Tracy Beaker Series 4

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[00:00:25] Content contains podcasts. This adult contains content. Adult content, be advised. Enjoy the episode. How come in that era of CBBC there was so much Yuri Geller content? Cheap.

[00:01:12] Let's go. It's going to get progressively fucking hotter in here. Oh, so that's the first time you've brought any kind of energy this series. Sorry, I have MS. I don't care. You say I'm allowed to use that excuse, but was it once a day? I'm just going to say, I don't give a fuck about your MS. I might reduce that to once a week. All right, I haven't complained about it this week. I will today. How would you know? You've got MS, you wouldn't remember.

[00:01:42] That's not how it works. Oh, wait. Mom, my MS is that bad. Actually, sometimes I do say I can't remember. Yeah, you do. So you can't have it both ways. Do you know what I say often? I can't remember. I'm thick. I'm stupid. Right, okay. We are going to go straight into this because it is 38. Yes, it's 38 degrees outside. It's the hottest day of the year. Yes. Like one of the hottest in recorded history. It's one of the five hottest days ever recorded.

[00:02:13] Yep. And it's, what, only twice has there been temperatures? Like two days over 38 degrees recorded in the same year and the other year was 2022. Mm-hmm. Okay. So our sufferance. I would say that not the entire country currently has 38 degrees. But we live in London and that's where the temperatures are recorded. Yeah, the hottest temperatures are always Heathrow. It was Kew Gardens today. It was Kew Gardens? It's always Kew or Heathrow. Jesus, you'd think Kew would be cooler given all the trees.

[00:02:42] What similarities do Heathrow and Kew Gardens? Big open space. Okay. Sure. But Heathrow is... In West London. Heathrow is tarmac. It always makes sense to me. Well, today it was recorded from Kew. I think they must do a lot of temperature recording. That makes sense. It often is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we are Thoughts TV. Hello. I'm Meg. Hi. I'm Elsie. Sorry, that's Meg. I'm Elsie. We're a bit frantic. I'm Laura. We're all dreading when it's going to get warmer in here because we have an AC unit.

[00:03:11] We've had it on for hours. Let's go. Yeah, it doesn't work when it's not on. Yeah. And we considered having really loud background noise, but we thought that would be bad podcasting. Did we consider that? I wasn't part of that conversation. I wasn't either. It was a joke. Laura considered it with herself and told nobody. And told herself no. No. Can't make a joke around here. You can't even sit here with a hand fan. No. There's fuck all to do. Yeah. We just have to sit in it. Yeah.

[00:03:41] And stew. Stuck it up. Stuck it up. Suck it up. Fuck. Stick it out. Suck it up. Yeah. Ew. I'm always saying it. I'm always saying it. Stick it out and suck it up. God, parts of my body that are touching have already started sweating. All right. I actually think it's mental that you're wearing shorts because then your skin is touching other skin. Yeah. We've discussed this a bunch of times. If I wear, like this shirt is loose and it's creating an environment between my skin

[00:04:10] and the shirt that is making me exponentially sweatier. But yeah, if my skin touches, it does make it worse. So this is the finale of Series 7. We've got more seasons than Tracy Beaker. Yeah. It feels like five minutes ago I was saying, oh my God, we're starting Series 7. Isn't that a huge number? And yeah, I feel like this series feels like it's gone on longer than most of our seasons. I don't know if anyone else has felt that.

[00:04:40] What did it start with? Herbs. Oh my God. Yeah. Stop. Because we haven't been recording in the most like, okay, this week, this week, this week, this week. It's been like more fractured. It's also, yeah, we would normally have a day and we would record on that day every two weeks. This series has felt a bit more frantic. We've also done a holiday midway through. Yeah. Oh yeah. So it has actually been longer.

[00:05:06] We did leave it a month instead of two weeks, I think, between episodes or maybe three weeks. No, it was three weeks. Yeah, it wasn't a month though. It was just an extra week. No, we wouldn't do that to you. Because also there were periods of time where we knew things were coming up. So we had to record like two or three times in the same week. And then we wouldn't record for like four or five weeks. And we'd sit down and be like, it's been ages since we've been here. Yeah. So it's been a bit, it has been a lot more fractured. Yeah.

[00:05:34] Yeah, that, God, Herbs was ages ago. What the hell? So yeah, this is the finale of Series 7, which is crazy. And it's going to be a while until the next one because we're dropping down to one series per year. We discussed that at the end of last episode. If you missed that, go listen. It's important news. Yes. And I was thinking today, like I was getting quite, I don't know, I was getting quite emotional about Fox TV. I was getting quite, yeah, I was reminiscing on just how far we've come and how proud of

[00:06:03] as I am and how I wouldn't want to do it with anyone else. And yeah, I think what set this off is my friend Marie is staying with us right now. And she said, last time I saw you in London, you were talking about wanting to start a podcast. Oh, yeah. And now we have one. Yeah. With award. Yeah. Well, award. Singular. Nominations though. Yeah. Nominations. Nominations. Here we are at the end of series seven. And I do need to address one thing up at the top.

[00:06:33] We are going from Tracy Beaker series three, two seasons ago, and now we're doing series four. A lot of people were quite concerned that we were skipping out on the film. We are not skipping out on the film. That can be found on our Patreon. Not yet. Not yet. Well, not as of us recording now, but soon it will be on our Patreon. Patreon. We are covering the film. Yeah. But only for Patreon subscribers. Sorry. Sorry, guys.

[00:07:02] You too can be a Patreon subscriber. For as little as three pounds? Yeah. Three pounds. Maybe I'll make it so that you can just buy that one episode. I don't know. Yeah. Whatever. I mean, you could just pay one month and then listen and then... You could. Yeah. You could. Yeah. Nothing's stopping you from doing that. It's not very honest, but you can do that. I think that's perfectly fine. Yeah, it's fine. I've done that. I've done that. We also have a review of Toy Story 5 up on there. That was our latest episode on the Patreon.

[00:07:32] So that is there for you as well and plenty of other fun stuff. Shall we go straight into Tracy Beaker Series 4? Yeah. Cool. Are Tracy's seriously we can't go home? No, we've always been taken over by aliens. Yeah. We use Tracy. Come on. Honestly, there's no escaping from you lot, is there? No way. I think I might start actually with just a very brief recap of one, two and three. Yeah.

[00:08:01] I was earlier. I was like, oh, I should have listened to our last episode because I'm like, I've forgotten how we structure the ones where we're returning to. Like, we're not introducing it. We're not giving new opinions on the piece of media itself. I'm like, how do we do this? Well, yeah, there's going to be a fair amount of overlap, but more for myself than anyone else. I need to recap for me what the structure of Tracy Beaker up until this point looks like.

[00:08:29] So this I've written in my notes app. I think it's going to be helpful. If it's okay, I'm just going to go straight through it and then we'll all be on the same page. So this is what I've written. Series 1. Peter's in it. The two brothers that are not Loll and Bouncer are in it. Maxie's in it. Oh, I remember Maxie. Yeah, he's so cute. I hope he's doing okay.

[00:08:54] Jenny, Mike and Duke are the care workers and it ends with Cam fostering Tracy. So I have briefly called this season pilot season, full of heartbreak and tiny sad children. Yeah. In my mind, that's what it is. Series 2 starts with Tracy coming back because Cam needs some time not with Tracy. So she's back in the dumping ground. We are introduced to Loll and Bouncer, Dolly.

[00:09:24] Amber comes in sort of halfway through and she's only there for Series 3. The social workers are still Jenny and Duke and also Nathan. Mike is not in Series 2. It ends with Tracy not getting fostered by Ben's aunt and uncle. She decides not to be fostered by them because they're going to take her out of the country

[00:09:51] or to a different part of the country and she wants to stay with Cam even though Cam is not fostering her. That's how that ends. Series 2, I've just called Evolution of Tracy and Cam. It's not much more important than that. Series 3, my favourite season so far, by the way. We are introduced to Hayley, Layla, Marco and they've joined Dolly. So there's a lot of young kids in Series 3.

[00:10:20] Oh, we're also joined by Michael. Remember the naughty kid, Michael? Yeah. And Jackie. So a lot of new kids. So quite a new cast. It ends with Justine leaving to live with her dad. Now, I've called this season big cast overhaul, more heartbreak, mainly centred on Jackie and her granddad and huge series finale. Now, Series 4, here we are.

[00:10:49] What's changed? Oh, sorry, I forgot to mention Shelley is also in Series 3. So the care workers are Shelley, Duke and Nathan? I think Nathan, yeah, Nathan's still in it. Elaine. Oh, of course, Elaine. Elaine's in all of it. Yeah, yeah. You've not mentioned her once. I don't need to. I've not mentioned Louise either. So, yeah, now we are in Series 4. The care workers are Sid and Duke. And Elaine. And Elaine. Elaine.

[00:11:19] Dolly's gone. Michael's gone. We've still got Hayley, Layla, Marco. And the Wellards are introduced in the first episode of Series 4. And they're in a new house. Yes, they've moved to Wales. So they're filming in Wales now. It doesn't mean it's actually specifically not set in Wales. But yeah, the first episode, they like are moving house. Yes. Oh, yeah, that's right. Dumping around is in a new house. Yes.

[00:11:48] So Tracy is now back with Cam. Cam is fostering Tracy again. And I've called this season General Hijinks. No crazy finale. There's not really a through line. Not really. I mean, certain characters do have their own individual big episodes that focus on them. But it's not. Nothing crazy changes.

[00:12:15] Not like the end of Series 3 where Justine leaves and a lot of people are introduced. It's sort of static this season, I would say. Meandering. It's meandering. Yeah. So now we've caught up. What are your thoughts on Series 4? I really enjoyed it. I thought it had...

[00:12:41] I felt like it had specifically more sad moments than the previous three series. Really? Yeah. I thought there were some really... I thought they went kind of to town with the sad bits and the like stuff I wouldn't necessarily show kids stuff. That's interesting because I disagree.

[00:13:08] I think the saddest season or like the most emotionally hard hitting seasons are 1 and 3. But now that I look back on it, I didn't cry at all in Series 4. I cried a lot in the others. But during that time, I was off my medication and I'm back on it now. So that is a factor to consider. Not necessarily specifically for Tracy, but for the other kids. Absolutely. There's like... Tracy has a great season. Yeah. Yeah. Sad stuff with the Wellards.

[00:13:38] Sad stuff with Crash. Sad stuff with... Jackie. Jackie. Even more. I mean, Series 3 was rough for Jackie, but it's rough in 4 as well. Yeah. Sad stuff for... I think for Marco. Oh, yeah. Not like specifically, but like there's an episode where they convince Marco that he needs to be normal to get fostered. So he pretends to be normal and the people coming to foster him are mental. And then they go... Good mental. Yeah, yeah. Would suit him.

[00:14:08] And then they go, we think you would be better off with a more normal family. And he's... They're very kind about it. Like it might... Life with us might be a bit scary for you. And then... Yeah. So he doesn't get fostered by them. And just a lot of stuff like that where I was like, this is just making me very sad and there's more episodes of it. Like there's an episode where Jackie's granddad dies and an episode where you find out that

[00:14:38] Crash's dad is in prison. And even the fact that Rio is... Rio has pretended that his dad is in prison. To look hard. To look hard. To look well hard. But Crash... Crash's dad actually is in prison. I know loads of wicked trick shots. Did your dad teach you those too? Uh, yeah. There's one where you'll line up the reds and... Do you ever hear from him? Never came. Do you write to him in jail?

[00:15:07] Um, I'll go and see if Duke's granny chalk. And Rio continues this to... So he can be friends with Crash? And he's doing it because he doesn't want to admit to anyone that he doesn't know who his dad is. Yeah, but I also kind of got a sense of he liked having something in common with him. Yeah, but having a little friend. Yeah. Yeah. You've got like this group of...

