MINI: Be More Dolly
This week’s Double Thumbs Up serves up a great mix of TV recommendations, book picks, and a podcast spotlight on the one and only Dolly Parton.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Speaker 1: iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 2: Hear more gold podcasts, playlists, and listen live on the
Speaker 2: free iHeart app.
Speaker 3: Got anything good?
Speaker 4: Hey, this is the Christian O'Connell Show podcast.
Speaker 2: First half hour of every Friday show on Friday Recommendations,
Speaker 2: we call Double Thumbs Up. You can share your recommendations
Speaker 2: as well. What are you really enjoying at the moment?
Speaker 2: Am I a book, podcast, TV show, a movie? Text
Speaker 2: us yours. 0475 031043. Patsy, what's yours this week?
Speaker 3: Yes, as per a listener's recommendation last week, I have
Speaker 3: started watching My Brilliant Career on Netflix, which is like
Speaker 3: a new adaption of a 1900 novel by Miles Franklin.
Speaker 3: We actually studied it at school, I think, in about
Speaker 3: year 11, but it was also a movie in 1979
Speaker 3: with Sam Neill and Judy Davis.
Speaker 2: Oh, wow. It was brilliant.
Speaker 3: And we watched the movie at school as well. But anyway,
Speaker 3: this is a new adaption and it's really beautifully shot
Speaker 3: in Aussie bushland. Like it's just so lovely. I could
Speaker 3: almost smell the gum trees watching it. And it's brilliant.
Speaker 3: It's this modern adaption and they've taken a leap.
Speaker 1: You put all that effort into the relationship. And he'd
Speaker 1: gone at six. I'm sorry. I also think you haven't
Speaker 1: got a lot to say.
Speaker 4: Oh, no.
Speaker 3: See, I don't mind it. I don't mind it because
Speaker 3: then I can move.
Speaker 1: On to the next best thing. Ideally 12th.
Speaker 4: I was going to say, what's your eight?
Speaker 1: Eight to 12. Eight minimum. Yeah. Otherwise, I'm not investing
Speaker 1: it if it's six.
Speaker 4: Really?
Speaker 1: Just as I get to know you, you're going to
Speaker 1: leave me.
Speaker 2: What about you, Ray? What's your ideal?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I like Christian.
Speaker 4: I like him a bit longer because once you're in there,
Speaker 4: he's like, well, I want to stay in this world
Speaker 4: for as long as possible.
Speaker 2: It's like reading a book and you already get into
Speaker 2: it and you're saying, oh, no, I'm in the final third.
Speaker 1: And then it's all going to be over.
Speaker 2: And I go through a morning after a great TV
Speaker 2: show or a great book. I really miss that world.
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 4: And how annoying is it having to find a new show?
Speaker 4: You've got to.
Speaker 1: Decide between all the different ones. Oh, it's the worst.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 1: First world problems. How annoying is it to find a
Speaker 1: new show? I'm going to have to Google something. Or
Speaker 1: go like this. Click, click, wait. There's another billion shows.
Speaker 1: There's too much pressure.
Speaker 4: There's too much pressure.
Speaker 1: This is why we do Double Thumbs Up, guys. It's
Speaker 1: why we're here. Why we're here. Okay, mine.
Speaker 2: A brilliant TV show we are tailing through at the moment.
Speaker 2: It's called Furious. I've not seen a cat and mouse
Speaker 2: detective show like this before. Two female leads. One is
Speaker 2: an FBI detective. One is a female serial killer. It
Speaker 2: is gripping, savage, timely. It is very, very, very good.
Speaker 2: It's why a lot of people are saying this is
Speaker 2: TV show of the year. I've never seen anything like it.
Speaker 2: It's some show. I cannot recommend enough.
Speaker 1: It's called Furious. It's on Disney +. That's great. Guilty
Speaker 1: pleasure of mine, the brilliant new Reacher is back. Ludicrous.
Speaker 2: Don't you just want to see a very, very large
Speaker 2: man smashing bad people in the face and throwing them
Speaker 2: through the air into walls?
Speaker 1: I do. Every episode that happens and it pleases me.
Speaker 4: How many episodes are we talking?
Speaker 1: I've seen so far five episodes. Okay. All those family
Speaker 1: members who come in and they go, don't talk to
Speaker 1: your dad right now. He's with Reacher. He's with his
Speaker 1: other family. I think he's catnip for dads.
