The Trawl

Jemma and Marina were thrilled when two of the original members of UB40 agreed to come on The Trawl Meets. After all, the group are one of the most commercially successful bands of all time, having sold more records than Oasis, over 100 million to be precise. Of course they are almost as known for their political leanings as they are for their wonderful music so it's a match made in Trawl hea...

Everyone's favourite economy crasher is back on the scene... And she doesn't much like it when you call her that. Yes, Liz Truss is back and this time she's had a cease and desist letter issued to Keir Starmer over the 'defamatory' claim that she 'crashed the economy''. Ok hun. But litigious letters are likely the least of Starmer's worries after what was a monstrous week for Labour. Jemma and Mar...

Climate change reminded us it doesn't care one jot where you live or how much money you have last week. Marina and Jemma discuss the apocalyptic scenes from LA as fires tore through the region, with some personal experiences that Jemma has permission to share from her friends caught up in the catastrophe.  They discuss the perfect storm that led to this and how the fires were not unexpected -...

Over the Christmas period, Marina went down a rabbit hole she found completely fascinating. She was vaguely worried Jemma wouldn’t feel the same but she need not have worried.  This ep begins with a bit of ‘January’ comedy and ends with potential WW3. Cool!  But the meat in this strange sandwich, centres around US H-1B Visas which sounds horrifically dull. Only, when you look into what t...

The Trawl is back! Jemma and Marina are thrilled to be back behind their mics but could not have predicted the kind of fallout and controversy they'd be back with.  A certain tech bro, out of control billionaire, has been firing off tweets suggesting, amongst other things, that the US should exert economic pressure on the UK to get far-right agitator Tommy Robinson out of prison and that King...

The Trawl ladies are getting ready to get back to business. Their thumbs and brains have had a good rest from scrolling and the internet is getting ready for more politics based content. So this is the last 'special' episode before it's back to regular Trawling and Jemma and Marina are enormously grateful to everyone who sent in questions for them to answer and/or put in 'requests.' Find out how M...

On the first day of the New Year, Marina and Jemma aren't quite ready to look forwards. So instead they return to the Trawl archives to relive some of the weirdest and most wonderful parts from vintage episodes. Lots of laughs, some wonderful clips and a very healthy smattering of bell-ends. We hope you enjoy! Happy New Year! Thank you for sharing and do tweet us @MarinaPurkiss @jemmaforte @TheTra...

Jemma and Marina are in a nostalgic mood so have trawled through the Trawl archives to find some of their favourite bits from old episodes. A theme soon emerges. It transpires that the Trawl ladies are most prone to losing it whenever the Royals feature. Relive some of the Coronation chaos, some Paddington Pathos and a very special Order of the Bush.  But it's not all regal, there are weird p...

Ding dong, your festive Trawl is here! We're almost at the undoing top button stage of the season, so Jemma and Marina open with some festive tweets and a clip that captures then mood of low work motivation at this time of year. Then it's straight to the most heartwarming clip of all... Who needs Hallmark movies when you have: 'When Marina met Annunziata.' Yes, this is the encounter that went vira...

Jemma and Marina were thrilled to meet one third of the Newsagents, Lewis Goodall. They chatted to him about where his passion for politics began, his relationship with the BBC and why some listeners are confused by his relationship with John and Emily. There's also a fantastic round of Snog, Marry, Avoid. Enjoy! If you’ve even mildly enjoyed The Trawl, you’ll love the unfiltered, no-holds-barred...

You can tell everyone at Trawl HQ (Jemma, Marina and editor Max) are sliding towards Christmas because the atmosphere is tinged with faint hysteria. It's not just Gregg Wallace who is turning the air blue, Nigella's at it, even Prue Leith is at it! Who'd have thought baking could sound so filthy? Then, reasons to be cheerful, ranging from Rees Mogg having his show cancelled, Johnson's Australian b...

The Trawl opens with some festive cheer as Marina shares the daily advent calendar struggles in her house and Jemma enlightens us with her pre-Christmas clog.  Then it's onto Farage's 38th BBC Question Time appearance where the ladies discuss motives behind why the BBC politics panel show may as well be called: Farage and Friends. Then onto the shocking events unfolding in the US, where...

