Latest / Mark and Pete / Prunella Scales bows out, big Boeing penalties and illegal teeth whitening

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Prunella Scales bows out, big Boeing penalties and illegal teeth whitening · Mark and Pete

• 0:05
  Vanilla Scales bows out big bowing penalties and illegal
• 0:09
  teeth whitening. Yes, welcome to another episode
• 0:13
  in which Prinella Scales takes her final bow, bowing takes a
• 0:17
  costly tumble and Britain's teeth take a toxic turn.
• 0:22
  Welcome to another week of Mark and Pete, Where faith meets
• 0:27
  farce and nobody leaves unpolished.
• 0:30
  We're two blokes with half an opinion now.
• 0:34
  Here's our first. Story towers of talent, faulty
• 0:38
  wigs and painted nails. The audience is left in fits of
• 0:42
  Wales. She tipped the balance in
• 0:44
  comedic tales. So take a final bow.
• 0:48
  Prunella Scales. Well, yes indeed.
• 0:51
  Yes. Sadly, as we've heard in the
• 0:53
  news that the former Fawlty Towers actresses, yes, Prenena
• 0:58
  Scales has died at the age of 93.
• 1:02
  Now Prenena Scales was best known for playing the hotel
• 1:05
  manager Sybil Fawlty. Yes, the long-suffering and
• 1:10
  domineering wife of Basil Fawlty, who was played, of
• 1:13
  course, by John Cleese. Mr. Pete, I say that this is
• 1:17
  probably one of the iconic classic British sitcoms of all
• 1:21
  time. What say you about what Pranana
• 1:24
  Scales did for this character? But probably more importantly,
• 1:28
  portrayed a very strong but comedic character.
• 1:32
  Well, Mr. Mark, I think The thing is with this particular
• 1:36
  portrayal, she just acted it very well.
• 1:40
  I mean, it was, it was very well written, I think brilliantly
• 1:43
  written, possibly the best written sitcom there's ever
• 1:47
  been. There's so much in it.
• 1:49
  Jokes were set up so well that you didn't realise you were
• 1:54
  being set up. Just brilliant.
• 1:56
  But the writing of that character meant that she could
• 1:59
  easily have been just a stereotype, just an old, a witch
• 2:04
  like woman. But she you, you actually found
• 2:08
  yourself liking her. I was just, it's she just
• 2:11
  portrayed it very, very well. I mean, I think there were some
• 2:14
  missteps in the writing even though they had her physically
• 2:18
  beating up both her husband and a builder.
• 2:21
  Yeah, I remember that one episode.
• 2:23
  Yeah, which? I, I, I think that took away
• 2:26
  from it. It shouldn't have been a
• 2:28
  physical beating. It should have been that, you
• 2:31
  know, carrying a submission because of her personality, a
• 2:33
  verbal one. Yes, it, it, it, it took away
• 2:35
  from it. And there were a few missteps,
• 2:37
  but only few. But through it all, she it was
• 2:41
  almost like you believe she was Basilfort's wife.
• 2:44
  Well, that's, I think that's the point, wasn't it?
• 2:47
  You actually believed the character as though it was real.
• 2:49
  And due to your point, it was a fine balance because when you
• 2:53
  have such ridiculous comedy plots, they did seem believable.
• 2:58
  It was a farce. It was a farce.
• 3:00
  I think that what's interesting is, is that she'd actually sort
• 3:03
  of developed her career as a comedic actress and it wasn't
• 3:08
  until really the mid 1970s that she was given this opportunity.
• 3:12
  Now, you mentioned about John Cleve, It was actually he and
• 3:17
  also at the time his wife Connie Booth that actually wrote the
• 3:21
  series. Now also, what's quite
• 3:23
  remarkable is there are only ever 12 episodes.
• 3:26
  I know it is extraordinary. Because you it, isn't it if.
• 3:28
  You see another, see one, you think, actually, I haven't seen
• 3:30
  this one before. It's.
• 3:32
  Quite. Now, the thing that I will say
• 3:35
  is is that she was also married to the actor Timothy West and he
• 3:41
  died just over a year ago and obviously he got to a ripe old
• 3:46
  age. But the point being here is, is
• 3:47
  that clearly acting was in their blood.
