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Dig It with Jo Whiley and Zoe Ball

85: DIG IN: Romantic Gestures and Trout Eyes

20 Apr 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

0.031 - 1.173 Jo Whiley

Coming up on Dig It.

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Chapter 2: What romantic gestures do Jo and Zoe discuss?

1.474 - 21.769 Jo Whiley

I've always been a hopeless romantic, to be honest with you, because I read so much freaking Jane Austen. I'm like, oh, life's so romantic. Actually, life can be shit. The best romantic gesture Steve can do these days is put the bins out. When he does that, I am sold. The next day in assembly, they were like, we've had somebody doing some damage to some school property. Who was it that...

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21.749 - 36.548 Jo Whiley

wrote this and I had to put my hand up and go, it was me. Oh, for God's sake. For some reason, I keep thinking of Olivia Newton-John and physical. Obviously, that was not, didn't wake up any sexual urges in me. It's all right. Olivia Newton-John kind of awakened your sexual urges.

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36.908 - 42.175 Rachel

Upon further inspection, I realised that they were cooked trout's eyes. What? Oh my God.

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42.476 - 70.858 Jo Whiley

All of that, right after this. Dig It is sponsored by Starling, the bank that helps you organise your money, build great habits and stay in control of your spending. We talk a lot on this show about how a great garden starts with a bit of a plan and the right environment. Well, money is the same. It's not just about what you have. It's about being intentional with it.

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70.838 - 89.472 Jo Whiley

how we choose to spend, save and plan. That's what really shapes the way we live. That is so true. Being good with money isn't about being perfect. It's about building a relationship with your finances that actually works for you and your life. And that's what Starling is all about. They believe that with the right tools, anyone can grow those healthy habits.

89.452 - 102.367 Jo Whiley

One habit I found so helpful is separating your spending. It's that peace of mind of knowing exactly what's for the bills, what's for the fun stuff, and what's actually left over. And that's a tool that Starling offers in their app. They call it Spaces.

102.827 - 120.893 Jo Whiley

It's basically a pot of money sitting within your Starling current accounts, kept separate from your main balance, so you're never dipping into the wrong pot by accident. I desperately need one for the garden. Anyone who knows me knows my plant budget can get, well... A little out of hand. Exactly. And you can even create free virtual debit cards linked to each space.

121.294 - 143.74 Jo Whiley

So you can only ever spend what you've planned to, making life that little bit easier. Search Starling to find out more. Good with money starts here. Hello, Jo. How are you, darling? I'm good. Have you recovered from your very busy weekend? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not hurting. The pain is subsiding, thank God.

144.28 - 166.732 Jo Whiley

When you do those runs, the funniest thing, and I think you see it after any kind of run, part run, half marathons, marathons, people trying to go downstairs because you're like the bit behind your knee. I think it's the IT band. It's so painful. So that's easing up. I can get out of chairs more easily now. So yeah, it's all good. It's all fine. I've got birthdays galore going on at the moment.

Chapter 3: How does Jo describe her most memorable romantic gesture?

356.919 - 380.858 Jo Whiley

So I put a dollop of the hummus in it and I put a dollop of the cottage cheese in it and I didn't mix it round because it's almost like I knew, don't mix it. Yeah. And hummus. Who knew the sweetness of the mango in the cottage cheese and then the flavour of the hummus with the rice and the vegetable soup. It is so healthy and hearty and really goddamn tasty.

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381.419 - 399.231 Jo Whiley

And I take my hat off to you for coming up with this insane concoction. I don't even know how you invented it. It's what was going on in your life when you came across this weird mix. I think it was being a student. I think it's like literally going back to my student days. Occasionally you can put grated cheese on top if you just want a little bit more carbs on there.

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399.291 - 420.59 Jo Whiley

You can also, another thing I do is get, you know, you get kidney beans in chilli sauce. Yes. If you just take some of those and you pour that in as well, that's an added extra flavour. But maybe that's a bit more advanced. That might just take me too far. I'm just at beginner's level, Jo. I'm so happy to stay here for a bit. It was freaking delicious. Did you take a photo? I did a little video.

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420.61 - 437.953 Jo Whiley

I haven't edited it together. And I actually had it for breakfast today. Oh God, you weirdo. Well, I really wanted to try it, but I'd had a tummy bug and I hadn't really wanted to eat it, funnily enough. I hadn't wanted to eat anything. And I was thinking, oh, I'm not ready for this. And then I remembered this morning I wanted to try it and I feel it much better.

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438.474 - 462.313 Jo Whiley

And I tried it and I did think, oh. Well, this is going to go one way or the other. It's delicious. In fact, look, I've got the remnants here, which looks a bit gross now, but you can have it cold. But I'm going to have that for my lunch. MasterChef, here I come. MasterChef next for Jo. Or maybe Bake Off. Love it. If you're loving Dig It So Far, hit follow or subscribe.

