Latest news with #TeenCommandments
Yahoo
23-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Bolton DJ's podcast with best pal proving popular beating firm favourites in charts
A Bolton radio DJ's new podcast is proving popular, fending off competition from some of the firm favourites in the charts. Sara Cox launched the new podcast, 'The Teen Commandments', with her friend of more than 30 years, Clare Hamilton earlier this month. The pair talk about their own "chaotic" teenage years together, but also the pitfalls of navigating life with their own teenage children, having five between them. But they come armed with survival tactics and the kind of wisdom that comes from having been former rulebreakers themselves. Each week they reminisce and commiserate as they try to make sense of the often mind-boggling behaviour of their children. The Teen Commandments (Image: Wondery/PA) Topics covered so far have included skiving school, their children looking after a vape "for their friend" and mysteriously missing makeup. They have also talked about messy rooms, overflowing bins and having the dreaded sex talk and Santa talk. The Teen Commandments has got off to a strong start, now sitting at number 20 on the Spotify Top 100 podcasts in the UK. Read more: Radio DJ Sara Cox reveals childhood 'grudge' against The Bolton News Read more: Bolton's Sara Cox on going back to her roots and thoughts of moving back up north Sara Cox (Image: Ian West/PA) It charts higher than firm favourites such as The News Agents, The Rest is Football, Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster, Ricky Gervais and Saving Grace. It also sits at number six on the Spotify comedy charts. Meanwhile, the podcast places at number 16 in the Top Shows on Apple Podcasts, where it comes in above the Joe Rogan Experience, Sh**ged Married Annoyed, Newscast and more. Cox grew up on her father's cattle farm just outside of Bolton, before following a career in the media, having been on the radio since she joined BBC Radio 1 in the 1990s. Now listeners can hear her strong Bolton accent on the coveted teatime slot on BBC Radio 2. She lives in London with her husband, Ben Cyzer, and her three children, Lola, 20, Isaac, 16, and Renee, 14.
The Guardian
15-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The week in audio: Coming Out; The Great Post Office Trial; The Teen Commandments
Coming Out Radio AtlasThe Great Post Office Trial Radio 4/BBC SoundsThe Teen Commandments Sara Cox By far the most moving and absorbing piece of audio I heard last week was on Radio Atlas, the website that showcases excellent non-English-speaking audio documentaries. Before I get to the programme itself, I feel Radio Atlas may need a reintroduction (I just checked, and I first wrote about it in 2016). Set up and run by Falling Tree's Eleanor McDowall, it finds the best audio pieces from around the world and gives them a beautiful translation into English that appears on your screen, each word timed perfectly to those spoken, so that you're not rushing ahead or catching up. It does mean, of course, that you have to look at your phone when you're listening (unless you speak the language), but that's good. These shows need your undivided attention. Anyway, Coming Out is from Lithuania, made by Rūta Dambravaitė and Inga Janiulytė-Temporin for publicly owned radio station LRT Radijas's Radijo Dokumentika series. Billed as 'a tender love story, lived in private, across five decades', it's based around an extended interview with Vitalius, now 70, who tells the story of his 52-year relationship with Albinas, 85, whose memory is going. The pair met in a Kaunas city park, known as a meeting point for gay men and thus a place of danger. When Lithuania was part of the Soviet Union, the military police used to actively search for gay people to charge them – and worse. Vitalius tells his and Albinas's story beautifully. His childhood is devastating: he grew up in a village where he knew no other LGBT people and couldn't imagine they existed. 'A cosmic loneliness,' he says, and your heart breaks. This documentary is the first time he's ever spoken about being gay. Usually, when people ask about his and Albinas's relationship, he lets them assume that he is Albinas's son. Though there is a moment, towards the end, when he describes telling a shop assistant exactly who he is buying a ring for – 'It's for my man' – and, honestly, I burst into tears. The music, classical and opera, chosen by Vitalius himself, is hugely and suitably romantic. The story has a coda. During the programme, an impassioned Vitalius argues for his and Albinas's partnership to be treated the same as a straight one under Lithuanian law. The country only decriminalised homosexuality in 1993, and still doesn't recognise same-sex marriages or civil unions. When Coming Out was broadcast in early 2024, the online version became the most streamed