Episode 11- Full Transcript

 

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Welcome to the show

Piers Townley: Hello and, welcome to the Charity show, the podcast for Charity insiders by Charity insiders. Please rate, follow, or subscribe to us on your usual podcast platform. And here's what's coming up in episode eleven.

Tim Beynon: park run in numbers for you here, piers. Here we go. 10 million registered park runners, 900,000 volunteers, 2500 park run locations, 25 park runs in prisons and young offenders institutes. That's amazing. and 23 countries where park crime takes place. And that is growth on an incredible scale over 20 years.

Garrett Millerick: I had never really, and this might sound stupid to you, and indeed a lot of your listeners, but I'd never really considered Charity as being an industry before. And then you think about it for more than 10 seconds, you go, oh, of course it is like, of course it is. Everything is, everything has a kind of layer of administration and whatnot, and there's all these cogs behind what you're seeing. so it occurred to me that that would be a very interesting world to set, a sitcom in.

Piers Townley: I found this really shocking figure that the charities Aid foundation have estimated that over 560 million pounds a year goes unclaimed to people not claiming gift aid on their donations. And the research goes on to say that 26%, that's a quarter of people who donate to charities or do use the gift, do not use gift Aid whatsoever.

Smiley Charity Film Awards and a legacy to remember

Hello and welcome to episode eleven of the Charity show, with me, Piers Townley, pr manager at the Brain Tumour Charity.

Tim Beynon: And me, Tim Boynan, head of marketing engagement at the firefighters Charity.

Piers Townley: So what have you been up to, Tim, the last couple of weeks?

Tim Beynon: Yeah, lots going on. Busiest ever, both at home. All the stuff is going on at home, as it always does, and then at work as well. And lots cannot work. We've entered, and I know we've talked about it on the show before, the Smiley Charity Film Awards, for 2025. So we put our application in this week, for a film we created to support the launch of our suicide, crisis line last November. So a really powerful film, which, the marketing engagement team created. and it could be interesting to see how we get on. We're in the mix with charities of a similar size to ours, but I imagine that some of those charities probably spend quite a lot of money on the production side of things when it comes to their films. We, in stark contrast, created a film pretty much at, ah, zero cost. It was, a really powerful film, just using images and voices to talk about the impact of suicide on firefighting families. So fingers crossed, we'll see how that goes, other things going on, just something I'm really keen to remind everybody. We talked about it last week as well. Really want to encourage people to send us their voice messages. So we've got this amazing new tool. Really, really, simple one click, record your 20, 30 seconds of promotion, whatever it is you want to tell us about what you're doing, what the Charity or Charity is working on, the campaigns you're running, the people who work for you, your fundraisers, your volunteers, people who've done amazing things. send us a message, tell us about them and we'll play it out on the show. So really, really simple. All the links are in the show notes for you. Crack on and do that and look forward to hearing from you. But what about you, Piers? What's your last couple of weeks been like?

Piers Townley: Well, like yourself, Tim, very, very busy. But that's fantastic news about the Smiley Film awards. I was lucky enough to go to that early on this year where our, ah, celebrity support, Amy Nuttall performed and some other charities films, ah, are just absolutely incredible. So all the best, no doubt as the show will follow the process as it goes towards the actual award ceremony next March. The last, last couple of weeks we've been building up to quite a momentous time for us actually. So after 27 years at the Charity that he set up with his own wife after they lost their daughter, Samantha Dixon, our trustee and our chair of trustees, Neil Dixon is retiring. So 27 years in the game helped build us to be the biggest Brain Tumour Charity, one of the biggest Brain Tumour charities in the world. And he's going to stay on, he's going to stay on as the research committee and as head of the Samantha Dixon Fund, which is a supporter group that's affiliated with the charities, we have hundreds of these supporter groups, so he's going to carry on doing that work, but quite a momentous time for him. And we've had the likes of Dawn French and Tom Daley and Lord Spencer and Nikki Chapman all sending video messages of support and see them. Some of the celebrities that were quite closely associated and continue to be closely associated with the Charity of lent their support to, this news. So a massive shout out to Neil. 27 years, fantastic Charity that he's built up over the years.

Tim Beynon: Again, incredible, incredible legacy he's leaving behind him, both him m and for his daughter as well. Amazing legacy.

Piers Townley: Exactly. And for the landscape that he's left behind in a much, much better, much driven, research driven space than it was, when they first launched it. And then just quickly, another one of our celebrity supporters for the Brain Tumour Charity, it's the author, Sophie Kinsella, the author of the books, a shopaholic range of books and the Burnout. She's got a new

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Piers Townley: novella based on her own, Brain Tumour diagnosis that she revealed this year. And she's low, she shows, she's launched that, there's a series of book tours and loads and loads of media work and obviously we've supported her and her family and she's reciprocated and so we're just championing that. That's been the two focus of the last couple of weeks. A lot of comms, a lot of internal comms and a lot of external, comms there with Sophie. So busy, busy.

Tim Beynon: Is that, is that a fiction fiction book or a non fiction?

Piers Townley: It is, yes, it's a non fiction non fiction novella. So it's only a very small book. but, it's autobiographical. It's based on Sophie's own diagnosis, and the subsequent treatment. So that's out. Yes, last week or so as we go to live with the podcast.

Garrett Millerick: Excellent.

Tim Beynon: We'll stick a link to that in the show notes as well, I think.

Garrett Millerick: Sounds fantastic.

What is the best sitcom?

Tim Beynon: Of course, we both had our ears to the radio this week as we listen back to the brilliant BBC radio four third sector comedy do Gooders, written by our guest today, comedian and writer, Garrett Millerich. Have you ever contemplated a career in comedy? And if so, anyhow, I do remember.