Jemma has been eager to get behind the mic for this one. Being a middle class woman of a 'certain' age has nothing to do with it, honest guv. On that note, the Trawl ladies aren't entirely sure what 'that' certain age is but there's so much to mull over they might never get an answer to that But there's more to ponder besides Gregg, so they kick off discussing the resignation of Labour's Tran...

The pod opens with a nod to the festive season and how Marina handles questioning from her husband as more Christmas decorations enter the house, before kicking off with the non-scoop of the century from Charlotte Gill. Charlotte, bless her, is a journalist (feels like a bit of a reach) who believes she has unearthed a shady underground network of left-leaning people and organisations. Just wait u...

Well, this episode dives straight in with a bit of sex scandal. Nadine Dorries has lifted the lid on what she witnessed during her time in government and much of it was rather ‘cheeky’ to say the least. What other workplace has a group WhatsApp for planning naked sessions in offices? Dorries is horrified. She was then too, apparently, but also wasn’t selling a book, which she is now.  Then th...

Have we all lost our minds? It appears so as the news this week was dominated by a petition, seemingly signed by bells and bots, demanding Keir Starmer call a general election - a mere 4 months since the last one.  Jemma is inevitably quite grumpy about the whole silly affair and so opens the pod with a good moan from an equally grumpy Hugh Grant.  Jemma and Marina discuss the laughable...

Melvin Odoom has pledged his love to Carol Vorderman from the Australian rainforest so Jemma and Marina leap at the chance to kick off the episode with something sweet.  The sweet quickly turns sour though when the Trawl ladies check in to see who Trump has appointed Education Secretary. Hold onto your hats, he might just have excelled himself.  Then, it's time for Marina and Jemma to pa...

It's the two hundredth Trawl! Jemma and Marina can hardly believe it and both recommend a couple of vintage eps to celebrate, as does editor Max.  Then, it's over to the States to see what health recommendations RFK Jr. is making. Hopefully they'll be less effective than the ones he made in Samoa where there was a huge outbreak of measles and subsequent deaths as a result of his vaccine scare...

It's not even been two weeks since the US election and already some in the US will be feeling that buyers' remorse, with even Trump himself receiving a little shock from Russia (not with love) to remind him exactly who's in charge. Jemma and Marina digest some of Trump's latest Government appointments, which are as wild as they are dangerous, with one tweeter saying "it's like Donald Trump ap...

In this episode of The Trawl Meets, Jemma and Marina meet someone best known for her incredibly convincing parody videos of a desperately loyal Tory MP shamelessly defending the latest Government scandal... The one and only, Rosie Holt. Jemma and Marina talk to the award-winning satirist about her journey into comedy and the twist of fate that saw her become an overnight sensation.  There's t...

It was always going to be a long episode, because let's face facts... You can't cover the dawn of a new fascism in half an hour. Jemma and Marina get straight into it - and there's absolutely no shying away from the fact that not only did Trump win, but he won 'bigly'.  The Trawl ladies share their experience of the election night, and how a party which started out hopeful and jubilant ended...

Prior to this episode, Jemma had mainly associated the word 'Duchy' with Musical Youth, the band from the 80's who used to pass it on the left hand side. Since delving into the C4 Dispatches 'The King, The Prince and Their Secret Millions' she's had to catch up pretty quickly.  Marina feels a mixture of vindicated and furious and neither of the Trawl ladies can get their heads around charging...

Recorded pre US election, this episode begins with tributes to two greats who died this week. Music producer, Quincy Jones and comedian, Janey Godley, who famously detested Trump. There is a wonderful clip made by BBC Scotland News which encapsulates her beautifully. Quincy Jones is 'pudding' and we learn what the greatest advice he ever heard was.  The main focus of this episode is the lates...

It's Halloween week and the prospect of Trump getting in is certainly spooking Jemma and Marina. The floods in Spain are pretty damn terrifying too, as is the news from other parts of the world, including of course, the situation in the Middle East. However, the Trawl ladies are not ones for sticking their hands in the sand or their fingers in their ears though are still able to laugh about a few...

It's tough consuming the news at the moment, which is why positive news stories should be celebrated - like Tommy Robinson being sentenced to 18 months in prison. Wahey! But all is not so joyous over in The US, in fact, it's pretty terrifying following Trump's latest rally in Madison Square Garden which included a speech so grotesque, that it convinced Ricky Martin and JLo to publicly endorse the...