What does The Gentlemen actually get right about a driven shoot?
Season two of Guy Ritchie’s Netflix series opens with a grand shooting party at the Horniman family estate. There are aristocrats, international guests, matching guns, loaders, helicopters, business deals and some fairly questionable CGI birds.
Spoiler warning: this episode discusses the opening episode of season two of The Gentlemen.
But if this was your first glimpse of driven game shooting, how much of it resembles the real thing?Jake Woolf, Avian Sandercock and Sam Turner go through the shoot scene and separate the television flourishes from the surprisingly authentic bits.
They look at why shoot days are such social occasions, the difference between an invitation from a mate and the shooting equivalent of a corporate box, and why the gamekeeper remains in charge regardless of how wealthy or important the Guns might be.
There is also etiquette, loaders, picking-up teams, gun choice, hot pegs, the final bag and what someone going on their first driven day should actually expect.
And because a Guy Ritchie crime drama cannot be allowed to pass without consequences, Sam finishes with a quiz asking Jake and Avian to distinguish between varieties of pheasant and varieties of weed.
In this episode:
- What The Gentlemen gets right about driven shooting
- What television inevitably gets wrong
- Why a shoot day is about more than pulling the trigger
- Invitations, networking and the shooting equivalent of a corporate box
- Why the gamekeeper runs the day
- Shoot etiquette and knowing how to behave
- Guns, loaders and picking-up teams
- Greedy shooting and sporting behaviour
- What happens at the end of a driven day
- What to expect from your first shoot
- Why syndicates can be a good way into game shooting
- CGI birds and suspiciously summery shoot days
- Weed or pheasant?
Useful links:
Please note: If you are new to game shooting, seek appropriate instruction, listen carefully to the shoot briefing and always follow current firearms law and safety guidance.
Part of the SideCountry Network.
This transcript was generated using AI and may contain minor errors.
Avian Sandercock: So who's done their homework then? That's got to be possibly the most fun homework I've ever had to do.
Sam Turner: I had done my homework before it became homework, so then I had to redo some of my homework, if that makes sense.
Jake Woolf: I haven't done my homework.
Avian Sandercock: You still haven't done your homework.
Jake Woolf: I've done episode one of The Gentleman season 2. That's as far as I've got.
Avian Sandercock: Well, that's your homework.
Jake Woolf: Well, yeah, is that all of it? I don't know. Is there any more? I've done the whole season. You've done the whole season, have you?
Sam Turner: And I think it's got an absolutely fantastic ending.
Avian Sandercock: We have to do that. We have to do the spoiler alert. If you haven't watched the gentleman, we're only going to be talking about the first little bit of it because we're only here for 30 minutes. And I don't think we're qualified to talk about growing drugs in stately homes just yet.
Sam Turner: Well, you myself.
Avian Sandercock: Oh, definitely not. I can't keep plastic flowers alive.
Jake Woolf: Neither can the Duke. That's why he's got his friends and he's got his people working under airstrips, which I thought was rather clever from the beginning.
Avian Sandercock: It's not very clever unless you actually have to dig holes. And as we all know, you dig a hole a metre square and about 50 square metres of stuff comes out of it, so you've got to put it somewhere. But we dither. We waffle on, Samuel.
Sam Turner: Because you've looked into the logistics of it.
Avian Sandercock: Nothing else is paying. But Sam, you've watched it all the way through. You've watched the first episode a few times. Jake's still watching, what are you watching? Rivals or something? I've watched the first one a couple of times. So spoiler alert to all our listeners. Sam, can you give us kind of a little potted precis of what The Gentleman is very, very quickly and then what episode one of season 2, how it opens, why we're talking about it.
Sam Turner: What's it about? It's a wealthy landowner or heir of estate who finds the best way to make money. I actually probably agree with him that it's not from farming, it's from growing drugs.
Jake Woolf: From the puff game.
Sam Turner: But he's also tied in with a little convict. I say little convict, a big convict.
Avian Sandercock: Yeah.
Sam Turner: Who is his business partner in this whole thing. And I imagine with.
Jake Woolf: I don't know. Has Susie Glass Sam actually been convicted? Her dad's doing the six stretch, but I'm not pretty sure he's doing a dad stretch.
Sam Turner: Yeah, he's obviously been convicted. I don't think she has been.
Jake Woolf: No, definitely not. But look, what their criminal activity is, none of our real business. I think what we really need to look in is if you had just watched episode one of season 2 of The Gentleman on Netflix, is your first exposure to driven shooting Is that the real way? Is this what shooting actually is?
Avian Sandercock: I mean, to set the scene, the shtick is it's kind of that opening of the season, of the new season of the show. They've got to get the characters all sorted out and do a bit of backstory, what's happened between the last episode and the last series and this one. So the shtick is they've got everybody together at the big house for a grand driven game shoot, which has been variously described as a duck shoot, a pheasant shoot. But at the end of the day, as we'll come to, they've only seemed to have shot Partridge. So it's kind of setting the scene for all the characters. And I guess what you would say in there, Jay, what we want to try and say is if somebody's coming to game shooting new and thinks, yeah, I want to get into this, I want to have a go at this, what have they got right? What have they got wrong in The Gentleman and possibly why? And is it... a good kind of first step into what the world of driven game shooting looks like.
Jake Woolf: Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I think that's.
Sam Turner: So are we going documentary or not documentary?
Avian Sandercock: I think it's definitely not documentary, but I think there's an essence in there because, you know, right up front, we know that obviously Vinnie Jones and Guy Ritchie are very keen country sports enthusiasts. clean shots. They spend a lot of money on the estate and on their own estates building a shoot. So, it's not come from, a media graduate's first view of it. And I think for today, I think anybody who's watched it, who's done a bit of shooting, they'll see through some of the issues that are there that it's in the summer and the things don't quite do what they should and the CGI is not great. Let's forget all of that. That's what it is. But let's look at sort of the bones of it, how it's put together, what's explained, what isn't. what seems to work, what might put people off, what's real, what isn't.
Jake Woolf: Guy, let me ask you, let me ask you, what did Guy get right?
Avian Sandercock: I think looking at it very broadly, I think he confidently introduced aristocrats shooting birds in a fairly sensible way. There was no shock to it, there was no... bloodbath and gore and blazing away. It was a lot of bits in there were kind of the functions of a game day. There's a lot of silliness in there, but that's for the storyline. But I think they laid out a fairly good.
Sam Turner: I think they did a good job of emphasising it as a, I mean, they were talking about deal making. Whereas I, you know, if you look a bit deeper into that, they did point out that it's more of a social thing. than it is a shooting thing.
