From Radio Waves to Comedy Notes! Broadcaster & Comedy Historian Georgy Jamieson, Lessons on Navigating Career Change after 10 Years at the BBC, but not her 1st Redundancy Rodeo!

Delighted to welcome Broadcaster & Comedy Historian Georgy Jamieson to the Good Listening To 'Clearing': Georgy was 'Passed the Golden Baton' to be in the show by previous guest, Ghostwriter James Hogg.

You can also Watch/Listen here: https://vimeo.com/chrisgrimes/georgyjamieson

For the last 10 years Georgy has been part of the fabric of BBC Radio Suffolk. All changed in July of this year as the BBC made big changes across the board Nationally to the provision of #LocalRadio, with new schedules & new #presenters being announced. Time for Georgy to step down and away with sadness & regret from a job that she dearly loved. So what did she do next? Listen to find out more about her world, post redundancy, as she embarks on a journey of personal rediscovery and courage, with lessons to share with us all.

She talks about her love of comedy and comedy writing plus the creation of the Suffolk Theatre website and podcast.

Tune in next week for more stories of 'Distinction & Genius' from The Good Listening To Show 'Clearing'. If you would like to be my Guest too then you can find out HOW via the different 'series strands' at 'The Good Listening To Show' website.

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Transcript

Chris Grimes: 0:07

Welcome to another episode of the Good Listening To Show your life and times with me, chris Grimes, the storytelling show that features the clearing, where all good questions come to get asked and all good stories come to be told, and where all my guests have two things in common they're all creative individuals and all with an interesting story to tell. There are some lovely storytelling metaphors a clearing, a tree, a juicy storytelling exercise called 5-4-3-2-1, some alchemy, some gold, a cheeky bit of Shakespeare and a cake. So it's all to play for. So, yes, welcome to the Good Listening To Show your life and times with me, chris Grimes. Are you sitting comfortably here? Then we shall begin. Oh, yes, indeed.

Chris Grimes: 0:58

Good morning and hello, and I bid you thrice welcome to Georgie Jameson, who's here to do a special rebrand strand, if you like, because she's got an extraordinary story to tell, having been part of the fabric of BBC Radio Suffolk for the last nearly 10 years, and then all has changed as of July of this year. So this is going to be a really lovely conversation about how you've tilted and adapted and what you're doing now, because you're going back to your roots as a writer, broadcaster, radio documentary maker really enjoyed researching you as well, you're a comedy historian. My all-time comic hero, by the way, is Stan Laurel, and I know that you've done programs pertaining to Roy Hart, les Dawson, dick Emory all wonderful comic gold. So there'll be lots of lovely stuff to talk about. But, georgie Jameson, you're very welcome. Hello.

Georgy Jamieson: 1:50

Thank you. Thank you for asking me. I'm very honoured. You mentioned comedy historian there Always makes me laugh because my husband always says it's a made up job.

Chris Grimes: 2:00

Yes, but someone's got to chronicle it all. And what a great made up job. So you were passed the golden baton, which is a construct within the show, by the lovely James Hogg, or Hoggers Hoggers, and he has written books about Brian Blessed and he's just finished writing one about Timothy West as well, which has just been published in the last week or so. So, yes, I'm delighted to have you here and it's my great pleasure and privilege to curate you through the journey of the Good Listening To Show where there's going to be a clearing a tree. We're going to shake your tree to see what your storytelling apples fall out. Then you'll have thought about your answers to the construct.

Chris Grimes: 2:35

5, 4, 3, 2, 1. There's a couple of random squirrels, a cheeky bit of Shakespeare, a golden baton and a cake. So it's all to play for, yes. So first of all, what's your story of the day? I know that you've just had a big sort of career shift in that you were part of BBC Suffolk. But just, John, just give us the quick back story of you. Know how we met and you know, because I got in touch with him when you were still at BBC Radio Suffolk.

Georgy Jamieson: 2:58

Yes, yes, hogg has passed the golden baton on to me. I've known him probably about 12 years now and it was comedy that brought us together and it was Twitter that brought us together. Actually, he had just published a book on Ernie Wise and I'm a huge Malcolm on Wise fan and I was given this book for Christmas. And then I discovered him on Twitter and we got chatting and now we've been kind of best mates for the years and I helped in a very small way on the Kenny Everett book that he worked on. I did some social media for him and very kindly got a credit in the back of the book, which I was thrilled about. And now he and I and a lady called Steph Hurst who was a broadcasting legend, are going to be working on a podcast celebrating Kenny Everett and his life and work and his genius and his technical genius as well as his comedy genius.

Georgy Jamieson: 4:03

And I've worked in radio all the last nine or 10 years, although previous to that I was a contributor at BBC Radio Suffolk. So with local radio I would do show business and I would do paper reviews, and so I was very I was often a guest and then I was made redundant from a proper job in the travelling industry. I worked for a cruise line company for nearly 14 years and got to do some travelling with them and was made redundant and had a complete career shift in my early 40s, started the business where I did social media and PR and this was in the early days of social media for companies. You know that lots of companies hadn't caught on at that point to the power of social media for their brand and their business, so it was very, very early days of that. And then I started doing more and more stuff with BBC Local Radio and they took me on in paid roles doing travel news. I started on travel news on the record show A lot of the greats did start at that as well.

Chris Grimes: 5:18

Carol, famously on BBC Radio 2, there's always people like that. And, by the way, one very struck with the fact that this isn't your first radio, having been made redundant, if you like, because, of course, oh no, no, this is my third redundancy.