462.593 - 478.744 Jo Whiley

And that way you'll get new episodes, brand new episodes as soon as they're out. Okay, let's see what our diggers have to say for this week. We've got Lucy first up, who said, hi, Joe and Zoe. I loved following everything about the Artemis to astronauts as they flew around the moon.

479.204 - 500.131 Jo Whiley

The moment that really touched me was when they named the newly discovered crater on the far side of the moon after Commander Reed's late wife, Carol. I don't think I've ever seen anything so romantic. Did you see this? I'd love to know what's the most romantic thing that ever has been done for you or for someone you know. It was really beautiful, wasn't it? That's from Lucy, by the way.

500.172 - 512.562 Jo Whiley

Thanks, Lucy. Oh, Lucy, thank you. I know. I think we have all been obsessed. There's a fantastic guy on Instagram called Witty Idiot and he'd actually put, he literally gave his wife the moon.

512.542 - 536.558 Jo Whiley

it's like oh my gosh there was something so captivating about these four incredibly brave people um doing something that you know this feat of just the fact that it had been so long since the astronauts had been to the moon and all the comparisons that have been incredible of the you know the

Chapter 4: What unusual food combination does Jo recommend for a quick meal?

763.983 - 787.911 Jo Whiley

That is a huge gesture, isn't it? What about you? I think, you know, it's really reminded me of, you know, and this wasn't done as a romantic thing, but Woody has a great friend called Howard, who is a fantastic character. And Howard, when we lost my mum, Howard bought a star. for my mum, for Woody, for his granny, named after her. And I just thought, Howard, what a gorgeous thing to do.

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788.071 - 810.321 Jo Whiley

Because I've always taught my kids to talk to the stars. I'm like, look, they're all up there around us, their energy, watching over us, all these lost loved ones. And I thought that was such a gorgeous thing to do for his friend. Isn't that wonderful? Do you know what? These days, I don't really want grand romantic gestures anymore. Do you know what I like these days? Just like a little note.

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810.341 - 822.117 Jo Whiley

If you get a little note or a card, I got a card the other day. And because obviously I now complain because, you know, when you first start seeing people, it's all romantic gestures. And then as life goes on, it gets in the way and those things can be different.

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822.137 - 831.692 Jo Whiley

So now it's like little romantic gestures, like an occasional note or somebody remembers that you like something and they bought that for you or something. You're like, oh, that is a lovely thing.

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831.793 - 848.526 Jo Whiley

And I'm all about the little gestures now, you know, but I've always been a hopeless romantic, to be honest with you, because I read so much fricking Jane Austen and watched too many rom-coms and dramas. I'm like, oh, life's so romantic. Actually, life can be shit and it can be really unromantic and really...

848.506 - 878.26 Jo Whiley

really tough no the best romantic gesture Steve can do these days is put the bins out when he does that I am sold I'm like I love you so much for doing all the bins and not forgetting any of them that is it that's the dream so yeah that's all he has to do they are the romantic gestures that we long for and I love a little note left well on the theme of that Jude once when he was really young he did me he got like a sweet jar and he just filled it with lots of bits of paper and he'd written on all the bits of paper things about me that he loved and it's

878.24 - 906.998 Jo Whiley

still upstairs in my bedroom and I sometimes go into it when I'm feeling a bit miserable when I get the notes out and I read them and it's just like you know you've got a great smile or things like that and it just oh my god it cheers me up and it's just I will keep that until the day I die that is a gorgeous thing to do I think there's gonna be loads of people stealing that idea now it's the nicest thing to do for anybody honestly just tell them why you love them things you like about them it just boosts their confidence and makes them feel loved it was gorgeous how big is the jar that could be a big jar I know it's

906.978 - 925.29 Jo Whiley

It's a teeny, no, it's like those miniature jam jars. Anyone in this family, they would be lucky to fill a miniature hotel-style jam jar. Yeah, that's it. What are the things you love about me, kids? Oh, is that it? Coco also did a similar kind of thing. She wrote down things that she loved about me and she cut that out because she's creative.

925.27 - 941.17 Jo Whiley

She cut the mountain to hearts and she had drawn hearts on all of them. And I got back from doing my show on Valentine's night and they were all leading to the bedroom. They were all the way up the stairs and then led into the bedroom. And that was from her for Valentine's. And I've got those. I've still got those on the wall all over the place.

Chapter 5: How did Jo's five-minute lunch turn out?

1165.107 - 1189.039 Jo Whiley

Maybe this is why. Every Easter weekend where we'd hide around 700 eggs for local kids. This is why. After a year or two, squirrels got wise to it and started to follow us as we hid the eggs. We kept noticing bits of foil at the bottom of trees and then realised, much to our disbelief, that the squirrels had been swiping eggs before the kids had even arrived.