Avian Sandercock: Yeah, And I think you're right. I was thinking about that. I mean, for us, we go shooting because we pay for it and we turn up and we do the thing and we enjoy it and hopefully there we're friends or we meet new people. But I was thinking, if you went to the rugby, let's say you went to a rugby international and there were 10 of you got together, bought tickets, got on the minibus and went, that would be very much a social thing and an experience. But if you're invited to the box by a corporate host, that would be a very different affair, would it not?
Sam Turner: Yeah.
Avian Sandercock: And I think maybe the kind of shoot they were portraying is far more at that upper end, Aristotle.
Sam Turner: It was the corporate box, yeah.
Avian Sandercock: The corporate box end.
Jake Woolf: So would you say then it would be on Eddie's comment where it's shoots are never about the killer?
Avian Sandercock: Which one's Eddie? Who's Eddie and who's Freddie?
Jake Woolf: The Duke. right, yes, So when he says shoots are never about the killing, and that line, that's probably where it is.
Avian Sandercock: Yeah, because I mean, we don't go for the killing, do we?
Jake Woolf: Yeah, and if you remove the shooting, would the same relationships and conversations actually happen?
Avian Sandercock: No.
Jake Woolf: That's the interesting bit. You don't think so?
Avian Sandercock: I don't think so, because you're all there for the same purpose, aren't you? know, if you just meet down the pub or, you know, go spoons for the evening, it wouldn't be the same anticipation and... mindset and everybody's dressed up and there are rules to obey, it's just mates out, isn't it?
Sam Turner: You've got to have the, but it's the reason for everyone to be there, isn't it?
Avian Sandercock: Yes.
Sam Turner: You know, they haven't, so in this, the corporate box situation, Eddie hasn't invited people around to do business deals, even though that is the outcome he wants.
Avian Sandercock: Yes.
Sam Turner: He's invited people around to go shooting.
Avian Sandercock: Well, I guess if you want people to do business deals, you kind of have to get them together and you have to, what was that wonderful line Vinnie had? I'll make sure his \*\*\*\* is bathed. in the butter. And you have to butter them up a bit, don't you? You've got to sort of make them want to come. If you're doing business with them, they've got to be positive when they get there and excited and looking forward to it.
Sam Turner: If somebody invites me to a business meeting and somebody invites me to a shoot on the same day, I know which one I'm choosing.
Avian Sandercock: Well, it depends if it's a million pound deal, but yeah, Portacabin in Swindon. Versus the big house. I think I'll go to the big house.
Jake Woolf: I'm not so sure if the acquaintances we make on shoot days don't strengthen our business relationships outside of the shooting world. I think, you know, being invited to a shoot day can actually offer more of a networking opportunity than, yeah, look, we're there to have a great day. I agree with you, but I'm very much of the opinion that you can really network and meet people and make and strengthen. whether it be business and or. But it's interesting what he says to his mother, whereas shoot days never work, but then the table's littered with working people, whether it's he wants a peerage, whether he wants to sell puff in Italy.
Avian Sandercock: Those people weren't invited because they were all Sagittarians, was it?
Jake Woolf: That's exactly it. You know, so are we all invited to a shoot day and would you expect if it was your first or your 101st invite, are you there because you're a bloody good egg? Or are you there because you actually offer something?
Avian Sandercock: Yeah. I don't know, Jake. You get all the invitations, mate.
Jake Woolf: Oh, what yours? It's because I'm a bloody good egg.
Sam Turner: But I think that's, you know, that's where it draws the difference between like Avian's analogy, I suppose, of the going to the rugby. You know, if you're there with your mates in the stand, it's because you're a bloody good egg. If you're there in the corporate box, it's because... They probably want someone out of you, but they don't want to directly ask you. They want to invite you to something and do it there.
Avian Sandercock: Exactly that, Sam. If somebody out there is thinking, yeah, I've had an invitation. Should I go? Should I not? What am I going to expect? I think, dare I say, at our level, an invitation is somebody wants you to come to enjoy the day with them because you're a bloody good egg. And I think at the level they were trying to show in the series and I'm sure does happen. Jake, you must see it with the top level invitations to a box at the races. They're invited because they want something, but the flip of that is those people get multiple invitations and they choose the one that will benefit them the most. Getting into it, I think go with the fact that you've been obviously identified as a fairly good person to spend time with. and it's an invitation to a shoot. So if we draw a veil over the thing there, because I've never been invited to the big house to stay the weekend and shoot the CGI ducks next to the million pound outdoor kitchen.
Sam Turner: I think just before we, but just before we finish on invites, we should take this opportunity to say, invite your friends to listen to this podcast. like it, follow it, subscribe, five star rating and leave a nice little review.
Avian Sandercock: These segues are getting almost professional, aren't they?
Jake Woolf: Are. So what did Guy get wrong then, lads?
Avian Sandercock: I'll tell you what he got right. I was very much along the lines of the Arab guy when they were doing the gun room bit. That's cool. And he said, I think I'm starting to get an erection.
Jake Woolf: So you should. But they were a cracking pair of SL3s, weren't they? were really, really smart, smart guns in there.
Avian Sandercock: But I think that sort of reverence, and it kind of again showed that once you get into shooting, we all know that actually, generally it's the fit of the gun, how you shoot it and how it feels, and is it the right calibre, the right weight? All of that sort of stuff is far more important than what it costs. But it was a wonderful bit of gun \*\*\*\* wasn't it?
Sam Turner: Yeah, it was definitely. Definitely.
Avian Sandercock: I mean, the fact they were all using silver pigeons and yield it in the actual filming is an entirely different matter.
Sam Turner: And they couldn't hold them properly either, but I don't want to get into that.
Avian Sandercock: I guess the other thing on that is that if you do go on a shoot, it won't be that smoky.
Sam Turner: No.
Jake Woolf: But would you see a mix, so if you're talking about, yeah, kind of like how they're holding the guns and that type of thing, would you see a mix of the kind of the aristocrats and the overseas guests and dare I say the criminals on the same?
Avian Sandercock: Money talks, Jake. Money talks. And I think the.
Sam Turner: Interesting bit there was a little bit of an issue with the criminals and obviously the section 21 rules, but I think that's probably diving way too.
Avian Sandercock: We're going way, we're beyond CGI ducks there, aren't we? are. But I, you know, I think the reverence for the guns was interesting. I guess from a sort of a social comment, the fact that the very spoiled Italian guy Kiko was more interested in who his loader's assistant was. And there is that feeling that the very, very wealthy can be almost blase to something that we would cut our own throats to attend.
