Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Breastfeeding Dramas & Airport Antics

Dig It with Jo Whiley and Zoe Ball

Zoe Ball and Jo Whiley celebrate the 30th anniversary of 'Live & Kicking' by reminiscing about Saturday morning television and childhood sta

Key takeaways

• The 30th anniversary of 'Live & Kicking' features memories of Jamie Theakston and Mr Blobby.
• Leanne Pinnock's fashion show appearance is discussed as a celebratory moment for motherhood.

Main topics

• Live & Kicking Anniversary
• Breastfeeding Experiences

Notable quotes

I think possibly the happiest time for me in telly.

Conclusion

A nostalgic and deeply personal episode that connects celebrity histor

Transcript preview

Speaker 4 (0:00) Coming up on Dig It. Jamie being battered to the floor by Mr Blobby every week. You know, I got to dress up as Princess Leia. I got to wrestle a WWF wrestler. I think possibly the happiest time for me in telly. There's just stuff squirting out of me all over the place. It's quite bonkers how far it can squirt. Yeah, you see it's Steve in the eye. I occasionally was invited to sit on the front row at the fashion shows or, you know, and I just always felt really self-conscious. We are not those Speaker 3 (0:27) people, Zoe. I'm very happily not. those people. Speaker 4 (0:30) All of that right after this. Hello, Diggers. Happy Thursday. And hello, my lovely friend, Jo. How are you, darling? Yeah, I'm good. Thank you. How are you? I'm sort of quite shocked that it's already starting to be late September already, although the summer has continued, which is quite lovely, although I'm desperate to get into my winter wardrobe. How was the wedding in Portugal? It was beautiful. It was really lovely. So congratulations to Speaker 3 (1:02) Owen and Ziggy, who we've known for ages. Owen has helped to put together my 90s anthem shows. So I've known him for a really long time. And it was just really nice to go to an event where people are just, two people are so in love and that's really evident. And they were just so into each other. There were three days of activities. So it was a proper, it was like a mini festival. Did you have to have a different outfit for each day? Well... kind of it was boiling it was so hot in Portugal it was unreal um so everyone just kind of melted but um I there was a pool party and then there was the actual wedding and it was really nice was there dancing there was dancing and they did a choreographed dance they did that thing where they'd been to dance lessons and I nearly cried when I was watching Owen concentrate so fiercely on getting his feet in the right place when they were doing the dance. There's just something so unbelievably endearing when you watch someone do that. We had to battle with, you know, the joys of Brexit and all that when you go into another country and you see how many days you can actually spend in that country. And then you, it just takes so long. Everything takes so long. There's so many procedures. And I don't know if other people do much travelling, but when you go. all the machinery you have to go through now as technology kind of improves with travel. But you have to stand there and you have to get your face in the right position. And it's just hilarious watching everybody do it wrong. And you can see like everyone's really nervous. You step up to the plate and then you have to put your face here. And like Coco was too short. It just kept like just giving her this big cross and she was trying to work out what was wrong. And then she stood on tiptoes and then she was in the right space and they let her through. You have to do the thing where you put your four fingers down. Yeah, fingerprints. I can't do it. that because I've got my wonky arthritic fingers. They just go in all different directions. I'm literally bending my fingers, holding them down, trying to make the fingerprints work. Oh no. And then eventually they let me through. But it's just the joy of foreign travel and getting through all the different barriers that they put and all the technology is very, very funny. You can see the state of panic that many people are in. And as we were queuing and you do that endless kind of walk to this end, then you walk to that end and then you walk to the other end and you're just kind of doing this huge loop. And there was this elderly couple who obviously were quite confused. They were from another country. They didn't quite know what was going on. And they just walked straight past everybody. Obviously not meaning to cut a line or anything like that. And then this guy who was working at the airport, who was very much like Cam from Modern Family, just walked up to them and he was like, did you cut the line? And they were like, sorry, what, what? Did you cut the line? And they just walked and they had Speaker 4 (3:37) to Speaker 3 (3:37) do this walk of shame past everybody. Oh, my God. It was so funny and so heartbreaking for them. They looked really confused. And he was just shaking his head. Uh-huh. Did you cut the line? Back to the back of the queue. Speaker 4 (3:49) Very funny. Because I've noticed that there are some fantastic older people who just do that. And I think you just got to own it. I'm like, when I get to a certain age, I'm going to do that. Oh, sorry. I thought this just cut in, cut in in traffic, cut in in the line in the post office. You know, and maybe when you get to a certain age, you've earned the right to do that. You just plead ignorance and get away with murder. We do love to get angry, don't we, with each other? You know, it's like, I butted in. And do you say something or you don't say something or do you just sit there, you