MRS BROWN: a film for the whole family (if the family likes male nudity and period films).
Ryan brings the goods once again with a film with its roots in Scotland! Starring Judi Dench, Billy Connolly, Geoffrey Palmer, and the irreplaceable Gerard Butler, MRS BROWN tells the "true" story about the relationship between John Brown and Queen Victoria after Prince Albert's untimely passing. John Madden is in the chair this time round, tackling a period drama about the "Royal" family.
There's some comparisons to James Ivory that we make that seem founded but it's purely due to the classical nature of his filmmaking. There's plenty to see here even if the end result is rather unadulterated.
Buckle up those bootstraps "woman" and cheer up! Podcast is here!
Nude Swimming and Queen Victoria's Intimacy
Laura: I'm just excited to talk about Gerard Butler.
Ryan: Okay.
Laura: Gerard Butler's butt. Because I don't know another time that we're going to be able to do this.
Ryan: No.
Laura: So it's great.
Ryan: Well, he started off as a proper actor.
Laura: Oh, did he?
Ryan: I mean, we saw him in Mrs. Brown. He's properly acting in this one.
Laura: He sure is.
Ryan: Yeah. He's not the machine gun preacher that he turns into, um, you know.
Laura: Yeah. He didn't pick up his guns for a while.
Ryan: He didn't. But he was developing those guns. That's what he was doing. He was doing it on the sly, busting nuts and fucking building know. Become the beefcake that he is today.
Laura: He is a beefcake.
Ryan: He is a fucking beefcake. Yeah.
Laura: Uh, God bless Gerard Butler.
Laura: Well, hello there. Welcome to On the BiTTE the podcast that uncovers full frontal male nudity in cinema. My name is Laura, and I am, joined by my co host, Ryan.
Ryan: God save the Queen. God save the Queen.
Laura: My co turkey.
Ryan: Yeah, I don't mean that. I'm just quoting lines from the movie. I am a staunch anti monarchist. It was creepy.
Laura: I didn't feel good on.
Ryan: Well, the thing is, when Billy Connolly does it, I can't really take it seriously either. It's just him running around the dark woods with a handgun. Wow.
Laura: Professionalism at an all time low. How dare you.
Ryan: Here's the fucking issue. Right, I'm here. I do all the technical stuff. I've got so many things. You just have to come here and talk.
Laura: That's right.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: I'm very important.
Ryan: Yeah. Right.
Ryan: Okay.
Laura: Well, we are here to talk about the 1997 drama Mrs. Brown.
Ryan: Mrs. Brown.
Laura: Starring Judy Dench, Billy Connolly, Jeffrey Palmer, Anthony Cher, and Gerard Butler.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: This film was directed by John Madden. And if you please, I will drop that synopsis on you real hard right now.
Ryan: Okay.
Laura: From Letterbox, please. When Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, dies, she finds solace in her trusted servant, Mr. John Brown. But their relationship also brings scandal and turmoil to the monarchy.
Ryan: I would say, like, if my first cousin, who I was sleeping with and was married to, died, I'd be like, whoa, I just dodged a bullet. NObody found out how horrible this incestual relationship had become. But then, that's just the royal family common. Yeah, that's the royal family. Like, they breed within their own rank.
Laura: They want to keep it close, keep.
Ryan: It, keep it close. Keep those diseases close. Keep all of those bloodborne diseases nice and close. And, uh, it's gross if you look like they all have massive foreheads and they're all like, well, I mean, albite, you don't want to talk about some of the strifes because legally we wouldn't have a leg to stand on because they have lots of money and they're able to cover up a lot of things. But, yeah, they've got massive foreheads and receding hairlines before the time they hit. Like, fucking 20 years old in breeders. Yes. Fucking sausage fingers. Although he's the king now. He finally got there. Wait long enough, his mother kicked the bucket, and he's now got his fucking sausage fingers, uh, around those crown jewels.
Laura: Okay. The tagline for this film is loyalty without question, friendship without equal.
Ryan: Yeah, I have a few questions about that. Uh, I don't hate this film, but I also am, like, his blind obligation. I question somewhat certainly as a Scotsman, where I'm just.
Laura: Yeah, he's one of the rare Scotsmen in history.
Ryan: Fuck, yeah.
Laura: Cared about a monarch.
Ryan: Shit, yeah. By the end of the film, anyway, he appears to be fucking delirious. So I can just assume that he just went a bit mad.
Laura: That's your opinion. And I know we'll get into it, but I feel like he's a bit of a ladder climbing dick. Rather than being very much caring for this woman in her time of grief and need, he's more an.
Ryan: You could. You could look at it that way.
Laura: Maybe he was an opportunist that grew to care for somebody, but it also makes me think that maybe Queen Victoria is someone that likes to be told what to do.
Ryan: Yeah, potentially. Well, she's someone who. Yeah, she does a lot of, uh, Victoria Regina or something. Isn't that the VR? Isn't that what that refers? Um.
Laura: Mean, that's also her second. Her middle name is Victoria.
Ryan: Right.
Laura: First Name is something else.
Ryan: Oh, okay. Well, we don't need to get into that. We're talking about films here.
Laura: That's right.
Ryan: That's right. Fictitious stories. Except this one's not really that fictitious.
Laura: Oh, yeah. I've got facts, baby. I'll love a bit of history.
Ryan: Um, talking about going mad, though. Do you want to get some mad? I want to get Madden.
Laura: John Madden up in here.
Ryan: John Madden. Wasn't John Madden like, wasn't he big with the NFL? Wasn't there John Madden with the NFL?
Laura: This is a different guy. This is a guy that likes to make films about old people, older people, um, getting together and having a good time.
Ryan: So I remember hearing of John Madden and I think this is maybe the 80th time I've brought up the book, but down in Dirty Pictures, that Peter Biskin book, um, Madden's mentioned in that because obviously Mrs. Brown was released through, um, Miramax, uh, uh, at the time. And then obviously John Madden did the massively successful Shakespearean Love. So that was also like a really big hit for Miramax, too.
Laura: Another time where Judy Dench played, um, a queen.
Ryan: Yeah, she can't seem. I mean, she's obviously typecast.
Laura: Um, she played Elizabeth I in, ah, that movie.
Ryan: Um, but let's continue on. Well, who else played Elizabeth I? Kate. Kate Blanchett in those Elizabeth movies? Hell, yeah, she did those, uh, what's his name? Sanjay Kapoor. I think he directed those. Those are really nice movies.
Ryan: I think we'll talk about what our favorite, let's say, royalty films are maybe during the course of this.
Laura: Helen Mirren do it as well.
Ryan: The queen. I like the Stephen Frears the queen. I know some people don't like it.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: One of your boys plays Tony Blair. Uh, yeah.
Laura: Michael.