• 3:50
  Now, I think that what I would say as well is, is that when you
• 3:54
  look at people who, um, you know, are, you know, that ilk,
• 3:59
  that sort of standing you, you look back and realise how good
• 4:03
  they were. Now Scales herself actually did
• 4:06
  go on to other things. She actually won a BAFTA
• 4:08
  nomination for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth the 2nd.
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  And this was Alan Bennett's 1991 televised play.
• 4:15
  So clearly there was talent there.
• 4:18
  And I think it's the versatility.
• 4:21
  It's not easy to move into a different role when you've been
• 4:24
  associated with something such as like a civil faulty
• 4:27
  character. But I would say that if, if you
• 4:31
  think about what she also did, it paved the way for many other
• 4:36
  comedic actresses that followed. So I, I think that that you
• 4:41
  know, many, many, I think of, you know, with the eulogies that
• 4:43
  have come through, many other well known actors and actresses
• 4:47
  have recognised the achievements that she had.
• 4:50
  Yes, I, I, I think you're, you're right to to point this
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  out about she portrayed a strong woman and you, you could have
• 4:59
  just said it laughing at her, but you didn't because of the
• 5:01
  way she portrayed the woman. You, yes, you you laughed at
• 5:07
  Basil Fawlty a lot, but you didn't laugh at his wife.
• 5:11
  You laughed because of the situation that she'd put Basil
• 5:14
  in which husband? So it was it was an
• 5:18
  extraordinary performance and as and was a strong woman.
• 5:21
  Now we are Margaret Peter not known for our support of
• 5:25
  feminist causes particularly, but that's because feminism has
• 5:28
  gone off the rails. The sort of feminism that,
• 5:31
  instead of wanting women to be equal, wants them to have
• 5:35
  everything and have no have all, all the all the rights and no
• 5:41
  duties sort of idea in feminism that's grown up over the years.
• 5:45
  But this sort of idea of allowing women to be strong
• 5:49
  women and yet be funny. Well, that's that's the sort of
• 5:54
  freedom that actresses didn't really have because they tended
• 5:58
  to be pigeonholed into either being pretty or being, you know,
• 6:03
  the old witch like character that you could laugh at.
• 6:06
  There were some brilliant older actresses and some brilliant
• 6:11
  young actresses who were very good at being pretty who have
• 6:14
  been noted over the years. But a woman shouldn't be just
• 6:17
  pigeonholed like that should be given the freedom to to act if
• 6:22
  they've got the talent in in the way they choose.
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  And she was sort of because of her skill, you know, you could
• 6:30
  say her artistry paved the way for other actresses to have
• 6:34
  great roles in, in, in the comedic line, which which, you
• 6:38
  know, made the world a better place.
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  So yeah, a great, it's a great legacy.
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  Well, it is a great legacy and I'm going to sort of end this
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  part of the section with a quote from Hannah Essex, who's the Co
• 6:50
  chief executive of the Society of the London Theatre and
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  described Prenella Scales as an artist of precision, wit and
• 6:58
  generosity who had made an indelible mark.
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  Quite right. Well, as we sort of move on,
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  here's a totally different story which is more about bad goods.
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  Boeing. Boeing gone.
• 7:12
  A production deadline is the cut off date where goods are
• 7:16
  delivered on time by road or freight.
• 7:19
  But if the deadline's missed and the customer has to wait, the
• 7:22
  goodwill goes bad if the goods are late.
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  Yes, I'm afraid so. Boeing has been hit by a massive
• 7:32
  $5 billion penalties fine, and this is because of many
• 7:37
  production deadlines that are just simply been not met.
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  And more importantly, customers are frustrated.
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  And Mr. Pete, I say that Boeing has gone through some troubled
• 7:49
  times, particularly on production with the building of
• 7:52
  many, many different planes. But this is a whopping fine and
• 7:56
  really a big mark to say to everybody if you don't meet your
• 8:00
  deadline, you will be punished. Now, I have to say, Mr. Mark,
• 8:05
  that I don't really have that much sympathy.
