Greg Jenner

So yes, there does need to be money.

behind all of this and as part of bell's promo tour he goes on tour in fact in 1877 he puts a ring on it his bell ring ding ding there we go he marries mabel they go on honeymoon and when she's told what the honeymoon is he's like a promotional tour of britain darling and they off they go to britain how would you feel if your partner married you and then immediately said honeymoon actually is uh we're off to an expo you know go and sell the products i make

Yeah, I'd be like, are you kidding me?

And also the post office in England and England and Wales, I'm assuming, becomes the agent for Bell's telephone as well.

There are technical problems, right?

Buzzy interference, noisy.

There's an issue of crossed wires, which is quite a literal thing.

The wires get crossed.

So a shared phone line.

I was going to ask gently, Catherine, would you be interested in eavesdropping?

And your reaction tells me perhaps.

Who needs podcasts?

I'm just listening in to the neighbours.

I was going to say, it's a big thing in comedy movies in the 1930s, like scruple comedies, people sort of being on the wrong line to each other.

So it's called The Party Line because you're sharing it with other parties, but for you it'd be A Party Line because it's a party.

So Bell's patent gave him 17 years, but then that lapsed and then other businesses came in and started offering their own phone services.

You suddenly got rival phone companies.

You've got first mover advantage, but then obviously everyone else gets to sort of hop onto the system that's already there.

And so you subscribe to a service and there's no such thing as bills.

You pay however much it is for the service.