answer. Sort of what I do, but sort of supersized. Cause I think I do. I think I'm good at it now. I think I've done enough. I agree. I think I'm good at it. So yeah, those would be my answers.

[00:25:03] But otherwise, you know, it would be nice to be working in the props department of a Bond movie. That was always a daydream of mine. And when I was a kid absurdly, I really wanted to be a continuity announcer. Wow. That's specific. Because I remember asking my mom, I went, who's this person doing that was, The news at 10 and now it's whatever.

[00:25:23] And my mom said, oh, they're called continuity announcers. I was like, that's their job. And in my head I went, so you watch telly all day and then in between the, the episodes of the fun things you go, yeah, that was Robot Wars and ~um, ~cheers. Yeah, he's, there you go. Cash in the attic. I don't know. And I thought, that's brilliant.

[00:25:40] And my parents, you know, blessed them were very keen on my brother and I sounding as English as possible. Cause they, um, Immigrated from South Africa and they really, really, really Zimbabwe and they really wanted us to be blunt, to sound us from nowhere as possible. And I went, well, I sound like I'm as English as I possibly could.

[00:25:57] Yeah, I'll be like a Radio four bo. Um, I dunno that I've always, I, if you could gimme a present, it would be, I'm a radio four or, or channel four or whatever going that was there. And this is this and coming up next. Continuity, man. Got it. Yeah. Don't think you were expecting 

[00:26:13] Mike: that answer. I was not. I've not had that one before.

[00:26:15] If you could interview one person, living or 

[00:26:17] Ali: dead, who would it be? I wanna give you a living answer because I get asked this a lot and I increasingly want it to happen, but I'd love to do movies that made me with Meryl Streep. Okay. And I'd like to do another one with Steven Spielberg. I've already done one, but it was about his sci-fi films and I'd love to do another one, but with his.

[00:26:32] Everything else, which is an enormous one. And Desert on Discs is one of the best things,~ uh,~ on the Planet interview program. It's just second to none, and it's Jewel and the BBC's crown, it's, it's outrageous. But his desert on disk was very good. And I think Lauren Vern's outstanding and I'd love to spend more time with him, but living or dead, I dunno.

[00:26:51] Kubrick, I mean, sit down and talk to, uh, Hitchcock. I mean, that would be incredible. Mm. ~Uh, ~I don't think he'd particularly pick up. What I'm putting down in terms of, you know, this YouTube TikTok friendly shtick. But, um, I have a ton of questions. I have a ton of questions. So yeah, let's go to Hitchcock for Dead and , , Streep for,~ uh,~ a Living 

[00:27:10] Mike: Lovely pen.

[00:27:11] Ultimate question, what is a book, ideally career focus, but it really doesn't have to be that everyone 

[00:27:14] Ali: should read. Uh, which lie did I tell though? William Goldman is a, is a classic, I'm sure you've talked about it many times. Um, and the other one would be,~ um,~ easy. Riders, raging Bulls,~ uh,~ which is another sort of a decade in the life of cinema. ~Um, ~so there's the two sort of like, oh, you wanna get into sort of film, eh? Mm-hmm. ~Uh, ~here's some very readable, very interesting stuff. ~Uh, ~also my friend,~ uh,~ Phil Emn, or rather his brother Nick Semon, sorry guys, has written a book about,~ uh,~ nineties and eighties action heroes called Last Action Hero.

[00:27:44] Nice. Was it Last Action Heroes. Anyway. And that's a fascinating read. And he did another one about the eighties comedy SNL wave called Wild and Crazy Guys. So I'd recommend those two cause they're fascinating, informative, and uh, funny. 

[00:28:01] Mike: Amazing. And the final question, if you won an Oscar, who would 

[00:28:04] Ali: you thank?

[00:28:04] I thank everybody. I'd thank my parents and I'd thank. ~Um, ~my boss, particularly a man called Joe Harland, who works here at Radio One, has been a real cool, supportive presence and has backed me time and again,~ uh,~ particularly as I veered into the viz side of things and, and did a lot on iPlayer.

[00:28:22] Increasingly, as I said earlier, more and more visual stuff, and he has been such a defender of what I do and I owe him so much, but also, My big boss hit Aard, a guy called Ben Cooper who first hired me, and, um, partners and friends who've supported me along the way because, you know, I was one of 12 people I'm sure that got very, very close to getting this job in 2016, and they happened to pick me and by the grace of God, go away.

[00:28:49] Like that's just like it. That's not the phrase, but it was just a random bit of kismet. I happened to get picked. It worked out. You know, I got on very well with Nick Grimshaw and the chemistry test and it worked out. So I'd like to thank luck and I'd like to thank my friends and family, and I'd like to thank you, the audience, your Twitter fans.

[00:29:09] I'd just like to thank the fans. 

[00:29:11] Mike: Amazing. Thank you so much for your time today and your honesty and some really quite profound career advice in there. Ali, thank you very 

[00:29:15] much.