• 8:09
  I mean, I think a deadline is a deadline.
• 8:12
  If, if, if you don't meet a deadline, then suddenly time
• 8:16
  itself has no meaning. I mean, if, if you're meant to
• 8:21
  do something by a certain time now, then you should need to do
• 8:23
  it or there should be penalties. And I say that as someone who
• 8:27
  always does something absolutely at the last minute.
• 8:30
  But that actually means to me personally that deadlines take a
• 8:34
  heightened importance. Without the deadline, I wouldn't
• 8:37
  do it at all. So, yeah, I, I've no, no
• 8:40
  sympathy for that. I think you've got it's
• 8:44
  interesting study of the development of English society
• 8:48
  and then of of the western world, like a recent I was
• 8:52
  recently reading called God is an Englishman.
• 8:55
  Fascinating read if people want to look it up, that points out
• 9:00
  that the honouring of contracts is right at the heart of
• 9:04
  Christian belief. You know God effectively has a
• 9:08
  contract with his people, also known as the New Testament,
• 9:12
  right? The testament being being
• 9:14
  actually a covenant or contract. And so yeah, it's vitally
• 9:19
  important that contracts are honoured, otherwise there must
• 9:23
  be punishment, otherwise there's something wrong with the
• 9:25
  universe. So, well, Boeing, you need to be
• 9:28
  brought down out of the skies and made to actually put your
• 9:31
  nose to the grindstone and lots of other metaphors and actually
• 9:35
  get things done on time. Well, OK, so we come really to
• 9:39
  the reality of why are they missing their deadlines.
• 9:42
  OK, so the main reason according to them is the fact that the the
• 9:46
  delays have because of mounting regulatory hurdles.
• 9:51
  It is quite right that some of these regulations have had to be
• 9:54
  put in place. Ironically, Boeing themselves
• 9:58
  have been guilty. As we know, the beleaguered firm
• 10:02
  basically went through a series of disasters, including a plane
• 10:05
  door blowing out a mid flight. And that in itself obviously hit
• 10:10
  revenues, which obviously would have then been a big concern for
• 10:14
  the industry. But what's also delayed is the
• 10:18
  fact that, you know, costs have escalated and so availability of
• 10:21
  materials and many other different things have really
• 10:24
  meant that international demand for travel has increased.
• 10:29
  But at the end of the day, yes, you are quite right.
• 10:32
  When you're actually project planning, you've got to actually
• 10:36
  work to a deadline, and if you don't then there's going to be
• 10:39
  repercussions. Well, just a final comment
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  there. Mark.
• 10:42
  First, you, you would better speak to this being a well you.
• 10:47
  Surely what's happened here is that they've over promised in
• 10:51
  order to get the business? I think that what's happened
• 10:54
  here is that they have been this bit of a 2, twofold 1.
• 11:00
  I think that they haven't sort of put themselves in in the
• 11:05
  right place to be able to meet their own production deadlines.
• 11:08
  Combined with the surge in demand and the regulatory
• 11:11
  changes, if regulation changes, there can be delay in quality
• 11:15
  standards because you need auditors to come in, you need
• 11:18
  that regulation, you need more certification and that can
• 11:21
  actually cause delay. That may not necessarily
• 11:24
  something that you always anticipate, but typically there
• 11:27
  is one thing that you do and that is put a contingency plan
• 11:31
  in, meaning that if you're working to very tight deadlines
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  lines, there's nothing wrong with that.
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  And you do not want to compromise on safety,
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  particularly on something on a product like an aeroplane.
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  But you normally factor in a contingency.
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  And, and I think that this is something that to me,
• 11:48
  something's gone wrong, especially when the products
• 11:51
  themselves have failed. Now the the question is, is that
• 11:55
  this is always the difficult 1, isn't it?
• 11:57
  Because Boeing not being in the industry is a major problem,
• 12:02
  meaning there are very few organisations that can actually
• 12:05
  do what they do. That in itself tells you
• 12:09
  something that, you know, the US itself has already recognised
• 12:13
  that, you know, they have to raise the standards.