Ryan: Michael Sheen plays Tony Blair. I like hell yeah, he does. I like that because I grew up during that moment in history. And I remember seeing firsthand how people reacted to the death of Diana firsthand, including my own mother. I remember. Actually, this is a story, this is a bit of a tangent. This is pretty funny. Me and my brother were, uh, up really early in the morning. I think it was like five or six. And I remember we had something on the TV and we were like playing with toys or something like that. Because I think this was, what, 90? When did that happen? 97. 96 maybe when Princess died. Died. So, um, we would have only remember, we would have both have been under ten years old. So we're just like watching something on the TV. I remember my mom bursting into the room and she turns on the channel to the news and it's the news that Diana had died. And she just goes, oh, my God. And we got a fright, as you might have expected. 19. Um.
Laura: 97.
Ryan: 97. Okay. Well, then I would have only have been twelve. Yes. I was over ten years old. But, uh, yeah, um, that was a moment. That's a moment I will remember. Um, yeah.
Laura: Scary.
Ryan: Very scary.
Ryan: Let's talk about John Madden. Let's get mad about some, um. Yeah, every time I've seen his name, I just associated it with American, uh, football. Um, but this is a man, uh, who's done some directing. Um, so he's an English director of stage, film, television and radio. And obviously I pointed out Shakespeare and Love, which is his most successful film, which won Best picture in 98, but he did lose best director to Spielberg Four. What did you think he would have won Best director for in 98, Laura?
Laura: 98.
Ryan: 98. It's a film you haven't seen of his. And I'm surprised that you have a film podcast and you haven't seen this film.
Laura: Oh, it's the one, um, with the war.
Ryan: Yes, the war one.
Laura: It's not band of brothers. It's saving Private Ryan.
Ryan: There you go.
Laura: I've not seen that film.
Ryan: Yes, the Matt Daemon one. It's the Tom Hanks. It's Tom Hanks looking for Matt Daemon, um, in what many thought was quite an unbelievable scenario, but it's still one of the most affecting war films ever. So I do understand how Spielberg would have won the Oscar for that one, but Shakespeare in Love did win the Silver Bear at the 49th Berlin Alley. I think they call it the Berlin Alley. Otherwise it's the Berlin Film Festival. I've, um, been to the Berlin Alley before. It's nice.
Laura: FancY guy.
Ryan: Um, so John Madden also shared the same house for a spell with Roger Mitchell. And do you know who Roger Mitchell is? He's a director as well.
Laura: Um, that name sounds familiar.
Ryan: Yes. Um, he's done some films. I'm trying to remember specifically because he directed Changing Lanes. I remember he did a film called Enduring Love with that movie. Daniel Craig. Yes. What's the one with Julia Roberts?
Laura: Oh, is it the one where they. With also Reese?
Ryan: Yes, I think Hugh Grant and I think Nottinghill. Yes, I think that's the one. Roger Mitchell has also went on to direct films, and he shared a house with John Madden, so maybe you could look him up and get some more.
Laura: You've been correct.
Ryan: So, good, good. Um, what else has he done?
Laura: I mean, Nottinghill is his most famous. Of course, there's a Rachel McAdams and Harrison Ford movie called Morning Glory. He, uh, did a version of Persuasion. Changing Lanes, you mentioned.
Ryan: Yeah, I like Changing Lanes. That's Ben Affleck, Samuel L. Jackson. Um, it's like rich White guy against deprived, uh, black man. Um, and they have a rivalry against each other, so it's very much about race. Um, it's weird. It's a weird one.
Laura: Lanes trading places.
Ryan: Yeah, kind of. It always involves race, though, doesn't it? It's always kind of just like, what will the audience understand? It's like, here we go. It's weird. I don't really understand it. It's like, here's an impoverished black man. Here's a rich white dude.
Laura: It's like, okay, well, let's destroy the white man.
Ryan: Yeah, well, that's what changing Lanes is about. Um, it's time. Yeah. Well, that reminds me of, uh. Ah, who's the guy? Um. Uh, from Radiohead. Who's it? Tom York. He did a speech. I don't know when, but he did a speech in regards to how people view folk who wear the hijab and stuff like that. And he said, the only people that have ever caused me any level of strife in my life have been people in suits. Like men in suits. Um, so when the banks needed bailed out, they were in suits. When we were all struggling during austerity, there were men in suits. So they were like, well, why are we banning people wearing the hijab when we should be banning people wearing. Who are wearing suits? Because that's where obviously all the strife and the issues come in from modern world. Yeah, I thought that is correct. You are correct. Although that's obviously not to take away from the fact that there are still terror things going on in the world. Anyway, it doesn't really matter.
Laura: Um, there's some really bad shit.
Ryan: Really bad stuff.
Laura: John Madden.
Ryan: Bad people are bad people. Let's just put it that way. So, um, he started working TV. Um, so I've listed down here Helen Mirren's prime suspect Four. Um, because I think prime suspect Four, that was like the fourth series of that. And that's when he joined. Um, he also did episodes of Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and also Inspector Morse as well. Um, which are all back home very popular shows during, uh, the late 80s into the 90s. Um, and we'll just kind of get into his films. And I do recognize quite a few of these.
Laura: I bet some of them are an exotic hotel.
Ryan: I mean, there's two of them. Yeah, I don't like those films.
Laura: I love that shit. Give me some.
Ryan: Like a chatty, um, older fucking saccharine sweet nonsense. Yeah. Um, so in 93, he made Ethan. From. In 94, he made Golden Gate. In 97 he made Mrs. Brown, which is what we're looking at. He followed that up with Shakespeare in Love in 98, Captain Corelli's Mandolin in 2001, Proof in 2005, Killshot 2008, the Debt 2010. Then in 2012 and 2015, you have the best exotic Marigold Hotel. And then the second best exotic Marigold Hotel, which I hate. Uh, Miss Sloan, which was that Jessica Chastain movie in 2016. And then a film that I'm actually interested in seeing, because I'm interested in the book, is a film from 2022 called Operation Mincemeat. Which was a book by Ben McIntyre about, uh, uh, the true story of, uh, British espionage during the Second World War, where they take a man's body, give it a false identity, and then place the body over enemy lines so that they think that certain people are dead. Um, and then they're able to infiltrate. It's very interesting. Um, so I would be interested to see the film version of that book.
Ryan: Um, but yeah, um, that covers John Madden, the crazy American football English film director guy. Um, as you can probably tell from the sort of stuff that he makes. I don't know if you want to do like a James Ivory with this one, because I guess Ivory has his little pocket and we do like ivory. Madden also has his little pocket as well, where it feels very much. It feels quite classical. And I would say Mrs. Brown is quite classical.
Laura: Know, it's a period drama. So you kind of have these, you.
Ryan: Have these parallels, these comparisons and stuff that you end up making. Um, I don't think Mrs. Brown is a particularly exceptional film, but there's parts of it that are nice. Most of it is set up in Balmoral for the most part. Um, so there's some lovely scenery and there's some nice things about it, but you're not really getting anything other than just here is a telling of this story, and here's two fantastic actors telling you this story. There's not a bad character in the piece, really. Judy Dench and Billy Connolly are effectively chewing it up. They're hoisting this thing up.
Laura: Um, so before we go too far, I wanted to tell you that Queen Victoria's real first name is Alexandrina, and Regina is Latin for, like, Queen, so it's not her name. And I was just trying to get there. I'm like, wait, no, that means queen in Latin. So, uh, throw that out there before we went too far.