Sam Turner: Yeah, and it was the one thing that I think was missed out, which it would have been nice, is showing the entirety of the day. because we didn't see beaters. We saw dogs kind of picking up.
Avian Sandercock: Having been a boring git today and after feeding the birds, stayed in and watched the shoot bit over and over, if you look in the background, there's actually a lot of authentic stuff going on.
Jake Woolf: Yeah, the spaniels running around free range.
Avian Sandercock: Yeah, but the ones at the beginning looked like a very bad Jurassic Park knock-off, didn't they, while running down the lawn. But actually, it struck me that probably the loaders were genuine loaders, the way they handled the guns and the way there was one guy who was a little bit, oh, for \*\*\*\*\*\* sake.
Jake Woolf: Yeah, Jack was the only one that obviously wasn't a proper loader, but he, I reckon, was taught because he was handling his for the Lord H or whatever his other law. Yes. And, but you're far right age, I agree with you.
Avian Sandercock: The picking up dogs, they did that full as they, the whistle went and they broke for, the dogs were working the water and picking up all the dummies, I mean the ducks, the birds.
Jake Woolf: Do you see the Labradors going in first, properly out on the wall too? It's awesome to watch. The spanners are still running around.
Avian Sandercock: Spanners are spanners, mate. That's for a different day.
Jake Woolf: So the thing I found with it is I was watching it and not really that fussed about how it was or how a shoot day should have been. What I felt was that if you were new into it and you were watching it, does that resemble an actual shoot day? Not the shooting, not the standing there in the middle of the summer around a pond for the whole day.
Avian Sandercock: In your tweets. Oh, your Hakila, sorry.
Jake Woolf: If someone was watching that, was just gone off a sim day or, you know, very new into it, does that actually give reflection of a shoot day. Would you have all those people under one?
Sam Turner: I think further than further than a reflection, though, is if you're watching that, does it give you the enthusiasm to go game shooting?
Avian Sandercock: It looked exciting, didn't it?
Sam Turner: Did.
Avian Sandercock: And I think that the ceremony of it, I mean, maybe I'm being over positive about it, but if you look at because it must be we've all tried to do little videos for shoots we've been on and just the size of it, it's It's almost impossible. You've got a gun line that's going to be 150, 200 yards long. So the interaction is limited. The pickers up are probably 100 yards behind. The beaters are in the woods, you never see them. And to try and, you know, somebody shoots a bird, unless you're right on their shoulder, it's a speck and a dot. So I think they manage that pretty well. What I liked was all of those people, you've got the billionaire, you've got the sheik, you've got the Lord, you've got all these people there. As soon as the keeper says, we're starting at 9:30, ladies and gentlemen, everyone pays attention to him. And I think that is very accurate for a shoot day. The keeper runs the rest.
Jake Woolf: Yeah, from the bits of this is what we're doing, these are your pegs. But also there was that bit of control on the behaviour and the etiquette.
Avian Sandercock: Yeah.
Jake Woolf: That's a big thing. I thought that was a very poignant moment from the moment that Kiko arrives late and frustrated.
Avian Sandercock: And Italian.
Sam Turner: And then Eddie does point out that we've got to, you know, even before the shoot starts, we need language. that out, but he also says about we need to, I can't remember his name, but he wants to start at half nine or whatever it was. We need to do that.
Avian Sandercock: We need to, yeah, we need to go back.
Jake Woolf: So we need to be there. Yeah, Your Grace, we need to be on 9.30 and he listened to him, didn't he? You know, the Duke was and does run the place and it was, I thought it was very poignant where he stood looking over the lands.
Avian Sandercock: Yes.
Jake Woolf: And he is saying, I want this all back. But yet. Regardless, he was saying, I want it all back. We've lost it. But he still looked to his gamekeeper and he still fell back in line and went, we'll be ready for 930.
Sam Turner: And there is a good reference to gamekeepers later on. I don't want to spoil future episodes, but there's a bit of, let's say, searching for people in the woods with the game, obviously Vinnie the keeper and the neighbouring gamekeeper. And it's nicely put that nobody knows this ground like a gamekeeper does.
Jake Woolf: That's cool. I look forward to having that ruined. Cheers, Sam. But we did, we said spoiler alert. But what about the other etiquette and the one bit that I would like to, which I thought was brilliant, was when Amir says, why only two barrels? And Vinny replies back going, Gives a bird supporting chance, sir. Yeah, I thought that was spot on, wasn't it?
Avian Sandercock: That's a good bit, definitely. I mean, to anyone starting, thinking about getting involved in this, you're not, you're very unlikely to stand in a shoulder-to-shoulder line and have espresso martinis before you kick off. food is served almost a shoulder distance from where you stand. There's going to be a bit more involved in that. But again, some of the positives, the bit I like, the bit where he gets knocked on the conch with a partridge and not flat, that happens. I got hit on the arm by a partridge once and it bloody hurts and it startles you. But what I thought was good was it, again, it showed somebody who'd been involved in the script writing kind of understood how a day runs. that the whistle blew and everybody stopped. Guns are, okay, they should have been in slips, but the guns were down, everybody paid attention. And again, it's that how a day works. The hierarchy is obviously, you know, you're grateful to the host, but it's the keeper who runs the day. The picking up team have their job to do, so you get out of the way and do it. And I think generally, barring the flowering Hawthorne and the Sega Mega Drive Duck Hunt ducks, it kind of showed, although your first dip into game shooting isn't going to be at the big house with the drinks and the helicopters and the private jets. There's enough in there to say it's sanitised, but it's not a million miles away, is it? That there's a dress code, there's a way of behaving, there's the hierarchy of who's in charge, how the day runs, and you know what you're expected to do as you run the day.
Sam Turner: Those things definitely have continuity through it all, but the only thing is it doesn't include if you're looking at that for the first time, it could be intimidating to think, Oh, I have to be one of these people in order to go shooting, because it doesn't cover.
Avian Sandercock: I think if you watch the gentleman, I have to be one of these people, you'd probably need your head read, don't you?
Jake Woolf: What I want to, can I pull it back a bit to, we started talking about the being sporting, but there was a part there where Vinny says to the Duke, to, kind of like you might just need to slow down. He was shooting one for one, looking at it, watching, we could see what was going on. If you were first on a day and you shot like that, I think we should probably talk about, you'd get sent home if you were just blowing things up and just worried about the bag. I mean, let's. I guess that's the.