• 12:15
  They did raise the standards, but maybe this is a time where
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  they have to sort of start to think about how many other
• 12:23
  players can come in to compete so that you're not just
• 12:27
  competing for the sake of, you know, competition on on
• 12:32
  contracts, but you've got options.
• 12:34
  Because if one company does go down for something like this,
• 12:39
  it's serious because it has implications not just for the
• 12:42
  consumer, but for businesses. It covers, you know, so many
• 12:45
  different things, which has wider implications on safety
• 12:49
  standards as well. I know that when Donald Trump,
• 12:52
  when he first came into the into government in this second term,
• 12:57
  as you know, there were some serious, we say aircraft issues.
• 13:03
  Some of it wasn't just because of poor quality products, but
• 13:06
  actually people, meaning if you don't have the right people to
• 13:11
  either fly the planes, manage the planes, construct the
• 13:14
  planes, engineer the planes and so on, these sort of things can
• 13:17
  go awry. So I, I think that it's
• 13:19
  interesting, isn't it? Boeing, a very iconic brand, you
• 13:23
  know, without any doubt has been one for for many, many decades,
• 13:26
  has been around and, and unfortunately things have sort
• 13:29
  of their brand is tarnished. And I think they now need to
• 13:33
  sort of get back to doing what they do well.
• 13:36
  And unfortunately they they have to start improving their
• 13:40
  production standards. But there we go.
• 13:44
  You know, it's one of the things that we hope and look forward to
• 13:46
  seeing changes in in regulation, but also with the management, I
• 13:51
  think they need new management. That's what I think.
• 13:56
  So we come onto a different story and I will say this is
• 13:59
  about taking it on the chin. If you want a gleaming smile and
• 14:04
  to keep up your chin, beware of bogus whitening treatments that
• 14:09
  cause a toothless grin. Yes, well, it isn't it where we
• 14:14
  all smile away trying to improve our image, etcetera.
• 14:18
  But one of the things that is a trend is about having your teeth
• 14:21
  whitened. Sadly, there is a trend of
• 14:25
  illegal teeth whitening treatments that can actually
• 14:27
  burn your gums and destroy your teeth, so much so that you may
• 14:31
  not even have any. Mr. Pete, I will say that this
• 14:36
  idea of having sort of gleaming white teeth is maybe a little
• 14:40
  bit vain, but what say you about some of the bogus practices that
• 14:45
  are going on? Yeah, well it, it is very
• 14:48
  worrying. You're seeing a lot of adverts
• 14:51
  around for this teeth whitening which especially online see them
• 14:56
  and of course it is the image that you show online.
• 15:00
  I think that is that is causing the problem.
• 15:02
  I mean, I guess you could always get your image changed just
• 15:07
  online so that your, your teeth show, show white online, but
• 15:11
  nowhere else. But because of the, the four
• 15:16
  standards of, well, what people show online, people then look at
• 15:18
  their own teeth and my teeth are actually a yellowy colour.
• 15:23
  They don't look white like others images.
• 15:25
  So they try and live up to that impossible standard of beauty.
• 15:30
  Or is it beauty? We'll come to that in a minute.
• 15:32
  So people are then weakened, softened up by, by by the this
• 15:40
  sort of standard that's expected.
• 15:41
  Oh, it looks a bit icky if I've got yellow teeth.
• 15:44
  Oh, I should. It's not necessarily just, it's
• 15:47
  not vanity, it's a little bit of insecurity, I suppose that's
• 15:50
  what I'm saying. And and then the people that
• 15:53
  just eventually they know I wouldn't do that.
• 15:55
  Then eventually they do and the ad comes in.
• 15:58
  Look, it's so simple. Yeah, it is really simple.
• 16:01
  If you're going to, you're happy to strip away the top layer of
• 16:04
  your teeth and make leave them vulnerable by using huge amounts
• 16:08
  of peroxide. Yeah, that that'll do it.
• 16:11
  They'll look white, but they might be very painful going
• 16:14
  forward, so don't do it. Here's the thing, some of the
• 16:18
  gels that have been pushed onto the market which are fraudulent
• 16:22
  contain more than 500 times the legal limit of bleaching agents.