Georgy Jamieson: 5:32

Ah yes, I was made redundant from retail, then from travel and then this July. With the huge seismic changes that have happened in BBC Local Radio and are happening across the country, the rollout is going. We started. We were the first region in the east and the south, hence I was made redundant in July. But there were a lot of goodbyes this weekend to late shows and Sunday evening shows.

Chris Grimes: 5:58

And, by the way, I'm super意 where they weren't singling you out for special attention. Absolutely not.

Georgy Jamieson: 6:02

Oh no, there are a lot of us.

Chris Grimes: 6:04

There's a slight sway of a complete transformation of the way BBC's procure and supply of local radio provision and coverage.

Georgy Jamieson: 6:12

Oh, absolutely. And that continues and there are other regions that it hasn't affected yet and, as it affects, each region and each area of the country notices and the swell of what on earth is happening is building. We were the first region to go, so I went back in July. I hope to return as a freelancer when I can, which will be later this year, but in this sort of interim period, this three months, I thought I would explore some other things. I would go back to writing, which I did when I had my business back in 2014 or so I think it was, or 2011, actually Writing for the British comedy guides. I'm writing articles about British comedy, so retrospectives. And the other day I picked my son up from school and he said what have you done today, mummy? And I said I've written 2000 words on open all hours. I just thought that's the most ridiculous way to have a living, but it's so.

Chris Grimes: 7:23

Me it's just so me. You took a deep dive into Wally Barkerland, I love that and event hosting as well.

Georgy Jamieson: 7:32

We have a fantastic. One of the things I did, one of the big things I did on BBC local radio I did that across Suffolk and Norfolk was I was an arts and theatre broadcaster. I had my own show on a Monday evening where I specialised in talking about theatre because I have a theatre background. I was in local amateur theatre for about 30 years and I acted and I've written pantomimes and I'm a great lover of theatre and so this programme where I got to broadcast which I love and talk about theatre which I love, was just wonderful for me and I.

Georgy Jamieson: 8:10

There is such a fantastic theatre and arts scene on the East Coast. We and and so I tapped into that and it's not just theatre, it's literature as well. We have a lot of writers, we have a lot of artists who come here because the light is so beautiful on the East Coast in Suffolk and Norfolk and they're attracted to that. So, yes, all these wonderful hosting opportunities where I get to celebrate arts and theatre on the East Coast. So, and they very kindly pay me, and so this is what I'm. This is what I'm doing.

Chris Grimes: 8:51

And I really enjoy. It's a delightful rebranding, in a way, because you're obviously superior where there have been many, many transferable skills of the huge experience of broadcasting as a regular fixture for 11 years, and of course that must have given you a bit of fame within the local community to then be the go to person.

Georgy Jamieson: 9:08

Yeah, yeah, you know, there are some people that say who and has that, and there are other people who still want a selfie.

Chris Grimes: 9:16

I heard a comedy story just this weekend where, apparently, bill Bailey answered the door to somebody who's delivering a parcel and the person said can I have a photo? And he posed for a selfie. No, no, no, I meant the parcel that was his. Let's get you on the open road, then. Thank you for positioning, and also I'm so delighted that as, as we've identified, it's not. It's not your first, second or third rodeo. You've been there before and what's really fascinating is how you you know to dig into your big arsenal of skills in order to yeah, you have to, you have to shake it off.

Georgy Jamieson: 9:51

It's like a grief redundancy it is. It's awful, and each one has got slightly worse and slightly easier, because each time I've been made redundant it's from a job I loved more and more, and I've and a profession that I've loved more and more. But the actual process of right, okay, right, we've done that. Now what do I do next? How do I reinvent myself? How do I earn a living still doing things that I love, has got slightly easier to rebrand myself. Yeah, but it is like a grief. It's awful.

Chris Grimes: 10:26

Yes, and I love the irony of open all hours. Actually, your open all hours are available and you've gone there and you're digging into skills. You already have to go swimming back to what you love, which is great. This is it. This is it. And that'll be a great sucker to others listening as well about what to do when you hit that sort of wall of you know redundancies you say I hope so I hope so.

Georgy Jamieson: 10:49

You have to just sort of. I find lists very, very useful. I made a lot of lists and I wrote. I sort of wrote how I felt and what I wanted to do and what I didn't want to do, and I thought these are the things I want still out of life, but these are the things I don't want to go back to. I knew I couldn't go back to just the normal nine to five, you know, stuck at the desk where I wasn't allowed to be free and creative. So, yeah, it's as important to think right, what don't I want as what I do want. If you have something like a redundancy Because it's a huge hit to your self-confidence as well Really is it can be.

Chris Grimes: 11:34

And we'll maybe cover off more about that as we go through.

Georgy Jamieson: 11:36

But let's get going so the clearing.

Chris Grimes: 11:40

Where do you go? A clearing is your serious happy place. So where does Jordy Jamieson go to get Clutterfory inspirational and able to think when is your clearing?

Georgy Jamieson: 11:49

Well, I mentioned being on the East Coast. It is the sea. I've never lived anywhere else. That's Suffolk. I've lived in various places in Suffolk but I've never lived anywhere else and therefore I've always been on the eastern side of the region. I've never lived further than about 30 minutes away from the sea and so that is where I would go. Just that sound of the waves. I'm not particularly, I'm not a sunseeker. It's not a beachy thing. It's more that sound of the water and the waves and that feeling of expense. What I was saying about light, the beautiful light and sky that you get over the sea, and that is something very soothing about that sound of the sea. It helps me clear my head.