[00:15:31] You've got the Wellards, like three siblings who on a very base level do just want to belong. They're losers. Especially Jackie. She's not. She's just sticking up for her mate. Like we would. And they're like pretending like that that doesn't matter. And throughout the series, they all have their moments of fitting in with the other kids or wanting to fit in with the other kids. Yeah. And that made me sad.

[00:16:00] Because they're very closed off because they're three siblings. They've all got different dads. And that is very, very subtly mentioned. They don't make a thing of that. You just sort of are told at various points throughout different episodes that they don't share a dad. And I mean, it never occurred to me. Genuinely didn't occur to me. But as I was watching this with Marie, who's staying with us, she said, well, yeah, one of them's black. And I'm like, oh, yeah. Yeah. I was going to say that. I'm like... It just didn't occur to me.

[00:16:29] It didn't occur to me when I was a kid at all. No. At all, it didn't occur to me. You didn't see colour. No. No. Still don't. Colourblind. Literally. They've come to stay. This is, um... Roxy. Chantal. Rio. Wellard. It's going to get unpacked. Quietly. Duke. Staff meeting. This place is going to be another pushover.

[00:16:58] Just like the last four. No challenge. We'll have them for breakfast. I'd like to talk more about The Well Arts, but before we go on, I've got a short list of episodes that I think are the most important in this series. So I'd just like to quickly mention what they are, and then we can get round to those when the time comes.

[00:17:24] Considering there's 24 15-minute episodes in a series of Tracy Beaker, so 12 half hours. 22 in this one. 22. There's only 11 episodes. Oh, okay. Right. And I think that shows just how meandering four is, because in previous ones I wanted to talk about so many episodes, and for this I've only picked out a few.

[00:17:45] So we've got Duke turning down an office job, Jackie's granddad, musical episode, art centre episode, lol and bouncer fights, dad's in prison, and Sid and the snake coffin. Dad's in prison. Please snap my dad. What? Feliz Navidad. I know. What we needed was a new care worker. Not more kids.

[00:18:14] Especially those kids. You don't even know them. They were dumped on me without warning. I've got nowhere else to take the poor little mites. Africa. No. Australia's further away, and they're used to wrestling crocodiles there. So the Wellards. I actually think it's pretty interesting that there are some characters that are in a season of Tracy Beaker, and they're so... The Wellards are like some of the most culturally relevant or remembered characters.

[00:18:44] They only appear in series four. I mean, I think they might be in five as well. I genuinely can't remember. But they appear so late, and everyone remembers the Wellards. Well, appearing late means that you were older when you watched it, so it does make sense that they're more remembered. I suppose, but it all got repeated like... They're just very iconic. They are. They are. So talk to me about the Wellards. It took Meg until yesterday to work out the pun of their surname. Yeah.

[00:19:13] I actually didn't notice it. I wouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't been watching it with subtitles, and the subtitles was writing well hard. And I was like, oh, I get it. You've been real subtle there. There's Roxy, Rio, and Chantel. And Roxy is the youngest, and Chantel... Well, she's at least the smallest. We don't know. And Chantel is the oldest, and... Again, we don't know.

[00:19:43] She's just the biggest. Why doesn't the biggest Wellards not simply eat the other? They're three siblings, and they're kind of goth-coded. I mean, I was like, who's buying these kids these steel-toe-capped boots? I did enjoy that in the first half of the season, it's very like their shoes are a whole motif. Like, there's so many shots that start on just their shoes, and you're like, ah. Yeah, but they step into frame.

[00:20:13] Yeah, yeah, yeah. Also, because you see a couple of times in the background loads of signs that say, don't wear shoes in the house. Really? Yeah. I need to re-watch and take notice of the sign. I did see a sign that was, like, printed in, like, aerial font on a white A4 sheet of paper. Yeah, all of these were. Just stuck on the wall, and it said, don't talk back to adults. Yeah. Like, you're not making it feel like a home. Yeah, but there's quite a few that's like, don't wear shoes, don't wear outdoor shoes in the house.

[00:20:41] And you're like, well, small rebellions, I guess. You think you're so smart. Don't you be care? Smarter than you? Yes. When are you going to get us with our thick adios? You're nothing around here anymore. I'm queen now. They kind of position themselves as the bosses of the dumping ground, even though they only appear at the beginning of the season. And not even, like, subtly. Like, sometimes the season starts when there's a new kid, and you assume the kid's been there for a while.

[00:21:09] They, we see their introduction. They come in, and immediately Rio goes and steals Lowell and Bouncer's room from them. Because he opens the door, and he says, this looks like a Wellard bedroom. And Lowell and Bouncer immediately kowtow and leave. No, they, like, hit the floor and try to hide from Rio. And Rio just bends over the bed and goes, what are you doing?

[00:21:36] Well, they have been in a care home with the Wellards before. So they're the most frightened of them because they know what they're like. And what they're like is, like, stupid pranks that you see on CBBC. They're not, like, bullies. They're just deeply annoying. But it's framed like they're evil. And Duke even says, I saw them in action at another care home I was visiting once. We can't do this. Oh, yeah.

[00:22:06] Like, when Duke sees them, he immediately backs back into the office and closes his door and peeps through the blinds on the door. I loved you. I used to love doing that. The noise of those kind of blinds is very satisfying. Oh, the little Venetian. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So talk about Rio's do-rag. The thing is, yeah, there's, what's the actress's name? This little white Welsh boy. Yeah. What's he called now? He's the guy in Submarine, right? Yeah, he's the one. Craig Roberts. Craig Roberts.

[00:22:36] Mad that Rio Wellard is the one with the career. Yeah. Actually crazy. I mean, I don't know what he's been doing lately, but he has done things. He's got what... Let's not forget that he was also in... Young Dracula. Young Dracula. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, my God. I did forget. Elsie. What the hell? Oh, yeah. He's wearing... We did four episodes on that.

[00:23:02] All three of them are wearing, like, kiddie punk emo clothes. So there's, like, flames and skulls and that kind of shit. What was Rio? I pointed a shirt out that Rio was wearing. Was it Beware or Stay Back or... It was a shirt that said Beware. Skin. Beware. Okay, yeah. It definitely said skin on it. Yeah, yeah. I just couldn't remember what was up here. It was like Beware, Skull and then Skin. I remember that because Marie said, I want that shirt so much.

[00:23:30] That's an accurate shirt for most of us. Yeah. It's actually so funny. And they wear, like, big shoes, like, leather, like, metal. You know, I don't know if anyone ever had that phase where they really wanted to be wearing studded metal all the time. I did. You still have some, I think. No. I have one pair of shoes, but I don't really wear them. Yeah. Because we don't take cabs everywhere. And, yeah, he's also, like, every single day. And he's got a few of them.

[00:23:58] He's wearing what I thought initially was a do-rag. But I actually think if you look at it, it's the same material of, like, the things surgeons wear. The, like, hat caps. Oh, sure. That surgeons wear. But it's this little, like, cloth thing that you tie at the back, which, but it's not the right material to be a do-rag. But it also looks like a do-rag. So it's like, what are you doing? You can't be wearing that Welsh boy. And he's got, like, either skulls on it or flames on it, that kind of thing. It's always skulls or flames. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like Christians would have a problem with it.

[00:24:29] No. No. I don't know if they'd kick up the fuss about this. I mean, it's also, I mean, Catholics are quite punk coded in some ways. Is it season five that's got the girl that's, like, real straight edge? Oh, like, teetotal straight edge. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. The pagan one. Yeah. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The one who always wears, like, a pink cardigan and, like, a... The youngish black girl. No. Oh, not her. No. Okay, okay. I don't know. We'll get to season five.

[00:24:58] Oh, the blonde one. The older blonde one. Yes, that's series five. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, teetotal straight edge. Well, they're kids, Laura. Well, what do you mean by straight edge? Just curious. I mean, like, Bible chemistry. Oh. She's, like, she's very crappy. Yeah, yeah. But she's also, like, probably the bitchiest character. She's, like, worse than Justine. Like, the Misfits character that is, like, I know you could be so much better. Her. That starts a cult. What? Never mind. I've never seen that much of Misfits. Really? It's season one. Oh, I don't remember. Yeah, that's fair.

[00:25:27] But that is series five. Real's dad is a very... Very... Nasty piece of work. Ask the last man he put in hospital. So, while we're on the Wellards, anything to say about any specific Wellard episodes? I honestly found all of their plots kind of boring. Anytime it was stuff with them, I was kind of bored. I love the Wellards. Yeah, me too. I think that Roxy is hilarious. Who's got Limer in five CD?

[00:25:57] Now, I didn't see that line in series four, so I have to assume it was five. And therefore, I have to assume the Wellards remain in series five. But who's got it? Who's got... Who did have it? I actually can't remember. I haven't got a fucking clue. We'll find out. I think that Roxy's hilarious. I think that the girl who plays Roxy is so fantastic. I think she's... Well, I don't know if she's really young or if she's just really small. I mean, she is young, obviously. But like, she's hilarious. Her comic timing is so good.

[00:26:27] No matter what, she's under 10. So, she's the one... They've given her the hardest role to play because you're kind of meant to be the most afraid of Roxy and you are. She's like a little chowler. Yeah. She's the leader of the Wellards, which is so... Oh, she would bite your fucking ankles. It's so humiliating for Chantel, who's like twice her size. Chantel's really... What's the word? Kind of bland. What's the word? Bland. No, not bland.

[00:26:57] I don't think she's bland. She's just... Mild. Mild in comparison to Roxy, I think. Yeah, she's the nicest one. She's the most sympathetic one. Yeah. Well, that's probably because she's like 16 and she's developed... A brain. A brain and emotions. ...sympathising with people. Listen, I didn't mean to upset you. I mean, we've all got bad memories, haven't we? Yeah, they... I always liked Chantel when I was a kid. I did.

[00:27:23] Yeah, they all get an episode each where they are shown to be wanting to fit in because they stick together like glue because they've been through a bunch of care homes together, conquered each one, been moved on to the next one because they're so well behaved and that's just their pattern. So poorly behaved. Yes, that's it. Yeah, thank you. Yeah. And for me, one of the saddest moments, and I can't even remember what leads up to it, but Roxy and Chantel fight.

[00:27:52] You're the one planning to meet your dad without telling us. No, I'm not. See you soon. Lots love, Dad. You don't say anything to her either. You shouldn't have done it, Roxy. So Chantel gets a package and Roxy opens the package, which bad, bad, naughty shouldn't open other people's mail, but it's a gift from her dad and there's a letter in it that says something like... I'll see you soon. Happy birthday. I'll see you soon. Yeah, see you soon. Love you, Dad.

[00:28:22] And Roxy assumes that Chantel is going to see her dad, something that they've agreed not to do or like fuck their dads, that kind of thing, and gets really upset with her for holding this information back. But to begin with, Chantel doesn't even know why Roxy's upset with her because she doesn't know about the parcel, she doesn't know about the letter. Then Roxy shows her the package, tears the letter up in front of Chantel, and Chantel's

[00:28:51] just like, you shouldn't have done that. You haven't got a clue what's going on. And Roxy then opens the present, which is like a box full of chocolate buttons, stuffs her face with them in like a really genuinely heart-wrenching moment. She's crying. She's crying. It's horrible. I think that young actress is so brilliant. And there's like a jump cut to her having finished them and she's just lying on her back. Crying.

[00:29:21] Full and crying. It's so heartbreaking. This is an episode where Roxy and Tracy are like battling it out for who's queen of the dumping ground. And they're doing, they're completing these challenges to see who wins. I can take you on, BK. And what are you going to do? Bite my kneecaps? No, I'm going to teach you as bossy at wince and fro. And the final like deciding challenge is who can eat the most of these chocolate balls?

[00:29:49] They're like, they look like Easter eggs, but they're wrapped up like little footballs. Yeah. I can't remember if those are solid chocolate or not. No, they're not. They're hollow. Because if they were solid chocolate, that's fucking mental. So you really sympathize with Roxy because you know she's already eaten a bunch of chocolate today. Oh, I could feel her pain because she just looked dead behind the eye. She wasn't even like, oh no. It was like, oh Jesus Christ. I actually viscerally feel for Roxy right now. Like she's so sad. And Tracy concedes.