• 16:27
  Now they are often over the counter products so sold
• 16:30
  blatantly either on social media or surreptitiously through rogue
• 16:35
  retailers. Now what is important is that
• 16:37
  the British Dental Association, the BDA, has said it is appalled
• 16:41
  about some of the findings. Of course, this actually
• 16:44
  tarnishes the reputation of many professionals.
• 16:47
  Now in the UK, treatments using teeth whitening products contain
• 16:50
  more than naughty point 1% of hydrogen peroxide and can only
• 16:54
  be carried out by dentists and other professionals registered
• 16:57
  by the General Dental Council, That's the GDC.
• 17:01
  So if you are a consumer and you are looking for something like
• 17:05
  this, you have to do your due diligence and you have to really
• 17:08
  make sure you've got the right type of practice.
• 17:11
  Because the danger is, is that cheap products might seem easy,
• 17:15
  as Mr. Peter said. But the bottom line is, is that
• 17:18
  there are too many examples of people who have tried these sort
• 17:21
  of things, either from them by their own measures because
• 17:25
  they've bought products and they've tried them at home, or
• 17:28
  they've gone to rogue dentists. And.
• 17:30
  That's really serious, isn't it? Because you can't really replace
• 17:33
  them. Yeah.
• 17:34
  But just to follow up on the, I agree.
• 17:36
  I just to follow up on the point I was making earlier about the,
• 17:41
  the, the full standard of beauty.
• 17:43
  But is it beauty? Well, I would say no.
• 17:45
  If you've got teeth that look so white that they look false, you
• 17:52
  look like you're wearing some badly fitting false teeth.
• 17:54
  You, you don't look like, especially if you had your teeth
• 17:58
  altered. So they're completely level as
• 18:00
  well, which is very popular, particularly in the United
• 18:06
  States of America land over there where I know we a lot of
• 18:10
  our listeners are there. So apologies if you've got
• 18:12
  gleaming white nashes, but they just, they can look, of course,
• 18:17
  not yours gentleness as yours look lovely, but for, for other
• 18:21
  people, they, they, they just look false.
• 18:23
  So you've gone from looking perfectly all right to looking
• 18:28
  like you've got false teeth. Don't do it.
• 18:32
  You know, ridiculous, I guess this is always subjective, but
• 18:34
  you know, whether, whether it looks right or whether it
• 18:37
  doesn't, I think you have to also ask yourself, is it right
• 18:42
  for your health? Is it something that are you
• 18:44
  doing something which is extremely dangerous?
• 18:47
  And the, the likelihood is that it probably could do.
• 18:49
  But I, I guess that this is about a trend, isn't it?
• 18:51
  I mean, these these type of teeth whitening type of scandals
• 18:55
  have been something that I think have been around, well, you
• 18:58
  know, a few years, but it was worse is they're just simply are
• 19:02
  increasing. So it's always a good idea to
• 19:04
  just check before you actually start to.
• 19:08
  Do anything, yeah, I mean the the Bible notices Proverbs 3130
• 19:12
  charm is deceitful and beauty is vain.
• 19:16
  It then goes on to say, but a woman who fears the Lord is to
• 19:19
  be praised. It could be man or woman.
• 19:21
  You know, there's there's more important things than having
• 19:24
  your teeth the right colour. Well, it does.
• 19:27
  There's a help as well, isn't there?
• 19:28
  There's a big theme. There's the the the faulty
• 19:30
  acting, the faulty products, and the faulty teeth.
• 19:33
  Yes, Oh yes, the whole episode summed up in one phrase.
• 19:38
  Yeah. And that that just draws to the
• 19:40
  end of this episode of Mark and Pete.
• 19:42
  But make sure that you're subscribed, go to
• 19:45
  markandpete.com and you can sort that out no problem.
• 19:48
  And make sure that you leave a comment because we love to hear
• 19:52
  from you with, with all that we've talked about this week, we
• 19:56
  want to to hear your voice on it and whether or not you've got
• 19:59
  shiny white teeth, we want to hear from your mouth to our
• 20:02
  ears. But that's it for Mark and Pete
• 20:04
  for this week. Thanks very much for listening.
• 20:07
  Catch you next time.