Avian Sandercock: Thing, isn't it, that if you're on that sort of day and you own the estate and you pay for the partridges, you can probably shoot as many as you bloody like. But if you remember at the dinner at the end when Jeff comes in, the keeper comes in with the card and there's quite a poignant moment where they make the point of telling you what the bag was.
Jake Woolf: Yes.
Avian Sandercock: Which is very authentic. You'll get that at the end of the day. The one that I think is amazing that Sam didn't jump all over straight away was when your man with the old lord was talking about his keeper's tip. I hope that'll be reflected in my tip, sir. The loader's tip.
Sam Turner: I didn't see anybody tip a loader.
Jake Woolf: Yeah. I think it was interesting, wasn't it? That whole scene with Jack and Lord Hawthorne and everything going forward. I think Jack would.
Avian Sandercock: I mean, that was the other thing was, you know, he said, oh, they kept coming in waves over me. But if you've got a good keeping team and you've got somebody you want to impress, you can organise a hot seat, can't you, to a degree.
Jake Woolf: Yes, you can. And the way he behaved elevens is when Eddie and Lord Hawthorne were talking, Would you be that humble? Would you be, would you be that bit, smug and kind of.
Avian Sandercock: You wouldn't. You probably wouldn't be invited back. And I guess he was only invited there because the shtick was that he wanted a live peerage out of it. So I guess that was kind of a character line that just showed how fragile and easy to play.
Jake Woolf: Would you meet people like that normally?
Avian Sandercock: Well, it's like Donald Trump playing golf, isn't it? He'll cheat to win and think he's wonderful.
Jake Woolf: But that's those two people. One's a character, one's a president.
Avian Sandercock: Yeah, don't do that when it's on your first day.
Jake Woolf: That's not normal, is it? You know, I've never been associated with anyone that behaves in quite that manner.
Avian Sandercock: But then again, I think we have all been unfortunate enough to be on a shoot where somebody's a bit greedy.
Sam Turner: Yes. So usually have a word with them after the first drive.
Avian Sandercock: I think if we look at this, then just sort of bringing it into a bit of a close, if somebody's going to go down this route and has an interest in it, I think Would it be fair to say that A, there's enough in that first sort of 20 minute bit for the shoot that gives you a flavor for what the very top end of shooting is, but understand that a lot of those rules and etiquette and ways of behaving filter down. And where you're most likely to enter game shooting, I guess, is either by an invitation to maybe a small to mid-sized driven day or perhaps through a syndicate. The people on the syndicate you've joined will probably help you through a lot of the finer points, the bits you might be worried about. And you're not going to be front and centre and everybody looking at you day one. But a few of those little bits that they kind of constructed for television won't steer you terribly badly. I mean, nobody's going to go into the gun room and bring back great-grandfather's matching pair purdies for you to have a go with.
Sam Turner: No, and I think actually importantly, what Guy has got right there is nobody, I don't, there will be the odd person that will do it because that's the kind of society we live in. Very few people are going to watch it and go, oh, isn't shooting terrible?
Avian Sandercock: That's a great point, mate.
Jake Woolf: I agree with that, Sam.
Avian Sandercock: I mean, there's a lot to maybe not like or people who hate it will find things to pick in it. You know, the shooting purists will go get their adenoids in and go, well, that's not exactly how you do that. And I thought Vinnie unloading guns and masking the fact that there was clearly nothing in the chambers. Put that to one side and I think you're right, Sam. I think it was handled in a very grown-up way. Matter of fact, this is what we do. It's done properly and this is the respect we have for it and this is how it's done.
Jake Woolf: Well, it was just dumbed down enough for, remember, 5%. don't like us, 5% love us, 90% really don't care. So it was done very tastefully, I thought. But I've got something here for you, chaps.
Avian Sandercock: Go on then.
Jake Woolf: If someone has watched the gentleman, and that episode on season 2 we're talking about, who has never been shooting and has just been invited on their first day, they're going out tomorrow, right? What's the one thing you'd tell them before they go tomorrow?
Avian Sandercock: Take me with you. No. Ears open, mouth shut.
Jake Woolf: Samuel.
Sam Turner: What if they've just watched The Gentleman and then...
Jake Woolf: They've never been shooting before. Tomorrow morning's their first day. What's the one thing you'd tell them?
Sam Turner: Yeah, listen to The Keeper. It's going to be basic stuff like that, isn't it?
Jake Woolf: Fair play. You wouldn't tell them to have the spiced breakfast with the eggs and the.
Avian Sandercock: Kedgiri. Have you never had Kedgiri?
Jake Woolf: Never. Never had it.
Avian Sandercock: It's A Victorian breakfast staple. It's kind of all the leftovers with curry and eggs on top.
Sam Turner: I've never had it for breakfast.
Jake Woolf: Yeah, never had it.
Avian Sandercock: Easier to eat with a hangover than kippers, that's for damn sure. Lonely little. I love them, but they're lonely little \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*. Is there any last thoughts then?
Jake Woolf: I could go into it for a long time. Like I want to talk about the criminals. No, I've watched episode one, obviously, but I was really taken back with the way that there was a whole kind of, there was so much going on with the personalities that it was so far-fetched and taken out of shooting that just poised that meeting point of bringing all the characters for then set the scene for the whole series. And I thought the way that it was done, as we've just discussed, was actually very, very well represented and shooting showed itself to be a gathering place for lots of various different people. It's how I felt.
Sam Turner: And there would be many ways that a director could get the group of people, you know, he could say, right, they're all going to go and play golf or they're all going to meet up and play poker or they're all going to.
Avian Sandercock: Or they're going to shoot from the hip and the leagues or, try and make it, do zoom shots and dead carters everywhere. No, I think you're right. I think you're right.
Jake Woolf: But shooting is, it's my knowledge, not full of drug dealers, money launderers.
Avian Sandercock: Well, this is the point. This is the problem I had with the first series. And you can see it's going to be a problem with the second series is if you're running a shoot like that with all the, I mean, you must have had 20 or 30 pickers up and God knows how many in the beat team. How do you keep a drug cartel factory secret with all those Herberts running around?
Jake Woolf: Listen mate, you're not meant to know anything. You keep your mouth right shut and you take the money. You take that brown packet.
Sam Turner: And you go home son. I think all this drug talk and shooting talk brings us nicely to this. Is it going to be this week's quiz? Are we doing a quiz every week?
Avian Sandercock: Oh, go on. If you've got one, let's do it. Let's see how we go. You are becoming the king of the silky Segway, though, won't you?
Sam Turner: I wouldn't say that. If you want to call me that, I'll...
Jake Woolf: Don't have that on your Tinder profile, mate.