episode in the show's history (it went on to win the Prix Europa European audio documentary of the year), and opened up a debate on human rights in Lithuania. It also led to a symbolic humanist wedding ceremony for Vitalius and Albinas, witnessed by 21,000 people, who signed the certificate. It was the first time Vitalius and Albinas ever held hands in public. Speaking of a righteous fight to be recognised, here's dogged Nick Wallis back on Radio 4 to report on the current state of play with the Post Office scandal. He has been reporting on this for 15 years, and there are 17 other episodes to The Great Post Office Trial if you wish to catch up, though after ITV's Mr Bates vs the Post Office I can't imagine there are many who don't know what went on. This brand new episode gives us some audio from the inquiry, which is still yet to deliver its report. Much of it is centred on ex-Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells, who doesn't come across well, being at once bewildered and bewildering; so incurious and sappy as to provoke laughter from the public gallery. We also hear from former post office operators Lee Castleton and Rooprit Gill, who are robust in their final victory, even though they're yet to receive full monetary compensation for what happened. Wallis is great at pushing both the new interim head of the Post Office, Neil Brocklehurst, and the MP Gareth Thomas, the minister now in charge of the victims' compensation, as to why everything's so complicated and is taking so long. Of the two, Thomas seems to be more on the case, though it still seems like wading through mud. 'You've got 92-year-old Betty Brown, who's heading towards the end of her life without having received full and final compensation… what are you going to do to make things happen quickly?' asks Wallis of Thomas. From his hemming and hawing, it sounds as if Brown will be lucky to get what she's owed before her 100th year. Radio 2's Sara Cox and her best friend, Clare Hamilton, have a new podcast, The Teen Commandments, in which they share insights on, and anecdotes about, raising teenagers and promise to reveal what they were like when they were that dread age. 'It's all karma,' says Hamilton. I get the feeling that, like many new shows, The Teen Commandments wants to recreate the intimate, funny vibes of Miss Me?, Lily Allen and Miquita Oliver's hugely successful podcast. But that's harder than it might appear, and The Teen Commandments is sort of there, but not quite. The episodes need a specific topic rather than a jovial ramble around the edges, and are in need of listener contributions too, which no doubt will come flooding in. Until then, it's a bit formless, veering wildly between Cox and Hamilton reminiscing about how cute their kids were when they were little, and impromptu masturbation – theirs, not their kids – as a way of finding the energy for what needs to be done. 'Procrasto-wank,' says Cox; a good name for it, but perhaps not quite what listeners were expecting.
The Guardian
15-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Presenter Sara Cox looks back: ‘Clare and I met when we were teen models in Korea. I got sent home for bad behaviour'
Born in Bolton, Greater Manchester, in 1974, Sara Cox began her career as a model before becoming a presenter on Channel 4's The Girlie Show in 1996. In 2000, she took over BBC Radio 1's breakfast show, hosting for three years. She now presents for BBC Radio 2, fronted TV shows including Between the Covers, and has published two novels. Cox lives in London with her husband, Ben Cyzer, and three children. This month, she and her best friend Clare Hamilton launch Teen Commandments, a podcast about parenting adolescents. This was taken in Granada. We had ciggies on the go and decided to have a pamper session, but as we only had one face mask we had to rip it up and plonk on as many bits as we could. The rest of the day would have involved room service and a few hours of telly, specifically Jerry Springer and Montel Williams. Then we'd probably have ventured out to our plunge pool to do handstands. We were a couple of crackpots back then. Absolutely wild. I met Clare when we were teen models. That sounds glamorous, but only a small percentage of models make real money. The rest are girls like us trying to avoid going to university. At the time, my family lived above a pub in Bolton called The Pineapple. Mum was working every hour God sent, while I didn't lift a single finger. I was mainly lounging around going: 'I can't do the dishes! I've just painted my nails!' So when I was offered a five-month job in Korea, Mum's reaction was: 'Where do I sign?' I arrived in Seoul a few weeks before Clare, and had been hanging out with two Mormon girls from Hawaii. They were God-fearing and very different from the 17-year-old me, who was immersed in rave culture and mostly friends with lads. When Clare arrived