Liz talks about David Bailey's autobiography again and how she and Marie Helvin are "twins! twins! twins!" Nic blatantly lies that Liz and Marie look identical in old bikini photos. Liz talks about Jean Shrimpton's self-professed insecurities, and humblebrags about how awful she looked in a leotard at a dance class so Nic will shower her with compliments. Liz says, "If Jean Shrimpton thinks she looked like 'a pig in the snow', Nic looked like a pig in Pineapple Dance Studios." Nic is OK with this cuz she loves pigs #Pigoneer (TM). Liz and Nic forgive Bailey for being sexist and a cheat, etc. because at least he was a vegetarian. Nic claims to have become a vegetarian aged four.
Warning: if you're listening to the podcast, be aware that this part contains unpleasant description of pets being killed for meat.
Liz makes a very awkward joke about Aimee Mullins: "I chased her relentlessly (to appear in
Marie Claire) ... I shouldn't really say that as she's got no legs!" They argue about which screen adaptation of
Pride and Prejudice they prefer. Liz tells Nic she "isn't owed any holiday." Nic loves
Killing Eve and Liz hates it, Nic watched the last episode this week so bang goes her no TV resolution. Nic talks about how her mum helped her with her sick pet Charlie and Liz whines "no one helps meeeeeeeeeeee." It's all about Liz, always. Liz thinks crumpets are made out of butter, Nic says that's croissants. Liz complains about Boots being closed when the staff were at lunch. Lunch is for the
weak, and everyone else should be like Liz, who has never taken a lunch break in her life.
Liz references her "award-winning column." She says "for the first time in 22 years, I'm finally cheered up!" She has finally found someone stupid enough to give her a mortgage. Liz repeatedly calls her former landlady a
witch and insults her for having over-strict house rules - that's only OK when
you do it, right, Liz? This is the same landlady that Liz claims she did not tell about her collies, and just moved them in without permission. And you're surprised this woman didn't like you? She did terrible things like putting up fairy lights that aren't
artisan. Nic thinks it is weird to specify a single occupancy tenancy, is it so bad if you basically just let your partner move in with you?
This week's column is just a copy-paste of
this one about the various houses she's lived in. Liz repeats the false statement that when she bought her first house, her dad had to act as guarantor because women were not allowed to take out mortgages alone. How do we know it is false? Liz was born in 1958. The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 outlawed mortgage discrimination when she was 16-17. If she needed a guarantor to buy a house it's because she had another issue e.g. a history of rent arrears or inconsistent income. In that article she also says she moved out because her sister was racist and didn't like Liz's Black boyfriend, yet in the podcast she said it was because her sister objected to Liz having a man stay overnight. And the Myla Thong dangled proudly from the bedpost, we presume.
Once again Liz talks about her Islington house which was near Ottolenghi and Screen on the Green and had Dido (pop star, not Tory peer) as a neighbour. Much brand name-dropping occurs. She gets in a rant about her Somerset neighbours and complains people deliberately ripped her off because they assumed she was rich. "No one helped meeeeeeeee!" she caterwauls yet again. Yet finally, "I have come through to the other side! I have risen from under a stone!" She's going to FIND HER HAPPY, like the Rightmove slogan. In a
crappy attempt at creating suspense, she refuses to disclose where she is moving to. But she says that Nic isn't coming.
Liz's archive column is a commission for an unnamed magazine during an abortive attempt to become a freelance writer after the
Mail sacked her in 2014. She was not asked back as the editor found her too self-pitying and said Liz came across as a victim. Liz says "I
am a victim! I was duped, lied to, bitched about, and cheated on! I don't want to become a tough
witch! I will help anyone if I can!" Please, please, think of my poor aching sides. There is a lengthy rant from Nic about The Problems With Society Today. Liz gives a story about offering a random old lady a lift and being turned down because "there's fur on the seat." It'd be funny if it were true.
The archive column references pet deaths and Liz's "very old mother" who was, gasp,
in her forties when she had Liz and was so old she had a wheelchair. Actually she was 39 when Liz was born, and used a wheelchair because of severe arthritis exacerbated by her ballet career - but don't let facts get in the way of a good story.
Warning if listening as there are graphic descriptions of Liz's cat being put to sleep, and finding an abandoned dog in a state of severe neglect. She reads out "I didn't lose my virginity till I was 32" - this is despite Liz indicating earlier in the episode that she spent the night with a man when in her 20s. Liz could quite literally not lie straight in bed. Or anywhere else. She gets in digs at Nirpal and mothers, and concludes "my animals, who I thought I had saved, have rescued
me." Yeah, I wouldn't ask you back either, Liz.
Fan mail: regular contributor Anne has COVID, Liz repeats her oh so wise words "if you haven't got COVID it means you have no friends." Or, you know, are vulnerable or sheltering. Someone called "Menai" apparently wrote in, Liz makes fun of this name and pronounces it as Meanie. This one is overly-fawning so Nic probably wrote it anyway.