Chris Grimes: 12:40

And as this is your geography, do you want to be very specific about the seascape that you'd like to position as that, because I'm about to arrive with a tree in your clearing.

Georgy Jamieson: 12:50

So we'll stick a tree on Felix's toe beach then shall we?

Chris Grimes: 12:53

I love that we don't have to be specific, but that is specific, lovely.

Georgy Jamieson: 12:57

So here we are. Yeah, we are on Felix's toe beach Lovely.

Chris Grimes: 13:00

With the light of Suffolk in all its glory, that's wonderful. So now I'm going to arrive with a tree in your clearing and this is a bit waiting for Goddow-esque existential. I'm going to shake your tree to see which storytelling apples fall out. How'd you like these apples? I've got various comedy props that will come out. So this has been your response to a lovely storytelling construct which is called 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. We've had five minutes to have thought about four things that have shaped you, yes, three things that inspire you, two things that never fail to grab your attention, and that's the oh squirrel's moment. And then a quirky or unusual fact about you. We couldn't possibly know about you until you tell us. So over to you to interpret the shaking of your canopy as you see fit.

Georgy Jamieson: 13:39

I had. Yes, so I had. I use my five minutes. The four things that have shaped me. Number one is 10 years in retail. I think everyone should do it. I don't think you can do it forever. I think there is. There is a finite amount of time before you want to kill the general public. But there is, there is. There is a. There is a lot to be said for even the comedy value of working in retail, particularly over Christmas as well. So I worked.

Georgy Jamieson: 14:18

I started when I first left school. I wanted to be an actress and I was struggling to get into drama school, which I never did, and not because I couldn't act, but because they rightly identified that I did. I didn't have the personality to cope with the rejection and the fact that it was going to be, and they could identify that in me as an 18 year old. I couldn't see it myself until much later in life. I thought you were right. So I was just working in Marks and Spencer's I say just, it's a perfectly respectable thing to do. And then, when I realized things weren't going to happen for me, I went along it's Hitchhires Street and I ended up in now defunct Debenhams. But I was a children's portrait photographer.

Chris Grimes: 15:04

Whoa the many years. That's a great fact.

Georgy Jamieson: 15:09

So I was spent, and it was. I was the early 1990s when Ed the duck from the broom cupboard at BBC Children's BBC, we had an Ed the duck puppet, so I would have the clicker in one hand and this blooming duck and it would quack to try and get the baby's attention. And so I mean it was everything from babies to small children, family groups. We did a pet promotion once, but we weren't really allowed to have animals in the store. So as the sort of young apprentice learning how to do this, I was the one that had to be sent down the back stairs to go and collect People and their dogs and their cats and so forth, and we were very close to the main offices. So to try and disguise the fact that they were dogs in the store Every time they'd cough, people brought ferrets once, yes, and we had a little enclosed wooden studio, but it wasn't.

Georgy Jamieson: 16:12

It didn't have a roof, so these ferrets were coming up the wall. We were trying to keep these ferrets in. So you're, someone got a buggy in the cage and the way that the camera was, you could either get the buggy in focus or the bars, but not both.

Chris Grimes: 16:29

Yes, so that's quite a choice. Shall we go buggy or bars, please? And I'm assuming your boss.

Georgy Jamieson: 16:34

So I mean it really does shape you. I mean, if you can deal with the public in that way and you see all sorts of human life. I mean you know, you see people who are very polite and also very kind and they love their photographs and would say thank you so much, you've made the family look lovely. These are Christmas presents for everyone or people who I had. I had pictures with friends. We would put them in mock frames to display them. When people came to see them, I had them thrown at me. Oh wow, these are horrible. And they actually took them off the sort of Velcro and threw them at me and I was the photos because they didn't like they didn't like the photos.

Georgy Jamieson: 17:16

Or they didn't like.

Chris Grimes: 17:17

Wow.

Georgy Jamieson: 17:20

I was bitten on the back of a hand by a child.

Chris Grimes: 17:23

Oh, I was. If it had been the ferret I'd have understood it, but it was a child that bit you, OK. Yeah, I was regularly weed on and thrown up on and that's a great way to learn your craft and brilliant flagships institutions of M&S and Debenhams. Those are great flagship stores that you cut your teeth on.

Georgy Jamieson: 17:43

So, yeah, I have to say, none of that happened at M&S. But, yes, this was all. This was all for a company I think now long called Parasol Portrait and yeah, so in my early 20s I, yeah, I did. I did 10 years in in retail and never want to go back, but I feel like I've done it now and this there's a lot to. I should really write a sitcom about a department store because there's a lot of stuff up there that happened.

Chris Grimes: 18:11

That was said I suppose are you being served Is are you being photographed or are you? Are you wing on my leg or whatever it might be?

Georgy Jamieson: 18:21

But yeah, it certainly shapes you. It certainly shapes you, that's a great first shape.

Chris Grimes: 18:25

So second thing, that shaped you becoming a mum.

Georgy Jamieson: 18:29

It was much longed for and a long journey, but eventually, just before my 40th birthday, I had my son Taylor, and he is amazing and, by the way, I'm very struck with that much longed for.

Chris Grimes: 18:45

So there's obviously a rich story behind that. How long did you have to try for?