[00:30:18] They're on like the same amount. Tracy concedes. And she's like, I can't eat anymore. So Roxy takes a bite out of the 13th one and says, does that mean I'm queen of the dumping ground? Round one to the challenger. Roxy Willard. Whoa. Let round two commence. Marco, I've told you we're doing something important. Marco announces it because he's being like the announcer of this whole thing.

[00:30:43] And then Roxy goes, well, in that case, gets up from her seat, leaves the room. You can hear her being sick. And at the end of the episode, Tracy and Roxy have a conversation. Roxy says to Tracy, why did you cheat? I didn't. You did. You let me win. That's cheating. Why? And Tracy says to her, because we're the same.

[00:31:11] You look hard. It's not in those words. It's a lot kinder than that. It's like you look strong when you're hurting the most. And you need it more than I do now. You need it more than I do. Because Tracy doesn't even live at the dumping ground. So it's like, I'm sorry, you shouldn't even be competing for queen of the dumping ground, but whatever. Do you know what makes me queen around this place? Because I acted toughest when I was all alone and hurting the most. Just like you did today.

[00:31:41] You're the same as the beaker and you deserve the crown. I would have beaten you anyway, Tracy Beaker. Yep. You're the same as the beaker. It's like kind of a really nice moment between them. I think that this series balances quite well. Tracy being older and more mature and tackling older kid problems.

[00:32:05] And also her kind of still having the like spunkiness that she had in like the first two. Yeah. She kind of directs that more at Cam now because Cam is the person that makes the rules for her. Yeah. Not the care workers. But once again, we have said this in every single Tracy Beaker episode we've done.

[00:32:23] It is another moment of Tracy being the most emotionally mature person in any room and always giving the person that she might be falling out with like grace and doing exactly what they need. We have said this every single season. Tracy is a very, very kind person that knows what each person needs in the moment and she's done it again.

[00:32:47] I actually feel I feel bad for her because I feel like she has this she shouldn't have this level of having to worry about everyone else's emotions at the age she's at. Like that is why ultimately she is queen of the dumping ground. And she is the most beloved person there because, you know, she they're all her friends. So when she lives with Cam, she still visits very frequently, obviously, because it's her show.

[00:33:17] But you know what I'm saying. When my dad gets out of prison, I'm going to tell him about you. And when he finds you, you're going to be sorry. Very sorry you ever made a fool out of me. I think let's move on to the dad in prison episode because that's keeping with the well ads and also one that I put in my list. This is Rio's one. He finds something in common with Crash and we learn something about Crash.

[00:33:47] But it's kind of more Crash's episode, is it not? Well, I think both of them. OK. It's definitely you definitely learn a lot about Rio. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And it is nice because they both find a friend and Rio sort of integrates a little bit more with the group. There aren't too many kid shows that discuss having a dad in prison. No. Or not knowing who your dad is. There's not too many of those. And they do it both. Yeah.

[00:34:15] I have to admire the show for that or the books for that because it's not unrealistic for a child to be in care because their parent is in prison. And I think it handles it quite well. It's a very light touch. Yeah. Because what I liked about this episode was that it shows you how Tracy and Rio are similar.

[00:34:45] Because Rio is... I hadn't thought about that, actually. Rio is cooking up all of these... I don't even want to call them lies. They're just stories about... How hard his dad is. How hard his dad is. And Chantel and Roxy are backing him up on it. They're spreading all of these rumours as well. Yeah. And every time he talks about his dad, there's a different story of, like... There's a bit that I thought was so funny where he's... I can't remember who he was talking to, but he says,

[00:35:12] Yeah, he's in prison for stealing loads of money and jewels and money and stuff. My dad's in jail. Because... Because he stole... Stole a car. And he drove us to this big bank. And then he went inside and nicked all this stuff. And stuff, you know, from the safe. And money and jewels and money and stuff. Everything. He stole everything in the whole place.

[00:35:42] The lot. Dad didn't flinch. I thought that was so funny. Oh, that was actually really cute. That's what a child would say. And that's when I realised, oh yeah, that's why he's the one with the career. And that's like Tracy in the first couple of seasons when she's... Tracy does know who her mum is. And you don't... I think you maybe do see her mum at some point. Well, in the film. In the film. That's right, yeah. You do see her mum at some point.

[00:36:13] But every time Tracy talks about her mum, her mum is a completely different person. And there's a completely different reason as to why Tracy is in jail. You don't get that anymore. I was about to say, I don't remember a single one of those in this series. She's older now. Yeah. She's got a new mum. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I just hadn't realised until you said it. And I like that because I think all of the Wellards have got something in common with Tracy. Yeah. Like something directly in common with Tracy.

[00:36:41] And I also want to point out that all of Rio's crimes that he's saying his dad has committed, they're all thieving. There's no violence in, you know, he doesn't say my dad murdered someone because of course he doesn't. Because murder is not cool. Yeah. But thievery is. I think that Roxy and Chantel do say that he's beaten someone up though. Oh, they say he strapped a teacher to a chair. He strapped a teacher to a chair and left her there. And Marco's like, is it Marco?

[00:37:11] He's like, why is that bad? And Chantel's like. It is when it happens to be the last day before the summer holidays. They found him six weeks later. Okay. Yeah. That's yeah. But that's just silly. It's fine if it's teachers. I think, I think that's the well ads. I think we've done the well ads quite well there. And I'm happy to move on if you are. All right. I, I didn't know. At least you know where your dad is.

[00:37:40] I don't even know who mine is. Maybe tomorrow. What? Cards. Okay. Well, let's go with a lighter one. Jackie. No, no. We'll leave Jackie. Sid and the snake coffin. Well, firstly, let's talk about Sid. Okay. That's enough. What's done is done. We can't refuse them care. They're just children. Children who need our patience and our guidance, which remember is what we're here to give.

[00:38:11] Oh, I love Sid. I love him. People in the comments in our, on our Instagram were very like surprisingly concerned that we weren't going to give Sid his flowers because Sid is not the most iconic care worker in Tracy Beaker. It's, it's Duke or it's Mike, but Sid or Nathan, but Sid is lovely. I really like Sid. I was kind of worried. I, off of the back of those comments, I was kind of worried that I was going to find him

[00:38:38] quite boring because I didn't want, I didn't want to find him boring and I didn't want to dislike him, but I was kind of worried I was going to be bored by him. He's boring in such a nice way. He's just like super responsible. He's just so dadly. I don't actually think he is boring. I think key points of Sid's personality, he's quirky in a low key sort of way. He's willing to turn a blind eye and he steals. There we go. He doesn't talk about the stealing. Is this the ginger fella?

[00:39:08] Yes. The care worker that isn't Duke. Yes. Okay. So he, there's an episode where Duke's looking for his chocolate cake and is it, I think this is, is it Crash and Rio find the chocolate cake in Sid's bottom drawer? Yeah. When they're making friends with each other. Yeah. And they, they hide under Sid's desk and eat the chocolate cake. And then Sid finds an empty plate in his bottom drawer and he can't even say anything about, he can't even discipline the kids for that because he stole the chocolate cake and had half a cake in the bottom of his drawer.

[00:39:37] I like the episode where he, he's there alone. I don't know, remember why, but they set up security cameras because he's there alone and Lol and Bouncer are like, well, if you, if you're putting cameras up, we're going to have to do something in front of the cameras and then proceed to move outside to be in the view of the cameras. And the sort of amused repartee between the, between Sid and Bouncer and Lol is, is really quite a nice through line of the episode. It's a B plot, but I really enjoyed it.

[00:40:06] But Sid, this is an invasion of privacy. Look, it's just till we get new stuff. I don't like it any more than you do. If he wants to spy on us, we'll give you something really good to see. Well, Lol has a really big diary and he's writing in it really big with a really big pegs. Can you see? Is that big enough for you? Yeah. Like, and they have like a shower outside. They're like, well, since you don't have any cameras in the bathroom, we thought, I just really enjoyed it. Pushing back on against a surveillance state. I've got to rate that. Yeah, I've got to rate that.

[00:40:35] So you'll never believe this. The actor's name is Vincenzo Pellegrino. Wow, really? Yeah, he's like this pasty ginger guy. Like Vittorio Angeloni. Yeah, exactly. And I'm going to make a bold take now. I think that Sid and Duke have more chemistry than Mike and Duke. They do. They have great chemistry. Sid and Duke have got insane chemistry. Am I a humourless grump?

[00:41:06] No, come on, this is serious. Tell me. You've had a very heavy workload recently. They might as well shack up together. They're just like a great team. Like, they bounce off each other so well. Like, I super believe them as friends as well as colleagues. Like, they just have a great relationship. I mean, Duke continues to be Duke. Duke gets better with every season. Duke is just fucking lovely.

[00:41:32] I love the way he, like, teases the younger kids and tells jokes and his relationship with the older kids is just so touching and fantastic. Sid does a really, really nice thing for Duke this series. And that is that Duke is going for a job interview, which Sid is quite taken aback by and a little bit upset about, I would say. Why on earth would you want another job? More money? Less work? As if I haven't got enough problems.

[00:42:01] Could you give me a written reference? Because of the workload, he says. Yeah, so Duke's like, well, I would get more money and have to do less, which, fair enough. He goes to the job interview and he's basically said, the job is yours as far as I'm concerned. I need a written reference. And Duke gives the guy, the interviewer, the reference that Sid has written for him.

[00:42:29] And the interviewer, I think at this point, Duke's starting to not want the job. He's thinking, he's starting to think about it and what he would be losing. And the interviewer says something about the letter that's like, I've never read anything like this. And I think Duke assumes at that point he's not getting the job or he doesn't want the job anymore. Sounds like he thinks the world of you.

[00:42:58] You must make quite a team. I guess so. When can you start? And then the interviewer says, he must really think the world of you or something. And Sid is obviously not going to want Duke to leave, but he's written him a really, really, really nice reference, which I think is just so, I mean, you aren't actually supposed to write bad references, but you could. Yeah, but you wouldn't go to someone that you think is going to write your bad reference, would you?

[00:43:26] You get to choose who the reference comes from. I also love in this episode, so this episode was on my list because of the ending. So they've got an inspector at the... No, sorry, it's not an inspector. It is Duke's potential employer visits the care home. I can't remember why, but he's doing a visit. And the kids... Oh, it's because of Duke's papers. He doesn't have them. Right. And the guy says he doesn't want to hold up the process, so he'll come and collect them. That's right, yes.

[00:43:55] And the kids, they've got their own B-plot. They're warring and they've got water guns out. And this guy enters the care home and he immediately gets soaked. And he presumably works in the care sector because he's saying to Duke, think of all the difference you can make. So it's very vague what the job is, but he's obviously in that world. And he is in his suit. He's got his briefcase and he's soaked. And he's walked right into a care home.

[00:44:23] Yeah, and he says, like, who are these monsters or something? And Duke says... They're animals! Actually, they're not animals. They're kids who need care. That's why it's called a care home. You've forgotten that with your comfy office in, you pot plants. Who needs an office when you've got all this? Like, he's so upset with what this guy said and he stays. And then he shouts to the kids, bring it on and get soaked by all these water guns.

[00:44:53] But he loves it. He's like, why would I give this up? There's... Sorry to go briefly back to Sid. There's an episode where he's forced to take a holiday because some random fucking woman comes in. Oh my God. Yeah. The Constance... Carlton. Carlton. He goes into his office and like in like heist movies or something where someone swivels around on a chair and they're like stroking a rabbit. She swivels around on his chair and he goes... And Sid goes, who are you?

[00:45:23] And it's like... This is your care home. It's your care home. Yeah. Like you're vulnerable children. There shouldn't just be a random woman here. Like... Yeah. But also the amount of times this happens in this season. Like the kids invite... I mean, this is not important, but just to like demonstrate the point. The kids invite two old people because they want some rich grandparents to foster them. So they just invite some old people into the home and Sid doesn't know about it. It's like, Sid, come on.