Avian Sandercock: Go on. Not a game.
Jake Woolf: Good game.
Sam Turner: It's a quick game. Let's go, go, go.
Avian Sandercock: Go on then.
Sam Turner: Quiz, quiz. It's a quick game. I've got a table, so the scoring will take less time. Calling effort last one. And it is quite simply weed or pheasant. God. 10 to go. Malawi gold. Avian. Pheasant.
Avian Sandercock: Jake.
Jake Woolf: I'm worried I'm going to give away my weed donnage. Don't be good at this one.
Sam Turner: Japanese green. Jake.
Jake Woolf: Pheasant. Yeah, I'll go pheasant.
Sam Turner: Ave, you'll go pheasant. Moroccan black avian.
Avian Sandercock: Weed.
Sam Turner: Jakey boy.
Avian Sandercock: Pheasant, just say pheasant.
Sam Turner: Go on, go on. Melanistic mutant. Ave.
Avian Sandercock: Pheasant.
Jake Woolf: Yeah, pheasant as well, Samuel.
Sam Turner: Okay. The old purple Afghani. Afghani. Jake.
Jake Woolf: Weed.
Avian Sandercock: I have no idea. Weed.
Sam Turner: Michigan Blue, gentlemen, is that a weed or is that a pheasant? Avian.
Avian Sandercock: Pheasant. Yeah, pheasant.
Sam Turner: You really are giving stuff away, but it's Avian. Blue Dream, Ave.
Avian Sandercock: Oh, hell, I'm going to go weed with that. I'll go weed as well. I'm thinking our invitations are shrinking with every question that's asked. Oh, I don't know. Well, differently.
Sam Turner: Depends what you want to be invited to. Right, go on then. How many have we got left? Kansas Thunder, Jake. Fezzy.
Avian Sandercock: Fezzy.
Sam Turner: White Russian, Avian.
Avian Sandercock: Weed or a drink?
Sam Turner: Jake.
Jake Woolf: I'll go pheasant on this one.
Avian Sandercock: Controversial.
Sam Turner: And the last but not least, Khalij. Khalij? Khalij. Let's go Khalij. Let's go weed.
Avian Sandercock: That sounds Moroccan.
Sam Turner: I can imagine. Jake. I'm going weed as well.
Avian Sandercock: Oh, sorry, Mum.
Jake Woolf: Sorry, Dad.
Avian Sandercock: Let's hope we got all the pheasant ones right and everything else wrong.
Sam Turner: You've both got eight out of 10. Oh, God. Have we got a tie breaker? I don't have a tie breaker.
Avian Sandercock: Oh, there we go. I tell you what, here's the tie breaker then. Whoever got the most pheasants wrong loses.
Jake Woolf: You can't see Sam's kind of grey matter working really hard now.
Sam Turner: It's really bad because you both got a pheasant wrong and you both got a weed wrong. I think that's a dead heat. It's a dead heat.
Jake Woolf: It's a dead heat. It's yeah.
Sam Turner: You're both you're both drug dealing.
Avian Sandercock: Jake, shall we retire for a little bowl somewhere?
Jake Woolf: I'll tell you what, we'll go and pull a bucket up and we'll be good for it.
Avian Sandercock: Thank you, Sam. That's completely destroyed our street cred.
Sam Turner: No problem.
Avian Sandercock: No quiz next week.
Jake Woolf: Anyhow, back to it. Abe, I will be more than happy to go and have a whiskey and a cigar with you. I don't like whiskey, but I do like a cigar. So that's about as much leaf as I'm prepared to smoke. However, this has been a lot of fun. We could chew the cud on this for a long time. Thank you very much.
Avian Sandercock: Well, I think if you haven't watched the first episode, Go and watch it. It's good fun. Don't take it all too seriously.
Jake Woolf: It's not meant to be taken.
Avian Sandercock: Not meant to be. It's moving a story along. It introduces the characters well. I think it's going to be a fun series. And I think there's enough in there to make game shooting look positive and bringing people together and go and give it a go.
Jake Woolf: They weren't trying to make it like we should all go game shooting and it's really good. Sam, what have we got coming up next week?
Sam Turner: Next time, I think we might have a little bit of correspondence that leads us to the a bit more down to earth, the pricklier side.
Avian Sandercock: Try that again. The prick, what?
Sam Turner: Pricklier.
Avian Sandercock: Have you been smoking?
Sam Turner: Only pheasants.
Avian Sandercock: They're bloody hard to light. So we're off with the beating line, are we?
Sam Turner: We're off in the beating line next week.
Jake Woolf: Looking forward to that one. Looking forward to that one indeed. Right, so that's us done. If you're enjoying fishing game, you know what to do. Chuck us a five star rating. It really helps and please give us a follow, share it with your mate who is always banging on about fishing and shooting. And if you've got a story to tell or a rant to have or just fancy a natter, e-mail us at hello at sidecountry.co.uk. We do actually read them and that is genuinely we do. So right, gentlemen, tight lines. and hot barrels and we will catch you next time.
Avian Sandercock: So who's done their homework then? That's got to be possibly the most fun homework I've ever had to do.
Sam Turner: I had done my homework before it became homework, so then I had to redo some of my homework, if that makes sense.
Jake Woolf: I haven't done my homework.
Avian Sandercock: You still haven't done your homework.
Jake Woolf: I've done episode one of The Gentleman season 2. That's as far as I've got.
Avian Sandercock: Well, that's your homework.
Jake Woolf: Well, yeah, is that all of it? I don't know. Is there any more? I've done the whole season. You've done the whole season, have you?
Sam Turner: And I think it's got an absolutely fantastic ending.
Avian Sandercock: We have to do that. We have to do the spoiler alert. If you haven't watched the gentleman, we're only going to be talking about the first little bit of it because we're only here for 30 minutes. And I don't think we're qualified to talk about growing drugs in stately homes just yet.
Sam Turner: Well, you myself.
Avian Sandercock: Oh, definitely not. I can't keep plastic flowers alive.
Jake Woolf: Neither can the Duke. That's why he's got his friends and he's got his people working under airstrips, which I thought was rather clever from the beginning.
Avian Sandercock: It's not very clever unless you actually have to dig holes. And as we all know, you dig a hole a metre square and about 50 square metres of stuff comes out of it, so you've got to put it somewhere. But we dither. We waffle on, Samuel.
Sam Turner: Because you've looked into the logistics of it.