Piers Townley: As we spoke with Garrett, I can't think of anything more terrifying, Tim, than standing on a stage and, you know, waiting for the audience to. Waiting for us to entertain them, waiting for them to make them smile would be the most gut wrenching experience I could imagine. What about you?

Tim Beynon: No. God, mate. Jesus. You know, it's as far away from my compass as I could possibly, possibly be, Stan. Trying to make people laugh. Absolutely no. Absolutely not. I think you probably, you know, I'm a gay. As a student, comedy, comedy gigs where the person's bombed on stage and there's nothing more awkward as that. Even as a, as somebody watching you feel the pay feel for them, it's just awful.

Garrett Millerick: So, yeah, I.

Tim Beynon: Too scared. Too scared to do that.

Piers Townley: It's quite a strange response, really. I mean, we both work in comms department, so maybe you would think from an outsider's point of view, I should bed and butter that kind of presenting. But no, no, not when there's so much expectation.

Tim Beynon: No, absolutely not. This is the fantastic. We're talking to. Garrett at night is sitcom though, and it is a cracking good. listen and we'll put again. I'll put the links in the show notes for people to go and listen to it. But what about sitcom fears? Have you got a favourite over the years? Something that you cherished?

Piers Townley: Do you know what? There's almost too many to mention. I'm massive fans, of things like spaced and peep show continue to be. Continue to rewatch some of those just for the way they're edited and they're formatted kind of ahead of their time in the way that. In the way they were put together. Obviously the incredible talent on there. Huge fan of mark heap from spaced. that came on now because we're watching. We'll re watching lots of Friday night dinners, which is just a fantastic sitcom. Mark Heap is also in that as well. And my kids are. We know we're watching loads of reruns of that as well. Got a soft spot for things like calling from accounts. Love that bit of Aussie sitcom. And Alma's not normal, come back again, which is just fantastic as well. So there's so, so much out there and I think it's so idiosyncratic to. Different people have different things that they get from them. It's interesting that Garrett. I'll actually speak about what makes a good script, what makes a good sitcom, what makes the characters come alive. So those elements kind of continue through, but so many different ones out there. What about yourself?

Tim Beynon: Oh God. I'm with you on a lot of that. I loved space. Space was brilliant. And I did try to show that to, to my kids. They didn't quite get it. It's a little bit our era and not theirs. So it's kind of a little bit dated for them, even though it was ahead of its time. Definitely. It's a cracking good sitcom that was. And Mark heap. Yeah, what a legend he is. And I think that shows you the importance in comedy. Not that I know much about comedy, but in terms of sitcoms, from a personal perspective, it's about the characters, isn't it? Creating really strong characters. And Jim in Friday Night dinner is just hilarious. It's all to do with Marquee's performance, but it's also great writing as well. So I'm a huge fan of Well written, well acted sitcoms. You know, I think probably personally, for me, Blackano is right up there as an all time favourite because every series is an absolute cracker.

Piers Townley: Okay.

News: The price of stamps and missing GiftAid

Let's take a look at some third sector news. What's caught your eye this week, Tim?

Tim Beynon: Okay, so, yeah, this is the classic, this is a classic thing that brits moan about the price of stamps. There's a few things in this world that brits like to moan about, and the weather and the price of stamps seems to be something that is always in the news and people are always talking about. But the price of stamps has gone up again by 30 p. Did you know the cost of a first glass stamp piece?

Piers Townley: I just know there's a lot.

Tim Beynon: Take a guess. How much do you think a first class stamp is? One pound 65. So you're not far off. But anyway, it's gone up by 30 p. and it's quite interesting, I saw this article about the impact of that, and it is impacting charities, especially in, regards to Charity Christmas cards. So this article, the I sprottic, says that the royal band has been accused of being short sighted

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Tim Beynon: and risking a drop in the number of Charity Christmas cards sent this year as it increases stamp prices. And this does actually have a significant, could have a significant knock on effect for charities. So in this article, Christine Ansel, the chief executive of the Charity card specialist cards for good causes, she said, we already know that the general public's funds are vastly reduced due to the cost of living crisis, something we've talked about on the show before. So making it more difficult to send greetings cards quickly and affordably will mean shoppers are less likely to spend with us, ah, this Christmas. So people buying less Christmas cards, from charities, which then has a knock on impact in terms of their fundraising. So there you go. The price of stamps, and the impact on charities could be significant.

Parkrun turns 20

That caught my eye, and only one that I had to talk about, because I'm a massive fan, is park run. Parkrun turning 20. And what an amazing charity, park, run is, it does, park run in numbers for you here, piers. Here we go. 10 million registered park runners, 900,000 volunteers, 2500 park run locations, 25 park runs in prisons and young offenders institutes. That's amazing. and 23 countries where parkcom takes place, and that is growth on, an incredible scale over 20 years. And it overcame the pandemic, all the issues that came with that. and so I think just to have reached, parkrun reach 20 is fantastic. I was there last Saturday at my local park run, and they had cake took with a big 20th anniversary, 20th birthday cake there as well. So fantastic, big fan of parkrun. How about you, piers? I know you've done parkrun before.

Piers Townley: I've seen you. Yes, I'm definitely a park run newbie. I've yet to get my 50 run t shirt yet, but I've, we do the same part when just on the road. It's been a few months since I've gone back and done it again. And I only started doing about a year ago and was actually bowled away by how inclusive and supportive it was. Everyone was there, it was almost like a little cult, but in a really, really good way. Everyone was so, so supportive of so many people. So as a model, as a thing, I think it's just exceptional. Such a good thing to be part of.

Tim Beynon: Fantastic. So, happy birthday, park run. What about you, piers? What news has caught your eye?