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1189.62 - 1209.685 Jo Whiley

Sometimes they'd run off with an egg wrapped in foil. Other times they'd rip off the foil and chow down. There and then, it was hilarious. With cream eggs, always a firm favourite... Even with the squirrels. I'm sure we may have been responsible for many a sugar rush in the squirrel community. So, Laura, it's all your fault.

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1209.705 - 1229.426 Jo Whiley

She has sent us a picture of a squirrel eating some kind of mini egg there. So, this is obviously where this whole debacle began. I keep finding Easter eggs in my garden at the moment, like the ones that the kids had missed when we did the Easter camp the other day. Oh, I know. It's so lovely, isn't it? It's really sweet. When you're doing the weeding, you're like... Oh, I love that.

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1229.446 - 1252.707 Jo Whiley

It's in foil. Keep me going. But now squirrels are chalk addicts because of the kids. It's terrible, really, isn't it? It's not good. Anyway, squirrels, we can only apologise. But I do love the fact that the cream eggs are a favourite, even amongst squirrels. Amongst the squirrel fraternity, yeah. Another message. Recently, we had Laura write in about her son adopting a speculum as a toy.

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1252.747 - 1275.413 Jo Whiley

And some of you had equally hilarious things that your kids have become attached to. Oh, no. Polly wrote, my son took a liking to a turkey meat baster and took it with him everywhere he went and would not go to sleep without it. That's a squeezy thing at the end. Yeah, probably. I can see the appeal. You know, the squeezy. That's brilliant. Rachel sent us this voice note.

1275.393 - 1295.917 Rachel

Hi, Joe. Hi, Zoe. It's one of your diggers here, Rachel. Just ringing in about the unusual things that your children used to have as toys. My then seven-year-old son, Will, used to like to collect things, model cars, aeroplanes, motorbikes, etc., Then one day I was having to dust all of these filly little models and I chanced upon a little tin.

1296.658 - 1303.569 Rachel

Well, I opened it and to my disgust, there was a collection of little white balls about the size of Sherbert Pipps. Remember those girls?

1303.89 - 1304.411 Jo Whiley

Oh, yes.

1304.691 - 1313.004 Rachel

Upon further inspection, I realised that they were cooked trout's eyes. I was flummoxed. Oh, my God. Three weeks earlier, I'd cooked them all a trout.

Chapter 6: What are the most romantic things listeners have experienced?

1519.443 - 1542.689 Jo Whiley

And this is from Tony who said, am I alone in thinking that an entire generation of women had their sexual awakening, not in real life, but through MTV? I'm pretty sure fives, if you're getting down, I wasn't expecting five. Yeah, if fives, if you're getting down, a video altered my brain chemistry, I would love to know, is there a music video that you could pin down to your sexual awakening?

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1543.53 - 1552.562 Jo Whiley

Oh God. Oh God. I think you're absolutely right. Five is not the band or the video that I would think of. I think mine would be Madonna.

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1552.582 - 1554.711 Unknown

It would be a Madonna type of video, I think.

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1554.775 - 1578.715 Jo Whiley

Musically, it would have been probably more Pearl Jam. Eddie Vedder, although I quite liked Steve from Pearl Jam. He was quite hot. I mean, like any kind of grungy guys. I guess originally it probably would have been maybe Nick Hayward. I had a big crush on Nick Hayward. I quite fancied the Tears for Fears boys. But I don't feel like there were sexual awakenings.

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1579.275 - 1602.787 Jo Whiley

More really, music videos didn't really do it for me in that way. I think it would probably be more the Brat Pack. I think like the Outsiders, all the cast of the Outsiders and young Brat Pack actors, they were the ones. I mean, originally it was like Montgomery Clift. I used to like the really old movie stars. Yeah. I'm not that old. This is so far removed from Tony's question. It's hilarious.

1603.769 - 1624.591 Jo Whiley

Yeah, I think the grunge guys and the Brat Pack were my sexual awakening. Yeah, I don't know. I think Madonna obviously always did really sexy videos. And for some reason, I keep thinking of Olivia Newton-John and Physical. Obviously, that didn't wake up any sexual urges in me. But I remember she used to... It's all right. Olivia Newton-John kind of awakened your sexual urges.

1625.213 - 1629.383 Jo Whiley

I mean, I think she woke a lot of people's sexual urges.

1629.403 - 1630.044 Unknown

Yeah, she did.

1630.245 - 1645.274 Jo Whiley

Yeah. No, I honestly can't think of any videos, but maybe we'll come back to this one. Maybe we'll go and do some research and look at some old MTV performances or videos. Do you know what? This is the thing where you were planting the seed, Tony, and we all go away and go, oh my God, I've remembered now that I was completely in love.

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