Ryan: Yeah, it's history of the monarchy. I just tune out, really. There are going to be people who listen to this podcast who are going to be fans of the monarchy. I'm really sorry.
Laura: Well, then they'll like this film.
Ryan: They'll hopefully like this film. You might not like my commentary on it, but you might like this film.
Laura: Yeah, no, the film is sticking within the lines of being polite and m not wanting to delve into the goss and the tabloid nature of their relationship. So, uh, they keep it really safe.
Ryan: It's incredibly sedate.
Laura: Yeah, they do tend to blame that on the fact that John Brown's diaries were all destroyed. Also, Queen Victoria's all of her diaries were edited by her youngest daughter, Beatrice. So getting the truth and getting the real story of what was going on, she would obviously, as a queen, kept her cards close to her chest. Like, did she bone this man? I mean, he's like a good looking dude.
Ryan: Yeah. Um, I like to think that they probably didn't.
Laura: You like to think that.
Ryan: I like to think that Judy Dench.
Laura: In this film is a lot as a human being. She's older than the character that she's portraying because Queen Victoria, at this point where she meets, again, John Brown, is probably around 45 years old.
Ryan: Okay.
Laura: Judy Dench is obviously a little bit, um, older than that.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: You think that someone at 42, after years and years of hanging out with this cool Highland dude, isn't going to take a peek?
Ryan: I'm not saying that she might not have taken a peek.
Laura: It could have been more of a nice, really intense love for one another without it being physical. That's also very possible.
Ryan: I mean, I also just don't want to imagine the queen fucking. I want the monarchy to sit on a shelf like a Russian dolls and.
Laura: Shit, looking at the COVID of this film. I wanted them to pork. That's what I was expecting.
Ryan: Yeah. I'm glad they didn't, because that would.
Laura: Have been not okay.
Ryan: Yeah. I didn't want to feel uncomfortable, um, because I watched the film and I don't know if I really felt too much about it, but at the same time, it's like, oh, well, I didn't feel like an hour and 44 minutes was taken away from me either. So it's a weird experience. It's like being on drugs, but not hard drugs, just like the sorted drugs that make you feel a little sleepy. And then when you get to the end of that experience, you feel perfectly fine and you can just kind of get on with your day and it didn't really affect you that much. It's like a tiny dab of.
Laura: Um. This is. Geez.
Laura: This is Gerard Butler's feature film debut, and, in fact, was his very first. So, um, uH, Jerry Butler graduated from law school. He went to law school and completed law school, got a degree.
Ryan: Wow.
Laura: Then he moved and started training in Edinburgh. But he was partying way too much and they fired him. So then he was like, you know what? I'm going to do something different. He calls up his mom. He's like, mom, I'm moving to London. I'm going to be an actor. Aren't you so proud of your fuck. His very first acting role. Not in a feature film was in a stage production of train spotting.
Ryan: Okay, I think I've heard this before. Yeah, I think I've heard this.
Laura: Um, also during. I think it was during one of his off days of shooting Mrs. Brown. He was having a picnic with his mother at Tameth Castle, and he heard someone yelling that their friend was in trouble and this kid was drowning in the water. And Jerry Butler jumped in and saved this 14 year old kid's life.
Ryan: Oh, Jerry. Oh, good for you.
Laura: And he also recently went to his wedding.
Ryan: Wow. Okay.
Laura: Kept in touch.
Ryan: What the fuck? What is he? He's just a stand up dude.
Laura: He's like a good man. He's just a good beefcake man.
Ryan: He's from Scotland.
Laura: Is that all the men? Not all the men from Scotland, no.
Ryan: And all the men from Scotland are. Well, no, I'm not going to say everyone from Scotland is a good man or a beefcake. Um, but there is a higher percentage likelihood that if you get a man from Scotland, they're more than likely going to be good. There's a higher percentage of that happening because it's like when you go to buy, like, antibacterial spray, it kills 99.9% of bacteria. You don't get the full 100%, but for the most part, it might as well be 100%. So that's like a Scotsman.
Laura: Did you hear it, ladies?
Ryan: Yeah. Get yourself a Scotsman. There's tons of us, and also we live for a really long time, so there's longevity in there. Also, we can open jars. We can do all sorts of things. Um, so handy. We're rough and tumble. We're outside in the elements most of the time. Or at least I remember being. I don't want to put myself out there as, like, a tradesman or anything like that, But I've been out in some rain.
Laura: You've been outside for sure?
Ryan: Definitely. I've climbed some hills and shit. Yeah, good for you. Yeah. I would climb more hills, but there isn't any in Florida because Florida is just flat and it's swamp. You don't. You don't go out walking in that. Uh, you might as well just try and remove your skin after doing that because of all the bugs and stuff. But, um. Yeah, get yourselves a Scotsman, ladies.
Laura: There you go.
Ryan: Yeah, get yourselves a Scotsman.
Laura: He knows a few. Get in touch theatrically.
Laura: This film was released as Her Majesty, Mrs. Brown. M. So Mrs. Brown, I was confused about why it was called Mrs. Brown because I go, isn't this about Queen Victoria? But that was.
Ryan: Well, the Prime Minister calls her Mrs. Brown.
Laura: Yeah, it's a joke.
Ryan: It's a joke.
Laura: They're like making fun of how close she is to, um, bit of. Bit of hot gossip there.
Ryan: Yeah.
Ryan: There's a lot of interesting players in this film. I mean, we have Jeffrey Palmer. Who's he not? He's like the royal consort, basically. Um, Henry Ponsonby. Yes. Ponzenbury. Is that his fucking name?
Laura: Ponsonby? Yeah.
Ryan: Fuck. What a fucking. What a walloper. Ponson B. Um, well, Jeffrey Palmer and Judy Dench, uh, both starred in a British TV show. I don't know if you know about this show, uh, called as Time Goes by. I watched many episodes of that. Went on for ten fucking seasons. Or ten series, we should say. Um, just thought I'd bring that up there because I was just like, oh, it's that guy with her in that show from God knows how long ago.
Laura: Um, Henry Ponsonby was Queen Victoria's private secretary.
Ryan: He was not the royal Consort. He was the.
Laura: Not a royal consort.
Ryan: Certainly not the secretary. Okay, whatever.
Laura: This, um, is the second time that Judy, um, Dench has played Queen Victoria. So they like to call it an unofficial sequel. Ha ha, whatever, doesn't matter. 2017, Victoria and Abdul. Okay, yeah, it's like, oh, because she plays Queen Victoria, it's got to be a sequel. Has nothing to do with that. That's fucking stupid. But Victoria and Abdul, I've seen that film and it's fine. It's not bad. And I mentioned before, she played Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love, so she's very frequently wanting to play a, uh, Queen.
Ryan: She loves it. I bet she loves it.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: You get to play a queen. Yeah. But with none of the incestual diseases.
Laura: Absolutely.
Ryan: It's great.
Ryan: Um, yeah, so we got know, we talk about Jared Butler. The only other prime Scotsman we're talking about here is Billy Connolly, the big, as it were.