Piers Townley: Well, this is something that crops up again and again. Whether you're taking a back to the Charity shop, whether you're paying online, when you're signing up to a fundraiser for your chosen Charity. The idea of gift aid. And I found this really shocking figure that the charities Aid foundation, which had just carried out a 5000, polling research recently, and they've estimated that over 560 million pounds a year goes unclaimed through people not claiming gift aid on their donations. And the research goes on to say that 26%, that's a quarter of people who donate to charities or do use the gift, do not use gift aid whatsoever. I just think that's an astounding figure. And some of the reasons that the research thought were there was too much effort, didn't always remember placing a.

Tim Beynon: Tick in a box to whichever.

Piers Townley: Exactly, exactly. So it's like, well, what else information do places and institutions gather from that? What is it that's making it really difficult for people to give gift aid? Because as you say, I've always found it really, really straightforward. But maybe there is a barrier there. other, barriers were, it's not always an option, and quite an interesting one, that people said it's not possible when they donated with cash. So I guess that's an element. I mean, cash donations are still very, very big. We're not all contactless at the moment, but I just thought that 26% that don't use it as a regular thing, which is just a phenomenal amount. And then when you're talking about 560 million, that's a loss of untouched funds there for so many charities.

Tim Beynon: It's a really interesting one. I think it's a challenge not only with cash, but also with digital, because I think giving digitally and a lot of the tap to donate, points, is a challenge there with collecting gift data as well, because that is such a quick transaction that people perhaps don't want to stop and take the time to maybe fill in the extra deliver biz. Have to fit in in terms of name, address and ticking the box, say they're a UK taxpayer and stuff. Maybe that is a barrier time. People just want to tap into make and go. so I can see that. But that's a shocking statistic because that money could be doing so much good. That's the thing.

Piers Townley: It is, isn't it? If you think about that, that's a quarter. So a quarter of all your fundraisers for your specific charity may not be actually taking advantage of this tax relief for charitable funds, which is a lot of money if you start crunching the numbers set in the world of a fictional mid level Alzheimer's Charity, BBC Radio four sitcom do gooders shines a comedic spotlight on the third sector and those who work in it, the likes of Frank Skinner and Faye Ripley. It intertwines the complexities of office politics and admin with the hit and miss reality of modern day fundraising and events. From the night walk that ends up being mistaken for an act of eco terrorism to cheating in the marathon and avoiding daily pr disasters, the Alzheimer's alliance staff find themselves constantly battling to be heard above the noise of those at the top of the Charity league table. It's a brilliantly written and performed series. Duke Gooders is the brainchild

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Piers Townley: of comedian Garrett Millerich, who also stars as the rather hapless Clive. Garrett joined us recently to discuss the show and what inspired him to write a comedy about Charity.

Garrett Millerick: Do Gooders, the third sector and comedy

So, hi, Garrett, and, welcome to the Charity show podcast. So you've picked up so many plaudits for the likes of your show, Sunflower Smile, fringe, fringe shows, and for the Chortle awards. Talk us through how you ended up doing this. Very unusual and was looking like a very successful career.

Garrett Millerick: hi guys. Thanks very much for having me on. so I ended up doing this entirely by accident. I originally wanted to be a theatre director. and I sort of accidentally fell into doing stand up comedy about twelve years ago. So I've now been doing it for so long, I struggled to remember exactly why.

Piers Townley: Can you remember your very first gig?

Garrett Millerick: well, I did some sketch comedy and things before, and I performed as, I did some character stuff before I started doing straight stand up. I do. My first stand up gig was in February of 2012 and I do remember it, but, I had done various other bits and pieces of performance before then, so I don't have a kind of, I don't have a particularly good origin gig story.

Piers Townley: That's what. It's one of the origin stories these days.

Garrett Millerick: Yeah, absolutely.

Piers Townley: So, Garrett, when do gooders first aired? In both our charities, there was a real. Wow. There's a show about the third sector, never really been done before. So why and when did you have the idea of setting the series in a charity?

Garrett Millerick: So, when I first moved to London, in around 2007, I was living with a friend of mine, from university, and he was working, for a charity. And I didn't know anyone in London at the time, so I'd hang out with him and his colleagues. and as you are both, and presumably a lot of your listeners are aware, Charity people tend to socialise with other Charity people quite a lot after work and whatnot. so I go down drinking with them in London Bridge, and one evening, fairly sort of early on, I was listening to two people having a pitched argument about cancer, research. I had never heard of that expressed before, obviously, as a civilian. And I was. So I sort of interjected, was like, what on earth do you mean? And they were like, oh, they just hover up all the money and they're, you know, they're the biggest, shiniest boys on the block. And, I was like, oh, that's fascinating. And then they were sort of talking me through the general sort of pecking order that you have in the, in the third sector, that there is a huge thing. And, yeah, one guy was like, oh, you know, can't stand lifeboats. And I thought, oh, this is an interesting world. And it's a world that had never really, occurred to me before, because most people's, experience with charities is kind of front facing. You see people stopping on the street and asking for your, direct debit details, or people with collection tins or poppy day, red nose day, that kind of thing are now social media campaigns. People say, I'm doing this because of x, y or z. So that's kind of what my experience of charity up to that point had been. And I had never really, and this might sound stupid to you, and indeed a, lot of your listeners, but I never really considered Charity as being an industry before. And then you think about it for more than 10 seconds, you go, oh, of course it is. Like, of course it is. Everything is, everything has a kind of layer of administration and whatnot, and there's all these cogs behind what you're seeing. so it occurred to me that that would be a very interesting world to set a, ah, sitcom in. And I'd always wanted to write a, I'd always want to write an ensemble sitcom piece. And I was, I worked up a number of ideas of things to do. I wrote a pitch about, a group of traffic wardens, and that was kind of based on the idea of what it's, what it's like to have the world's worst job. You know, that you go to work in the morning and you have to earn a living, but it's something everybody hates. whereas charity is something that is incredibly ubiquitous. And the thing I found interesting about it is you're doing something that's demonstrably good. You're changing the world, you're improving people's lives, you're improving the situation. But in that world, you still have all of the attendant stresses and strains and competition and personalities that everybody has, at, ah, work because it's a job. so that was kind of the root of, okay, we look at a group of people who are doing something that's good and worthy and improving the world, but they're still coming across all of the associated stress and pressure that you get, with the job and with a workplace environment. the original strap line for the pitch when I was pitching it to companies, Washington, if you want to save the world, there will be admin.

Piers Townley: We talk about that a lot, Tim. There is still lots of admin, no matter m, how many worthy the cause or how passionate you are. Yet as the admin.

Garrett Millerick: Yeah, 100%.

Piers Townley: And

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Piers Townley: the layers of it.

Tim Beynon: Absolutely right. But I think it's fascinating. You touched on there people's perceptions of the third sector. If you don't work in charities, it's something that, yeah, perhaps we're a step back from that, but occasionally it does hit you. I remember once talking to somebody about what I did and their first question was to me was, do you get paid? They assumed that everyone who works for a charity is a volunteer and does it for free. So it was news to this guy that actually I had a paid job at a Charity.

Garrett Millerick: Yeah. And you get those people. There are those frequent news stories criticising how much people get paid. there was one a few years ago, it was a fairly big charity, and they were criticising that the CEO was on a six figure salary. And you go, well, yeah, of course, because it's a multinational corporation, essentially. And it requires a skillset to run an organisation of that size. That skill set has a market value and by the way, what that person being paid is well below what the average market value of that skill set is. But it has to be enough to attract professional people who are going to do a professional. Like, it's a difficult. It's a difficult job. You're handling huge amounts of money and projects and whatnot. And that. That criticism that people have of Charity is wild. It's absolutely insane.

Tim Beynon: It is. And it's usually the chief execs to get the brunt of it as soon as chief exec salaries are published or, you know, that's. Everyone thinks, oh, how can they pay them that much? I'm m donating. I'm not donating towards the chief executive. Donating towards whatever. So yeah, they really do.

Garrett Millerick: And that idea that, you know, if you're putting money for that, it's like, I don't want it wasted on this, that and the other thing. And you go, well, this, that and the other thing is how the money effectively gets to where it needs to go. so yeah, I find that the relationship the public have with Charity as well is an interesting kind of base for comedy. And also it never been, as you said, like it never been done before. So it's quite like everything's been done, but that hadn't.

Piers Townley: So I'll have some of that.

Garrett Millerick: Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely.

Tim Beynon: So it was. We really enjoyed listening to it and definitely a few scenes and a few episodes that sort of certainly stuck with me. Did you have a favourite of all the ones you wrote and that you were a part of?

Garrett Millerick: yeah, the marathon was my favourite one. So that was. I'd sort of planned of kind of rough arc for the series that it was gonna start with this, This inciting incident of Clive, my character, saying that he was gonna do the marathon and then just kind of breadcrumb that in. Throughout the series. But then the final episode, I was like, right, I actually have to do the marathon. like my. I myself had to write an episode about the marathon and one of the challenges is doing that on radio. This is a difficult thing to do. but yeah, I had to sort of investigate and think about quite a lot how one might cheat at a marathon. And, Which is very difficult, very difficult to do. and people have done it, you know. Thank you.

Tim Beynon: Elite athletes have done it. Elite athletes have jumped in cars and.

Garrett Millerick: Got on the tube buses and whatnot. Yeah, absolutely. so to work out and then work out how to, how to thwart that and stuff. So it was kind of a fun, fast, plot to do, and I'd left it to last, so I left, wrote everything and then I was like, right, episode six. And I wanted to end the series on a bang. So I put myself under quite a lot of pressure for that episode and I was very pleased with how it turned out.

Tim Beynon: On a personal level, I really enjoyed, the walk. The walk, the challenge walk because I think it made me laugh because I think there's such a fine line between success and disaster with challenge events. Yeah. And I think. And I love the, whole idea of walking in the dark with tiki torches and it going terribly.

Piers Townley: Sending on the farmers.

Garrett Millerick: Yeah, well, I wouldn't. I wouldn't like to name which charity's website. I nicked that off. But you're doing research for things. You go on that, you know, I follow, together what I m say now. So I get blocked by any of them, but I follow loads of Charity Instagram accounts, Twitter accounts, whatnot, and read an awful lot of, charity websites and stuff. I saw a night walk on there and immediately thought, yeah, I'm gonna use that.

Tim Beynon: Yeah. Tell us a little bit about how you got all the cast on board. We were, you know, aggressively got some fantastic names there, some very well known names, and they really bring the characters to life. How did you get them on board and how did that all go?

Garrett Millerick: Well, I can't take credit for that. As I only wrote it, I didn't produce it. So the, producer cast it. so I had ideas. There are certain things, like, I've known r here for years and I know anya quite well and I've known Frank. so I had kind of ideas of who I wanted in my head, but in terms of the execution of that, I said to a producer, I'd like these people. And he did an incredibly good job of putting the thing together and I was very much shielded from any of the stresses and strains of that in my job. So I just had to go away and write the thing. And I got various excellent emails coming back saying, oh, they've read it and they like it and they're going to do it. And I was like, great.

Tim Beynon: Did you have Frank Skinner in mind when you wrote Ken?

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Tim Beynon: Was that voice always in the back of your head?

Garrett Millerick: Yeah, like fairly, fairly early on.

Garrett Millerick: fairly early on. But I've been, like, most people have been a fan of Frank's for years and I met him a few years ago and, yeah, that was definitely somebody I really, really wanted. And he's phenomenal in it. Yeah, it was kind of funny because the character, I'd written that character and I was trying to work out what the structure of the team was and whatever. Having a legacy guy in the middle of the events team doesn't necessarily make any sense, but there are a couple of lines about why that happened. but when I was researching it, ah, there was one guy who worked in legacy donations who somebody put me in touch with and I'd already kind of sketched out the character and then he sort of said, yeah, I appreciate what you're doing, but I really don't want to talk to you. And I was like, that's perfect. Absolutely ideal. Thank you very much.

Tim Beynon: Nailed it.

Piers Townley: It couldn't have been anyone else than the final, though, could it?

Tim Beynon: He's perfect for it.

Garrett Millerick: He's fantastic. Yeah.

Piers Townley: I just wanted to ask you a little bit about, about feedback. And I think this goes back to your live shows as well because I can't think of anything more terrifying than getting up on stage and crossing fingers of what you say is going to go down well without someone going, you shit, get off the stage. Were you nervous? I mean, are you naturally thick skinned anyway, or is that something you've had to learn? And then in particular with do gooders, were you kind of nervous that you might have tread on a few toes?

Garrett Millerick: I was. I mean, with do good as not especially because I think it was quite, you know, I don't know anyone who's been particularly. Who's been upset by it. I might be. I might be wrong there, but, I mean, it was a very sort of affectionate look at, ah, the world. And it's, you know, it's a character sitcom set in a. In a particular world. So I was very kind of clear with myself when I was kicking off writing it that I didn't want to mock the act of Charity. so people giving or fundraising, in any way, or really to mock anyone being ill. What, I wanted to look at was the administration side of it and the frustrations, that thing. I mean, choosing, initially, there was a draught where I made up a disease, and that was okay, but it didn't really work. And the reason it had to be something like Alzheimer's is it's kind of. I'm not offending anyone here, but it's sort of mid tier in terms of the public's perception of things. So in that kind of running order that people have in their Brain. There are real kind of Premier League your live eight or something like that. That's really kind of the top one. And then there's very fashionable ones which change whatever, obviously als motor neurons very big when the ice bucket challenge was coming around. That's kind of a movable feast. But things like, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's and disease, they're very serious diseases that the public are aware of, like very aware of. There's a lot of recognition around that. but it's not quite bobbing geldof at that level. So it was kind of a deliberate choice to pitch it there and I had known people who were working in that space, so I chose that. and there aren't really. I mean, there are a handful of kind of gallows humour jokes, I suppose, which I think would be relatively honest for people working in that situation. but yeah, it was quite sort of clear where I was getting the comedy from. M and the generational, relationships between the characters and that it was a quite. It was a sort of affectionate look at this space. I wasn't going in being like, hey, you know, I'm trying to kick the legs out from under anything or criticise people or go particularly hard at anything. It was supposed to be kind of accessible and warm. So I And I hope it is that. I hope it is that. And I haven't had any, any pushback, but I wasn't expecting a huge amount of pushback given that.

Tim Beynon: Did you speak Garrett to any of the actual, any of the real world Alzheimer's charities?

Garrett Millerick: not together. I spoke to people who work for Alzheimer's charities. Yeah, I spoke to fundraisers and researchers. so, yeah, I did, in the research of it, talk to a lot of people who works in Charity. I've got a lot of friends who work in Charity and I was in a relationship with someone for a very long time who, worked in charity fundraising events. So in terms of research, I was very lucky in having access to those people. And people, being very open. People were very open to talking to me when I said what I was doing and I was quite clear about, you know, what I just said then about where the satire was coming from, where the direction the humour was. People, were great in telling me about the world and whatnot. So, yeah, I was very lucky with that.

Piers Townley: That's really interesting, talking about the different tiers of Charity, because I think that's almost an unspoken, an unspoken thing about sometimes in the third sector, there are the ones that you see on the telly, there are the big behemoth ones that you could name off the top of your head.

Tim Beynon: Yes.

Piers Townley: And then everyone else is vying for that space, whether that's on

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Piers Townley: socials or on tv or, you know, there is that, kind of competition because it's a very crowded space. So that was very interesting that you were talking about, you know, the mid tier level. what I thought about the whole series, I think Tim probably agrees with me. It feels like you spent quite a lot of your career working in a charity, so you've obviously had lots of input is the right word, but lots of insight. There's actually like, well, how do you know that? How do you know that unless you've worked in a charity?

Garrett Millerick: Yeah, I had ideas of the stories I wanted to tell and the characters, and then I sort of touched in touch base with a few people and said, does this ring true? and, yeah, also, I've never worked in an office, so I've never worked in a Charity and I've never worked in an office. and those things, I've worked in other places and what I do, stand up comedy, I work by myself a huge amount, and then I'll see other comics on bills and whatnot, but it's quite solitary existence. so there isn't a huge amount of crossover other than I do work in a very competitive space and I work with lots of different personalities and that sort of thing. And I think that's fairly universal.

Piers Townley: Yes. that's what, there's archetypes of personalities, isn't there? Which comes across in do good, as you know, there is that type of person, or there's that type of rivalry, that type of.

Garrett Millerick: Yeah. When you first emailed me, I think my first response was, do you want me to get me on and grill me on everything I got wrong? yeah, I'm really, pleased to hear that people who are, ah, in the third sector are enjoying it. I wanted to get, because it.

Piers Townley: Is so closely mirroring what we sometimes see on a day to day basis.

Garrett Millerick: Well, that's great.

Tim Beynon: There's a lot there that everyone can relate to, for sure.

Piers Townley: The tiki torches coming down through the night walk is something that goes through your comms plan if you're going to have crisis comms and the rivalry between online fundraising and events fundraising, these things we have on the kind of bread and butter which, what make it so, you know, it makes the show resonate to those who are working in the third sector as well as just being a character situational.