Avian Sandercock: Nothing else is paying. But Sam, you've watched it all the way through. You've watched the first episode a few times. Jake's still watching, what are you watching? Rivals or something? I've watched the first one a couple of times. So spoiler alert to all our listeners. Sam, can you give us kind of a little potted precis of what The Gentleman is very, very quickly and then what episode one of season 2, how it opens, why we're talking about it.
Sam Turner: What's it about? It's a wealthy landowner or heir of estate who finds the best way to make money. I actually probably agree with him that it's not from farming, it's from growing drugs.
Jake Woolf: From the puff game.
Sam Turner: But he's also tied in with a little convict. I say little convict, a big convict.
Avian Sandercock: Yeah.
Sam Turner: Who is his business partner in this whole thing. And I imagine with.
Jake Woolf: I don't know. Has Susie Glass Sam actually been convicted? Her dad's doing the six stretch, but I'm not pretty sure he's doing a dad stretch.
Sam Turner: Yeah, he's obviously been convicted. I don't think she has been.
Jake Woolf: No, definitely not. But look, what their criminal activity is, none of our real business. I think what we really need to look in is if you had just watched episode one of season 2 of The Gentleman on Netflix, is your first exposure to driven shooting Is that the real way? Is this what shooting actually is?
Avian Sandercock: I mean, to set the scene, the shtick is it's kind of that opening of the season, of the new season of the show. They've got to get the characters all sorted out and do a bit of backstory, what's happened between the last episode and the last series and this one. So the shtick is they've got everybody together at the big house for a grand driven game shoot, which has been variously described as a duck shoot, a pheasant shoot. But at the end of the day, as we'll come to, they've only seemed to have shot Partridge. So it's kind of setting the scene for all the characters. And I guess what you would say in there, Jay, what we want to try and say is if somebody's coming to game shooting new and thinks, yeah, I want to get into this, I want to have a go at this, what have they got right? What have they got wrong in The Gentleman and possibly why? And is it... a good kind of first step into what the world of driven game shooting looks like.
Jake Woolf: Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I think that's.
Sam Turner: So are we going documentary or not documentary?
Avian Sandercock: I think it's definitely not documentary, but I think there's an essence in there because, you know, right up front, we know that obviously Vinnie Jones and Guy Ritchie are very keen country sports enthusiasts. clean shots. They spend a lot of money on the estate and on their own estates building a shoot. So, it's not come from, a media graduate's first view of it. And I think for today, I think anybody who's watched it, who's done a bit of shooting, they'll see through some of the issues that are there that it's in the summer and the things don't quite do what they should and the CGI is not great. Let's forget all of that. That's what it is. But let's look at sort of the bones of it, how it's put together, what's explained, what isn't. what seems to work, what might put people off, what's real, what isn't.
Jake Woolf: Guy, let me ask you, let me ask you, what did Guy get right?
Avian Sandercock: I think looking at it very broadly, I think he confidently introduced aristocrats shooting birds in a fairly sensible way. There was no shock to it, there was no... bloodbath and gore and blazing away. It was a lot of bits in there were kind of the functions of a game day. There's a lot of silliness in there, but that's for the storyline. But I think they laid out a fairly good.
Sam Turner: I think they did a good job of emphasising it as a, I mean, they were talking about deal making. Whereas I, you know, if you look a bit deeper into that, they did point out that it's more of a social thing. than it is a shooting thing.
Avian Sandercock: Yeah, And I think you're right. I was thinking about that. I mean, for us, we go shooting because we pay for it and we turn up and we do the thing and we enjoy it and hopefully there we're friends or we meet new people. But I was thinking, if you went to the rugby, let's say you went to a rugby international and there were 10 of you got together, bought tickets, got on the minibus and went, that would be very much a social thing and an experience. But if you're invited to the box by a corporate host, that would be a very different affair, would it not?
Sam Turner: Yeah.
Avian Sandercock: And I think maybe the kind of shoot they were portraying is far more at that upper end, Aristotle.
Sam Turner: It was the corporate box, yeah.
Avian Sandercock: The corporate box end.
Jake Woolf: So would you say then it would be on Eddie's comment where it's shoots are never about the killer?
Avian Sandercock: Which one's Eddie? Who's Eddie and who's Freddie?
Jake Woolf: The Duke. right, yes, So when he says shoots are never about the killing, and that line, that's probably where it is.
Avian Sandercock: Yeah, because I mean, we don't go for the killing, do we?
Jake Woolf: Yeah, and if you remove the shooting, would the same relationships and conversations actually happen?
Avian Sandercock: No.
Jake Woolf: That's the interesting bit. You don't think so?
Avian Sandercock: I don't think so, because you're all there for the same purpose, aren't you? know, if you just meet down the pub or, you know, go spoons for the evening, it wouldn't be the same anticipation and... mindset and everybody's dressed up and there are rules to obey, it's just mates out, isn't it?
Sam Turner: You've got to have the, but it's the reason for everyone to be there, isn't it?
Avian Sandercock: Yes.
Sam Turner: You know, they haven't, so in this, the corporate box situation, Eddie hasn't invited people around to do business deals, even though that is the outcome he wants.
Avian Sandercock: Yes.
Sam Turner: He's invited people around to go shooting.
Avian Sandercock: Well, I guess if you want people to do business deals, you kind of have to get them together and you have to, what was that wonderful line Vinnie had? I'll make sure his \*\*\*\* is bathed. in the butter. And you have to butter them up a bit, don't you? You've got to sort of make them want to come. If you're doing business with them, they've got to be positive when they get there and excited and looking forward to it.
Sam Turner: If somebody invites me to a business meeting and somebody invites me to a shoot on the same day, I know which one I'm choosing.
Avian Sandercock: Well, it depends if it's a million pound deal, but yeah, Portacabin in Swindon. Versus the big house. I think I'll go to the big house.
Jake Woolf: I'm not so sure if the acquaintances we make on shoot days don't strengthen our business relationships outside of the shooting world. I think, you know, being invited to a shoot day can actually offer more of a networking opportunity than, yeah, look, we're there to have a great day. I agree with you, but I'm very much of the opinion that you can really network and meet people and make and strengthen. whether it be business and or. But it's interesting what he says to his mother, whereas shoot days never work, but then the table's littered with working people, whether it's he wants a peerage, whether he wants to sell puff in Italy.
Avian Sandercock: Those people weren't invited because they were all Sagittarians, was it?
Jake Woolf: That's exactly it. You know, so are we all invited to a shoot day and would you expect if it was your first or your 101st invite, are you there because you're a bloody good egg? Or are you there because you actually offer something?
Avian Sandercock: Yeah. I don't know, Jake. You get all the invitations, mate.