Laura: I thought maybe you would do more research on Billy Connolly here. But Billy Connolly already at this point is incredibly famous. He has an incredibly long career behind and ahead of him. So Jerry Butler was his start. So I thought I would delve a little bit deeper into him.
Ryan: I mean, I don't really have anything about Billy Connolly because the thing is mean, I could talk about Billy Connolly for, uh, hours. I do have one of my favorite of his jokes because he was a stand up comedian. He worked on the shipyards, um, in Glasgow. And, uh, he got his start working as a stand up comedian because folk found him, um, you know, one of my favorite of his jokes was, uh, you get up on the stage and he's just like, imagine a cross dresser and it's just him angrily putting clothes on. Um, which I thought was funny. But, uh, I don't know where is this in relation because he also ends up in the Boondock Saints as well, which is another one of those, uh, Miramax joints. Oh, yeah, I hate that movie. I really dislike it quite intently. Um, the documentary about the making of, what's his name? Troy Duffy. Um, that film is well worth watching about his decline.
Laura: Uh, uh, Boondock Saints was, um, two years later. It was in 99.
Ryan: Wow. Yeah. Fucking Boondock Saints.
Laura: Anyway, I think that movie was that bad. I don't remember it that well.
Ryan: It's completely forgettable for the most part. Uh, okay, that's fine. I mean, he's also like really hamming up in that movie as well because he has to, because the fucking material is so thin.
Laura: I'm going to watch.
Ryan: You know what you should, though, you should watch, uh, there's a documentary about Troy Duffy who was the writer and director of, uh. Uh.
Laura: I can't remember your quiz answer person today.
Ryan: You are. Yeah, it's early in the morning. I've been up late. I'm still doing stuff. We've been updating and doing all sorts of stuff to the website and for other things. And I work full time as well.
Laura: The 2003 documentary Overnight.
Ryan: Yeah, that film is so fucking good. It's made by, basically love that, don't you? Yeah, it's one of my favorite documentaries of all time. Yeah, no, it's fascinating.
Laura: Recently made a spreadsheet of our physical media, so it'll be easy for me to find it.
Ryan: Yes, uh, you'll find it.
Laura: Thank you.
Ryan: Google sheet. Yeah, I watched it recently and I wouldn't mind watching it again. So when you decide to wait, when you decide to put it on, let's put it on together.
Laura: So the film starts off with some background, just so you know where we are in time and space. Queen Victoria ascended to the English throne in 1837. She was only 18 years old. M do it. You do it. You say it.
Ryan: At least she wasn't 14 years old.
Laura: Let's just say like, she was 18.
Ryan: She was only 18 years old.
Laura: Thank you. She married Prince Albert two years later, and in 1861 he passed away. And she was very sad. Uh, she was sad.
Ryan: She will not be consoled forever. She refused to be consoled.
Laura: As John Brown says in this film, no one's here to tell her that she can't act like a little bitch. That's his job. Um, so since the Queen is so sad, they decided to bring in Prince Albert's old friend from Balmoral to hang out with the Queen and be the leader of the Queen's Pony. That's his job.
Ryan: He's a nice pony.
Laura: I think that's just a horse, isn't it?
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: Okay.
Ryan: They called it the Pony.
Laura: The Pony.
Ryan: Well, it might be a Shetland pony.
Laura: It's very big.
Ryan: It's also very big.
Laura: So I don't know, maybe that's a type of nickname for maybe.
Ryan: Well, yeah. You know what these higher ups are like. They're like.
Laura: It's a.
Ryan: Like. Just call it a horse. Like, as a horse. Get the. No, it's no difficult. Just get the fucking horse.
Laura: Well, Billy Connolly, uh, JohN Brown gets in trouble immediately for speaking to the queen as if he's her friend.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: Which he's just going, you must be so sad that your husband's dead. You must miss him dearly.
Ryan: And she is. And she's beside herself and she's like, I don't have to deal with this.
Laura: How dare you talk to me like a person.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: I'm not a person.
Ryan: Yeah. Um. I like the course in which this story goes where John Brown is intent on dismantling the icy layers of Queen Victoria. To just get her to enjoy life a little bit mean. That is the sum total of what we're getting with this.
Ryan: Know, there's the offset because obviously we have Archie, which is Jared Butler, who's John. Ah. Brown's brother. Um, he is obviously the sounding plate who's just like, you can't trust her. She's going to dump you like she's dumped everybody else. You can't believe what she's saying. And, I mean, I guess he seems a little delusional.
Laura: At least, John Brown. He is and he isn't because she does and she doesn't.
Ryan: He's a realist and he's, like, setting his ways. And, uh, he's a salt of the earth kind of guy. He knows the Highlands and he knows his role. And no one can play his role better than he can. But like you mentioned earlier, he is trying to upward the ranks. He supersedes authority.
Laura: He does mean things to the people that work in the household, which I don't think is cool.
Ryan: Yeah, he does treat some of them like shit.
Laura: He treats everyone like shit. Yeah, everyone. Even his brother.
Ryan: And he drinks a little bit too much, so there is that. But he's effectively creating. Yeah. His attitude means that he ends up creating these rifts within the ranks of the authority that's already kind of set, like the set order that's already here within the, uh, the servants. Right. So he comes in there and I guess things will transpire so that people are conniving against him because of how close he is to Victoria. Um, yeah. And for the most part, I'll bake some moments in a moment, obviously, that we're going to be speaking about. It's very dry. Like, the film itself is incredibly dry. Um, but it's not uninteresting. It's a hard thing to kind of put my finger on, but there is an element of it where it does feel a little sleepy, but it's still interesting enough to run for its runtime. So it's a weird one.
Laura: Yeah. I definitely, like I said before, didn't expect Mr. Brown to be a bit of a dick, but it made it a little bit more interesting because you're not just watching, oh, this lovely man who's come to help this woman who is sad, and they become best friends and everything goes really well. He's more just kind of a really rough person. He's kind of, like, hard to get along with.
Ryan: He's a no nonsense. Like, he just kind of comes in. He's just like, buck your ideas up, woman, and basically is like, you need to get back to.
Laura: Sounds familiar.
Ryan: Yeah, I guess, like, you just need to get back into life. Like living life.
Laura: If Albert was here, he'd want you to be out riding horses. If he was here, he'd want you to get out of the house, which.
Ryan: Is like an oxymoron, because it's like, well, you can say things like that, but Albert's not fucking here, so you.
Laura: Can say all those things.
Ryan: I mean, that's fine, but I'm also kind of like, at least I, uh. Even though I don't respect it, I understand this level of authority. He can't just walk into a room and be like, well, your husband. I don't care if she's the queen or not. Your husband would have wanted you to do this. I'd be like, fuck off.
Laura: That's true.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: I mean, he's probably not wrong. Well, no, that's not true. Because if I passed away, I'd want you to be miserable forever.
Ryan: Well, jokes on you, motherfucker. Because I'll finally get out of it, I guess. No, I don't know how I'll fucking react. That's a horrible thing. Now I have to think, why? Why did you do that? That's fucked up.