[00:45:53] That episode with Constance Carlton is actually really good because you get a lot of really great Sid content in that episode. Danny, you don't have to fight all the time. Hey, no chick tells me what to do. I'm not saying that line, I feel daft. He goes and he's like reading lines for Cam's play. Whatever it's fucking about. He's dressed up like... A 50s greaser. Yeah. He's... Yeah.

[00:46:21] And I think the hair really suits him personally. I think he looks really good. And she's trying to get him to do like a Italian New York accent. He's called Vincenzo San Pellegrino. Whatever. He should be good at it. Then she's trying to get him to be angry. And like, Tracy's like, this is just so embarrassing. And I'm like, I think this is so fun. This is so fun.

[00:46:48] Sid's playing Danny T, the angry leader of a motorcycle gang. Actually, one of the members of the drama group dropped out. And I'm sure Constance can manage. He's a stone cold dilf. He is. He is a bit of a dilf. But yeah, he... Constance is a much more insane and stricter care worker. When she takes the TV off the kids. She takes the TV off the kids. And like, she makes them watch a documentary about potatoes. Which we all agreed. We'd love to watch. Oh, yeah. But like, she's being much... Like, two of them go, oh, I'm not gonna be that interested.

[00:47:17] I'm gonna leave. And she goes, that isn't antisocial behavior, is it? And I'm like, Jesus, calm the fuck down. Tracy fixes it. Because of course, Tracy fixes it by bringing two of Constance's old misbehaving children from her last home in. Who's like, how do you know they're naughty kids? Oh, they've got piercings. They've got piercings. But what I love about that is... So Tracy runs into these kids who are like vandalizing some shed in a field or something. Yeah. As you do. Yeah. And they speak about Constance and they're like, oh, she was in our last care home for like a year.

[00:47:47] And Constance thinks that she's turned it around. Yes. So she leaves. But then they go back to normal. Yeah, yeah. It's Crash in the Beaker. What do you want? Haven't seen you travel's house locked around here for a while. We haven't been getting out much. I love the idea that Tracy just knows all the care kids in the country. Yeah, yeah. She's got a network. There's a care kid network, yeah. But yeah, so you see these kids who are, again, dressed all punk and have multiple piercings on their face. And I'm like, no piercer in the country would be doing that. But sure, we move.

[00:48:17] Maybe they just did it to themselves, Laura. Oh my God, I really hope not. But very likely, right? No social worker is accompanying an 11-year-old to go and get their face pierced. Like, multiple face piercings. You've stopped eating fresh vegetables. But I only left three days ago. A whole year's work ruined. And then Tracy brings them back to dumping ground and puts them in front of Constance, basically.

[00:48:46] And Constance is like, no, all my hard work in two days or whatever. And she leaves. And then Sid comes back. And all the kids are like, oh my God, we missed you so much. And all of them hug him. And I was like, that's so cute. Chantel says, please never leave again. Yeah, it's so cute. That's cute coming from Chantel as well. Right, you lot. What have you been doing to poor old Constance? Oh! What's all this in there, Dove? Oh, we just realised how lucky we are to have you. Oh yeah? What do you want?

[00:49:15] So the Sid thing that I specifically wanted to mention, because he's so real for this, and this is one for the grown-ups, I think. And we did speak about this in the other Tracy Beaker episodes, that watching it as grown-ups, you do appreciate that the care workers have their own storylines. And it's way more subtle, but you do see it. But this is just a joke, I think, for the parents. There is an episode where the B plot is Loll and Bouncer have noticed that Sid doesn't have an overt sense of humour.

[00:49:44] He doesn't laugh at their stupid jokes and whatever. So they spend the episode trying to make him laugh, and he just doesn't really get it. You never find anything funny. That's not true. I have a finely honed appreciation of comic irony. Yeah? And the A plot of this episode is that Rio's lost his pet snake. They're going around the dumping ground looking for this pet snake. They find... We don't know that the snake is dead or alive yet, but we think he's dead because some

[00:50:13] kids found what is later revealed to be just its skin. Yeah. But they think it's dead, so they've put it in a coffin, which is actually... A snooker cue box. It's like a long, thin coffin. And Sid enters the room. They're all having a funeral for this snooker cue box. And Sid's in the doorway just sniggering to himself because it's so stupid. And Duke is like, out. Now.

[00:50:42] We put him in Crash's snooker cue box. His need is greater. Sid? Sorry, it's just a long box. It's Rio's pet in there. Not funny. Yeah, I'm sorry. Maybe we could bury him in the garden. Out. Now. Now. And all of the kids. Like, no one can see the humour apart from Sid and me. Yeah.

[00:51:10] I was watching, like, the last couple episodes and I was... I don't know why this season made me think of it more than the other ones where I was like, the care workers are all really, really likeable, which makes sense. But I was also like, hmm. It made me just think about how much we judge people in their professions. Because it's like, do I think they're likeable because I think this is a super, super, super worthy profession? Well, Marie was saying it kind of makes you want to do it as a job, doesn't it? Yeah. And then she was like, I'm sure that reality is not like this. It's probably much harder.

[00:51:40] Because, like, kids like the well odds, especially with the reputation they come in with, in actuality... Much harder. It would be much, much more difficult. There would be actual violence and actual, like, really bad things happening. But the show is obviously for kids. They can't show the... Like, for the last series, I did do a bit of research. And I read about, like, the current state of children's social care in the UK and the stuff I was reading. It's like, much, much worse things are happening on a daily basis. Of course. What?

[00:52:10] Then they're showing on CBBC? Yeah. Like, of course. But I was... And I was just like, oh, yeah, because I hate finance people on instinct. But maybe I like all care workers on instinct, probably. That was all. I just had that contemplation while I was watching the last two episodes. What other episodes have I got on my list? Is it time to take it a little bit darker? Shall we talk about Jackie? Well, we have to at some point. Well, let's just do it now, then. Her granddad dies. Yeah. It's your grandpa.

[00:52:43] He's very poorly. The hospital rang. Would you like to go to him? Yeah. Very sad. Very sad. So series three, the most emotional stuff for me was Jackie's granddad. I mean, I won't repeat too much because we've done it. But she's fighting being in the dumping ground because her granddad, who was her only family member, now has dementia. Because he's a great runner. She insists he's fine. He's fine. He's able. He can look after himself. He cannot. She knows it.

[00:53:12] But she has to be convinced by all her friends and the care workers that, no, he can't look after you. And it is heartbreaking. It's really, really heartbreaking. You watch him get sicker. It's just awful. And he doesn't appear in this episode, but he dies. And I knew something bad was going to happen because I forgot about this. I completely forgot. And then at the beginning of the episode, Tracy and Jackie are having a sleepover at Cam's house.

[00:53:40] But then Duke appears in the door and I'm like, oh, yeah. Oh, no. So that's a sad episode. It's very sad. I hadn't forgotten about this. What I think is really notable is that Duke and Tracy wait in the hospital for Jackie until her granddad dies. Yeah. Which, well, Duke has to because it's his job. No, but he, I think that that really.

[00:54:09] It's moving nonetheless. I think it, yeah, I think that really simplifies what Duke does and what, how he's represented in the children's lives because. You're going to make me cry, man. He shows up at Tracy's house. He's woke and cam up. They're both standing in the doorway and Duke says to Jackie, your granddad's really sick. Do you want to go to him? And they're both waiting in the hallway.

[00:54:37] And it's a really moving scene because Tracy's asleep with her head on Duke's lap. Oh, my God. And then Jackie comes out of the hospital room and she says granddad's gone. Well, she was convinced by the nurse to allow him to go. Yeah, I felt that the thing the nurse says to her, I was like. You know, some people, they hold on. They don't want to let go even when they really need to. Why?

[00:55:07] They don't want to leave their loved ones alone. I don't know. She was saying that some people linger on because there's someone left for them to take care of. And I think it's, I think it's put in there so we can feel the weight of Jackie's responsibility. Absolutely. Jackie's kind, she's a runner and which we've obviously mentioned before, but she's kind of got, she runs away, right?

[00:55:37] And like, you see the effect of that in this episode because I just found it really moving because there has to be a funeral. And is it Elaine and Duke are saying this to her that it will be taken care of? They're doing a really kind thing for her. I mean, you don't have to worry about a thing. The funeral's being arranged. I'll take you myself. No! Sweetheart, these things have got to be done. Get him some nice flowers. He'd like that.

[00:56:06] I assume they arranged the funeral because, you know, she's got no parents to do it and she's a kid. And she, they're saying, well, you know, we'll have a girl get flowers. It's what he would have wanted. And Jackie immediately gets very defensive and she's like, how would you know what he wants? She mentions to Tracy and Crash that he would want his old running buddies to be there. A very funny line is, I don't want his funeral to be just Elaine. My poor Elaine.

[00:56:36] Poor Elaine because like... Elaine cares so much. She's shit at her job. Yeah, she really does care. I don't think she's shit at her job. I think she is a little bit naive. Yeah. But I think the amount that she cares and the amount that she tries for all of them, I don't think she's shit at her job. I don't think she's shit at her job either. I think she, for me, she kind of, as an adult anyway, serves the purpose of showing me how difficult it would be to be a care worker. Oh, that's a great point. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:57:04] Because like she is constantly trying really, really hard for those kids in a way that is slightly frustrating to watch. And thankless for her as well. Yeah. Yeah. Because it's like she's trying really hard for those kids at every given opportunity. And the kids routinely spit her in the face because they call her Elaine the Payne. They think she's boring. They think they call her ugly. They always criticize her fashion. Constant, constant barrage. She's actually beautiful. She is.

[00:57:33] Her makeup's a bit wacky sometimes. I know. It's come back into fashion. Yeah. She always looks like she's just walked off a Balamori. I think, you know, absolutely own it. 100%. And then all the kids are just constantly insulting her. But she doesn't at any point let that eat at her. No. She just continues trying really hard for them. Whereas I think not even like a lesser person, just like a more regular person would let that get to them a bit.

[00:57:59] Would like move on from the dumping ground, would quit or would try less hard for these kids if they resent her so much. But she doesn't. Yeah. It's her calling. Yeah. So Jackie gives the name of one of these friends to Tracy and Crash. They have pictures which have information.

[00:58:15] And Tracy and Crash and Lowell and Bouncer spend a day going through the phone books and like directories and door knocking papers to find this man for Jackie. One of the worst lines is when Jackie is saying, well, how are we going to find his friends? Don't you have an address for him? Well, Grandpa got sick. He couldn't remember things like that. I should have made him write it down.

[00:58:45] It's my fault. I left nobody to say proper goodbye to him. Oh, my God. Horrible. No, no, it's not your fault. But I think that's a really nice thing that they did for Jackie. And then Jackie tries to ring the number. He doesn't pick the number up. He doesn't pick the phone up. And Jackie's like, oh, well, you know, there's no point. He's not in. What am I going to do? Funeral's tomorrow. Jackie doesn't want to go to the funeral. So while Crash is door knocking the street that he thinks this guy lives on,

[00:59:14] Tracy is chasing Jackie down on a running track because Jackie doesn't want to go. Let me pass. Explain why you're not going to Grandpa's funeral. It's none of your business. And Crash has to find this guy and take him and his mates to Jackie for Jackie to be convinced to go to this funeral. Yeah, there's three very old men and they were all running champions like Jackie's granddad was.

[00:59:44] So you were trying to reach for a real one and I thought, shit, who runs? You know, Jackie's granddad is called Jack. So this is the granddaughter that Jack went off to bring up. I imagine she'd be taller. Come back though, a sprinter, I bet. Ah, you remember that marathon? What year was it? Jack and me. Were you there that year? Can you save the memory still after the funeral? Yeah. I don't know.

[01:00:12] So these three old men go to the funeral in their like old running uniform. Yeah, they say something like out of respect or something. We're going to wear the uniform. Don't you have a suit? It's a fellow athlete's funeral. I'm going in uniform. Okay, fine. It's that way. We're going this way. The old team that used to run with us in the games are still around. They'd never forgive me if I didn't round them up for Jack's funeral.