Speaker 2: Oh. In fact, I should just say, hey, dads. It's
Speaker 2: an early Father's Day gift.
Speaker 1: Our boy reaches back. Is he a spy?
Speaker 2: Your dad's favorite TV show. He's a former military cop
Speaker 2: who just drifts around. And where there's wrongdoing, suddenly, lo
Speaker 2: and behold, guess who's there?
Speaker 1: Richard. You got it, buddy. You got it.
Speaker 2: I love Sean McAuliffe. I think he's really, really is
Speaker 2: a classy, smart comedian. He's done this TV show called
Speaker 2: Sean McAuliffe's Origin Stories. And the episode I want to
Speaker 2: talk about is the one with the new king of comedy.
Speaker 2: Right now in Hollywood is someone every Australian should be
Speaker 2: very proud of, Aaron Chen. The episode with Aaron Chen
Speaker 2: is really surprising. Aaron has an act, a certain way
Speaker 2: of doing things. And so I watched it thinking, I
Speaker 2: wonder if he's going to stay in kind of character.
Speaker 1: But he doesn't.
Speaker 2: And there's a scene where they're having dinner where it
Speaker 2: actually moves Sean to tears. And then it moved me
Speaker 2: to tears as well. Just what an impact. And just
Speaker 2: how much he admired Sean McAuliffe. Cannot recommend that. It's
Speaker 2: on SBS on demand.
Speaker 1: Really good.
Speaker 4: Is that the show where he sits down to dinner
Speaker 4: with Aaron's aunt and uncle?
Speaker 1: Yes. I've seen a clip from that.
Speaker 4: It looked incredible.
Speaker 1: Watch the show. It's really, really good.
Speaker 2: And then a book I've just finished reading, which is brilliant,
Speaker 2: A Waiter in Paris.
Speaker 1: That is outstanding. It is so good.
Speaker 2: Really, really good. Cannot recommend that enough. I read it
Speaker 2: in two days flat. Brilliant memoir. Young guy trying to
Speaker 2: become a waiter in Paris. If you loved Anthony Bourdain's book,
Speaker 2: Kitchen Confidential, it's as good or.
Speaker 1: I'm going to whisper it. I think it was better. Wow.
Speaker 1: You know what?
Speaker 4: I tried to listen to the audio book of Kitchen Confidential,
Speaker 4: and the story is obviously incredible, but clearly Anthony Bourdain
Speaker 4: has no interest in reading the audio book, and.
Speaker 5: He's so lackluster and has no energy. He's so bored
Speaker 5: in the audio book. Imagine being the producers that were
Speaker 5: the light. Because doing an audio book, it takes about
Speaker 5: three days. You better go two or three lines without
Speaker 5: fluffing up. You have to go back.
Speaker 2: I reckon none of them were brave enough to go, Anthony,
Speaker 2: I think you just fluffed up. Okay, now don't worry
Speaker 2: about Anthony, actually. I think the way you pronounced it
Speaker 2: is probably the right way. Don't bother Mr. Bourdain. No,
Speaker 2: I got it years ago. And it actually sounds like
Speaker 2: he's taking the piss.
Speaker 4: It does, no.
Speaker 2: How do you know, mate? I was interested in your story. Rio,
Speaker 2: you recommended a podcast this week on the show. Obviously,
Speaker 2: we've been talking a lot about the late, great Dolly Parton.
Speaker 2: And I listened to it all day. Oh, no way.
Speaker 4: Dolly Parton's America? Yes.
Speaker 1: Fascinating. Fascinating. It's so interesting.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I honestly knew absolutely nothing about Dolly Parton until
Speaker 4: this podcast came out in 2019.
Speaker 2: It's about six 40-minute, half-hour episodes. I burned through it
Speaker 2: like an audio book. I couldn't stop listening to it
Speaker 2: this week, and it's fascinating. I didn't know the true
Speaker 2: story about I Would Always Love You.
Speaker 4: Yes.
Speaker 2: It's one of the greatest love songs, but unlike any
Speaker 2: other love song, it's not bitter. It doesn't have a
Speaker 2: hit-the-road-jack-or-screw-you moment in it.
Speaker 1: It's a song of grace.