Laura: There is a moment when she does start getting out because Mr. Brown's very headstrong, and he keeps standing out in the courtyard with her pony. And she's like, get him out of there. Stop letting him stand out in the courtyard. It's bothering me. I don't want to go riding until she eventually is like, fine, I'll go. But then it starts getting her out of the house more, and there's a moment where she goes, oh, I want to go swimming. Mr. Brown says, the water will be good for me. And it's one of those moments where I really like seeing period appropriate swimming outfits that are so insane.
Ryan: Like waving a balloon.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: M.
Laura: In the 1860s, women wore bathing dresses. So they're like long sleeve tunics with bloomers, corsets with beach shoes and a little cap, um, that were made out of wool or flannel that would not float when wet.
Ryan: Of course not.
Laura: I would think just, uh, a woolen anchor. You're wearing a woolen anchor to go swimming?
Ryan: Yeah. Uh, it's a weird moment.
Ryan: I understand why that swimming scene is there because we do have another scene later on, which is almost the direct opposite of this, because you're looking, obviously, at this one moment of people swimming, which is like, this one's laced in conservatism. And that water looks freezing fucking cold.
Laura: It is.
Ryan: It looks unwelcoming.
Laura: No, it looks horrible.
Ryan: It looks horrible. But at least in the scene that comes after, um, there's a lot more to it. And you're kind of just like. It has a little bit more of a bounce to it, which I think is obviously kind of what they're going for.
Laura: Yeah, you have the buttoned up monarchy, and then you have the everyman that's just living life.
Ryan: Yeah. I mean, he is living life. I kind of feel like. And this is also the thing is, he's a man who has everything. He has everything he wants in front of him. And I feel like with his insertion into the monarchy and into this woman's life, a little piece of, um, him is like, uh, his dedication and his obligation to her. I do feel like he wastes his life a little bit, at least in the latter part of this time. And, I mean, that may be a fucking horrible, shitty thing to say, but he did waste his time on this woman, and she treated him like fucking garbage. As much as he might be a bit of a dick, I'm still looking at it, and I'm like, uh, from.
Laura: When he arrives in the Isle of White Till the end, where he's having more fun, and then he stops having fun later because all he's worried about is the queen. All he's worried about is himself and his station and how he's perceived and how she's perceived, and that's all he cares about. But in the beginning, he's seeing his brother and having a good time, as he is in our penis scene.
Ryan: I mean, I would also, just. Before we get into that, I would also point out that he already states how little of a life he actually has. He has no family. So for me to see him as, like, a dick who's objecting to authority, he's kind of inserting himself into the primary roles of this service. Um, it's probably because he has nothing else. Like, the minute he loses this, he has nothing other than himself and his own thoughts.
Laura: Well, it's not like it has to be that way.
Ryan: No, but I feel like that's maybe where he's coming from is like, this is all I have.
Laura: Without her warning to not throw yourself completely into your career, got to have interests outside of your career.
Ryan: That's true. I'm still to find that. But we will see. All I do is podcast work and make films, I guess, like. No, actually, that's not that bad.
Laura: That seems pretty varied.
Ryan: Yeah, it's not like I'm.
Laura: You're fine?
Ryan: Yeah, I think so.
Laura: You're not spending 100% of your time completely devoted to me and the perception of me in the world.
Ryan: Yeah. Well, that's your understanding of how devoted. Yeah, of course.
Laura: You could spend a little bit more time doing that. You've got time?
Ryan: No, I think I do perfectly fine. I say this at work all the time as well. I think I'm just nice enough, like, I don't need to be any more nice to people at work.
Laura: No, not to them.
Ryan: I think if you get me, good for you. If you don't, then tough fucking shit. No, you know me. You've known me for years. At this point. Now, uh, you should understand the dynamic. You married a Scotsman. Look, we're lovely people and we're incredibly sexy, but at the same time, you have to understand that sometimes we get a little bit quiet and we end up being a little bit brooding and we just kind of, like, seethe in our own thoughts and we just sup a pint and we're just like, that's just something that happens. Just don't fuck with us. Anyway, penis scene.
Ryan: I had this thing I wanted to bring up, where did you hear the canned child laughter?
Laura: Oh, my gosh, Ryan, that is so weird. That's so weird that you're saying that, because I was going to write it down and I go, how do I even explain? Because I can't do that laugh. But, uh, yes, when they're hanging out in that front garden area and he's waiting with the horse or the pony, and it's that. Should I try to do it?
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: It's that classic canned child laughter. Yeah. M I'm sure we can find it somewhere on the Internet. Maybe we can insert it.
Ryan: It's like the Wilhelm Scream, except it's like the Jeffrey Chortle, or whatever you would call it.
Laura: That's so funny that you brought that up because it was really striking and it happened, and then there was, like another canned child laugh right after that. That wasn't.
Ryan: And I'm like, oh, my God, it's a child's laugh you've heard countless times that's been inserted into certain.
Laura: That's never happened in real life.
Ryan: That's never happened. No child laugh like that. But in context, in that scene, it's fine. But if it was in, say, a dark hallway, it would be chilling. Yeah. Um, because it's not a good laugh. I'm glad that maybe I haven't heard it in a modern film in a while. So, um, that's good. I think maybe they've learned not to.
Laura: Continue using those if they didn't need to do any sound effects noises at all. You see the children. You get the point.
Ryan: Well, every time I think of, um, the idea of child laughter, it reminds me of something, uh, Carl Pilkington said on his show where they asked him if something that they thought was scary, and he went, child laughter.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: And it comes a little bit out of left field. It's just like, he just didn't think it was right. I agree.
Laura: Amazing.
Ryan: Dear.
Ryan: Right now we're back to just twiddling.
Laura: My thumbs, waiting to talk about penises.
Ryan: Dick scene.
Laura: Okay. Yay. 29 minutes and 54 seconds into this film, we have kind of the opposite of the queen bathing scene where we get, um, Scottish men.
Ryan: Yeah, John and Archie. Um, yeah, they're like, some fun times. Having some fun times. They're singing, they're laughing and stuff. They just strip off and they run into the water.
Laura: They sure do.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: So that's it. Yeah. They strip naked and run into shot from behind. As they're running towards the water, those.
Ryan: Penises flap up and see, because Billy Connolly's no stranger to getting nude and stuff because he's done it in his TV shows where he traveled around, uh, Australia and he did it in Scotland and stuff like that. Where he'll just strip off and he'll go into some war and stuff. Like. Like he's done that countless, countless times.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: Um, obviously with us it's obviously butler like for me. I don't know if it's, uh, like a Scotsman thing or anything like that. But, yeah, I wouldn't be too adverse to doing something like that. So I don't really give a shit.
Laura: About how I look culturally different. Um, but I don't know. It is reminiscent, like room with a view where there's just some guys and they're like, yeah, let's just go swimming. Yeah, they don't think about it. Let's just go swimming. Take off her pants and just have fun.
Ryan: There's zero sexualization in it whatsoever. It's a bit cheeky. I can understand it within the context of, say, like a British film.
Laura: Yes.
Ryan: And this film is still like a PG 13 or like a parental guidance movie anyway. Um, so there's no romantic element. And obviously it's two brothers. I know we're talking about the monarchy, but these two brothers aren't fucking each other. Um, no, but, uh, yeah, no. For me it's relatively quite innocent. It's incredibly relatable. That's something that would happen has happened.
