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Parenting Hell with Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe

S12 EP31: Briony May Williams

21 Apr 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What parenting challenges does Briony May Williams discuss?

3.473 - 7.629 Unknown

Hello, you're listening to Parenting Hell with... Lily, can you say Rob Beckett?

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7.65 - 13.332 Rob Beckett

Rob Beckett. And you say Josh Widdicombe. Josh Widdicombe.

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14.071 - 34.69 Briony May Williams

No need for that. No need for that. That's been set up. I don't like that. I think she set that up on purpose, the mum. That's a shame, isn't it? Hello, this is my just-turned-five-year-old, potty-mouthed, my words, daughter Lily, saying your names in the intro. I think she did quite well. Sorry, Josh. I've listened to your podcast since lockdown era when I was pregnant and on my daily walks.

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35.111 - 49.468 Briony May Williams

Massive thanks for all the laughs from Laura, aged 421 months, in Mold in North Wales. Mold. Did you used to get Willy bum at school? It's not the first time I've heard it. Yeah. Yeah. It's not like triggering me. I didn't think it would be.

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50.252 - 51.115 Unknown

It feels like it is.

52.428 - 52.929 Briony May Williams

I'm fine.

53.51 - 57.88 Unknown

Okay. Did you get called Willy bum at school? Yeah. A bit. Yeah. But I just, I'm fine with it.

Chapter 2: How did Briony transition from teaching to baking?

58.16 - 76.6 Unknown

I used to get robbed the knob. Yeah. Because of your massive dick. No, just, just cause it rhymed. Yeah. Oh, sorry. Just cause it rhymed. Yeah. Robbed the gob? No, robbed the knob. I think I said, I used to be called Beck's until Beckham come along. So I played football. Everyone used to call me Beck's. And then we're back on this, that sort of stuff. You must have been quite young in 1996.

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76.701 - 84.138 Unknown

How old were you? 10. 10. But I played from like the age of like eight. Oh, right, yeah. So he came, broke through in 96, 97, didn't he? He did, yeah.

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84.198 - 84.439 Briony May Williams

Yeah.

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84.74 - 90.012 Unknown

Briony May Williams today. Here we go. Fresh from the tent and escaped from the country, escaped to the country.

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89.992 - 92.614 Briony May Williams

Escape to the Country. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

92.634 - 93.635 Unknown

You just get that right.

Chapter 3: What insights does Briony share about her experience on Bake Off?

93.655 - 109.269 Unknown

Series 9 of The Bake Off. Yep, semi-finalist. She was a force of nature. I loved that episode. So much energy. I thought she was going to come in and be quite twee, and I'm a baker, and I do a bit of telly, very middle class, but no, she was... She was a great laugh. Do you know what? She put her foot on our throats.

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109.629 - 120.62 Briony May Williams

Absolutely. Do you know what? There's some people at home, that's how you do it. What do you mean? If you're coming on a podcast, any podcast, not just us... You fucking deliver like that. You get on them.

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120.881 - 122.624 Unknown

You don't let the fuckers breathe.

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122.644 - 133.861 Briony May Williams

Exactly. You smother them. Exactly. That was perfect podcast guest. It was, wasn't it? It was great. If you're at home and you want to be a guest on a podcast, enjoy the next 50 minutes because this is how you do it.

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133.901 - 141.533 Unknown

You get in right in the face. Yeah. It's like playing a Premier League club from the lower leagues. Exactly. You've got to fucking muscle them off the ball. Do you know what it reminded me of?

141.633 - 142.094 Briony May Williams

Go on.

Chapter 4: How does Briony manage the balance between work and parenting?

142.114 - 152.646 Briony May Williams

Amol Rajan. When he came at us and we liked it. Yeah. Well, it's a bit like Amarajan. Yeah. Bring it. Bring on Bryony.

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152.666 - 160.151 Unknown

She's absolutely brilliant. We love this. Anyway, here's Bryony Mae Williams. Enjoy. Are you excited?

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160.171 - 160.551 Rob Beckett

I'm excited.

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160.571 - 165.397 Unknown

I'm excited. But we are so unprofessional and lax. That's a start. So you're excited?

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165.417 - 166.358 Rob Beckett

I am excited.

166.378 - 167.039 Unknown

This has started.

167.559 - 171.704 Rob Beckett

Yeah, this has started. Are we going? Oh, yeah. We've gone. We've gone.

172.244 - 183.176 Briony May Williams

I always think it's weird when you're like the star of it and you're sat there and you're like, this is absolutely mental. Because we do an intro. Yeah. So you don't need to hear that rubbish.

183.356 - 188.562 Unknown

But then even in the intro, we don't actually go through the whole sort of Wikipedia. I'll read your whole Wikipedia out.

Chapter 5: What are Briony's thoughts on modern parenting pressures?

188.542 - 207.662 Rob Beckett

I did a talk at a school yesterday, a school I used to teach in, and they'd forced this kid to introduce me. 17-year-old boy. Oh, no. So he basically just went on Wikipedia and he was stood there going, and she came to the public's attention. Oh, no. All kid. All kid. I was like, oh, forced to. I was like, you found the Wikipedia page. Well done.

