Normal Not Normal

Normal Not Normal rests on a question that James and Oliver Phelps are oddly well placed to ask. They grew up on the Harry Potter films as Fred and George Weasley, where a production of enormous size became their everyday backdrop. So the podcast keeps coming back to what 'normal' means, and whether it exists at all. Several episodes open with a scrappy round of hellos in several languages, and one comes with an apology for a very English bonjour. From there the conversation wanders, and the wandering is much of the point. The guests come from nearby corners of screen life. Bonnie Wright's conversation turns to the Harry Potter reunion shoot: the size of it, the rush of emotion, and how something that once passed for normal now looks anything but. Somebody in the room admits needing a couple of days to decompress afterwards. With Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan, Pippin and Merry in The Lord of the Rings, the pair take up a comparison people have often drawn between their characters and their guests', the cheeky ones who bring humour to dark stretches of a story. The two guests also explain how their own show ended up named after a 'friendship onion', a bit of whimsy about peeling back layers. April Pearson played Michelle in Skins and later worked in theatre, film and horror. She describes the gap between that show's house parties and food fights and her own teenage weekends, when tea was waiting at home. That sets off a confession about being terrified of parents finding out about anything naughty, and a story about a party where a shed blew up, with a repeated insistence from the Phelps side that they did not do it. The listener episodes are a different animal. Story times, questions and did-you-knows arrive from around the world, get read out at length, and are answered with gratitude, sympathy and a joke not far behind. A soft-spoken theatre student in New Jersey asks how to feel at ease performing, and the reply is a director's note from a first stage show: whoever is watching wants you to be good, so the audience is already on your side. A first date that collapsed over a height misunderstanding at a boat terminal draws 'listen to your gut' and a suggestion that she invoice him for the drinks. A new-year aside urges gym newcomers not to feel embarrassed about asking how a piece of equipment works. None of it is polished, and it is not trying to be. The mood is warm by default, with room for a dry aside or a quieter, more serious moment before the talk drifts back to a joke. For set stories, Bonnie Wright and LOTR's Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan are natural places to begin, while the episode titled Ollie's birthday rant shows the listener side. Either way, the show treats its audience as part of the room.