Laura: Um, yeah, absolutely. It's very casual.
Ryan: Yeah, very casual.
Laura: Favorite type.
Ryan: And, uh, yeah, I mean, you're seeing it from behind. So you're seeing things like flopping in. Um, yeah, and, uh, they're in the water. But I do like he's in the water. And There are moments where you think you see a little bit more when they're in the water. Certainly Billy Connolly and everything because we see it more from the front. But you don't really see anything. Um, and he's singing like my heart's in the. It's just. It's a nice moment, uh, between the two brothers because Archie's there as someone who's trying to introduce him into this world and into this idea of service in inverted commas. But then obviously, John's not really adhering to the already quite set rules and parameters that are, let's say, ancient. Let's say, um, because nothing has changed from, say, the 18 hundreds, from, say, the rule of thumb, from the 16 hundreds. So it's the same traditions and things. So I guess this is a moment that's. I mean, it's one of the few light hearted moments in the film, which is something I kind of quite appreciate because for the most part, it's quite durh. And it can feel a little bit dark because I guess they're trying to make a contrast between the bubble that she's effectively housed herself after Albert's death. Brown comes in and he's taking her outside. So we see some more of that. And then she starts to understand the fact that by, uh, taking herself out of this prison that she's had, she's starting to see the other things. So obviously the light heart nature of going outside and things like that. For me, it's obvious that this moment, this dick sequence here is just to kind of highlight the fact that these are obviously two very different people and their view on life and of the future and things are very different. And John Brown, to me, as much as you might think he's a bit of a dick, he's got a greater lust for life. And the sadder tragedy of the story is that that lust for life starts to diminish because he basically attaches himself to this quite cold woman. Um, and he starts to be more insular as opposed to feeling like he has a level of know where he sets up barriers for himself that he's not able to continue the way that he originally was.
Laura: These two scenes happen with the Queen and then with Archie and John Brown happen really close to each other. So you're just setting up that dichotomy of, uh, the differences between their two characters and also just kind of showing, again, the relationship that he has with his brother. That does fizzle out a bit eventually.
Ryan: It does, yeah. It's a real shame.
Laura: They actually filmed that scene in November.
Ryan: Fuck. Mhm.
Laura: And they had ambulances waiting nearby because they were constantly. They ran into the water, um, and that's one thing. But then they're talking outside of the water and they had to be constantly doused. So they were wet all the time while they were filming. So the ambulance were waiting nearby because it was freaking freezing cold. And Butler almost got. He had the onset of hypothermia. By the time that they were done shooting that scene, he ended up being fine. But yeah, he did have to get checked out. Yeah, that's to make sure he wasn't going to be incredibly ill. So he's like, great first film.
Ryan: Filmmaking, guys. Fun cinema.
Laura: And it's so funny. I don't really have a lot after.
Ryan: That, except I basically have very little other than we just kind of wrap up the story.
Laura: Um, yeah, well, you can tell everyone, the people that work for the household, the public, I mean, the monarchy is in danger at this point, kind of as it has been for a long time. But everyone's annoyed at the relationship because they think that Brown has too much influence over her. And she kind of does whatever he says and he kind of becomes like the mouth of the Queen.
Ryan: Mhm.
Laura: And, I don't know, the public people were annoyed when she was sad and now they're annoyed that she's feeling better. So there's no winning in the situation. You could just let them have a nice time. But Mr. Brown's a bit of a dick, so he's kind of put a target on his back for that because he definitely didn't make any friends.
Ryan: Well, there's all sorts of things that happen, like he gets, um, know, obviously there's the escalating public opinion. Um, John Brown's then influenced by the then Tory Prime Minister who comes over there and has like private chats with them and stuff to basically try and coax Victoria back into public service. Because effectively she's been out of service for, let's say, like four years, three years or something like that by this point. At which point I would also be like, we're fucking paying your fucking bills, so get your ass on that stage and fucking show yourself. But then she makes herself a target because of the nature of how she's enclosed. So, like, there's assassination attempts. Uh, John, basically because of the illness that he then develops. It's like he's almost in a state of delirium. Like he's not able to look after himself. He gets attacked. It's obviously like a planned attack from, we're not 100% sure from outside sources. Could be the service staff, could be anybody. And he still feels this level of dedication to this woman even after she's abandoned him, treated him as, and after the assassination attempt. That's one of the greater insults of the film in general, is that she dedicates a, uh, particular medal to him. And it's in regards to service.
Laura: His devoted service.
Ryan: His devoted service. When really, the thing is, they're meant to be best friends. And she is treating him like a consort, like someone that she can confide in, like a friend, effectively, because she doesn't really have that. She has people that serve her, but she doesn't have anyone that she can talk to. She doesn't really like her children. Her children are kind of.
Laura: They're a bit petulant, a bit petulant.
Ryan: Uh, children and the people who are serving her are trying to do things in her best interests without really consulting her. So for the most part, she's effectively a, uh, prop for the nation to parade around. But her attitude's fucking terrible. But then you also have John Brown, whose dedication and loyalty to her is not being reciprocated by the friendship. And then effectively what happens is he just gets sick. They kind of reconcile a little bit and then he just fucking dies. And I kind of think, like, the end of the film, to me, it's a little bit hard to stomach it kind of just like it happens. It's very quick.
Laura: It's hard to know what really transpired, if it was really that stark at the end. Because the way that she talks about him and the way she talked about him in reality, uh, is so admiring and loving. Uh, and she's just pouring affections upon this man. She wanted to write a book about him. And everyone's like, don't do that. Just stop. Leave it alone.
Ryan: Yeah, just the whole thing to everybody, they just buddy it. Uh, they just buddy his existence of that last kind of repeating years. And they do.
Laura: The movie starts off with his bust that she had commissioned of him being thrown off. Thrown off the top of a wall.
Ryan: Well, it was thrown off by the son who at one point got pneumonia or whatever, got typhoid or something. Um, and then survives. But he also has a deep disliking for John Brown. Um, again, he's a petulant child, but.
Laura: At the same ended up becoming King and becoming a really popular king for like ten years.
Ryan: Yeah, well done. I mean, it's the tallest wharf in the circus, really. You're going to have the monarchy regardless. Um, because again, they continue to breed. Um, but, uh, the thing is, the film just kind of ends. And there is that controversial moment where you do see Jeffrey Palmer's character with John Brown's book, which I think is definitely, uh, uh, the filmmaker's nod of, like, they just secretly got rid of the diary, obviously, when really there's no proof otherwise that anything like that happened. Uh, I mean, who is really to know the true story behind these two individuals? It's all from third hand accounts. Anyway.
