Standard Issue Podcast

You’ll no doubt recognise award-winning actor Rakie Ayola from her wide-ranging stuff on the telly – from Black Mirror to EastEnders to Doctor Who to Noughts + Crosses to Holby City – or you may have seen her at the theatre in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime or as Hermione Granger in Harry Potter And The Cursed Child or, most recently, in her award-winning turn as Noni in On Bear Ridge at the Royal Court. As of tomorrow, Monday 17 May, you can catch Rakie as DS Holland in The Pact, Little Door’s new six-parter for BBC Wales. It's a tense, gripping thriller about a mysterious death and its impact on a group of four female friends who make a terrible decision. You can watch it on BBC One each Monday at 9pm or, if you’re an impatient telly watcher, the whole series will also be on iPlayer from May 17. Our Mickey caught up with Rakie to chat about the enduring pull of crime dramas, how the boring trope of dead, naked woman needs to jog on, the need for more menopausal women on telly, the joy of Wales, learning Welsh – and underestimating Wales at your peril. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardissuespodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lots of returning BBC comedy series this month, but we still had time to take a look at the finale of Line of Duty, Viewpoint and its ensuing shitshow, Kate Winslet in Mare of Easttown and Ian Wright's Home Truths. We tackle one of those newly-returned series, This Time With Alan Partridge, and Hannah's also been laughing at Leonardo, although not sure that's what they were hoping when they made it. And Mick's been learning about makeup and its glamorous history in, er, MakeUp: A Glamourous History. Tuck in!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardissuespodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The old world slowly returns, so Hannah's been on the blower to Standard Issue fave and new comedian Vix Leyton to chat about how she's salvaged a good year from a very bad one and our gradual reset to "normal". With Covid vaccine take-up still low among black and ethnic minority communities, Jen's been chatting to the Runnymede Trust's Halima Begum to find out why, as well as what the proposed Covid passport (er, no thanks) might mean for those groups. There's maternity rights in Jenny Off The Blocks, and in Sexism of the Week, Mickey's got some startling figures about how harassment affects women while jogging. We're all about last week's election, and reactions to it, in the Bush Telegraph and in Rated or Dated, we watch one of the boss's favourite films, Thelma Louise. No pressure.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardissuespodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For millennia, men have written the narrative around women's bodies and sexuality, and this applies to visual representations too, says Dr Catherine McCormack, art historian, independent curator, and author of the new book Women In The Picture: Women, Art And The Power Of Looking. Jen caught up with Catherine to talk about just that, as well as the debate around censorship and whitewashing history, the difference between liberation and exploitation, and errrr, Nuts magazine.Catherine refers to historic allegations of abuse made against film director and actor Woody Allen. Allen has vehemently and consistently denied these.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardissuespodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Masturbation, owed orgasms, shame, grief and the word 'moist': all of them get a look-in during Mick's wide-ranging chat with excellent poet Hollie McNish, whose brilliant new book, Slug is a bona-fide gem. Hannah catches up with Julie Gearey, writer and creator of new SkyOne sci-fi series Intergalactic, to chat the joys of a feminist Con Air in particular, and women in sci-fi in general.In Jenny Off The Blocks, Jen's loving the work of Katie Taylor and Emma Hayes, and there’s a need for greater respect the American taxpayer in this week’s Rated or Dated, Top Gun. Plus there’s dodgy ‘dos, dodgy deeds, and generally too much news in the Bush Telegraph.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardissuespodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Leone Ross’s incredible third novel, This One Sky Day (published as Popisho in the US), is a joyous magic realism adventure into self-acceptance and the power of people. It led to Leone and our Mick having a wide-roaming natter, which covers self-discovery, self-acceptance, the joy of sauce, the food we need, workaday magical powers, the power of pum-pums (vulvas, if you’re wondering), transformative sex, politics with a big and a small ‘P’, imagining an island with no colonial history and the evergreen glory of the word ‘fuck’. Before you dig in, an apology: at the time of the interview, Mick didn’t notice Leone’s jewellery jangle, which you will hear throughout the chat (despite her best editing). You will get used to it though, promise.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardissuespodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This month Mick takes us on a nostalgic voyage as the team revisits one of her childhood favourites, 1980's Leslie Nielson comedy vehicle, Airplane! Daft as you like and full to the brim with gags, but just how recently has Mick watched it and how will her Millennial co-pilots, Yosra and Jen, feel about it?Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardissuespodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How do you feel about being sad? It might be hard to feel good about it, but journalist Helen Russell has some excellent reasons to stop fearing it, as she chats to our Jen about her new book, How To Be Sad: Everything I've Learned About Getting Happier, By Being Sad, Better. Mick’s been on the Zoom with Lara Parmiani, artistic director of Legal Aliens Theatre Company, to chat about Things I Am Not, a ten-part series of podcasts turning assumptions around migrant women on their head. There are super-leagues, mega-bucks, and Red Roses in Jenny Off The Blocks; dodgy dealings, hope, hard work, and great knobs of the ocean in The Bush Telegraph, and modern girls, modern boys, but no sports bras in Rated or Dated, as the team watches 1981’s Gregory’s Girl.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardissuespodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Personal testimony is a powerful part of the national debate about sexual abuse and in this week's Chops, Hannah gets on the Zoom with Journalist Lizzy Dening to find out more about her website Survivor Stories. They chat about how lockdown has impacted survivors of sexual abuse, how "telling your story" can help you to move on and why the words "what was she doing out at that hour?" should get in the bin forever.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardissuespodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The world is opening up again, but do all of us feel ready for it? Mick's been on the phone with Standard Issue's favourite psychotherapist, Jane Watson, to find out how to ease ourselves back into the old normal and what to do if we like the new normal too much for that. Jen catches up with Faye Bell, founder of Strong and Bendy fitness studio to chat about post-Covid gymming. In Rated or Dated, we talk mud pies, upskirting and the late Rik Mayall as we watch 1991's Drop Dead Fred. The Church of England, Hatt Mancock and a woman's right to choose what happens to her own body all get a look-in in The Bush Telegraph. And then there's Pinky Gloves. WTAF?Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardissuespodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices