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  • I once sacked a member of my staff because he showed

  • absolutely no sense of humour during a house fire.

  • David's team.

  • What was burning? The house.

  • No, but...

  • ..where in the house did the fire start?

  • In our living room.

  • And this member of staff, what was his job?

  • He was my husband's assistant at the time.

  • OK.

  • You fired him cos he DIDN'T find it amusing? Yes.

  • Why did you find it amusing?

  • RANJ: Did you start it?

  • No...

  • No! Well, yes, but no.

  • How did it begin, Sharon? How did this happen?

  • Christmas... Yes.

  • ..beautiful, kind of, you know, chilly, Christmas night,

  • and my hubby and I thought,

  • "Oh, well, let's light this beautiful gift,"

  • that somebody had just given us.

  • And it was this big candle

  • in this copper kind of vessel that it's in.

  • And we turned the lights out and we watched a Christmas movie,

  • and then we went up to bed.

  • We'll draw a veil there.

  • What happened then?

  • This alarm was ringing and ringing. An alarm went off?

  • Yes, a fire alarm.

  • Was Ozzy keen to go down and have a look?

  • Yes, I sent him down. Ah, OK.

  • He's going, "I can't go down - I'm flammable!"

  • And so he went down and suddenly I hear my name being called.

  • SOFTLY: "Sharon! Sharon!"

  • "Help me! Help me!"

  • It's the Ghost of Christmas Past!

  • LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

  • So, I went downstairs and, there he was in the living room,

  • and his arm was on fire.

  • His what?! Arm. His arm?

  • Was he in pyjamas, or...? What's he got on?

  • No, he had a sling on like this... His sling was on fire?

  • And half his hair. Half his hair? Half his hair was all on fire.

  • So, um... So, you started laughing?

  • Yes! So, then...

  • Where was this assistant during all of this? Why...?

  • Sleeping.

  • So, anyways...

  • How dare he?

  • And by this time, the candle had melted

  • this thing that wasn't copper.

  • It was like...cheapo. It wasn't copper.

  • Ooh, that's illegal. that - pretending to be a copper.

  • But, you see, in America...

  • I just got it.

  • Anyway, so, I picked up the magazine

  • and I'm hitting Ozzy with the magazine. Yeah? Not...

  • "You idiot! Don't catch fire!" Yes!

  • And I'm thinking, "Why isn't it...?"

  • And then the magazine caught on fire.

  • Was it Heat?

  • APPLAUSE DROWNS OUT SPEECH

  • So, then, outside, there was a fountain. Right.

  • So, I pushed Ozzy out...

  • You threw him in the fountain? Made a wish.

  • The arm and his hair stops.

  • ROB IMITATES SIZZLING Yes.

  • And then, I think. "Right, where is that...of an assistant?"

  • So, I go into the guesthouse... Yes.

  • ..and he's going, "Everything all right?" You know?

  • And I'm like, "No! The house is on fire!

  • "Get out. Help! Go in, and get the paintings out."

  • It's what a personal assistant's number-one job -

  • go into a burning building and get the art out.

  • "Fetch that magic eye!" Yeah.

  • "The cat calendar in the kitchen -

  • "there's still four days to go on it!"

  • And there were dogs, and I said, "You must go in and find the dogs."

  • Yeah.

  • And so, he was, like, humming and hawing, this EX-assistant.

  • So, anyway, he did get the dogs.

  • And so the fire engines arrived. Very lovely people.

  • And then they came and they had this oxygen for the assistant.

  • So, then I said to him... Yes?

  • .."How very dare you.

  • "You work here and you get more paintings out right now."

  • "Yeah, you can oxygenate your blood on your own time."

  • And I took the mask... You didn't take the mask off him!

  • I took the mask and I put it on my dog.

  • Seriously? Yes.

  • You said on the card that you sacked him for not having a sense of humour.

  • Isn't that what you said? Yes, because...

  • Where's the humour in all of this?

  • Well, after this terrible night, he was not talking to me.

  • And Ozzy and I were recounting everything,

  • and we were laughing and laughing.

  • And he goes, "I don't see what's funny about any of this!"

  • and he said, "I think I'm going to have damaged lungs."

  • And, I mean, please! So, then...I said...

  • .."If you don't think that's funny, do you think this is funny?"

  • And he goes, "What?"

  • I said, "You're fired."

  • You used the word "fired"?!

  • APPLAUSE DROWNS OUT SPEECH

  • All right, Liz, what are you thinking?

  • I 100% believe this story.

  • So, totally true for you? Yeah. Stephen?

  • I think I'm inclined to agree with Liz.

  • There was a lot of very, very good detail.

  • So, you're going to say it's true? 100%. I think we are.

  • And I think we're hoping that it's true. Yeah, yeah.

  • Sharon, were you telling the truth, or were you telling a lie?

  • Well, the answer is, it's...

  • ..true!

I once sacked a member of my staff because he showed

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