Jake Woolf: Oh, what yours? It's because I'm a bloody good egg.
Sam Turner: But I think that's, you know, that's where it draws the difference between like Avian's analogy, I suppose, of the going to the rugby. You know, if you're there with your mates in the stand, it's because you're a bloody good egg. If you're there in the corporate box, it's because... They probably want someone out of you, but they don't want to directly ask you. They want to invite you to something and do it there.
Avian Sandercock: Exactly that, Sam. If somebody out there is thinking, yeah, I've had an invitation. Should I go? Should I not? What am I going to expect? I think, dare I say, at our level, an invitation is somebody wants you to come to enjoy the day with them because you're a bloody good egg. And I think at the level they were trying to show in the series and I'm sure does happen. Jake, you must see it with the top level invitations to a box at the races. They're invited because they want something, but the flip of that is those people get multiple invitations and they choose the one that will benefit them the most. Getting into it, I think go with the fact that you've been obviously identified as a fairly good person to spend time with. and it's an invitation to a shoot. So if we draw a veil over the thing there, because I've never been invited to the big house to stay the weekend and shoot the CGI ducks next to the million pound outdoor kitchen.
Sam Turner: I think just before we, but just before we finish on invites, we should take this opportunity to say, invite your friends to listen to this podcast. like it, follow it, subscribe, five star rating and leave a nice little review.
Avian Sandercock: These segues are getting almost professional, aren't they?
Jake Woolf: Are. So what did Guy get wrong then, lads?
Avian Sandercock: I'll tell you what he got right. I was very much along the lines of the Arab guy when they were doing the gun room bit. That's cool. And he said, I think I'm starting to get an erection.
Jake Woolf: So you should. But they were a cracking pair of SL3s, weren't they? were really, really smart, smart guns in there.
Avian Sandercock: But I think that sort of reverence, and it kind of again showed that once you get into shooting, we all know that actually, generally it's the fit of the gun, how you shoot it and how it feels, and is it the right calibre, the right weight? All of that sort of stuff is far more important than what it costs. But it was a wonderful bit of gun \*\*\*\* wasn't it?
Sam Turner: Yeah, it was definitely. Definitely.
Avian Sandercock: I mean, the fact they were all using silver pigeons and yield it in the actual filming is an entirely different matter.
Sam Turner: And they couldn't hold them properly either, but I don't want to get into that.
Avian Sandercock: I guess the other thing on that is that if you do go on a shoot, it won't be that smoky.
Sam Turner: No.
Jake Woolf: But would you see a mix, so if you're talking about, yeah, kind of like how they're holding the guns and that type of thing, would you see a mix of the kind of the aristocrats and the overseas guests and dare I say the criminals on the same?
Avian Sandercock: Money talks, Jake. Money talks. And I think the.
Sam Turner: Interesting bit there was a little bit of an issue with the criminals and obviously the section 21 rules, but I think that's probably diving way too.
Avian Sandercock: We're going way, we're beyond CGI ducks there, aren't we? are. But I, you know, I think the reverence for the guns was interesting. I guess from a sort of a social comment, the fact that the very spoiled Italian guy Kiko was more interested in who his loader's assistant was. And there is that feeling that the very, very wealthy can be almost blase to something that we would cut our own throats to attend.
Sam Turner: Yeah, and it was the one thing that I think was missed out, which it would have been nice, is showing the entirety of the day. because we didn't see beaters. We saw dogs kind of picking up.
Avian Sandercock: Having been a boring git today and after feeding the birds, stayed in and watched the shoot bit over and over, if you look in the background, there's actually a lot of authentic stuff going on.
Jake Woolf: Yeah, the spaniels running around free range.
Avian Sandercock: Yeah, but the ones at the beginning looked like a very bad Jurassic Park knock-off, didn't they, while running down the lawn. But actually, it struck me that probably the loaders were genuine loaders, the way they handled the guns and the way there was one guy who was a little bit, oh, for \*\*\*\*\*\* sake.
Jake Woolf: Yeah, Jack was the only one that obviously wasn't a proper loader, but he, I reckon, was taught because he was handling his for the Lord H or whatever his other law. Yes. And, but you're far right age, I agree with you.
Avian Sandercock: The picking up dogs, they did that full as they, the whistle went and they broke for, the dogs were working the water and picking up all the dummies, I mean the ducks, the birds.
Jake Woolf: Do you see the Labradors going in first, properly out on the wall too? It's awesome to watch. The spanners are still running around.
Avian Sandercock: Spanners are spanners, mate. That's for a different day.
Jake Woolf: So the thing I found with it is I was watching it and not really that fussed about how it was or how a shoot day should have been. What I felt was that if you were new into it and you were watching it, does that resemble an actual shoot day? Not the shooting, not the standing there in the middle of the summer around a pond for the whole day.
Avian Sandercock: In your tweets. Oh, your Hakila, sorry.
Jake Woolf: If someone was watching that, was just gone off a sim day or, you know, very new into it, does that actually give reflection of a shoot day. Would you have all those people under one?
Sam Turner: I think further than further than a reflection, though, is if you're watching that, does it give you the enthusiasm to go game shooting?
Avian Sandercock: It looked exciting, didn't it?
Sam Turner: Did.
Avian Sandercock: And I think that the ceremony of it, I mean, maybe I'm being over positive about it, but if you look at because it must be we've all tried to do little videos for shoots we've been on and just the size of it, it's It's almost impossible. You've got a gun line that's going to be 150, 200 yards long. So the interaction is limited. The pickers up are probably 100 yards behind. The beaters are in the woods, you never see them. And to try and, you know, somebody shoots a bird, unless you're right on their shoulder, it's a speck and a dot. So I think they manage that pretty well. What I liked was all of those people, you've got the billionaire, you've got the sheik, you've got the Lord, you've got all these people there. As soon as the keeper says, we're starting at 9:30, ladies and gentlemen, everyone pays attention to him. And I think that is very accurate for a shoot day. The keeper runs the rest.
Jake Woolf: Yeah, from the bits of this is what we're doing, these are your pegs. But also there was that bit of control on the behaviour and the etiquette.
Avian Sandercock: Yeah.
Jake Woolf: That's a big thing. I thought that was a very poignant moment from the moment that Kiko arrives late and frustrated.
Avian Sandercock: And Italian.
Sam Turner: And then Eddie does point out that we've got to, you know, even before the shoot starts, we need language. that out, but he also says about we need to, I can't remember his name, but he wants to start at half nine or whatever it was. We need to do that.
Avian Sandercock: We need to, yeah, we need to go back.