[01:00:41] And it's one of the old men that convinces Jackie to go. I had so many injuries and I was going to quit and your granddad helped me. Just the same way he trained you up. He's the only person I've got in the whole world. I'll never be all right without him. You know why I made it as a champion runner? No. Because of your grandpa. Thought I'd never make it. We didn't have personal physiotherapists in those days.

[01:01:11] But Jack hacked me. Exercised me. Trained me. I'd never have made it without him. He was my friend. Like these two. Your friends. You're not alone girl. Shall we go and say a proper goodbye to Jack then? And I also want to say that like getting to this point in the series I'm a little sick of the cartoons.

[01:01:42] I found them a bit too much. I thought they were too frequent and they were sort of getting on my nerves. But I think where they really come into play is this episode. Because Jackie's granddad is not in it. So the only flashbacks you get. Him as Freddie Mercury. Yeah he looks like Freddie Mercury. The cartoon. The cartoons show you the memories that Jackie has with her granddad. And I found them so unbelievably moving. It shows her as a child. And him training her up.

[01:02:09] And like putting her on a sort of special diet of fruit and veg and healthy things when she's a kid. And then she grows up. And there's just so much imagery of them running together. And I think the last bit in the episode is Jack running into the sunset. And it's so moving. We ran everywhere together. He brought me my first pair of running shoes. He had a proper training program for me and everything.

[01:02:40] He helped me to be a real athlete like he was. I got older and faster. But grandpa got older and slower. And that's where I think the cartoons are the best. But sometimes I just found them a bit too frequent and sort of broke up the pace too much. I had no idea what was going on at the beginning of one episode. Because I don't know if I missed a few seconds of people. But there's a long animation sequence.

[01:03:09] And I was like, what the hell is going on? And it took me kind of like halfway through the episode for me to be like, oh, it was them catching Wolfie or whatever. Because it's like police swinging through the forest. And I was like so confused as to what the hell was going on in that particular cartoon. We should talk about Wolfie. Let's do Wolfie last because he appears last. In like the penultimate episode. For me, there's two more notable things. About Jackie? No. Oh, go on.

[01:03:38] Just to talk about before we get to Wolfie. Do you want to talk about them? What have you got? I've got LOL and Bouncer Fighting, Musical Episode and Arts Centre. Oh shit, yeah. They're all on my list. Oh great, go on then. Oh, I want to talk about Bouncer and the Halfway House. Because that really upset me. Champion! I wasn't ready. What? No way. So you're a cheat as well as a liar, is it? Bounce. Come on, hey! Come on! Come on!

[01:04:06] I don't know how Halfway Houses for older teens work. Like I would like to know how they work. I also don't know. So, yeah, when you're in the dumping ground, you turn 16, you can, you don't have to, but you can go to the Halfway House, which I assume is like a hotel for teenagers that don't have parents. It's like they're in their own little bedsit. They can make their own food. They don't have to, yeah, like that.

[01:04:36] More emancipated. Yes. Yeah. So, yeah, in this episode, Bouncer is having lots of conversations in private with Sid. Well, what are you talking about then? Just my birthday and stuff. Well, what sort of stuff? Stuff? I'd have to explain myself to you. Lol wants to know what they're talking about and is angry at Bouncer for not telling him because they tell each other everything. They've been together their whole lives. They've been to different care homes together.

[01:05:05] So they're angry and they spend the next episode, oh, it's Bouncer's birthday as well, and they spend the next episode just being at each other's throats. And because they're two older actors, it actually feels way more real. Like when they're fighting, they're fighting. Right then. Who wants to play? Me! Me! Me! You and me, champ! Or does the birthday boy need to ask Sid if that's okay first? A perfectly good goal. Like I was talking about the football, you donkey. Are you still so, but my chats with Sid?

[01:05:34] No, I don't know why you're doing your hair bounce. It reminds me of when my brother was moving out because he's older than me and he was leaving for uni first. I was being such a bitch to him for months and I didn't really realize that I was doing that. Like I was getting so angry. My dad was like, yeah, you're being a bitch to your brother because he's leaving. And I went, I was 15.

[01:05:59] And I was like, yeah, I should maybe stop being a bitch because he's going to leave. I should just be spending nice time with my brother. Yeah, there's a video of him about to go into arrivals at the airport and me and my dad are both just sobbing. Like sobbing. I don't have that much to say about it, just that it made me really, really sad. Yeah. Because I didn't want Bouncer to leave. So Tracy does her Tracy thing, making everything better and locks them both in a Wendy house together. Which I love.

[01:06:29] I haven't been in a Wendy house since I was like nine. So they have to talk. And that's when Lol finds out what the conversations with Sid were about. And he immediately is like, well, whatever you choose to do, I'm right behind you. Sid says I have to start thinking about moving to a halfway house. What didn't you just say? Because I was scared. Of what? Of hurting you. We've always been together. I mean, I've got to grow up sometime, haven't I? I'm 16. I'm sitting in a Wendy house. You should have said something.

[01:07:00] Look, whatever you decide to do, I'll be right behind you. And Bouncer's like, well, I was just worried that you wouldn't be able to hack it without me. And I wouldn't be able to, you know, hack it without you. It comes back at the end as well when Wolfie comes in because Lol is spending a lot of time with him on the days just before Bouncer's about to leave. But again, there's like tension. And then they're like, oh. Yeah, because Lol's found himself a new friend. Yeah. And he's like not spending time with Bouncer.

[01:07:28] But they do resolve it actually without Tracy that time. On a lighter note, the Arts Centre episode is one of my favorite. I remember that one really clearly. I don't know about you guys. But I didn't watch it. We're making the pop. Yeah. So Cam, a lot of the stuff in this series is Cam and Tracy learning how to be a family because they are back together again.

[01:07:52] And there's lots of stuff like the iconic episode of Tracy getting the shopping list wrong and buying a load of turkey dinosaurs. That is an iconic episode. Aren't you? I'm not poisoning you. You buy them. I cook them. Now clean that up. And a phone cover. You haven't even got a mobile. Hint, hint. Tracy. Well, they're on special offer. And just fighting about like little things.

[01:08:22] That's a great thing about this series. Tracy again continuing to be deeply insulting the whole way through. So she is. But that's why Cam was drawn to her in the first place that she's cheeky and she's different. And that is. Yeah. Cam wouldn't want her any other way. It's also just the whole defense strategy of like, how far can I push you? Because most people leave kind of thing. So it's just you can't just get rid of that. Exactly. And that's the lovely thing about their relationship.

[01:08:50] And in the Arts Centre episode, Cam says, well, there's a bunch of activities. Let's do them because I want us to stay together. The family that plays together stays together. And that's what I want. So they settle on pottery making. And there's a mother and daughter. Who are obnoxious. Obnoxious.

[01:09:20] They're near the end of their 36 piece dinner set or something. They've been going for weeks. And Saturday is their quality time together. And do you guys have a quality time day with your mothers? No. No. I don't live at home. When you were a child. You said, do you? Sorry. Did you? Did you? No. She didn't need one. She's an only child. You don't know anything about me.

[01:09:48] These two having to fight off siblings. Yeah, I had to share them. So what I like about this episode is they're looking at Tracy's efforts. And the girl says, isn't your mum helping you? And she says, she's my foster mum, actually. And the mum goes, oh, I think you've done very well then. I'm sure your next effort will be better. Oh, I suppose. What would you say? Like, that isn't what I would say. But like, I suppose if you're confronted with that information, what would you say?

[01:10:18] Be like, oh, cool. But the best thing about this episode, the reason I wanted to mention it is because Cam really shows her personality in this. And that's what I love about series four. Cam becomes more like Tracy and more like a mother to Tracy. And what she does is she purposefully convinces Tracy to break the pots that these two have made. It's a pot. It's the product of the quality time we spent together.

[01:10:48] And it's fun. Yours is not bad either. For beginners. It's all wonky. Shh, they're doing their very best, Amy. We're making another one. No way. Come on, Tracy. It's fun. Remember? Oh, faster. Cam, help me. Stop. No! And that, Tracy Bueger, is a product of our quality time together. And it was fun.

[01:11:17] And it's sneaky and it's fun. And it shows that she's on Tracy's side. And I love that about this episode. Because Cam's not a bad person, but you're allowed to do things like that once in a while. You know what I mean? I like that Cam winds Tracy up just as much as Tracy winds up. She does. Yeah, they've got like a real, like, playful, antagonistic relationship in this series, which I love. Cam, the world is our lobster. Don't you mean oyster? Well, oyster, lobster. Oh, jellyfish.

[01:11:46] I really liked the episode with regard to their relationship when Cam's mum came in. Oh, that's great. That's really good. Cam's mum is... Overbearing. Yeah, she does a lot of the things my mum would do. And I was just like watching it the whole night. Yes, I suppose I am Tracy's granny. I hope I can manage. I've had no practice, as you know. Oh, it's easy. Just try not to be yourself.

[01:12:15] The thing is, Tracy solves that problem for Cam very, very simply. And Tracy doesn't really understand why Cam puts up with it. And she doesn't... You see the whole time, like, she doesn't really understand why people should have to bite their tongue. So kind of towards the end of the episode, Tracy's like, we don't need this. No amount of money or presents is going to solve this. This is what Cam needs. Or this is what we need. Cam's mum is like, but everyone likes presents.

[01:12:43] And Tracy's like, no, we've got each other and that's all we need. She does say, fine, we'll keep the TV. Yeah, we'll keep the TV. But she solves the problem pretty well for Cam because after that everything's okay. No, mum. Mum, please don't. Mum, ow. Ow. Don't make such a fuss. Okay, so Cam's got the fashion sense of a Eurovision contestant from Latvia. But that's how she chooses to look, so it's up to her. Me and Cam do things our own way. And that's the way we like it.

[01:13:12] Because Cam comes out wearing like a new outfit. She's done her hair. Her mum made her wear. I think she picked the dress, but her mum made her dress up. No, the dress was a present from her mum and it's nothing like what Cam wore. There's so many lines where it completely went over my head as a child, but her mum is saying things to her like, Don't normally wear makeup, but I'll give it a try. You should, dear, at your age. I can't plug it in. There's no scarpe suckling. Well, I'm not surprised.

[01:13:41] How old is that thing? And then it's time for a 24-carat shopping spree. Wicky, can we go now? Well, I've made lunch. Cam, we can get something on the way out. Camilla's always watching the movies. Does she still buy her clothes from Pound Thrift? Not anymore, Mum. Cam, you've put on weight and like, you've cut your hair. I've always thought you needed a really interesting face to pull off short hair. Yeah.

[01:14:07] And she's saying to Tracy, like making fun of Cam in front of Tracy. And it's horrible to watch. It's that, this is the exact shit my mum does, where it's like that kind of like comments that are supposed to be helpful criticisms. And it's like, they're not. Because Cam comes out, she's done her hair how she wants to do her hair. And then Cam's mum goes over and like starts sorting Cam out. And that's when Tracy's like, stop it. Like, this is how Cam wants to look. Stop it.

[01:14:35] In a way that's like, when it is your own mum and you've had a lot of like these situations where it's like, there's no point saying anything. But Tracy does and it actually works. And I thought it was a really nice moment because it's also clearly Tracy learning about why Cam is the way Cam is. But it's also like, you kind of have to do that in a show where you're showing that kind of thing to kids. It's like, no, you should stick up for the right to be the way you want to be. It's as simple as that.

[01:15:03] You couldn't really show it if they just conform to what Cam's mum is doing. Yeah. Something that just came to me about Elaine that I've just remembered, if you don't mind, is I think she's mischaracterised in series four. I think the Elaine that I see in series four is not the Elaine that's been set up. And I don't like it. And I'm not one of the writers of the show. They can do what they want.

