Lately #15: Slow Horses, flip phones and breakfast with James Bond
Five things to entertain you, and one piece of advice.
On Sundays, we share some of our favourite finds from the week in our Lately newsletter.
Autumn/fall officially begins on 22nd September, but I’m getting the impression we’ve all jumped ahead - have you? Ready for cosier nights and some reading/viewing/listening? This week - a spy thriller series, a heart-wrenching movie backstory, and a bit of light listening for food lovers with the podcast choice after the dark (but riveting) series we shared last week.
Oh, and Sean Connery in a bathrobe. You’re welcome,
Gillian
Something we should all be watching…
It was a slow creep for Slow Horses when it first came out in 2022, but now it seems like everyone is talking about it. Season 4 has just begun on Apple TV and I’m letting a few episodes build up, because it’s one of those shows where the action comes fast and I’m not going to want to wait to see what’s coming next!
Based on a series of novels by Mick Herron, it follows a band of misfit ‘failed’ MI5 agents (aka the ‘Slow Horses’) working out of Slough House, a rundown office in central London. They’re led by the hard-drinking Jackson Lamb, played by Gary Oldman, who has been called the ‘anti-James Bond’ for his unkempt look and coarse delivery. But of course, there’s more to Lamb than meet the eye (or the nose).
“The underlying joke, really, is that Lamb must have been a Bond, a Smiley, a hero of some sort, at one point of his life, but has seen through all of that, and reacted against it, to become what he is. He’s not really an opposite. He’s just come through the other side.”
Mick Herron
It’s a great cast all round, but Lamb’s acerbic lines are often show-stealers (“Of course you didn’t mean to kill him. If you did, he’d still be alive.”) Oldman has said he’ll play Lamb as long as he is wanted, and that he’ll retire when the show ends - hopefully that won’t be for a while yet.
Who else is watching?
A podcast you’ll want to share…
Yara is the cooking queen out of the two of us, so I’ve saved this podcast as a surprise for all of you - and for her!
I’ve been laughing away to the 30-40 minute episodes of Dish, a weekly dinner party podcast hosted by broadcaster Nick Grimshaw and Michelin star chef Angela Hartnett (a surprising combination that really works).
They host a guest in each episode; Angela cooks a meal and offers tips to recreate it, and Nick serves the drinks. Nick is the seasoned presenter, but Angela is a natural in conversation with a big, unbridled laugh that’s really infectious. I’ve listened to the episodes with Danny Dyer (so funny), Stephen Merchant (always brilliant) and Shania Twain (let’s go, girls) so far, and will be working my way back.
Yara, even Stanley Tucci has been on…
Something that may surprise you…
It’s the Clueless accessory we never knew we needed… flip phones are making a comeback.
Interest is soaring for ye olde basic models, largely because we’re burned out on smartphones. I was shocked at this statistic: the average person spends nearly 5 hours a day on their smartphone, which equates to 12 years over a lifetime (*avoids looking at screen time average ever again*).
Would you flip to a social media-free phone? Maybe Captain Kirk and his glitzy gold flip phone can persuade you. It’s a popular myth that Kirk’s 60s Star Trek Communicator inspired Motorola engineer, Martin Cooper, to invent the first mobile phone, but let’s not get carried away with romantic notions… Cooper was actually inspired by Dick Tracy’s two-way radio watch from the 1930s comic strip that he read as a kid!
A backstory you’ll love…
Well, I recently watched The Holdovers and if I didn’t already love Paul Giamatti, I do now.
He’s brilliant as a curmudgeonly teacher at a New England prep school who is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break and forms an unlikely bond with one of his students and the school's head cook. It’s surprising, funny and too moving to watch on a plane (my mistake).
Screenwriter David Hemingson began writing the film in 2018, but “the characters were born in 1969”. When his script needed a jolt of painful honesty, he looked to his own past - the financial and emotional struggle after his parents’ divorce, and the man who stepped in as his mentor. So the movie’s mismatched gang is based on himself, his unwavering, hard-working mother, and Earl - the uncle who saved him:
“I hazily recall overhearing a hushed phone call centering on ‘what to do about David’ and then, one Saturday morning, Earl was in our driveway, climbing out of his Plymouth Duster, mopping his brow and cursing the 120-mile drive from New York City. From that day forward, it was a drive he would make nearly every weekend over the next decade.”
Hemingson tells his backstory beautifully in this article, which radiates with the same love that comes through in the film.
A swoon-worthy recipe…
Surely if anyone knows how to do breakfast, it’s James Bond. Pop on a robe, grab a champagne glass and make your ‘Egg-sh’ (in honour of Sean Connery).
The official recipe, as written in Fleming’s short story “007 in New York”:
SCRAMBLED EGGS 'JAMES BOND'
For four individuals:
12 fresh eggs
Salt and pepper
5-6 oz. of fresh butter
Break the eggs into a bowl. Beat thoroughly with a fork and season well. In a small copper (or heavy-bottomed saucepan) melt four oz. of the butter. When melted, pour in the eggs and cook over a very low heat, whisking continuously with a small egg whisk.
While the eggs are slightly more moist than you would wish for eating, remove pan from heat, add rest of butter and continue whisking for half a minute, adding the while finely chopped chives or fine herbs. Serve on hot buttered toast in individual copper dishes (for appearance only) with pink champagne (Taittinger) and low music.
Bond eats scrambled eggs 16 times in Fleming’s novels! If you’re more of a boiled or fried fan, check out an extremely detailed list of every egg he eats here.
One piece of advice:
Screenwriter David Hemingson (The Holdovers) shares the three guiding principles his beloved uncle left him with when he died:
“Nothing comes free in this life, so nothing without labor. Do the right thing and fear no man. And there is only one toast when you raise your glass: love and beauty - because those are the only things in this life that truly matter.”
Wonderful suggestions as always! Seeking out Dish to listen to on my morning walks. Thank you ✨
Excellent, you have both had me at Dish and Egg-sh and scrambled at that. Great little pieces put together as recommendations - loved it! Gillian, welcome back from the summer break...hope it was good!