Garrett Millerick: I'm very pleased to hear that it rang true with you. the reason it's in an events that I chose events was because of it being that thing we were talking about earlier, the forward facing public. For an audience to sort of understand it setting in a research department probably wouldn't have worked. but there's that, there's that entry point for the outside world that constantly comes into the series, which is dealing with people on the walk or trying to get, influences or whatever. that's something very easy and very quickly you can get an audience to understand and then you can bring them into the world.

Tim Beynon: Yeah, I totally get that. Let me ask you, in terms of Charity and your life as a stand up, how often do the two cross, do you get approached by charities much to do stand up gigs for them, that kind of. Do you do much sort of Charity, stand up work?

Garrett Millerick: Yeah, yeah, loads. there are loads of charity gigs. I mean. I mean, I did one, I did a fundraiser a few weeks ago, actually, for somebody who was, raising money for Alzheimer's research. And that's a coincidence. That was actually, that was before the series aired, actually. It was the beginning of the summer. But yeah, I've done things for all sorts of charities. so, you know, most, most comedians have, I'd say at least four or five times a year do something like that. And I've done everything from like, PTA's to military charities to, Parkinson's benefits, cancer research benefits. I did one for african farm aid. basically, yeah. If you've, if you've got good cause and you're putting on a night, comics are fairly, happy to come on.

Tim Beynon: Hypothetically speaking, if there was a Charity that looked after firefighters and one that looked after Brain people with Brain tumours, what would they do to go about getting you. Getting you to call my agent? I knew you were going to say that.

Piers Townley: I told you, Tim, we should have got his phone number.

Garrett Millerick: But, yeah, I mean, it's, I suppose I didn't write an episode. I did sketch out some notes for one, but I didn't write an episode a, ah, comedy night, because I felt a little bit too much inside baseball. Maybe if we do some more, there'll be, there'll be something like that. but, yeah, charity gigs, that's one of the things. I mean, as you say, like bread and butter things you've got, you know, you've got bike rides, marathons, sponsored things and then there's, there's events and comedy, gigs and music gigs and things like that are quite a ubiquitous part of charity fundraising, aren't they? So, yeah, I have done my fair share of those, but I have. I don't play favourites. I don't mind. Anyway, anyone calls me up and says, we've got a thing up, I'm free, I'll come and do it.

Tim Beynon: Excellent. Julie. Notice, and I don't know a huge amount about the life of what it's like being a stand up, but, we are aware of. Everyone's aware of these days is how much, the world has changed in terms of the fact that, people are almost sort of scared to say anything these days, especially online, in case they upset someone or it escalates rapidly and they find themselves in deep water. The

00:35:00

Tim Beynon: whole sort of PC landscape has changed quite considerably in recent times. How does that affect you? and did that come into your mind at all when you were writing the series and when you kept making jokes around, Alzheimer's? You touched on it earlier on a little bit. Did that play on your mind at all or do you just think, where do you stand on the fine line between comedy and offence?

Garrett Millerick: I suppose, I think it's a fairly sort of clear thing that as long as your target and your intention is correct, I mean, people sometimes characterise that as punching down or punching up or whatever, but I think, yeah, as long as your intention is correct and your target's correct, I think you're fairly well. Okay. Audiences are generally kind of self policing entities. If you say something on stage an audience doesn't like, they'll let you know because they won't laugh. What we're looking for is people to laugh. And I don't go out at work, in anything I do trying to offend people. I want people to have fun.

Piers Townley: back to charities and events then. Gary, if you were forced to do an event, what would be your thing, do you think? Would it be a marathon or would it be a tough mudder or are you just a bake sale kind of guy?

Garrett Millerick: I'm a bake sale kind of guy.

Piers Townley: Bakesale. Fair enough.

Garrett Millerick: Yeah. I do that thing of, putting on a gig or doing the thing that Clive does in the series. A lot of trying to have some sort of pleasurable experience and then, you know, bathing it in the, in the glow of Charity. To say that on top of this.

Piers Townley: So you're not going to be donning a costume like Clive, then.

Garrett Millerick: No marathons for me. No bike rides.

Piers Townley: Sure, because you can apply for our Charity. We'd love you to run in a costume.

Garrett Millerick: Oh, yeah. Okay. You get me a spot in the London marathon. I see I set myself up here.

Piers Townley: You missed before the end of this podcast.

Garrett Millerick: You're coming back and saying, well, actually, a lot of people in the third sector were very offended by what you said is. And the reason we've got you here is that, you can make it right by running the London merit.

Piers Townley: Wrong with the guilt trip. Now, on the show, we do like to shout out as many charities as possible. Do you have a cause as close to your heart at all or is it just all of them?

Garrett Millerick: just all of them. Well, obviously all of them. Brain cancer charities and firefighting charities are hugely close to my heart. so the thing that bothers me, that gets that thing in my stomach going is when I see homeless people, that really, I don't know, I don't know why it was that thing, but that thing, particularly for my whole adult life, when I see that, that really, I have an emotional reaction to that. So on that show, what I did, I made a joke in the middle of the show and I told them was homelessness. That bothered me. And I said that I hadn't done anything about it because I'm a millennial win bag. But let's just chalk it up as a win that I've said I do care about. And then at the end of the show, there was a. There was a bucket collection which was going to the venue and the producers and I had only found out in the run up to the show that I wasn't getting my tips. Essentially, they were being syphoned, off somewhere else. So I was like, ah, okay. So I came up with a bit of a plan where I invited a, ah, homeless Charity to come down, and I told the audience at the end I would be standing with a contractually mandated bucket. But don't put any money in that bucket, because I don't get it anyway. But next to me, there'll be someone from, homelessness Charity, and every single penny of that money will go to helping people on the street. So I sort of pulled this little, stunt at the end, and I only told the producers in the venue about it the day before, and they were like, okay, well, we're going to do loads of pr about this. And I said, no, you can't do any. And they said, well, what if we stop you doing it? I was like, then I'll do pr about it. And they went, okay, you've thought about this every single angle. so it was really great. And we raised 10,000 pounds over the course of the. The show, and people were amazing because the stunt, it kind of connected with what I was saying in the show, and it was kind of a fun little, kind of punk, people paying 50 pound notes and stuffing it. We raised a huge amount of money, and it was incredibly satisfying. But that's the sort of biggest, charity fundraising I've done, and that's an issue that I will always, if I can give money to. So that's kind of. I fairly, you know, as I said, I'll do benefit gigs, and I do donate, you know, I donate to Greenpeace and various other people, and if I've got change, I'm not gonna. Not gonna walk past your bucket. But, yeah, I think homelessness is the one that I get that. That emotional reaction to.