[01:15:30] But I thought it was incongruous with the rest of her character. There is an episode where Elaine invites Tracy and unbeknownst to Tracy, a bunch of other children she's helped get fostered. Justine Littlewood. And Justine makes a guest appearance. Well, well, well. Justine Littlewood. I hear the dominant ground finally managed to get rid of you. I wish I'd been at the party afterwards. Oh, you were.

[01:16:00] Haven't you heard of the Justine Littlewood dartboard? To an event where there's a journalist who's going to be interviewing the kids and interviewing Elaine because they're going to write an article about Elaine and her work. And Elaine is talking herself up to... This random guy. The random guy who she thinks is the interviewer, right? I thought it was actually quite funny when he's like, no, I just wanted some peace and quiet and you've just been talking to me. No, he's like, I heard there were going to be free cakes here and I just wanted to enjoy

[01:16:29] them in peace and quiet and I was like, if I'd just gone to a random event to eat the cakes, you couldn't... The government couldn't waterboard that information out of me. I would have pretended to have been the journalist. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he does, to be fair, make use of those cakes. He goes to town on them. Yeah. You said that... Tracy, dear, can't you see we're talking? He's writing an article and it's all about me, so leave us in peace with you. Of course, it's all about the children.

[01:16:56] And I just think that this self-centredness is not a link. That's not how I read it, because any attention on her work will be good for her work. But I don't think it's presented like that. And it's also mentioned throughout the series a couple of times that she's trying to write a book about it as well. Yeah. I think it's self-serving. The way her dialogue is written is self-serving.

[01:17:21] She's angry with Tracy and Justine because they drove away the real interviewer. The worst one was when she brought in those big spongy hammers so that kids could work out their aggressions on one another. And then she wondered why they went after her. Duke's there as well to show his face, show his support, which is nice of Duke. He's a nice man. Probably baked all those cakes. Probably he did. And the real interviewer is chatting to Tracy and Justine and Duke and realises that Duke's

[01:17:49] got a really interesting life and personality and wants to write about him. And Elaine's mad. And I just don't think that that's Elaine. Fair. I was upset. That's fair. And then they smush her in the face with two cow kicks. Yeah, very unnecessary. Unnecessary. Also, she's not mad at all. Because she does lick the cream off her face and say, Mmm, delightful. Delightful. The level of unbothered you need to possess to be a care worker must be insane.

[01:18:20] Should we talk about Wolfie? I want to end this episode with us talking about the musical episode. Okay. Because it's iconic. It's actually not that bad here. Why don't you get used to Elaine the Payne? Did you really live in the woods all by yourself? With the wild wolves and the snakes. So Wolfie, tell me about him. I love Wolfie. Is he in the next series? Because he's so briefly in this one. I think. I genuinely can't remember. And you know what? Until yesterday, I had entirely forgotten about the character of Wolfie. That's fair. Completely.

[01:18:49] Because he's only in it very briefly. I really like Wolfie. Yeah, me too. And I think there's something really dark about Wolfie's character. It's insane. It's feral child. I mean, he's been nicknamed Wolfie because he lives in the woods. Yeah, he kept trying to run away and he was trying to sleep outside and Sid was saying, I'm so sorry, we cannot allow you. Yeah, we can't let you do that. Slept in most places? Perhaps.

[01:19:17] But unfortunately, the powers that be get funny about was leaving children unsupervised overnight. Then don't tell them. So, Lol takes it upon himself to sort of befriend him and try and convince him to get inside. At one point, Wolfie does manage to escape the grounds and runs away. And he's talking to Lol and Bouncer and he gives his real name, which is Sean. And he says, I can't sleep in a bed. The dumping ground's full of good mates. Please. I got better things to do. Wait.

[01:19:50] I can't sleep in a bed. I see the light will sleep on the floor. Come on, Wolfie. Before they freak out back there. And they're like, oh, well, I'm sure that Sid will let you sleep on the floor. But it's not so bad there. There's good people there. You won't have a better friend than a dumping ground kid friend. And they're also like, please, can you come back before they notice you're gone? Because we'll be in trouble. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I just think that the inclusion of that very short line is just so dark. Which one?

[01:20:19] Which line? I can't sleep in a bed. It's like not very much at all. It's like, why can't he be inside? Why is he spending all his time living? Feels trapped. Yeah. And that's kind of all you get of Wolfie's backstory. But the implications are just so upsetting. I think Duke says at one point, like the little kids are a bit scared of Wolfie because they think he's going to like... Eat the bunny. Yeah. Cook and eat their bunny. Which is called Buffy.

[01:20:48] The bunny, which doesn't show up until that episode. Yeah. And then doesn't show up since. Have a fucking rabbit. Yeah. Called Buffy. Nettle soup. You could practically live on it. Couldn't you? You lived on nettles. There's plenty of little things in the woods. Fish. Rabbits. Rabbits. Oh, how'd you catch him? See you later. So they're a little scared of him and Duke says he's just a kid that's had a terrible time. And then he says, stop being silly. He's not going to eat your rabbit. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:21:17] He does have nettle soup though. Power to him. Who hasn't had nettle soup? I haven't had nettle soup. Is it good? I've been taken to the woods by my dad with plastic bags and rubber gloves, made to pick nettles and then... They're very good for you. And then eating the soup he's made and provided me with very kindly. Thank you for that. This is very strange. There are studies that show how stinging nettles can really help with Parkinson's. I've heard about that. Like it can help prevent Parkinson's.

[01:21:46] Yeah, but people sting themselves with them. Is it the same effect if you've cooked the sting? Probably not. I'm telling you now when you're eating it. Don't sting. Doesn't sting me. Yeah, because they're cooked. Probably there's a nettle eating contest in the UK. I can't remember where, but it's how many raw nettles can you eat? And I'm like, oh my God. Well, you guys are never getting Parkinson's, but oh my God.

[01:22:08] I think my dad must be where I get my fascination for nature from because I actually think about the amount of times in my life he's done something like this. Oh my God, the seaweed. Yeah. When we went to Scotland and we were staying in like a cabin by a lock and I watched my dad slip and slide. He did twice on this big stone and he had a bruise up his back so bad that he couldn't drive for the rest of the holidays. Good job my mum was there.

[01:22:36] He salvaged like a bowl of seaweed and came inside and cooked it. But like all he did was really boil it. Mmm, slimy. It was, the water was quite scummy. Oh my God. And it made the cabin smell really bad. Like, bless him. Fucking hell. I appreciated what you were trying to do, but we, I don't think any of us ate it. I think we all tried it and were like, no. We're going to order pizza.

[01:23:05] Yeah, and the, that was taking me to like pick brambles and stuff when I was a kid. I do remember, he's made nettle soup a few times. I remember watching him standing in the kitchen, stinging himself as he's taking the leaves off the stalks. I'm like, is it worth it? Well, you know what? He's not going to get Parkinson's. I've been to pick wild garlic with my dad. My dad likes to forage, it seems. My parents are both so like city people.

[01:23:32] I have no idea where my like of nature comes from. We didn't do any shit like that. Never been camping. Although like I grew up in the countryside and I would spend all day outside climbing trees and picking brambles, but they didn't. They hated it. My dad says he's got a really fond memory of taking me to a place called Clumber Park when I was a kid. We took like Tupperware, picked a load of brambles. He said that I, I don't know if you've ever gone and picked a load of brambles,

[01:23:59] but you really should soak those brambles because what you'll get is a load of grubs come to the top of the water. The grubs have never, ever put me off once in my life. I will eat them straight from the bush. I will eat them straight, straight from the tub, which I can see the grubs crawling around in. I'll still do it. He said he has a really fond memory of me eating a load of brambles in the passenger seat of the car and then passing out. Oh, that's so cute.

[01:24:28] I can really imagine that as well. Yeah, I love picking brambles. My brother's garden has so many, like an absurd amount of, it's not a big garden. It's a decent sized garden, but like the amount of brambles is genuinely absurd. And I was there last late summer. When were we there? September? July. July. Yeah, Love Island was on, I remember. And because I was like, oh, I'm going to make a crumble.

[01:24:55] I just went in the garden and I was like, I had, there was so many. I had like four massive Tupperwares full and they were also excellent. They were like the best. What are the berries? Is it blackberries? Yeah. Best blackberries I've ever had. They were so good. But also. Never called the blackberries before in my entire life. Yeah. But I had to keep getting my brother to help because like the best ones, my brother's tall, we're, you know, like up high and like you're trying to go through insane amounts of thorns. And I'm like, no, I need help.

[01:25:26] Please can I have help? There's the, you know, like how thick the bramble branches can get, like, like just monstrous. And we finally found like the origin of all the brambles in his garden. And it's this like really girthy fucking brambly branch that's just going to the left of their house off somewhere. I have no idea where it goes. Always take an excuse to use the word girthy. Always. It was immense. It was so thick.

[01:25:53] And it is the progenitor of all of the brambles in their garden. You always take the excuse to use the word progenitor. A girthy progenitor. I love that. That's a big win for you today, Laura. That's well done. That should carry you through the rest of the week. Yeah. A girthy progenitor. Yeah. Yeah. You should be happy with yourself. What were we talking about? I bet Sid has a girthy progenitor. Wolfie's Nettle Soup. Yes. Yes. I agree. What were you saying?

[01:26:23] Did you not hear her? She said, I bet Sid has a girthy progenitor. I know. Kelsey. What? It was right there. He is quite tall. Yeah. So, have we sort of done Wolfie now? Yeah, I like Wolfie. Yeah, he's great. He fits in quite easily. Yeah. Quick question, because I can't remember. Is the camping they do because of him?

[01:26:51] Like, they go out and they go into the woods. Is that because of him? Yeah, there is an episode. Yeah, there's an episode where the dumping ground goes camping. It's not said that it's because of him, but I like to think that maybe the care workers organised it to make him feel at home. I think that's nice. Also, that episode is called The Beaker Witch Project. The Beaker Witch Project. And it heavily references the Blair Witch. It's really like a strange reference. One of the parents?

[01:27:16] This has got a lot of references that went straight over my head as a kid because there's an episode where Lola and Bouncer are doing Pat Butcher impressions. Yeah. And I was like, I still wouldn't get that if you didn't tell me you were doing Pat Butcher impressions because I've never watched EastEnders before in my entire life. And I definitely hadn't when I was nine. Marco, come on, give. Give. Good boy, come on. Marco, the people who are taking you out this morning are waiting in my office. Off your pop. Don't get washed. Up, bad doggy.

[01:27:46] Up, don't get in your basket. I'm never going to get fostered. I'm just too weird. Speaking of weird references, when the kids are training Marco to be normal, I don't know if we've mentioned this, but Marco spends every episode in a different dressing up costume. It's brilliant. He's so funny. He's at least one animal. He's adopted a purse, a show at home. Like, it's brilliant. He's so cute. I don't know where he's getting all these costumes. I certainly couldn't. A scientist.

[01:28:12] I certainly couldn't, on a whim, as a child, decide I was going to be a detective for a day like that. I like it. Yeah, he's so cute. I wish that's how detectives dressed. Right? That would be so funny. Yeah, deer stalker. Pipe. Long coat with like... Do you wish that because you're dating a detective? No. Oh my God, you're outing her for being in with the pigs. All right, I'll cut it. The coats that have the little...

[01:28:41] Oh, the little capes on them. The little capes on them, yeah. That would just be like a detective rocks up at your door and you open it. It's like... He's popping on a high. He's dying. I'm going to need five minutes to laugh and then we can have a serious conversation. Because what they wear now is... Why the fuck is a detective at my door? What am I done? Because what happens now is like... Because we had police come here once and it was a detective and she's just wearing a trench coat and a suit. And I went, yeah, that is what they wear now, isn't it? Boring. We hadn't done anything.

[01:29:10] We hadn't done anything. To be clear, they were looking for someone who used to live next door. Great. Yeah. When the kids are training Marco to be quote unquote normal... Yeah. So the couple will foster him. They're training him up on like answers to give. So like, what's your favourite sport? It's football, by the way. And he's saying, no, it's crown green balls. I love him. Because he's so just entirely himself.