I was thrilled. She's from Whitefield, down the road from Bolton, so as soon as I heard her accent I knew I'd be OK. I asked her two questions to pass the friendship test: 'Do you drink coffee, and do you smoke?' Thankfully, she answered yes to both. Meeting Clare was great for me, but not so much for the people who hired us. We did one shoot in a location that involved a long ride in a minibus. Everyone else fell asleep immediately; they were sensible and knew it would be nonstop work for 12 hours when we arrived. Meanwhile, we decided to stay up, laughing. We were exhausted for the shoot, and so giddy when we got back to the hotel that Clare was wearing my pants on her head and claiming she saw a ghost. In the end, I got sent back to Bolton for bad behaviour. I'd put on weight as I was eating a lot of comfort food, mainly hard-boiled eggs. I also missed a shoot because I was so hungover. Our hotel was next to an American army base, and me and Clare were drinking a lot with GIs. They loved a British accent – every time I went to light a cigarette, eight Zippos would get whipped out. The moral of this story isn't: 'Lose your job and get sent home.' But it kind of is, because when I got back to the UK I got a call asking if I wanted to go to a casting for The Girlie Show. I'd have missed it otherwise. Clare and I did all the award red carpets and film premieres together. I was asked to interview Eminem in New York, and, as record companies had loads of money back then, Clare was allowed to come with me. He was super-sweet and we even went to an Italian restaurant afterwards with his 20-strong entourage. When the bill came, they played credit-card roulette – we all threw our cards on to the table and whichever one the waitress picked would have to pay the whole lot. Me and Clare sat on our hands, terrified. Because we've lived far apart for decades we've had to make other friends. But Clare is my bestest friend, and bridesmaid, which makes me sound 11 years old and quite pathetic. I love her for lots of reasons: she is patient with me when I wang on, and I can be grumpy with her and know that she knows my bark is worse than my bite. Clare is also really badass – she brought up two little kids on her own and is one of the toughest people I know. Clare is my absolute soulmate. Sometimes my phone background is a photo of her in a Jacuzzi – as if she's my wife. In fact, don't ask me to choose between her and my husband, because it wouldn't be pretty. When we're together, we're the Sara and Clare club. Even now when she stays over and my husband comes in the room, we'll look at him like: 'Yeah, can we help you?' Not that he minds. He loves it when she's visiting. He gets a break from me. This was one of many brilliant holidays we've had together. The hotel was quite romantic and full of older couples; meanwhile, Sara and I were having margaritas at breakfast. I was 17 and had only been modelling for a few weeks when I was asked if I wanted to go to Seoul. Everything about Korea felt alien to me, so it was such a relief to hear Sara's voice shout 'Hullo!' from the steps of the apartment when I arrived. We were finishing each other's sentences straight away; already inseparable. The rest of our time there was a mix of homesickness and hysterics. I remember being measured and weighed all the time, but we were drinking a lot of Soju and partying. At breakfast they'd bring a bowl with a crab in broth and we'd have to eat it with chopsticks. To this day, we're both still quite handy with a pair. In the early days of Sara's career, we'd go to events and be the ones giggling in the corner, watching all the action happen. Then suddenly everyone wanted to speak to her. There was a big shift, but I loved getting a side seat to someone else's success. I got to do all the fun things without any of the pressure of having to be public-facing. In 1997, we went to the Batman and Robin premiere and wore matching dresses I got for my 21st birthday. They were quite low cut and I kept telling Sara to make sure everything stayed in place, but she obviously got distracted. In the end some guy tapped me on the shoulder and said: 'Sorry to bother you, but both of your boobs are out.' As well as the highs, Sara has supported me through some tough periods. It was a very dark time when I became a single mum: I had a baby and a two-year-old. As soon as the relationship ended, I shoved everything I owned in the boot in bin bags and drove straight to London. That's testament to our friendship. It could be 3am, and if I'm having a shitty time I know she'll be there. I can't imagine my life without Sara. A lot of people make friends for life at university, but we were on a dusty backstreet in Seoul. Not much has changed since – she is still hilarious, inspirational and selfless. And now the kids are teens, I can finally see holidays, talkshows and face masks back on our horizon.