Laura: Um, yeah, so there was an article I was reading, I believe it was in the New York Times. There was a historian who was digging a little bit deeper into this relationship because you would have imagined that if something was going on, someone would have seen it. Because all the accounts that you have of anything that was maybe off, maybe a little bit too intimate. Things that were going on are far off. This person said, I heard this from this person. So these 2nd, 3rd, 4th hand accounts of their relationship that can't be trusted, that you would imagine that someone close to them would have seen something. But Victoria's doctor, um, Sir James Reed, it was, ah, her doctor for 20 years, who was like, at her deathbed, did see something or write it down. So he wrote down, everything else has been edited. Everything else has been burned, like John Brown's. I mean, that's true. His diary was burned, okay? And all of Victoria's stuff was edited. So they kind of got rid of a lot of stuff. Like, especially the stuff that's in the National Archives is a lock and key. You cannot get to it. And a lot of it is one, his, his diaries were not in the National Archives. It was a little bit easier to get, and it wasn't edited. So he wrote down, opening the door to Victoria's room. On Thursday, March 22, 1883, he saw her flirting with John Brown. As she, quote, walked a little. Brown says to her, lifting his kilt, quote, oh, I thought it was here. And she responds, lifting up her dress, quote, no, it is here. M so that's this weird thing where people are like, what's, um, that. It's not hard evidence, but it does show an extreme level of intimacy because you know that he's a true Scotsman.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: There's nothing under that kilt. No, I mean, there's something under that kilt.
Ryan: Well, definitely. There's something under that, um. Um, of. You know what that reminds me of?
Ryan: That reminds me of phone. There's recordings of phone calls between Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles.
Laura: Oh, God.
Ryan: Of their sex conversations. And one of them's like, he wanted to be a tampon so that he could live inside her.
Laura: It's romantic.
Ryan: Yeah, it's not that romantic. Imagine that being said in his voice. No, like his sausage. Um, just again, it just kind of highlights that kind of level of juvenile.
Laura: Um, the royal household called, uh, John Brown the Queen's stallion. Yep. And Victoria wrote to, uh, mR. Brown's sister in law after he passed and said that he was the best, the truest heart that ever beat. And you have your husband, your support. I have no strong arm. Now. She was very sad. She lost, um, two dudes.
Ryan: Yeah. No, that's rough. At least she had all that money to fall back, right?
Laura: That's right.
Laura: So, uh, this film did relatively well, I guess, in the awards circuit, nominated for tons and tons of things. Won quite a few things. It was nominated for the best film BAFTA. Um, Dame Judy won the BAFTA for Best Actress. It was nominated for an Oscar.
Ryan: Yeah, of course.
Laura: Um, this was originally, from what I understand, a made for TV movie originally. Like, that's what they were shooting for.
Ryan: Okay.
Laura: But then Weinstein, of course, thought, I think this could do better. I'm going to put it up on the big screens. And it ended up, um, getting 13 million at the box office. So it ended up making money and was a hit.
Ryan: It does look like. And it's definitely got the aspect ratio of something that was made for. Made for TV.
Laura: Yeah. Even the. Especially the beginning. Like, the beginning of it.
Ryan: Um, which is fine. I mean, there is something about it that is inherently cinematic, like, just the kind of the way that it looks and the way the camera moves and stuff like that. It does feel cinematic.
Laura: Yeah. I love. They go up on the hills. They go up on Loch Nagar. Yeah, I went there. Um. I think it was right. It must have been after we were married, you and I.
Ryan: Okay.
Laura: And it's right near Balmoral, and they make a whiskey there called Royal Lachnagar, and it's delicious. And I went there and had a tour, and it was wonderful. And it's really expensive to get here in the States. I used to drink it all the time.
Ryan: Yeah. Uh, I mean, obviously, if you go to drink whiskey in Scotland, where it's produced, it is cheaper.
Laura: Yeah, no shit.
Ryan: And it tastes better. Who'd have thought that? Who'd have thought that being in the country of origin for that particular thing would be better by all?
Laura: So great.
Ryan: I don't drink that much whiskey anymore because it Affects me.
Laura: What do you mean?
Ryan: Isn't it, like, it hurts my chest and stuff?
Laura: Makes you drunk?
Ryan: No, it doesn't.
Laura: True.
Ryan: No, it hurts me. It makes me sore.
Laura: We still have it. Typically, at the end of the year, we'll buy a, uh, Christmas whiskey, and we still have most of the bottle from last year.
Ryan: Pretty much, yeah. Whoops.
Laura: Heavy. We don't drink as heavy anymore.
Ryan: Don't drink as heavy anymore? No, because we're getting old. We're getting old, so we need to start making fucking bank. So fucking listen and give us some fucking money.
Laura: Are you talking to our audience?
Ryan: Yes. No.
Laura: I mean, sure, yeah, whatever.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: So let's jump into the ratings. Unless there's anything that you wanted to chat about.
Ryan: No. I got in the canned child laughter, which I felt, um. And just how stuffy the whole thing is. But, yeah, we're here.
Laura: Great.
Ryan: Let's rate this motherfucker.
Laura: Would you like to go first, uh.
Ryan: For visibility and context?
Laura: Absolutely.
Ryan: I mean, I like the context, so it's probably high for me, like four, four and a half or something. Because if you are running a naked into the water, I don't know what. Every time we go to explain these things, it's just kind of like, let's explain human nature in the context of why this makes sense. But because it's from the back, it probably only gets like a one for the visibility.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: Do I need to go for the film for it or do you want.
Laura: No, I want to do. So. You're right, the context is wonderful because it's just two lads being lads.
Ryan: You don't want to wet your clothes.
Laura: No.
Ryan: So you take them all off.
Laura: Yeah. And that's just something. And they're not to make anyone of the monarchy. They're just a couple of dudes.
Ryan: They're common men.
Laura: Yeah. Just hanging out and they don't need to adhere to the rules of that type of behavior. So they can just go swimming, as you would go for a quick ice dip in.
Ryan: Mhm.
Laura: Um.
Ryan: That. It's not usually that warm.
Laura: No, never.
Ryan: Never. Usually that warm in Scotland. Um, there are parts of Scotland, though, where the water is like crystal clear. But it's like freezing. It's absolutely freeZing. Yeah.
Laura: So I just all around gave it. It sounds so bad to be like one and a half. But the context is wonderful. The context works because it's casual, it's natural. It is what it is. You just can't really see it that well. But I mean, it's there.
Ryan: I just don't know if tonally it affects the film if we see more.
Laura: For what it is, I think.
Ryan: For what it is.
Laura: Strange.
Ryan: Yeah. For what it is. Yeah. It would be very OD and also it's like you say, it's originally conceived as something that was going to be made for TV.
Laura: And what are you going to get the camera and just have someone on a boat or in the water standing there to get them full on? That would be odd.
Ryan: It would be OD and I don't know, thinking about it and how it would look in my head.
Laura: It looks weird.
Ryan: It looks weird in my head. And like, if they did it in.
Laura: Slow motion and they're like laughing and giggling.
Ryan: Yeah. In slow motion, running into the water. And it's not only that they're running and it cuts at least 15 times of them, basically on the same stretch of each before they hit the war. And then the scene continues. It's like ten minutes. Yeah. Um, no, it would be kind of OD. So this is maybe an occasion where we're kind of just like, it's fine the way it is.
Laura: It works also in the context of the film in terms of showing, like I said, the difference between the queen and Mr. Brown.