Piers Townley: So do you think, you know, why? Is it the precariousness of our careers or precariousness of your career in the early days, maybe?

Garrett Millerick: No, no, I don't think I've ever. I've got, you know, I've never been in a situation where I've. Where I faced that. I've been very lucky. I come from a very stable family, and, that's nothing. Not something I've had any experience with. I guess with a lot of them, with a lot of charity issues. And I suppose you and your listeners have this. You need to sort of engage people, because I was just about to say, well, I see it and think, there go I. But for the grace of God. But that's. That's the same with everything. That's the same. That's the same with. That's the problem with the competition that you guys are faced with. We are all, you

00:40:00

Garrett Millerick: know, one doctor's appointment possibly away from a diagnosis. We are all one text message away from finding our family, members been involved in something or, you know, you know, we're so close to all these things, which is why what you guys do is so important. but, yeah, I don't know why it is. there's no personal connection there whatsoever. I just, it's just something that, because it's right there in front of you and you can kind of see, you know, if you walk, you see somebody in a, in a, in a shop doorway, it's so shocking.

Tim Beynon: And in modern Britain. That still happens.

Garrett Millerick: Yeah. It's so possible for that not to be the case.

Tim Beynon: What's next for you, Garrett, in terms of do good as is, wrapped in the canon and available on iPlayer or BBC sounds rather, for anyone to listen to. PBS house.

Garrett Millerick: Get it right.

Tim Beynon: what's next? Have you got a show in the box?

Garrett Millerick: Yeah, I'm going out on a national tour in the next couple of weeks. I'm doing a show called needs more space, which is nothing to do with charity. it's a history of space travel, which I've just been doing at the end of my fringe. I'm doing that till February and then writing other bits and pieces and doing stand up all down the country. and, you know, presumably after this, I'll be, I'll be appearing at, a Charity benefit gig for firefighters and all.

Piers Townley: The piece of paper right now, do good as number two.

Garrett Millerick: I'd love to do more. We just have to wait and see, but, yeah, I'd love to do more. I've got ideas and whatnot. and, yeah, well, indeed. Fingers crossed. Fingers crossed.

Tim Beynon: I've got to ask you, anyone listening to this who maybe, is a closet comedian, a closet stand up or somebody who wants to write something that, they want to pitch somewhere? What's their first step? What's your advice?

Garrett Millerick: Stay in the Charity sector. The money's better. I, mean, stand up's one of those things where you have to. It's like, it's been described as learning to play a musical instrument in public. There are loads of open mic gigs all over the country. And there are things you can do, like comedy courses where you go on a few Saturdays and people will give you the basics, but you really just have to do it. It's one of those things you can't know until, until you do it. So if anyone's ever thinking about doing it, you totally can. There's zero barriers to entry. just other than the fact that.

Tim Beynon: You'Ve got to be. I mean, it's that I could not do it. I just couldn't do it. I don't have that level of bravery to do that. I would be, I would just freeze up and say, so you got to. You say, there's no, there's no. Anyone could do it, but they can't.

Garrett Millerick: I don't know, Tim is you've got, you've done a marathon. If I'm, looking behind you.

Tim Beynon: Yeah.

Garrett Millerick: Yeah. And was your entry to working for a firefighter charity, perhaps having been a firefighter.

Tim Beynon: No, no. Obviously I've worked to several charities before this one, so kind of like a career.

Garrett Millerick: That's another thing about charities, isn't it? Once it's like hotel California, you guys never leave once you're in the third sector. That's true. Why do you think that really speaks to, obviously there is huge challenges in what you do, but I think it really speaks to, the rewarding nature of the work that you guys kind of stick in and doing that, and presumably to both of you, like going into the private sector, it would be completely anathema to you.

Tim Beynon: We both came from there, so we both came from, I was a journalist and so was peers before we worked in the third sector. So we've come from, both come from a sort of corporate, commercial world.

Garrett Millerick: Right.

Piers Townley: very different world.

Tim Beynon: Ah.

Piers Townley: And I will be back. I'm hooked. Absolutely out.

Garrett Millerick: That's fantastic.

Piers Townley: Amazing to work.

Garrett Millerick: Yeah, absolutely fantastic. But, yeah, if you want to, if you, if you want to try it, you just gotta go and try it. it's kind of the same with anything. And you won't be, you won't be good on the, on the first one. You might have fun, but you won't be good. You'll, you know, you'll find out through the, through the process and the journey of doing it. If you, if it's.

Tim Beynon: I love watching comedy, couldn't do it, although I love watching comedy, but I would never sit in the front row.

Garrett Millerick: That's a myth. That's a total mythical. You have, you'll have more fun in the front row or certainly at the front, but people are, oh, I have to sit in the back. But, you know, the most is going to happen. Someone's gonna say, what's your name? And say, tim, you'll work for a firefighters charity, and then they'll tell two jokes about firefighters and move on to the next person. It's really not. Yeah, yeah.

Tim Beynon: Okay, fair enough.

Garrett Millerick: Yeah. I have to stress here on the podcast, you are safe in the front row of a comedy show.