Georgy Jamieson: 18:49

60s.

Chris Grimes: 18:50

Right, that's very relatable because we took eight years to have my daughter Lily, naturally, and then my son is a one off IVF miracle success six years after that. So I know a lot of people have a parallel universe in that regard. Yes, yes.

Georgy Jamieson: 19:05

I'm very happy that they're there. How lovely yes very, very and and I just have him, and you do get the inevitable. You know why? Why haven't you had me more? It's like. Well, it took me six years to have him and I'm 40 now. So do you know? Do you know what we're just going to quit while we're ahead?

Chris Grimes: 19:25

Really, he's, he's a miracle as far as I'm concerned, so that and by the way, I'm not trying to age you and this is not why I'm asking that, but how old is he now?

Georgy Jamieson: 19:34

I'm so sorry I know we can do that. No, no, it's fine. No, I know I'm not, I'm not into. I do laugh and say I should have a show at his age, because broadcasting doesn't look kindly on women over 50. I, I'm 53.

Georgy Jamieson: 19:48

So he is, he's 13 and a half, it'll be 14 in February and, yeah, I'm an only child. He's an only child. I don't. I don't think there's a. There's a problem with that. Some people do, but I would much rather have him. Then, of course, then they all. I won't have any children because I can't have more than one. Yeah, that doesn't. That doesn't make any sense to me. But yeah, it was a.

Georgy Jamieson: 20:19

It was a massive, massive change. And having the maternity leave was a massive change because I went from working full time to being at home for a year, and that was when I started a blog. I started a mummy blog, which was all sort of rage at the time, yeah, and, and that's how the writing started, because it got picked up by Mum's net, it got picked up by Tesco's online magazine and I did some writing for them, because people like the style, they like the humour and the comedy of this. Is what happens when you're at home all day. I didn't realise how much the phone rang, or people came to the door because you're out, aren't you normally all day, and being at home with the baby was was there. There was a rich vein of comedy there, particularly when my son, who was when he was about two, locked me out of the house when I took some rubbish out to the, to the bin at the front, and we had to post the DHL math Through the top window to rescue I mean this is another top brand.

Chris Grimes: 21:34

We posted the DHL. Yeah, say, another top brand.

Georgy Jamieson: 21:40

Luckily he was tall and big and the neighbour got a little step better out. We got him through this top window and he did a somersault into my lap and obviously I was petrified at the time because I was he. My son was inside, but then I wrote this incredibly comic blog about the whole ridiculous fast of the situation. By the way, I love the company that the DHL person sorry to interrupt you the the comedy of the.

Chris Grimes: 22:03

DHL person giving you your own parcel back, which is your baby, once he's opened the door from the. Yes, I know.

Georgy Jamieson: 22:11

Luckily he was delivering a parcel to us. Half man, half ninja, I love that.

Chris Grimes: 22:18

Yes, came along at the right time?

Georgy Jamieson: 22:20

Yes, and then when I returned to work, I returned part time and this was to the cruise line company, and within six months they'd made me redundant. So there I was, 41 with an 18 month old baby and almost 14 year career in travel. Yes, gone and. But, honest, I don't think I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing now if it wasn't for becoming a mum, because I seriously believe that that was one of the reasons I got made redundant. Because you know what to do with me. I don't know what to do with you. I don't know what to do with you Because you know what to do with me, and I think they thought I was going to have another baby very quickly, and so actually, that redundancy and losing my job then was the massive turning point in my life, and it all happened because I eventually managed to become a mum. And then now I think it's the greatest thing that I do, unless so say, I'm great at it, but it's if people ask me what I do, I'm a mum.

Chris Grimes: 23:29

But again, it's another great testament to when in adversity, you know when we look back, we can join the dots up backwards and then something that felt catastrophic at the time in the end is thoroughly shaping and actually crafts your future. So that's again very relatable. Absolutely Third shape itch, or could be the fourth now.

Georgy Jamieson: 23:48

It's my love of comedy and there's former TV is watching TV comedy and and films, those carry on, films that come on on a bank holiday, monday, and lovely Because it was all those that made me love it and wanted to research it and wanted to know more about it.

Georgy Jamieson: 24:05

And I put radio comedy in with that as well, because I didn't know much about radio comedy. But I knew I love the carry ons and I loved Kenneth Williams and I just picked up a tape one day when I was at sixth form I think I was shopping, or it might have even been a car boot sale, but it was cheap, this tape, but it was, it was Kenneth, it was round the horn and and there was Ken Williams on the front and he put all these people that I knew Bill Pertwee, and I thought what's this isn't? And then my dad said I used to listen to this every Sunday lunchtime. I love it. And I, indeed I did. I thought it was marvellous. And then that led into a rabbit hole of Naive the Lark and the hard lines which I then went on to write for in the early 2000s and wow, yeah, with Roy Hurd, and and so, yes, just that little pay and recognize you've been a staff.

Georgy Jamieson: 25:03

You've been a staff writer as well on programs like not a staff writer, I was an uncommissioned writer, but they used several of my, the last two series. They used several of my gags. One line is the hard lines, yes, which was a great thrill. But yeah, and again, I don't think I would have done that if I hadn't had that background of listening to all that radio comedy, because then I started buying all the round the horn tapes, the Julian and sand tapes, the Navy Lark stuff, all goons, you know, all that rich vein of of of radio comedy. And then of course, things like Radio Four Extra came along yes, it used to be Radio Seven and radio versions of Dad's Arnie or Step Co. Yes, minister, all fabulous, fabulous stuff.