Speaker 2: Of an ending of a relationship with no bitterness or resentment,
Speaker 2: just of grace. And she wrote it. The guy that
Speaker 2: discovered her used to be like the, he had a
Speaker 2: big country and Western TV show and the young stars
Speaker 2: he discovered, he signed up and they were in pretty
Speaker 2: dodgy ironclad contracts. Portner Wagner was the guy. She said
Speaker 2: one day, I want to leave now. She wanted to
Speaker 2: take a breakout from his camp and see if she
Speaker 2: could go out into the world as a sound. He went,
Speaker 2: no way. She went and wrote, I would always love you.
Speaker 2: as a breakup song to him. She went into his office,
Speaker 2: played it to him. It's actually giving me goosebumps, this story.
Speaker 2: You know, in a couple of years' time, we're going
Speaker 2: to see this scene on a movie, aren't we?
Speaker 1: Yes, you can see it. She plays it to him.
Speaker 1: He says, that's the greatest song you've ever written. And
Speaker 1: he lets her go.
Speaker 5: Oh, wow.
Speaker 1: Years later, he sues her.
Speaker 2: For a million and was bitter and mean throughout his
Speaker 2: whole life to her. Multiple lawsuits. In this interview, in
Speaker 2: the podcast series, though, they keep trying to push Dolly.
Speaker 2: They wanted to say how angry she was at the
Speaker 2: way he treated her. And she refuses to. And in
Speaker 2: the end, the interviewer says, you know, and in the end,
Speaker 2: how did you get over his unfair treatment to you?
Speaker 1: And she said, I forgave him. She says the most
Speaker 1: important quality in life is forgiveness. That's all there is.
Speaker 1: Incredible woman of real grace.
Speaker 2: I think what's amazing about the reaction to Dolly's death,
Speaker 2: it's like, it's not just all the music and the
Speaker 2: incredible output and writing over 3,000 songs. I must have
Speaker 2: checked that on Google a couple of times.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's 300. That's a hell of a lot.
Speaker 2: Writing over 3,000 songs. The big thing that I think
Speaker 2: has really affected us is her kindness and generosity.
Speaker 1: It's one thing.
Speaker 2: It's enough to become an amazing singer and writer and
Speaker 2: do that over multiple decades, run your own business empire,
Speaker 2: but when no woman had done that before. But to
Speaker 2: actually create that imagination library, I donated money to it yesterday.
Speaker 2: It's a charity she set up. that's helped over 320
Speaker 2: million kids all over the world, is something, I think
Speaker 2: she's the greatest living American person ever.
Speaker 4: 100%.
Speaker 2: I think she reminds people, it must be quite sad
Speaker 2: for America, I was thinking about this, she feels like
Speaker 2: a bridge to an America that isn't there anymore. And
Speaker 2: I don't want to say anything more, I do not
Speaker 2: want to make it political because she wasn't about that,
Speaker 2: but that's what it feels like. She was an embodiment
Speaker 2: of what America dreamt it could be.
Speaker 4: There's a great line in the podcast about her being
Speaker 4: the great unifier. And they talk about how at the
Speaker 4: concert there's drag queens, rednecks, lesbians, construction workers, gay guys,
Speaker 4: straight people. There's everyone there and they're all getting along,
Speaker 4: all talking to each other, having a great time. And
Speaker 4: I can't think of any single other person who's had
Speaker 4: that effect, especially this was in 2019 in a very
Speaker 4: divided America. Yeah. And to be able to do that
Speaker 4: and to live with such wisdom and grace and to
Speaker 4: write incredible songs.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: In 2017, the New York Times asked their readers, what
Speaker 2: can all Americans agree on?
Speaker 1: The number one answer was Dolly Parton.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Is that the greatest question and answer? Everything.
Speaker 2: The one thing, they can't politically, okay, but the one
Speaker 2: thing they could all agree on was Dolly Pond.
Speaker 1: I think it's incredible, just the reaction to her.
Speaker 2: And the last thing that I want to say really
Speaker 2: about it this morning is that there's still a reaction
Speaker 2: to her kindness, grace, and generosity, and service. She definitely
Speaker 2: lived a life of services. Those are qualities and things
Speaker 2: that any of us can have every single day. You
Speaker 2: don't need to have written, I will always love you
Speaker 2: and Jolene in one day. We can all be, I
Speaker 2: wrote it down the other day, be more Dolly. I
Speaker 2: think we can all be a bit more Dolly. Maybe
Speaker 2: we can take that into a weekend to keep that
Speaker 2: spirit going.
Speaker 1: The Christian O'Connell Show. Go on. Podcast.