Piers Townley: Gary, it's been, as Tim says, well, I love comedy as well. And for the breakthrough Charity, we've got the likes of Hal quittenden and Miles job supporting us and stuff, and amazing. We have done comedy nights before, so I think your agent, at some point in the future may be getting a knock on the door. But thank you so much for appearing on the Charity show. Thank you so much insight into it. And all our fingers are crossed for do gooders second season.

Garrett Millerick: Thanks very much. And thank you. Thank you for asking me on, as I said, sort of about feedback or whatever, but you guys, contacting and saying that it rang true and everything. That's really nice to hear. That's really fantastic.

Piers Townley: we should spread the word.

Garrett Millerick: Thank you.

Tim Beynon: In each episode of the chat show, we want to celebrate our sector superstars, those incredible people working, volunteering and fundraising across our sector. And you can nominate your deserving colleagues, volunteers or fundraisers. Just email us at, thecharityshowpodmail.com or get in touch through the links in the show notes. You can even send us a

00:45:00

Tim Beynon: voice message that we can play out in the next episode.

Superstars of the week: Pothole disappointment and lifetime supporter

So, Biz, who's your superstar? This.

Piers Townley: I love this story. It just shows the power of what charities do in the moment and the legacy and the impact that any sort of support or any sort of good things that they do can have. This is about Brian Cole, who was rescued by the RNLI up, falling 200 foot down a cliff. But he did it 65 years ago while he was holidaying with his. He was just aged 17 at the time, but he's gone on to support the RNLI ever since. And they report, and the newspc said, indented his score, but there's no major damage. But Brian has gone on to fundraise and support and he still gives tours around Exmouth RNLI lifeboat station today. So that's 65 years of support for the Charity that, you know, saved his life back there. Brian is quoted as saying, I was so grateful to the RNLI after every year after that, I collected for them, work and began to give talks about my experience and the great work of the RNLI around Bashen and later Yeovil, where I moved there. And that's also a lovely story as back in March, the RNLI celebrated its 200th year. So, fantastic Charity and a fantastic fundraising superstar story from Brian.

Tim Beynon: Great love a.

Garrett Millerick: Love a story.

Tim Beynon: Somebody who, you know, who's maintained their support for such a long period of time because of the impact that Charity had on them at a young age as a teenager. So, yeah, hats off to Brian. That's a cracking, cracking story. so my superstar story this week is all about potholes and how potholes have scuffed with somebody's fundraising.

Piers Townley: Do you fit the double on this episode, haven't you? Tip? We've got stamps and we've got potholes. Is there anything more that we don't love moaning about?

Tim Beynon: I say anything. Well, all there's a weather related story now. And that's the hat trick, isn't it? But, yeah, potholes. And where we live around fleet, they're shocking as well. Pretty bad around.

Piers Townley: Don't get started.

Tim Beynon: Yeah. Okay. All right. Before we go down that road, that pothole road.

Garrett Millerick: Okay. So.

Tim Beynon: So this, this is about a guy called Mike. Mike land. And he. Mike survived a bungee jumping accident, but unfortunately had to halt his world record attempt pulling a 1.5 tonne van for 9 hours. So basically he's been, he's been trying to, to, pull this, this van to break a world record and to raise money, but, unfortunately he had to stop. And the reason he had to stop after, pulling the vehicle for 10.5 miles, he had to try and beat 32 miles to catch the world record in 24 hours. But he was done in by potholes. Basically. It was too much for him to try and put his van, across the route that he'd taken because of the potholes. So he started the attempt at down Anthony airfield on the 4 October, but had to stop on the Saturday when potholes on the airfield became too challenging. So I think we can all relate to that. Not that we're all pulling our cars around, but, Poor Mike. Poor Mike. We really feel for you, Mike. That's a really tough one. He was raising money for Wiltshire air ambulance, and, in true fundraising spirits, he's got to look for a new venue to try again. his story is an incredible one. Doctors feared that, he would never make a full recovery when he fractured his pelvis after a bungee jump.

Tim Beynon: Oh, this sounds horrific. After his bungee jump rope snapped in 1993. Can you imagine anything more terrifying than that? That's horrific. but he's completed numerous challenges since then, and now works as a fitness instructor and a designer.

Garrett Millerick: So.

Tim Beynon: Well done, Mike. Bad luck. I'm not beating the record, but we've got every confidence in you that you will and get in touch and we might try and track you down and get you on the show to talk about it when you do finally beat that record. So, yeah, don't worry about the potholes. without any.

Piers Townley: Yeah. Survived a bungee jump scuppered by a pothole.

Tim Beynon: Yeah. Shocking. Shocking.

Coming soon

So that's it for episode ten. Huge thanks to Garrett for giving us an insight into do gooders. Go and take a listen to it if you haven't done so already. The links are in the show notes and it's on BBC sound, so you should be able to find it pretty easily. We've got some other great guests in the pipeline, too. Have a week loose.

Piers Townley: Absolutely. We're going to finding out about challenge events and how to make the most of them. And coming up next time we talk to Charity comms chief executive Adeela Worley about the ethical dilemma facing all charities in regard to x. Should we or shouldn't we be on Elon Musk's much changed Twitter?

Tim Beynon: That's an important question and something we all need to be thinking about. and don't forget, you can be a part of the show, too. Just send us your voice messages or get in touch through any of the links in the show notes to share your stories and tell us what you like us to cover.

Piers Townley: And don't forget, we want to know who your superstar fundraisers, volunteers, or colleagues are, too. So head to the show notes and share their brilliance with the rest of us.

Tim Beynon: And in the meantime, please follow, or subscribe to us on your usual podcast platform and leave us a review, all of which help other people to find the show.

Piers Townley: So that's it for this episode. Thanks for listening. Take care and we'll see you soon.

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