Georgy Jamieson: 25:52

So, yes, all that, if I hadn't watched all that TV comedy, I don't I wouldn't have discovered the radio comedy later on and and then I wouldn't have probably become a comedy story and started buying books and be given books for Christmas and birthdays about more common wise or two Ronnies or whatever it was, and absorbing all this information and then starting to connect all the dots, particularly with the carry on stars and 60s comedy, and it was like, oh, okay, so and things like Ronnie Corbett he was in the late night cabaret with Daniela Rue. Barry Cryer used to write for them. David Frost was in the audience one night. Like the staff brought Barry in as a writer. Liked Ronnie brought Ronnie into the Frost Report. That's how he met Ronnie Barker. That's how we get the two Ronnie and it's like this kind of massive family tree of comedy and I just say a rabbit hole, but it keeps on giving.

Georgy Jamieson: 27:01

Yeah and now I love that when you put it all together, it's like oh so Hattie was married to John LeMessurey, but then he ended up marrying Joan, who had an affair with Hancock, and Hancock and John were great friends because they worked on Hancock together. And it's just like whoa, this is, this is amazing. And no wonder all these sort of dramas have been made about this time, like Fantabulo, so wonderful, michael Sheen and Ruth Jones, who played Hattie so beautifully as well, because the stories are so. It's not just the comedy stories, the back stories are so fascinating and love them and that's. And that all comes from just sitting around the TV together on a Saturday night and watching two Ronnies or more wise or Dick Emre or whatever those big, big shows were at the time, and that's what sort of sparked my imagination.

Chris Grimes: 27:59

Lovely shapeages for me say so. So now we're on to three things that never sorry, three things that inspire you. Now, and there's any overlap, don't worry, but three things that inspire you.

Georgy Jamieson: 28:09

Well, there is a overlap because my son, my son, inspires me. When he was about three and a half, and I can remember it to this day, I was called to one side as I was picking him up for a nursery and said Mrs Jameson, can I have a word and this? We think Taylor may be autistic and I didn't really know what to do with that and eventually we got the diagnosis just before his sixth birthday and he is what they would now call high functioning autism. Don't tend to use the question as perjury anymore. He is in mainstream school, he's put, he's verbal and makes my contact, has a wonderful sense of humour, but he he does struggle with some things.

Georgy Jamieson: 29:04

He struggles with some concepts, he struggles with some of his learning. He likes what he likes. He can't see the point of stuff he doesn't and he teaches me every day, because I don't think he realises how brilliant he is if I try and tell him he's a grand-pity teenager. So he's like oh mum, shut up, you're embarrassing, it's very profound, life is of itself a spectrum and everybody's different.

Chris Grimes: 29:34

You know, we're all individuals, as the joke goes, and of course we are. It's about embracing people's you know idiosyncratic difference that makes them the genius that they are, because they're distinct yeah, and I've learned so much about autism as well, and how one size doesn't fit all there are.

Georgy Jamieson: 29:51

There are so many vast areas of that spectrum and and that's what it's so difficult to pin down, and we had a lot of people at the time say, oh, don't be daft, he's not autistic. I said, well, just because he's verbal, yeah, I think they expected rain man. Yes, of course you know, or you'd get. What's his genius then? Is he brilliant at maths? No, he's not, actually, particularly, he really struggles with it. Um, there's a lot of barriers still to be broken down about autism and I I get annoyed when people say, oh, he suffers with autism. He's just suffer and suffer at all. It's not. And I've had, I've had people well meaningly, but use really inflammatory language like, oh, so what's wrong with him?

Georgy Jamieson: 30:46

oh, sorry to hear that he's handicapped oh, blimey, yes that's a word you I haven't heard for about 40 years. You know absolutely, that's a very, that's not a pc word anymore.

Georgy Jamieson: 31:01

You know, yes, and I feel I feel bad even saying it out loud, but I'm using it in the con of course, if someone actually said it to me, um, and I have actually on occasion said it's all right, you can't catch it, you know, there is nothing wrong with him, he is who he is and he's brilliant and he doesn't stop being my son just because he has a diagnosis. All that did was open up lots of help and support actually, and I feel desperately sorry for people who are waiting years on a diagnosis because sometimes until you have that label, you can't access any support and actually, really it would be lovely if there was some kind of support for that interim time, that time when you're in limbo from that first noticing from a school or nursery to do that diagnosis. That's the time when you are all at sea. That's the time when you could do with support, because you don't have that piece of paper, there is no support, you can't tap into it, and really that's when you could do with it. That's when you could do with someone to talk to and say autism, adhd, dyspraxia, a combination of all of them.

Georgy Jamieson: 32:25

Yes, um, you know he even went down the route of well, maybe he's not picking up things at school because he can't hear very well. He had hearing tests. You know we had occupational therapy because often hyper mobility comes hand in hand with autism. And he does get there.

Chris Grimes: 32:44

He's left hand and he gets very tired writing and so therefore just gives up and the school were very present by the sound, but they were, the school were very present. They were trying because they gave you the first sort of yeah yeah, yeah, and we've been incredibly lucky with that.