know, stand there snarling? I Speaker 1 (4:25) mean, Speaker 4 (4:27) it depends how bad your day has been, doesn't it? It does make me laugh. Because I'm never the person who'll say anything. I'm like, no, seriously, go in front of me. I hate you. Yes, I'll let you in. But you didn't say thank you, you bastard. I love airports for people watching. I love people watching. And I just really enjoy trying to work out people's relationships and who's traveling with who. And is someone having an affair? And what's his story? And what job does this person do? And by trying to look at their luggage and stuff like that. You know, when you've got to spend hours in an airport, rather than reading my book, I'd much rather just people watch. I love it. Going back to the wedding. Yeah. Did you and Steve do a choreographed dance routine on your wedding day? No, we didn't even do a Speaker 3 (5:12) dance. You know, don't forget, we got married many, many, many, many decades ago. No, we didn't even do a dance. I mean, A, I can't dance. So I would avoid that like anything. But no, we didn't. I can't remember very much of it at all. I think I was too busy just running around trying to make sure everything was going well. It just wasn't a thing that happened that long ago. Loads of us went for ballroom dancing classes Speaker 4 (5:35) because Speaker 3 (5:36) we Speaker 4 (5:36) had, I think it was my 40th. The BBC... big band came and played and they were so fantastic and so loads of us went for ballroom dancing classes together so that we could all do do the you know proper dancing yeah but of course the classic thing that happens is you sort of learn it all it's not that easy if you've not got a strictly person teaching you because obviously when Ian taught me or if I was in Ian's arms he can make me do anything he's amazing because they'll move you around but when you're learning with someone who's like you know who's like you who doesn't really know what they're doing we got on the dance floor and then the minute the music strike struck up we just all ended up just doing our usual dancing and I was laughing at everyone going all those classes we didn't do any of it it was like just being absolute idiots it was really fun. Speaker 3 (6:33) If you're loving Dig It so far, hit follow or subscribe and that way you'll get brand new episodes as soon as they're out. Speaker 3 (6:44) Talking of milestones, and you've got a big milestone, and that is Live and Kicking. So how long has it been? Speaker 4 (6:51) It's the 30th anniversary this week of Jamie and I's first ever appearance on Live and Kicking with Mr Blobby, Trev and Simon, and the Leprechauns, and our amazing crew. We're having a get-together tonight. I mean, I haven't seen Jamie... For years, because, you know, it's that thing you work together and you're such great buddies, but then your lives just go different ways. And then he was doing breakfast radio and I was doing breakfast radio and I just not seen him. And we've not seen the crew. I've not seen Chris Bellinger, who is our editor. He was our boss on Live and Kicking. He really changed my life. You know, there were two amazing. chaps in television who gave me a break. One was called Paul Smith. Paul, actually, you also used to be Gordon the Gopher, as well as being in charge of Children's BBC. And Paul and Chris both took me on. And, you know, I was probably a bit of a risk and a bit of a punt at that point. And they both are just amazing chaps. How old were you when you got the job? Children's BBC, I was probably about 22, 23. And then Live and Kicking, I was 25. Yeah, 25. And it was the best job I ever had. I loved it so much. Because Jamie was so much fun, the team were amazing. Saturday morning telly was amazing. You know, having grown up. watching Saturday morning telly, you know, and watching Sally James on Tiz Wars and Sarah Green on Saturday Superstore and watching Swap Shop, you know, with Noel Edmonds and Posh Paws. It's to end up doing Saturday morning telly. But it's really funny, Jo, because you talk to our kids about it and they're like, what was Saturday morning telly? Yeah, no comprehension. It's all cooking shows or, you know, young kids watch cartoons or they watch... Children's BBC. But there's there aren't I think there are a couple of Saturday morning shows actually for kids now. But it was a proper appointment to Speaker 3 (8:44) watch. It was just your routine. It kickstarted your weekend. It was it was so much fun, wasn't it? And you were all across the country. We're all going through the same thing, watching the same things happen and laughing and speaking to our friends at school about it Speaker 4 (8:57) on Monday. Because it was that mix, wasn't it? It was sort of something for the kids and something for the grown-ups as well. There was that sort of double layer of humour that kind of went on and it was all clean-cut fun, but there always was that slight kind of ha-ha, you know, sort of daftness and naughtiness as well. And then there were big... movie stars and great bands and musicians would come on and then you'd have the Rugrats and Will Smith would be in the studio. And I remember Mo Mowlam coming in. And the other great thing I love about Live and Kicking, Jo, was I don't know if you ever remember, the kids would ask questions. It was called the hot seat on Live and Kicking. So the kids in the audience would ask questions. And Daniel Radcliffe asked a question. One of the in-betweeners was on Grab It Rabbit, I think. And there's all these really amazing stories of people going, I was on live kicking back in the day where I'm like, oh, my God. And that also makes me feel really old because they