Ryan: Yeah. It's a moment where full frontal isn't necessary, which is a weird thing for us to say.
Laura: I don't know. I think that if you're going to have that scene, it has to be like that.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: So otherwise, take all the swimming scenes out. It doesn't matter. If you don't have those two men running into the water naked, then there's no reason for the queen to go swimming at all.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: So you'd take out a big chunk of it instead, because it doesn't. Not like it comes up later. Oh, how was your swim? No one talks about it.
Ryan: No one talks about it.
Laura: You're just like, oh, this is literally just setting up these people.
Ryan: The reason it happens is because John Brown brought it up.
Laura: Yeah. He one time saiD, maybe you should go swimming.
Ryan: Maybe you should go swimming. And then she goes, that's all you need to know. He said, this happens.
Laura: His influence is working. And then you see how two different people go swimming.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: Obviously she's not running the water naked. I don't necessarily.
Ryan: No, I don't think anyone's ever seen her naked in general. I don't think. Don't even think our prince would have seen her. Prince Albert.
Laura: Oh, the actual queen.
Ryan: The actual queen, yeah.
Laura: Uh, didn't she hate having children? She hated pregnancy, probably, which makes sense.
Ryan: But you got to make those inbred children.
Laura: Nine children.
Ryan: Yeah. That's a lot. That's a lot of kids. That's a lot of pumping.
Laura: Cousin, pumping.
Laura: Um, how about the film, Ryan? What did you rate the film?
Ryan: So I think we talk about it a little bit more. But, I mean, I watched it years ago when it first kind of came out. Like years and years and years ago. No, well, I wouldn't have watched it when it first came out, but I watched it years and years and years ago. Um, and I liked it watching, um, it now. Uh, I kind of get it and I like it. Um, and I like the way I like certain aspects of it. And there are things that I kind of question about it. But again, I gave it a four when I read it last night, because again, it's in that weird thing where it's like, I'm not bored, but I'm also not interested. So it's kind of in a weird sort of limbo for me. So it probably deserves more of a three and a half.
Laura: Does it just get your heartstrings going when you hear them pipes?
Ryan: A little. I guess it's like the things that elevate it are Judy Dench and Billy Connolly and the supporting cast. Like, if they weren't there, I would not give a fuck. Uh, I genuinely wouldn't know if Billy Connolly's not. Well, no, that's the thing. If it wasn't those, you know, if it wasn't Jared Butler, if it wasn't Jeffrey Palmer, if it wasn't Judy Dench, if it wasn't Elliott, like, if it wasn't these people in Elliott. Uh, Billy. Billy Connolly. Sorry.
Laura: That dancing scene really got me.
Ryan: The wrestling. No, but, yeah, Billy Connolly. If, uh, Billy Connolly's not in it, playing that character the way that he's playing it, I don't have the same level of dislike that you have for what he does in the film.
Laura: Well, no, he's a bit of a shit. But if Billy Connolly is not in this film, then it can go fuck itself.
Ryan: Pretty much, yeah, pretty much. Um, yeah. So that's why I rated it as a four. Because the acting is stellar. I think the acting is great. I think he does a fantastic job of making it his own. Um, and I think it's just kind of a sad, tragic story, really. At the end of the day, it's just kind of sad and tragic. So I don't think it. Yeah, I just don't think it's that bad. But it's also not, like, the most interesting thing in the world either. So it's kind of like a TV movie, I guess.
Laura: I agree. I gave this film a three. I'm happy with that. I don't find it as interesting as it could have been, because we do have a lot of information, albeit a lot of that information has been edited. But you have so much to work with.
Ryan: It's obviously been made as something to be non controversial.
Laura: Yeah, absolutely. They're not trying to make things difficult. They're just an easy drinking story, easy breezy. And I think that it achieved that. Absolutely. Because you could watch this more than once and just be like, yeah, this movie is fine. You know, what's going on. They're not trying to go crazy and get into this potential sexual, uh, relationship or this really intimate, because you don't really get a ton of them alone, really. Being super intimate, there's, like, not a ton of it. They're usually just arguing.
Ryan: Yeah. But you can guess the intimacy that.
Laura: Is intimate for what we're working with.
Ryan: From the conservatism that they set up within the movie and from the. I guess from the initial conversation that Jeffrey Palmer has with Billy Connolly, they do realize that John Brown oversteps his bounds and people can see it happening. So when she's on the horse, he's just like, fix your footwoman. All this sort of like, that's stuff that just. No One else would be able to get away with, but he's just able to.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: So there are levels of intimacy within the film. We just don't have to see the full blown stuff, which is just like, I'm not fucking interested in that.
Laura: To be fair, I'm a little interested, but it's, uh, like, that's not the.
Ryan: Makes me feel a little bit slimy thinking about it.
Laura: So. Yeah.
Ryan: Movies.
Laura: Mrs. Brown, we wanted to bring you a nice, easy, breezy.
Ryan: This was movie. Yeah, this was one of mine.
Laura: Thanksgiving.
Ryan: Yeah, this was one of me.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: I brought this to you. I said, Mrs. Brown's definitely one. And you're like, is it? And I'm like, yep.
Laura: Well, we thought around Thanksgiving we'd give people some nice.
Ryan: Yeah, something.
Laura: Not too long.
Ryan: Nice stuff. It's on Showtime. Um, so you can watch it there. Yeah, you know what? It's fine.
Laura: And you could watch it with the fam if you want.
Ryan: You can. You know what? It's incredibly, uh, unadulterated. Ah. You might like it, you might not. But you're not going to hate it, but you're probably not going to love it. It's kind of somewhere in the middle.
Laura: Great. Um, wow.
Laura: Well, thank you for having this chat with me, Ryan, and, uh, bringing Scotland back into the mix.
Ryan: I mean, if I'm going to do is, how many Scotland films have we done now? At least three. At least three that I can think of at the top of my head.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: That I can think of off the top of my head. There's four, but, uh. Yeah, I think it's about four. Um.
Laura: Yep. Everyone, uh, make sure to follow us on Instagram. We'll drop the movies that we're doing next on.
Ryan: Yep.
Laura: And if you have any films that you think we don't know about, send us a message. Are we on TikTok?
Ryan: Yeah, we are on TikTok. Why are you asking me if we're on TikTok?
Laura: Well, of course we are. Forget so yeah, I do it all the time.
Ryan: I'm up there Tiktoking my tits out like it's TikTok.
Laura: If you want to see, um, our episodes visually, kind of in a format that Ryan creates, it's on YouTube as well.
Ryan: We do, like, little clips and stuff. We put them online to incentivize you to want to listen to the whole thing. So, yeah, you should go out there, listen to the little clips, because sometimes they're funny, sometimes, um, otherwise, you're just getting fucking information from a couple of folk who just love movies.
Laura: Wonderful.
Laura: Well, coming to you from Balmoral. Um, why.
Ryan: Why are we at Balmoral? I don't know.
Laura: Because I wrote it down. Leave me alone, okay? That's my part. I have been Laura.
Ryan: I am Ryan. A Scotsman.
Laura: Wonderful. There he is.
Ryan: All right, woman. Let's go.