Georgy Jamieson: 33:01

There are others who are and, and they need to, and I think that is probably because it is so vast, you know, and I still have friends and family now who say that there's nothing wrong with it. So no, there isn't anything wrong with him. That's the point. It's not wrong. That's the point. It's not wrong to be autistic, yes, he's just. You know, um, and he's made me look at me, made me look at myself and maybe some of my behaviours and things in my childhood, and I think maybe there's something there and it doesn't get picked up in women as early as it does in boys and men. And any women that I know who are neurodivergent. I've pretty much all not had a diagnosis until at least their 30s, sometimes their 40s. Girls mask it, often academically, because they it doesn't get picked up because they're just trotting along quite nicely, doing well at school, and so they just go under the radar. But there and it gets picked up a lot later and the radar often presents when there's conformity.

Chris Grimes: 34:17

As I understand it, so when there's conformity and nothing sort of sticking above the parapet metaphorically, yes it's then easy to keep under the surface yeah, absolutely yeah, and that's what happens.

Georgy Jamieson: 34:29

That's what happens. But uh, yeah, he, I think he just teaches me stuff every day. I just he doesn't realise, but he does, yeah, so he does inspire me greatly wonderful another inspiration um, and this, um, this is a strange one actually.

Georgy Jamieson: 34:48

it's a badge, and it's a badge that I and I wish I had it, but I can't find it. I had it on my beat, I had it on my BBC lanyard and I took it off because I had to hand the lanyard in and I didn't want to lose the badge. And it's a badge that I bought at a Joe Lysett gig. I love Joe Lysett and I think he's an incredible person and comedian and he was. This was the basis of his most recent show, which was an amazing piece of work that took him over four years to kind of put together. And if you haven't seen it I won't spoil it, although it has been on TV now. But the badge is sold through something called, I think, it's arts emergency and it says sometimes if you want something to exist, you have to make it yourself. And I bought that badge and I bought it for a friend and sent it to him as well and I weirdly pinned it to my BBC last time In a slightly subversive way.

Chris Grimes: 36:06

That's so inspirational for anyone in a creative endeavour. If you want something to exist, you have to make it yourself. You have to make it yourself. Even me sitting here with the soundscape of my podcast, it's absolutely because I'm doing it myself.

Georgy Jamieson: 36:19

You've made it yourself, and that kept me going through the I mean, we were at risk of redundancy with the BBC from excuse me Halloween.

Georgy Jamieson: 36:31

Last Halloween they told us the irony was not gospel Spooky, yeah, until and there are people still at risk of redundancy and we'll remain so until everything is sorted. So, yeah, that kept me going through a lot of that time. And then in the last month or so I thought, well, I don't have a theatre and arts programme anymore, so I will make something myself. So I have made the Suffolk Theatre website and so it's almost like the show that I used to do, but in website form at the moment. And then I would like to make a podcast and turn it into a podcast as well, and it's theatre news and it's reviews, then it's what's on and it's all the things I used to do in the two hour show and interviews and so forth, but as a website, a place where people can go to find out what's going on and what they'd maybe like to go and see and watch. And I just thought, well, I'm gonna make it myself.

Chris Grimes: 37:37

What's that website? It's suffocetheter suffocethetercouk. And have you credited Joe Lyser? Have you been in touch with him to say your badge inspired me? And here it is.

Georgy Jamieson: 37:47

I haven't, but I should. I should tweet him actually shouldn't I?

Chris Grimes: 37:50

You definitely should, or X. I'm getting a slight lick on now because of my journey in. No, that's not, that's my, it's a me problem. It's a. My son says it's a me issue. I can't remember what he says, but it's my problem.

Georgy Jamieson: 38:03

I told you I rambled, I told you I went on a bit. Musical theatre lyrics are another thing that inspire me. It's one of the few areas of theatre I haven't done because I, as one of my directors, once said in pantomime you can put a song across Georgie and necessarily sing, you can put it across.

Chris Grimes: 38:27

You can sell a story, but I had a dorm. That's a great metaphor. You can sell a story because that helps with your writing as well, obviously.

Georgy Jamieson: 38:35

This is it. I can sell a song but I'm not necessarily all that tune, so but I adore musical theatre and I love going to watch it and I find musical theatre and I used to do musical of the week just so I could get away with playing and show tunes. To be honest with you, it was lovely. And there's particularly defying gravity from Wicked the lyrics. If I'm feeling low I will ask a certain thing. That's next to me and if I say the word it will set it off to play that. And I find the lyrics of defying gravity incredibly inspiring.

Chris Grimes: 39:15

Lovely, and maybe we'll come onto that with quotes that you're coming onto in a moment.

Georgy Jamieson: 39:22

Yes, possibly. Where is my quote? Oh, no, no yes, yeah, no yeah.

Chris Grimes: 39:27

OK, OK. So now we're on to your two random squirrels. What never fails to grab your attention, irrespective of anything else, is going on for you. Oh squirrels, you know what's?

Georgy Jamieson: 39:35

never failed to be corrected. It's funny. You should mention that because one of the big pivotal moment in my life was when I was accepted on a women in broadcasting day, which is what started me becoming a paid broadcaster, and I did an amazing session with a lady called Jane Kinghorn who taught us about interviewing and she told us to look out for squirrels when you're interviewing people. They will say something and you might abandon the rest of your questioning and go with that squirrel and I love that.

Georgy Jamieson: 40:07

I've always held that because they might have got what makes you say that and it takes the interview in a completely different area. Social media grabs my attention. It's a necessary evil.

Chris Grimes: 40:19

Yes.