[01:29:40] And they said, who's your hero? It's David Beckham. And he says, no, it's Yuri Geller. Yeah. How would I know who Yuri Geller was when I was... I mean, we've had this conversation in this series. Yuri Geller fucking shows up in Slammer. How come in that era of CBBC there was so much Yuri Geller content? Cheap. Spoons are expensive. By the way, at the end of our episode, they do decide to foster him. Because he goes back on his...

[01:30:09] He does show them that he... Oh, yeah. They come outside and he's dressed up as like a fortune teller and says, don't mind me. I'm talking to the slugs or some shit. Yeah. So that's a nice end for him. Maybe there's more to this boy than meets the eye. What are you doing, kid? I'm communing with a snake spirit of Nefertiti. Maybe you could be our sort of guy after all. I'm sorry, but I have a meeting with the leprechauns and they don't like it when I'm late. Well, don't let us stop you.

[01:30:35] But anytime you want to join us flamenco dancing, you get your boss here to give us a ring. I will. I'll do! Hayley. Hayley. Hayley. Hayley. She gets fostered or adopted? She gets fostered. Thanks, Terry. I really wanted to. But every time I tried, I just couldn't. You'll always be my best friend. I would say that's a lovely episode. She's so cute. She's very, very cute. And so is Layla.

[01:31:05] And they've got an episode to themselves where Layla's upset that Hayley hasn't told her that she's leaving, but it's because Hayley was too scared to. Yeah, there's a scene where Hayley wakes up in the middle of the night, like, scared of something. And I was like, I don't know what's going on. Why is she afraid? What's happening? But then, obviously, you're like, oh, okay. I had to find out for myself. We've known hundreds of kids that get fostered over the years. You'll be next. You watch. I bet you're a fiver. When there's all those perfect Barbie doll kids out there.

[01:31:35] Get lost. Families love little cute kids like you. Circles bruise like Bronx and no one wants. Wow. And when Hayley's leaving, she gives Layla back her feather boa. And she says, for when we're pop stars. And they hug. And it's like, they're seven years old. Like, it's so cute. Yeah. Come back and visit. Of course I will. I thought you might like it. For when we're pop stars. One more thing on Wolfie, actually.

[01:32:04] Do you remember Michael from Series 3? No. The naughty kid. Yeah. Who's only in one season. Oh, it might have been two, actually. Series 2. Whatever. No, it was Series 3. I feel like the casting of Michael, he looks like... What? Did you not hear that? No. Someone just really loudly yawned. And it wasn't either a response. Really? Yeah. Yeah. I'd love to know if it was picked up, but we'll find that out later.

[01:32:34] The casting of Michael. He looks like... It looks like they walked into any classroom and said, who's the naughty kid in casting? We're looking for a Brandon? Yes. Is there a Brandon? He looks like a Brandon. Not to be Katie Hopkins about it, but I really do think that they nailed name in the Wellards, naughty kid names. Roxy Chantel-Rio. Yeah. Also very Welsh names. They are. Yeah. I mean, we should point out also that all the new kids are Welsh. Yeah. Every time. Heavy Welsh.

[01:33:04] Yeah. Yeah. So I think Wolfie looks like... The actor who plays Wolfie looks like he was in all the drama clubs. I don't think... I mean, he's great. He's a good actor. Whatever. But I don't believe him, if that makes sense. I think that Michael looks like he belongs to them. Is that mean to say? No, I know what he means. I don't know. He does not have a dumping ground phenotype. Does...

[01:33:33] Is that okay to say? I don't think it is, but whatever. Do you know what phenotype means? Not really. Okay. I know what it colloquially means. Looks like. That's what it means. It's shape of. Shape of. Yes. Oh, okay. I think you are thinking of a different word. Oh. I know the thing you're thinking of, and I'm trying to remember it really hard. And because phenotype is to do with DNA specifically. I know. There's a word for the, like, the ectogram, those, like, shapes of people. Phrenology? No, that's...

[01:34:03] He doesn't have dumping ground DNA. No. No. I just don't... I look at him and I see a drama kid. Yeah, I get that. I get that. He looks too clean. Yeah, the, like, mesomorph, ectomorph, endomorph thing. That's not what I was... I was thinking of phenotype. Okay. Yeah. And I shouldn't have said it, but... Sorry. Because I am...

[01:34:42] Shall we talk about the musical episode? Yes, please. Let's end this with the musical episode. It is a dream... Yeah. ...episode, unfortunately. Or is it? There's a really big piece of toast on Tracy's bed when she, like, wakes up. Laura goes, oh, I'd like a big piece of toast. Not to eat. I would like decor that is a big piece of toast. You could make that. You just need some cardboard, some papier-mache. You'd hate it if I made a big piece of toast. Yeah, we've got nowhere to put it.

[01:35:12] You'd hang it on the wall. That would be a fun piece of art. It would, actually. Just a big piece of toast. You'd get rid of the painting behind the TV and put a piece of... We don't like the painting behind the TV. I don't mind it, but you could put a big piece of toast there. I still want to commission your mum to do us in a Kraftwerk album cover. I know, same. Yeah. Yeah. So, I think this is one of the most iconic Tracy Beaker episodes of all time because it is the musical episode. I remember the songs being more complete. That's fair.

[01:35:42] I remember the children being better. Do you know who is really good? Roxy. Time to shine. Time to ride. Time to shine. She slays it. She's so good. And Cam, I think.

[01:36:10] Me and Laura were watching this one together and we said you'd be fuming if you showed up at work. Well, you said this. You were very adamant about it. Okay. We were saying in a conversational way. We were talking about the fact that if you showed up at work and you were told, oh, you're singing today, you'd be like, oh, I think I'm not very well for the next two weeks. Alison Hannigan in the Buffy musical episode. The only reason I'm clarifying is because you have a particular hatred of people just singing.

[01:36:38] Yeah, but I think if I'd been 11 and I'd been on this show and they were like, you're going to have to do a solo. I'd be like, no. You didn't hire me because I could sing. You hired me because I look like a naughty child. That's my skill. You did not look like a naughty child. So Tracy is arguing with Cam because she doesn't want to go to bed. She goes to bed. Yeah. And she dreams and she wakes up and the Dumping Ground kids are singing at her.

[01:37:07] That it is breakfast time. And they do. It's time. It's time. It's time to rise and shine. That one. That one. It's time to wash your manky face. And brush your frizzy hair. And they're doing. Well, they're making an attempt at a close three part harmony. It doesn't work. It's not good. But they make an attempt. But they make an attempt. And Roxy is great. And Roxy is definitely very good. Yes.

[01:37:36] She nails that. I'd be pleased with my performance if I was her and I was watching it back. I'd be like, yep, you did that. She's really going for it. She is really going for it. We are the heavy lads. Loads of muscle. Full of charm. We'll show you every ball. But pay us a quick. Or you'll come to harm. Yeah. Who else do I love in this episode? Bouncer and Lol? Yes. Bring on the heavy boys. The heavy lads. The heavy lads. We are the heavy lads. Lots of muscle. Yeah. The heavy lads. That's really fun.

[01:38:04] We even kind of get a bit of a reprise of the heavy lads. We get to hear that twice. We do. So they're working for the head of the care home, who in this universe is Cam. Cunty Cam. Cunty Cam. No treats. Incredible. No sweets. No fun. No sun. No telly. No jelly. No fights. And no, definitely. No late nights.

[01:38:32] You will not say no to any to my establishment. So, no treats. No treats. No sweets. No sweets. No chatter. No chatter. No clatter. I was thinking while I was watching this episode, what of the things that Cam bans in that song would you miss the most? So we've got treats, sweets, chatter and clatter or clutter.

[01:39:02] I'm not sure what the word's meant to be there. Fun, sun, telly, jelly, fights or late nights. What would you miss out of those 10 things? Chatter. I think I'd miss jelly the most. I did say jelly first. Yeah, I would miss jelly. But imagine if we couldn't talk to each other. Imagine if I couldn't have a jelly. Imagine if you couldn't go outside in the day. Yeah, but imagine how quick you'd kill yourself if there was no more sun. No, yeah. That's, yeah. And fun. All of those are fun. So.

[01:39:32] You'd die with no late nights, Laura. Or I'd just, you know, become differently adjusted. You haven't yet. Yeah, but no. Then you're 28. No one's forced the issue. No one's forced the issue. I can force a fucking issue if you want. Wait a minute. I woke up at 6am for years. So you did it. You woke up at 6am for like three years. Four. Four years. Yeah. That's years. How would you fare in the normal world? I have had. I'm not even in the normal world.

[01:40:01] I have had a job where I had to be there at 8.45. Look, we have this conversation a lot. Yeah, they rag on me about my sleeping a lot. We don't need to do it here. She's got MS, guys. No, I have a delayed sleep phase. Yes. I do also have MS, but they're not related. What would you miss the most else? Chatter. Yeah, okay. It's what we do. I mean, fine, I would miss chatter, but I would really miss treats, sweets and jelly. How often do you eat jelly?

[01:40:30] Not as often as I'd like. You wouldn't notice for ages if jelly got banned. Yeah, but then Elsie, Elsie. Trifle. How often do you eat trifle? Not as often as I'd like. But can you imagine? You know how she feels about trifle. I do. You know, sometimes you get trifle without jelly. No, I don't. And it's like, why have you not put any jelly in this trifle? I would really miss tiramisu. She hasn't banned it, but. Well, is it a treat or a sweet? Yeah.

[01:40:58] Treat and sweet I think of as like candy. Yeah, but you could define sweet as desserts. And tiramisu is a treat. But looking at Liza-esque cam, that woman eats tiramisu. Yeah. And that's why she's banning everyone else from doing it. So she can have all the tiramisu to herself, selfish bitch. So that, yeah, I wanted to ask that question. So Tracy finds out that Cam is the leader of this prison, basically.

[01:41:26] And she's brainwashed all the kids to be soulless and obedient. Fascism. Fascism. Snaps for fascism. Snaps for fascism. It is giving country fascism a little. Yeah. And she sings in that song. She's actually got a great voice. She performs it really well. And her henchmen are lol and bouncer, who, you know, they are the kids, but it makes sense for them to be the henchmen. So whatever.

[01:41:55] You've also got Duke and Sid. Is there double, the chef double act? Lovely, bubbly porridge. Lovely, bubbly porridge. It's hot. Hot, cold and congeling. And they're wearing their, like, clip-on earring. Oh, yeah. You were always like, they look brilliant. They do. They look amazing. They do. I think more men should wear jewellery. And they're serving horrible porridge.

[01:42:24] They're singing lovely, bubbly porridge. I thought it was so funny. You can eat it hot or eat it cold and congeling. Yes. Because then we had a conversation about the slop breakfast. The slop breakfast. The slop breakfast. Because I had, as a kid, quite a bit of ready breck. Yeah, Laura was like, well, we were talking about Weetabix as well, weren't we? Yeah, we were. I just think ready breck's absolutely revolting. I really like porridge. But ready breck is not porridge. I would not return to ready breck.

[01:42:52] I don't know why I ate so much ready breck. There's other... It's gruel. It is gruel. It is gruel. And I'm like, why was I eating ready breck for so much of my childhood? There's literally just normal fucking porridge, but sure. What are the other slop breakfasts? Acai bowls? Yes, but that is not one that I was aware of in my childhood. No. Granola and yogurt. Less slop because it's crunchy. Scrambled eggs. Slot breakfast. I also think, you know, Weetabix can be a slop breakfast.

[01:43:22] Only if you leave it. Shakshuka is a slop breakfast. Huevos rancheros is a slop breakfast. Or if you heat up Weetabix, which I loved to do as a kid, I loved to have a bit of sugar on, put it in the microwave, let the sugar caramelise, take it out, put a bit more sugar on it, a little bit of cold food. You were doing fat cunt behaviour when you were so young. Oh, my whole life. Literally, you could ask my parents. Can we tell them what we call each other when we're displaying fat cunt behaviour?

