One Year On
A retrospective...
A year’s worth of episodes! We’ve laughed, we’ve cried (well I have anyway) and we’ve cringed. Here are my memories of each CrushedByMCS
Dolly Alderton - A dream guest in any scenario. If she went on a podcast called A History of Scart Leads she could weave magic, but I think she would admit this was something of a specialist topic (for both of us). I absolutely loved talking to her and her West Side Story tale was more tragic than the story itself. I’d been trying to persuade a different friend to come on but after hearing this episode she said “I couldn’t even be that open with myself” hahaha. Buy Dolly’s books - Everything I Know About Love and Ghosts if you enjoyed this chat. They won’t disappoint.
Deborah Frances White - Deborah was actually the first recording I did. I knew I was in safe hands as Debs has been driving the good ship Guilty Feminist for years now and she didn’t disappoint. She’s one of these people who can just step out of a cab and immediately launch into an entertaining and inspiring chat until she’s whisked away. The other thing I remember about this episode is that the producer’s hair caught fire before we started. I now consider it a good omen and insist something is burnt before we start recording anything.
Jess Fostekew - This is one that really made me lose it. I absolutely loved howling with laughter with (at) Jess’s “grandaddy issues”. Teachers come up again but so do inappropriate age gaps, fictional character crushes (Gandalf) and failing to tell Alan Rickman how much you love him. I remember taking my sister to see Jess live and loving watching her fall in love as much as me.
Lucy Porter - Lucy was brilliantly, thoroughly open about her passionate bursts of enthusiasm (about things as varied as Elvis Costello and Manchego cheese) and we really enjoyed tracing her formative crushes and doing a deep dive on the traits they had which lead to her husband. We still need to get him in for a rebuttal. I think this was the first time we talked about going for “the obscure one” in a boy band. I can’t even remember which one out of Duran Duran she plumped for but she should be ashamed of herself.
Isy Suttie - Another kindred spirit; Isy absolutely understood the mission and apparently treated romance as her main hobby growing up. She had so many excellent stories that I forgot to press her for some of the dodgier ones I’d heard in the past. (something for patreon??) We also unforgettably took a detour into the embarrassment of hot tub cinema experiences.
Chris Neill - When I came up with the idea for the podcast Chris was one of the first guests I thought of and he didn’t disappoint. My mouth hung open as he described where his ardour for a bassoonist lead him. So funny, so sweet, so sad. Chris got in touch the next day to ask if we could cut something - which turned out to be a story he’d told us at lunch afterwards hahaha.
Sara Pascoe - I remember it took a lot of work to book Sara because her diary is so full. I spent ages finding some vegan wine to say thank you and then when she arrived she was heavily pregnant. Still, I hope she’s had it by now. She was her excellent self - funny, vulnerable, eloquent. Her collection of litter belonging to crushes will stay with me forever (not literally thankfully, I have enough tat in my house). And we also exchanged some really old gossip about “comedy boys” beforehand. My absolute favourite.
Shaparak Khorsandi - another excellent booking, especially as Shappi had been putting together a show about the 90s so a lot of it was fresh in her mind. She’s a force of nature and holds nothing back here. And I’m pleased to say that she’s STILL WITH the crush she was about to go on a date with at the time.
Humphrey Ker - our first funny straight man, a lot was riding on this… but Humphrey was awesome and totally on board with revealing some cringe. And it was great to hear about the mystery of being on the side of making-the-first-move. Yep - it also sucks.
Sarah Kendall - Sarah is an award-winning story-telling comedian so was another dream guest. This was the first time she’d talked about coming out as gay and we were all aware of wanting to get it right. Her description of blocking out those thoughts as a kid - “wallpapering over the door and then putting a chair against it” is one of those images that will always stay with me. And obviously, none of us will forget the name “Piccolo Willoughby” in a hurry.
Julia Raeside - Old HamletBag was always on my list too. Julia is enthusiastic and articulate AND was no stranger to living inside her own head and attaching herself to niche crushes, like me. She’s almost exactly my age (105!) so it was very warming comparing notes. It’s lovely thinking there were kindred outsider weirdos across the country, rebelling against the Bros pressures. We can laugh about it now etc…
Katy Wix - I’ll admit I was a bit worried about this one - not because of the utter dreamboat that is Katy herself, but because beforehand she’d warned there were some topics she wanted to steer clear of. In the end, it was an all time great episode - superlatively funny and brutally honest - we cut nothing. Her first crush hasn’t been topped in terms of funniness. And if you see her, I’m sure she’ll tell you who that Hollywood A lister was…
Heidi Regan - I met Heidi on a podcast years ago and we’ve been interviewing each other ever since; I’m a huge fan of her and her comedy. I’m always fascinated by tales of dawning sexuality and I loved hearing about her peering at her Dean Cain calendar in some confusion. Mind you, I feel the same way about Dean Cain and I’m pretty bloody straight.