Georgy Jamieson: 40:20

I think in the modern world, particularly if you have a brand or something to sell, but it's so distracting. It is so distracting and when I'm writing an article or whatever I might be doing, I've got too many tabs open. And by that I mean I've got too many tabs open on my computer and in my head as well, but too many tabs open. And then, variably, are LinkedIn and Instagram, twitter.

Chris Grimes: 40:45

Yes, too many tabs open. Loose guy now and all of them. Too many tabs open in my brain is just so relatable, absolutely so. That's the first squirrel, thank you. Second squirrel Smells.

Georgy Jamieson: 40:58

I'm always been fascinated by aromatherapy and I love intense and calming smells. I have handles around me. Hmm, that one's what's that? That's seaside woods. I've got loads of these things all around me, these sort of things you put on your pulse points. That one's called mind clear, that one's called de-stress. So you're in a publicory, yes, but they can be quite distracting as well, because they're I'll be when they go. Ooh, lavender, you know, and I'm off away.

Chris Grimes: 41:39

Don't wear else Jordy's off on a waft. I like that.

Georgy Jamieson: 41:42

I love the waft. Lovely yeah.

Chris Grimes: 41:45

Sorry if I occasionally sound like I'm interrupting. The sound is occasionally snagging and so we were. Oh sorry, no, that's not your fault, but just that's occasionally. If I'm interrupting and I apologise, it's not because I'm not good at trying to do that. Sorry, it's a bit of a delay. Okay now, what's the quirky or unusual fact about you? We couldn't possibly know until you tell us.

Georgy Jamieson: 42:03

I was on the cover of a theatre program for a theatre in Basingstoke around about 1993, 94. I have a friend who's a photographer and they actually did our wedding photographs and he does a lot of theatre photography and he needed someone to model for a theatre in Basingstoke that he was doing photography for and it was just mostly it was like there was an agatha Christie, so it was just my hands with a load of blood and then then he did take a picture of me with a load of tickets found out and that ended up on the front cover.

Chris Grimes: 42:45

It's random. It's random. It's sort of Basingstoke's version of Vogue, which is the. I love that.

Georgy Jamieson: 42:55

I'm not an actual model, so I thought it was just going to be like my handle the back of my head, but then he did take that picture.

Chris Grimes: 43:01

And I went to the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, by the way, and often lots of actors, including people like Mark Strong, would have got their first job at Basingstoke Theatre. So it's oh, there you go, they possibly were in that season with me.

Georgy Jamieson: 43:14

You should flick through in the cover. Yes, ok.

Chris Grimes: 43:19

We've shaken your tree and now we're going to stay in the clearing. Move away from the tree. Next we talk about Alchemy and Gold when you're at purpose and in flow. Georgie Jamison, what are you absolutely happiest doing in what you're here to reveal to the world?

Georgy Jamieson: 43:33

I would say my purpose is to make people happy, to make them laugh and to entertain them. I think there is nothing nicer than hearing the sound of laughter and that comes from years on the stage and particularly doing a lot of comedy. And hearing that water of laughter when you've made an audience laugh is just. But also knowing that when I made people laugh on air and you don't get that immediate reaction but then people would text in and say, oh, I love your laugh or you've just made me laugh, and one of the loveliest messages I ever got. I used to do a regular feature on BBC Tease with a fabulous broadcaster and friend, bob Fisher, and it was the most surreal thing. And someone messaged this once and said we've just had to pull off the road because it's too much. I'm laughing so much at Dandrive anymore.

Chris Grimes: 44:26

Oh, how lovely. And now I'm going to ward you with a cake, and I've actually got a comedy cake somewhere. I love cake, yes, cake. And you get to put a cherry on the cake. And this is stuff like. This is a dog's toy, I think, but it looks fantastic.

Georgy Jamieson: 44:39

I love making cakes as well. I'm a great baker. I do like to. I can't decorate like they do on bake off, I just make the cake. I can't make it look like the Taj Mahal or wherever it is they do.

Chris Grimes: 44:54

Nobody has bonkers. Well, they can on that. Okay, you get a cherry on the cake now. So it's always given you sucker and pulled you towards your future.

Georgy Jamieson: 45:04

I have it here beside me because I've got a mood board, I've got one of those little court boards and it's logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere on Einstein, and it's not that I'm not a logical person, but I just think imagination is the most powerful tool, and that's something that my son has taught me. He has an incredible imagination. The stories are now for animation, and I just think imagination is the most creative thing we all have within us, and if you can imagine it, then you can do it.

Chris Grimes: 45:38

Which links beautifully to the Joe Liset badge as well, by the way, though.

Georgy Jamieson: 45:41

Yes.

Chris Grimes: 45:41

You are very much a duality of the.

Georgy Jamieson: 45:43

Does, doesn't it yeah?

Chris Grimes: 45:46

What's the best piece of advice you've ever been given Georgie?

Georgy Jamieson: 45:50

Well, that leads. Actually, what I was saying about if you can imagine it, you can do it, and that is the best piece of advice I've ever been given is this very powerful ethos. And it's only recently. I was mentored by Stephanie Hurst, a broadcaster, on a program called Ramp, which was Radio Academy Mentor Program, which was utterly life-changing. And it's just simple, it's Believe Achieve and she does these incredible talks and presentations where she talks about her story. And it is Believe Achieve If you believe it, you can achieve it. And that is the best piece of advice and I wouldn't have got through this redundancy without her, without Ramp and the mentor program.