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207.682 - 212.006 Unknown

Well, basically, the classic route, gave up teaching, bit of bake-off, then you got in on telly.

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212.487 - 212.767 Briony May Williams

Bosh.

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212.947 - 215.069 Unknown

Here we are.

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215.109 - 216.591 Briony May Williams

Did you give up teaching before bake-off?

216.571 - 224.18 Rob Beckett

I gave up teaching, so I taught French and Spanish for seven years at secondary school. Sí, muy bien. Ah, blase español.

225.302 - 227.244 Josh Widdicombe

Sí, sí, yeah.

227.564 - 230.588 Rob Beckett

¿Qué tal? A star. Muy bien, gracias. ¿Y tú?

231.629 - 242.983 Unknown

Sí. ¿Cuántos es? ¿Cuánto es? How much? How much is it? Isn't that the Australian airline? ¿Cuántas? ¿Cuántas?

Chapter 6: How does Briony handle her daughter's education and expectations?

243.773 - 246.238 Unknown

Pretty close, pretty close. I'll stop doing Spanish now.

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246.318 - 246.698 Rob Beckett

No, I enjoyed it.

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246.859 - 251.988 Unknown

This could really surge the Hispanic sort of charts. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a big market to tap into.

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252.008 - 254.673 Rob Beckett

Yeah, I can imagine. Oh, it's not even an A star anymore, is it?

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254.974 - 256.977 Unknown

Grande Mercado. Grande Mercado.

257.017 - 258.14 Briony May Williams

To tap into.

258.16 - 279.096 Rob Beckett

Someone's been on Duolingo. What's your streak? Mercadona. sorry I'm functioning what's that Mercadona what's that that's a shop in Spain it's a shop yeah I was going to say it's like Tesco but in Spain Spanish Tesco yeah so are you still a fluent speaker many pasta not as fluent as Rob clearly no no no Butter and Butterfly I just did there Butter and Butterfly that was nice yeah

279.076 - 284.123 Rob Beckett

God, you've got really random knowledge of words. Is that a GCSE that you're digging out there?

284.143 - 294.839 Unknown

No, he's not. He played football for Valencia. I don't recognise that term. And Middlesbrough. And Middlesbrough, but yeah, more Valencia. Sorry. After these, coffee's quite strong. You've come out the absolute blocks.

Chapter 7: What experiences does Briony share about her podcast?

306.295 - 319.636 Rob Beckett

What? You know, obviously there's very little sleep you get when you've got a three-month-old. I was like, I don't want to go back to work. And he went, and you're telling me this now? And I went, yeah. And I felt great because I'd got it off my chest. So I went back to sleep. He was awake most of the night.

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319.656 - 320.417 Briony May Williams

And what does he do?

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320.537 - 324.523 Rob Beckett

He's a software engineer. So by the time I'd woken up in the morning, he'd done a spreadsheet.

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324.503 - 325.946 Briony May Williams

And he was like, we can do it.

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325.986 - 334.963 Rob Beckett

We're working out a budget. Yeah, working out a budget. And he was like, yeah, we can do it. So I stopped teaching when I had Nora because I wanted to be a stay at home mum with her. And that's when I applied to Bake Off when she was just over one.

335.444 - 340.133 Unknown

Wow. It was more that you weren't a happy teacher as opposed to you just didn't want to do anything.

340.113 - 346.926 Rob Beckett

I love teaching. I love teaching. I still love it now. Like, I really enjoyed it and I loved the kids. Didn't like all the report writing and all that rubbish. Yeah, it's too much.

346.946 - 356.485 Briony May Williams

I think I'd be more into the report. I always think that's the bit. With the parents, I just... I quite like the report writing, actually. Children! The admin, the admin.

Chapter 8: How does Briony reflect on her journey in the public eye?

356.765 - 358.609 Briony May Williams

And the parents, I quite like the parents.

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358.709 - 377.157 Briony May Williams

I just couldn't deal with the parents, I think. And we don't, it's rare we get, we've had, I suppose we've had Lou, obviously, we've had Romesh. Greg Davis was a teacher. Yeah. But we've never had a mum, but he hasn't got a kid. But like, it's rare we've had people that have come from teaching. Yeah. To do teaching, do you feel like you've got an affinity with children as it is?

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377.255 - 394.364 Rob Beckett

Well, now, I think there's a big difference between people who want to be primary school teachers and people who want to be secondary school teachers. Primary school teachers, I genuinely don't know how they do it. The patience they have with other people's children, it's beyond me. Secondary, they're teenagers, so it's a little bit better.

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394.384 - 400.394 Briony May Williams

So you think secondary is more a love of your subject than a love of the children? Or a love of attention.

400.655 - 400.815

LAUGHTER

400.795 - 409.403 Unknown

Can it be all three? No offense to you. Probably not. But teachers on a work night out are the biggest hecklers going because they're not used to being told to sit down and shut up.

409.443 - 410.404 Rob Beckett

Yeah, no, that's so true.

410.424 - 414.288 Unknown

There's a lot of teachers that go into comedy and performing because it is a performance, isn't it?

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