Six weeks off sounds like endless freedom, but when we actually try to remember our school summer holidays, the picture is oddly specific: a bike you used to ride everywhere, a scooter you couldn't keep up on, and the kind of local roaming that now feels almost unreal.

From there, we tumble into the background noise of the time: children's daytime television, cinema trips to town before multiplexes, and that peculiar mixture of boredom and excitement that only summer holidays can produce.

Ben also had the surreal experience of spending weekends rehearsing and filming in TV studios, meeting famous presenters, then going straight back to normal life as though none of it was particularly remarkable. Because apparently childhood can involve both riding your bike round the estate and casually wandering around television studios.

Then we take a proper nostalgia detour through Wales: Porthcawl, Coney Beach, long seaside walks because someone refused to pay for parking, and the unforgettable combination of cones of chips and Slush Puppies.

Eventually, we remember this is supposed to be an education podcast.

This week's victim is a "back to school checklist" that apparently knows everything UK parents need to buy before September. We ask what is actually essential, what is just marketing, what schools really expect pupils to turn up with, and whether anyone has ever really misspelt "school" as "skool".

If you've got strong opinions about back-to-school shopping, a favourite summer holiday memory, or, like James, you remember watching Ben on the TV on lazy summer holiday mornings in the 1980s, this one might be for you.

"Why don't you" leave us a review, share the episode with a colleague or parent, and get in touch.

Email: bandjcdb@gmail.com
Website: benandjamescoulddobetter.com

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show