Chris Grimes: 46:40

And have you reached out to her again in the intervening period?

Georgy Jamieson: 46:43

Yes, yes, we talk quite regularly and we're going to be working on this podcast, this Kenny Everett podcast, with her and Hoggis. They'll be presenting it and I'll be producing it. And, yeah, it's so powerful, it's so simple, but it's so powerful, just. And she'll say to me sometimes just say it, just say it over and over again Believe, achieve, believe, achieve, believe Achieve. And then when you tie it, like you say, in with that Joe Lysot batch, ok, I can believe it, I can achieve it. I'm going to have to make it myself when you put them all together, ok, yeah, I can do that.

Chris Grimes: 47:23

It's also really profound for not needing to seek validation in others in order to be creative, and that's incredibly inspiring for anyone in the creative endeavour. Rather than waiting for someone to deign to give you permission to do something, it's better to just get on and do it.

Georgy Jamieson: 47:36

Yeah, it's like that old Addy Jivu. He just sit and wait for the phone to ring. It probably won't. You've got to go out and make the breaks yourself sometimes.

Chris Grimes: 47:47

Control your own destiny, or others will control it for you.

Georgy Jamieson: 47:50

Control your own destiny Absolutely.

Chris Grimes: 47:53

And now we're ramping up to a bit of Shakespeare Talk about legacy just before we get there. This is the past, the golden baton moment, please. So who in your network would you most like to pass the golden baton on to, to keep the golden story telling thread alive?

Georgy Jamieson: 48:06

Well, I've mentioned this several times. It is definitely, first, because she is incredible and a wonderful, wonderful broadcaster and now inspirational speaker and presenter of her story in these Believe Achieve talks as well, and a mentor, and yeah, yeah, she has an amazing story to tell. Yeah, so, and she's, and she's very up for it. I checked first, so yes, Stephanie Good. Stephanie Hurst.

Chris Grimes: 48:42

Looking forward to having the golden baton passed in that direction. And now, inspired by Shakespeare and all the worlds of Steed and all the better women, really, players will talk about legacy, georgie Jamieson and how and all is said and done. You'd most like to be a remember Red.

Georgy Jamieson: 48:59

The baton was passed on to me by Hoggis and his made me laugh so much because he just said I like this, but he didn't want anyone to remember it. So the most hoggis thing ever. I would like to be remembered with a smile, as a kind and good friend. I would like people to, as a eulogy or at my funeral or later on, to suddenly something remind them and they smile and laugh and go yeah, she was. She was a good person. That's what you really want out of life to people to remember you with kindness.

Chris Grimes: 49:34

Boom, I love that, and I'm sure that legacy is already in the bag, and of course, it's a long way off Obs, obs, obs, obs. So now, where can we find out all about you on the old interweb.

Georgy Jamieson: 49:47

I am well talking about being distracted by social media. That is probably the best place to find me, because I'm on there far too much. So I'm at Georgie Jamieson on X Twitter. I used to say on air when I wanted people to contact me Georgie with a Y, jamieson with an IE. It was. It was a bit of a catchphrase.

Chris Grimes: 50:05

Georgie with a Y, Jamieson with an IE.

Georgy Jamieson: 50:08

I'm on Blue Sky now as well, if you, if you're on there, so that's Georgie Jamieson, but it's Be Sky, that's social. And then there's this website, Suffolk Theatrecouk, and there is an email address on there to contact me as well. So, yeah, all of those places are the best place to find me.

Chris Grimes: 50:30

As this has been your moment in the sunshine of the Good, listening to Show, of Stories of Distinction and Genius, georgie Jamieson, is there anything else you'd like to say?

Georgy Jamieson: 50:39

Yeah, I would like to say that I love the fact this is called the Good Listening to Show, because I think listening has been a huge part of my life, right back from those days in retail, where you, you listen, you have to listen to what the customer wants, and then right through to the favourite, my favourite part of broadcasting, which was interviewing people, and the best interviewers listen, and I would always. Often an interviewee would say to me well, did I talk too much? And I was like what's your interview? You? You can't talk too much. This isn't about me. They haven't tuned in to hear me. They want to hear your story. So, and I always felt that I think the interviewer should sometimes step back, because that is the art of a good interview listening. And unless, if you listen to people in everyday life as well, what I was saying about being a good friend a good friend listens. They don't always offer advice. You don't always want advice, you just want someone to listen, and I think we should all listen more to each other.

Chris Grimes: 51:49

Lovely. Georgie Jamieson, thank you so much for being here in the Good Listening to Show. If you'd like to get in touch about being in the show yourself, look at wwwthegoodlisteningtouchowcom. Tune in next time for more stories from the Clearing. Anything else you want to say at this point? Thank you very much for having me. It's been lovely. You've been listening to the Good Listening to Show here on UK Health Radio with me. Chris Grimes oh, it's my son. If you've enjoyed the show, then please do tune in next week to listen to more stories from the Clearing. If you'd like to connect with me on LinkedIn, then please do so. There's also a dedicated Facebook group for the show too. You can contact me about the programme or, if you'd be interested in experiencing some personal impact coaching with me, carry my level up your impact programme. That's chrisatsecondcurveuk On Twitter and Instagram. It's At that, chris Grimes. So until next time for me, chris Grimes, from UK Health Radio, and from Stan, to your Good Health and Good Bye.