Richard Herring - another straight-o! It was fascinating to talk to Rich about being a heartthrob AND how he came to get together with a crush via the method of talking about them super-creepily on his TV comedy show. I will always remember him saying how everyone he fancied in his 30s fancied him back and saying “the tone of this is very different from the others” haha.
Mina Anwar - lovely Mina was such a ray of sunshine and was so delightfully effusive that it was sometimes difficult for us to stay on topic. I loved how in touch she was with her younger self and she was great on how creativity and passion are forever linked. This was also the episode where we came up with #StayRubbery which is now a motto for life.
Jenny Eclair - what a bloody HONOUR it was to be bullied by legendary Jenny. I was slightly worried about it as she sent me a text on the way saying she wasn’t sure she’d ever had a crush, but of course she came up with the goods. It’s actually just as fun talking to someone who has a very different take - especially if they’re as funny and fun and bullshit-free as Jenny.
Rosie Wilby - Rosie’s something of an expert on relationships and break-ups so it was nice to talk about relationships that never were. Her swimming-a-lake-to-impress story was jaw-dropping and I loved the idea that the germ of her activism grew from a crush (a theme that comes up a lot).
Daisy Buchanan - I absolutely loved talking to Daisy about our mutual adoration of Miss Piggy Energy and how liberating it was to stop worrying about being cool and instead embrace our nerdish love of girly things. #SteelMagnolias4Eva. And we bonded over eventually learning to thrill to someone just openly telling you they like you.
Abigail Burdess - author and old drama school pal Abbie came along to be called out by me on not suffering from crushes. So. Much. Fun. She’s never been the shy and retiring type and I’m always happy to be surprised by her. I did genuinely cry too - at her extraordinary insight into how crushes protect you from self-knowledge. Producer Sophie said “I did cut out her constantly saying she was a horrible person”.
Sophie Black - finally Producer Sophie speaks! We’ve been talking since 2020 about crushes so the material has BUILT. Her mediocre Bill character crush made me laugh so much, and I loved her realising that her husband is actually the same person as her first crush Corey Feldman from Stand By Me.
Marcus Brigstocke - I thought it might be awkward interviewing Marcus in front of his wife (who I would then go on to interview) in their front room but it actually gave it a nice bit of edge - and then it was super fun when she butted in. Both of them felt pretty comfortable acknowledging previous disasters which is all I need. Marcus’s accidental preteen dickpics provided hilarity and horror in equal measure.
Rachel Parris - Rachel’s poem to/for Leonardo DiCaprio is an absolute icon of CrushedByMCS. So funny, so heartfelt, so cringe. I really loved her honesty about wanting to play it cool in front of the celebrities (which I wholeheartedly relate to) because otherwise, you wouldn’t stand a chance. Ahhhh, the awfulness of youth. Check out insta to see the mad-eyed photos we talked about.
Sooz Kempner - brilliant Sooz’s eyes were opened to the fact that her politics and humour were entirely formed by her devotion to TopCat. We spent a long time talking about the wonder that is David Hyde Pierce (his sloppy spelling aside). I also came away pondering the idea that we should all be put off people if they fancy AWFUL people.
Alison Spittle - Alison turned up to the recording without really knowing what it was she was letting herself in for, but then proceeded to be amazing (as I knew she would be). It’s genuinely a therapeutic relief to be able to discuss our poor teen mental health from a distance and Alison’s voice is properly sharp, honest and entirely unique. None of us will ever look at Bob Hoskins, or Jesus, the same again.
Rosie Jones - glorious, glorious Rosie. Rosie understands the dense, layered nature of crushes and has great self knowledge about how she uses them (I sound like I’m doing her school report). Having said that, her paralympics crush quest will have everyone shouting at her in frustration. The lunch we had after was also VERY illuminating and I’d love to get her back on sometime to fill in the gaps.
Sanjeev Kohli - the potent combination of a Glaswegian all boys’ Catholic school and Sikh upbringing means Sanjeev has a unique take on his Unrequited Love Journey. I loved his idea that we should all be given licence to play out old hypothetical teen relationships later in life just to prove how absolutely disastrous they would definitely be.
Thanks to all my guests - I’ve been so lucky. Don’t forget to chuck any suggestions for people our way too. Here’s to another year of delights and disasters.