[01:43:51] What fat... Yeah. Fatty, fatty cunt cunt we call each other. And we picked up another one while we were on holiday, which was, are you mysterious? Or are you a fat pig? Which we now have just... Are you mysterious? Or are you a fat cunt? We do need to preface that... Oh, my God. Yes. That fatty, fatty cunt cunt, it doesn't make you a fat cunt. It's... It's playful. It's vibes. Yeah. It's a way of being. It doesn't... It's not an insult. No, it's not.

[01:44:19] It's when you're displaying a certain kind of behaviour. And I'll give you two examples. You guys. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Elsie is a fatty, fatty cunt cunt. When we order at McDonald's and she orders two McPlants. Yeah. That only happened once. Fatty, fatty cunt cunt. Yeah. Laura is a fatty, fatty cunt cunt. This is what sparked the... When you catch her... In December. She's taken the lid off of a mince pie. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[01:44:49] She's poured brandy cream into the mince pie and she's dipping the lid in that brandy cream. That's fatty, fatty cunt cunt. In general, it's like, oh, is this like stoner eating fat cunt behaviour? I'm trying to think of one for me. Yeah, same. When you finish that one bag of knickknacks. Oh, yeah, I will buy a bag of knickknacks and just smash through the entire thing. But I don't think that counts. I think that's fairly regular. I don't regularly buy a bag of knickknacks.

[01:45:19] Although, here's my most recent fat cunt story, although I decided to not be a fat cunt in this situation. Oh, my God. Oh, yeah. This is really funny. Can I tell it? Yeah. Because what you've said to me is so funny. I got a message from Meg. She said I was going to buy... Well, let's have a premise. I was in Spain with my boyfriend and I was in a supermarket. She said I was going to buy a packet of pork scratchings. Because I love pork scratchings.

[01:45:46] But the packet had a picture of a fat lad on it and I didn't want to be the fat lad, so I didn't. Yeah. He convinced me not the fat lad. I was looking at it like, will I be the fat lad? This is why sex sells. If it was a sexy lady, you would have had it. What I will say about this packet of pork scratchings, if you've ever bought...

[01:46:09] I sound like it's such an old-fashioned boozer thing to have pork scratchings, but I do get them in the pub sometimes because they're just such a delicious salty treat. But this bag of them in Spain, they're a lot more common in Spain. Which is mental, but also not. No, it's not. No, I really do understand. It makes so much sense. I really do. It really does. I agree. It's just in my head, pork scratchings are so British. Well, they're not called pork scratchings in Spain. Yeah, of course not. But the bag of them was massive.

[01:46:37] It was like eight or nine times the size. You can't have a big bag to fit the fat lad on it. You will get them in the UK and they're like 40 grams a bag because they're so bad for you. If I'd eaten this entire bag of pork scratchings, the size of it that it was in Spain, I think I would have been hospitalized. And sodium. I'm still trying to think of your... You do have them. You do do things. I think just being willing to buy and eat pork scratchings makes you a fat guy.

[01:47:07] You'll house a whole trifle. I've not done that for a long time. You haven't. But I have. But I'm vegan and Elsie don't like cream. So if you buy a trifle, you're the one eating it. Yeah. And I think this is what stops a lot of the fat cunt behaviors that I would do is the fact that I can't really house an entire thing by myself. And what stops me buying these things is the fact that no one will share it with you. I will not buy a tiramisu because I cannot share a tiramisu with either of you.

[01:47:36] I also want to issue an apology for all the language we've just used. Oh, yeah, sure. We actually think, all three of us, that fat phobia is abhorrent and it makes me flames on the side of my face. Yes. But this is all in love. This is all in love. This is... You are for one another. You have like an antithesis fat cunt behavior as well. Where you will routinely leave a Christmas pudding for an absurd amount of time. That is a fat cunt behavior of mine.

[01:48:05] I will buy a... Christmas pudding is hands down one of my favorite foods on the planet. And I will buy... Like I will stockpile them. Usually I buy... I only bought one this year because I could only buy a family sized Christmas pudding, which I've not opened yet. This is what I mean. This is why it's the antithesis because you just leave them for so long. Because normally I'd buy little ones. Yeah. And have them individually. But by the time I got to the supermarkets last year, there was only a big one. And I haven't opened it yet. And it's going to be Christmas again soon.

[01:48:34] Do you remember I was going through like... There's like stuff in the corner of our living room and I was going through it and I like opened one of the bags and I was like, Hey Meg, can I throw out this cake that has been here? That has been in our living room for like a year. And you went, oh yeah, that's where I put that. Yeah. A pretty pink dress is top of the list. So take my advice. I so insist. I so insist. I so insist. I so insist.

[01:49:06] We must get back to the musical episode. Yes. There's... So Elaine does a number on the stairs. Oh, like a really sexy... Yeah. Twin Peaks. Like the setting, I was like, Red Room. Well, you know what?

[01:49:33] The way that this episode is shot and lit, Lynchian is a word that gets used too much. But it is Lynchian. It is Lynchian. And it's kind of like Jallo. You know, like Italian, like garish Italian horror. I've never seen any, but I'm with you. Suspiria. Never seen it, but I'm with you. Yeah. It's very that. It's very like 70s Italian horror movie. With a bit of cabaret. Yes. Because that's what it's based on. Very much. Yeah.

[01:50:01] I did not realise when I was watching this as a child that it was shot in such an artistic way. And when I say artistic, they did some arty things to it and turned it up to 100. Dutch angles. Well, they just did that all the time in Tracy Beacon. Oh, true. But yeah, it's a cool episode. Some of those walking scenes where you're like, it's meant to be from the perspective of a character. How tall is this character meant to be? It's like, why is this character two foot tall? It's too real. Yeah.

[01:50:30] What were we watching where we were just getting like madly distracted by either the constant shaky cam or the constant Dutch angles? I can't remember what it was. It was Hyder in the House. Hyder in the House. Okay. Thank you. It was so distracting. We actually watched something recently where you two specifically kept going, they've just done it again. They've just done it again. Yeah, that's what I'm... But it wasn't Hyder in the House because we haven't watched that recently. Was it like, it was like an old, oh, Line of Duty. Season one. Oh yeah. Season one.

[01:50:59] No, no, it was. It was. No, no, it wasn't because it was recently. It was in like the last two weeks. We watched something where you guys went, did they just do something to the, oh, they just did it again. Yeah. I think it was Tracy Beaker. It possibly... There was like one where it was like zooming in and out subtly or something the whole time. No, it wasn't. Okay. Was it House? No. What was it? We haven't all watched that together. Line of Duty season one is shot mental, but there was one more recently than that.

[01:51:27] Yeah, no, it looked like a mistake. It was, yeah, very... It was like adjusting the focus within the scene. Yeah. I can't remember what that was. It was bad. When you notice it, you just get constantly distracted. I mean, I was told in uni when we were learning filmmaking, number one, you just got to be in focus. Like no one, no one comes away and says like, how was the latest Marvel movie? Oh, it was good, but it was a bit out of focus. No one says that.

[01:51:57] You got to be in focus. Anytime I see stuff where it is... This happens a couple of times in House, for instance, where it's usually TV shows and it's usually older TV shows. Well, I think it's usually like procedural dramas where they're like pumping them out. I've noticed some really shoddy editing and it's like, well... Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you're like, you can excuse it and you're like, this is nothing to do with it. But something I love in procedurals is when you know a character is sick because you can hear it in their voice, but they at no point reference it in the entire episode.

[01:52:27] But there's someone going, ah! Because an actor is sick. Because an actor is sick. But the character is not. So in this episode, I mean, what is there really to say about this episode? It's so simple. The story is so simple. So they're trying to break... Well, Cam is trying to break Tracy's quote unquote spirit and bottle it up like she has with the rest of the kids. She sends Elaine to convince her to wear a pink dress. To annoy her, I guess, break her spirit doesn't work.

[01:52:56] They send lol and bouncer to tell bad jokes at her. She tries to get her to eat bad porridge and it doesn't work. And then Tracy goes and sees all the kids and sings in front of them about how a dumping ground kid has got to fight to survive. A dumping ground kid has got to be bad.

[01:53:15] But we're right to survive every dumping ground kid has got to be bad. She rallies them all. And then Cam comes back and threatens the kids with breaking the bottles that their souls are in. The kids don't want that. So they all swarm Tracy. And then Tracy wakes up screaming.

[01:53:43] And there's a lovely scene where she tells Cam about her bad dream. And Cam says... You wanted to normalize me. What? Turn me into just another kid. I want Tracy Beaker. I love you how you are. Love you good. I love you bad. And that is the episode. I think the most interesting thing about it, honestly, is A, Duke's voice. He's an amazing singer.

[01:54:13] I think he's playing right now in Hadestown. Oh, cool. Yeah, yeah. He's performing in Hadestown right now, I think. And the way it's filmed. Yeah, I thought it was just... It's a whole season of sort of nothing really connected. And then there's this like just, oh, this is the perfect season for a really fun, wacky episode. And that's what it is. Yeah. I mean, my takeaway from this season is that it's not... I personally didn't find it as moving as previous seasons.

[01:54:43] But that's just me. I still loved it. I love all the characters they've introduced. They're some of the most iconic characters. Sid is not, but I love Sid. And yeah, the finale is not all that. It's literally just hijinks, new characters. There's some really great parts of this season. There's some fantastic bits. But I preferred series three. I really like this series. I really, really, really enjoyed this one.

[01:55:11] I preferred the latter half to the first half. But yeah. Yeah, I think I agree with that. Yeah. I think when the Wellards get more like integrated and they're not just sort of doing the same thing over and over again, I was like, OK, yeah, I'm enjoying this more. It's just the first half of any Wellards bit. I was like... I feel like I really wanted to enjoy the musical episode more than I did. But we... It's so hot and we've had the air con unit on and we've had to have the TV turned up

[01:55:40] so loud that Tracy Beaker specifically has been quite the assault on the senses. That's fair. Yeah. But you guys were watching... Especially the cartoon bits. Yeah. You guys were watching some and I was cooking last night and because the AC was on, you had it so loud. I was just like in the kitchen, like being accosted by the sound. But I still really enjoyed it. Overall, a good season. Yeah. And overall for us, a pretty good season. Hot. Yeah. Yeah. We've done this at the wrong time.

[01:56:08] It's so much of the hottest part of the year, guys. So this has been Tracy Beaker Series 4. Hope you enjoy. Head over to Patreon if you want to hear about the film. And that is Series 7 of Thoughts TV. How are we feeling? It's been odd because it's been so fractured. I don't really have a specific feeling. I think it's been a good series. I'm happy with it. I'm looking forward to doing other things though as well.

[01:56:37] Yeah. More to come from us three. As I said, we're dropping down to a series per year. But I can't wait to be back because there's still so much for us to cover. We've got to finish Tracy Beaker, obviously. So you know we'll be back. And now Sarah Jane Adventures as well. So you've caught us for a while. Well, thank you so much for being with us for another season. We'll miss you guys, but not for long. What are you guys having for tea?

[01:57:08] I don't know yet. I think I'm going to order something. I'm also going to order something. I was stood in the kitchen and I was like, oh, here's the dinner I was going to have. Fuck that. Does it require heat? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Okay. Well, let's not do that then. Let's throw open some windows. No, no, no. Let's turn on the AC. Okay. Okay. You can find us on Twitter at thoughts underscore underscore TV. On Instagram at thoughts TV. The O is a zero. And on TikTok at thoughts TV pod.

[01:57:36] And you can email us at thoughts TV 2002 at gmail.com. And we have a Discord and a Patreon. They're linked on all the socials. Thank you for sticking with us this series. Now, bog off. Did she say that in this? Did she say it? I don't think I heard her say bog off at one point in the season. She's growing. Wow. Soon she'll be saying fuck off. Right. Fuck off then.

[01:58:23] This podcast is part of Podomity, the UK's podcast comedy network. Why not laugh at what else we've got? Visit podomity.com. And if you're listening to the podcast comedy. Bye. Bye.