Jake Woolf: So we need to be there. Yeah, Your Grace, we need to be on 9.30 and he listened to him, didn't he? You know, the Duke was and does run the place and it was, I thought it was very poignant where he stood looking over the lands.
Avian Sandercock: Yes.
Jake Woolf: And he is saying, I want this all back. But yet. Regardless, he was saying, I want it all back. We've lost it. But he still looked to his gamekeeper and he still fell back in line and went, we'll be ready for 930.
Sam Turner: And there is a good reference to gamekeepers later on. I don't want to spoil future episodes, but there's a bit of, let's say, searching for people in the woods with the game, obviously Vinnie the keeper and the neighbouring gamekeeper. And it's nicely put that nobody knows this ground like a gamekeeper does.
Jake Woolf: That's cool. I look forward to having that ruined. Cheers, Sam. But we did, we said spoiler alert. But what about the other etiquette and the one bit that I would like to, which I thought was brilliant, was when Amir says, why only two barrels? And Vinny replies back going, Gives a bird supporting chance, sir. Yeah, I thought that was spot on, wasn't it?
Avian Sandercock: That's a good bit, definitely. I mean, to anyone starting, thinking about getting involved in this, you're not, you're very unlikely to stand in a shoulder-to-shoulder line and have espresso martinis before you kick off. food is served almost a shoulder distance from where you stand. There's going to be a bit more involved in that. But again, some of the positives, the bit I like, the bit where he gets knocked on the conch with a partridge and not flat, that happens. I got hit on the arm by a partridge once and it bloody hurts and it startles you. But what I thought was good was it, again, it showed somebody who'd been involved in the script writing kind of understood how a day runs. that the whistle blew and everybody stopped. Guns are, okay, they should have been in slips, but the guns were down, everybody paid attention. And again, it's that how a day works. The hierarchy is obviously, you know, you're grateful to the host, but it's the keeper who runs the day. The picking up team have their job to do, so you get out of the way and do it. And I think generally, barring the flowering Hawthorne and the Sega Mega Drive Duck Hunt ducks, it kind of showed, although your first dip into game shooting isn't going to be at the big house with the drinks and the helicopters and the private jets. There's enough in there to say it's sanitised, but it's not a million miles away, is it? That there's a dress code, there's a way of behaving, there's the hierarchy of who's in charge, how the day runs, and you know what you're expected to do as you run the day.
Sam Turner: Those things definitely have continuity through it all, but the only thing is it doesn't include if you're looking at that for the first time, it could be intimidating to think, Oh, I have to be one of these people in order to go shooting, because it doesn't cover.
Avian Sandercock: I think if you watch the gentleman, I have to be one of these people, you'd probably need your head read, don't you?
Jake Woolf: What I want to, can I pull it back a bit to, we started talking about the being sporting, but there was a part there where Vinny says to the Duke, to, kind of like you might just need to slow down. He was shooting one for one, looking at it, watching, we could see what was going on. If you were first on a day and you shot like that, I think we should probably talk about, you'd get sent home if you were just blowing things up and just worried about the bag. I mean, let's. I guess that's the.
Avian Sandercock: Thing, isn't it, that if you're on that sort of day and you own the estate and you pay for the partridges, you can probably shoot as many as you bloody like. But if you remember at the dinner at the end when Jeff comes in, the keeper comes in with the card and there's quite a poignant moment where they make the point of telling you what the bag was.
Jake Woolf: Yes.
Avian Sandercock: Which is very authentic. You'll get that at the end of the day. The one that I think is amazing that Sam didn't jump all over straight away was when your man with the old lord was talking about his keeper's tip. I hope that'll be reflected in my tip, sir. The loader's tip.
Sam Turner: I didn't see anybody tip a loader.
Jake Woolf: Yeah. I think it was interesting, wasn't it? That whole scene with Jack and Lord Hawthorne and everything going forward. I think Jack would.
Avian Sandercock: I mean, that was the other thing was, you know, he said, oh, they kept coming in waves over me. But if you've got a good keeping team and you've got somebody you want to impress, you can organise a hot seat, can't you, to a degree.
Jake Woolf: Yes, you can. And the way he behaved elevens is when Eddie and Lord Hawthorne were talking, Would you be that humble? Would you be, would you be that bit, smug and kind of.
Avian Sandercock: You wouldn't. You probably wouldn't be invited back. And I guess he was only invited there because the shtick was that he wanted a live peerage out of it. So I guess that was kind of a character line that just showed how fragile and easy to play.
Jake Woolf: Would you meet people like that normally?
Avian Sandercock: Well, it's like Donald Trump playing golf, isn't it? He'll cheat to win and think he's wonderful.
Jake Woolf: But that's those two people. One's a character, one's a president.
Avian Sandercock: Yeah, don't do that when it's on your first day.
Jake Woolf: That's not normal, is it? You know, I've never been associated with anyone that behaves in quite that manner.
Avian Sandercock: But then again, I think we have all been unfortunate enough to be on a shoot where somebody's a bit greedy.
Sam Turner: Yes. So usually have a word with them after the first drive.
Avian Sandercock: I think if we look at this, then just sort of bringing it into a bit of a close, if somebody's going to go down this route and has an interest in it, I think Would it be fair to say that A, there's enough in that first sort of 20 minute bit for the shoot that gives you a flavor for what the very top end of shooting is, but understand that a lot of those rules and etiquette and ways of behaving filter down. And where you're most likely to enter game shooting, I guess, is either by an invitation to maybe a small to mid-sized driven day or perhaps through a syndicate. The people on the syndicate you've joined will probably help you through a lot of the finer points, the bits you might be worried about. And you're not going to be front and centre and everybody looking at you day one. But a few of those little bits that they kind of constructed for television won't steer you terribly badly. I mean, nobody's going to go into the gun room and bring back great-grandfather's matching pair purdies for you to have a go with.
Sam Turner: No, and I think actually importantly, what Guy has got right there is nobody, I don't, there will be the odd person that will do it because that's the kind of society we live in. Very few people are going to watch it and go, oh, isn't shooting terrible?
Avian Sandercock: That's a great point, mate.
Jake Woolf: I agree with that, Sam.
Avian Sandercock: I mean, there's a lot to maybe not like or people who hate it will find things to pick in it. You know, the shooting purists will go get their adenoids in and go, well, that's not exactly how you do that. And I thought Vinnie unloading guns and masking the fact that there was clearly nothing in the chambers. Put that to one side and I think you're right, Sam. I think it was handled in a very grown-up way. Matter of fact, this is what we do. It's done properly and this is the respect we have for it and this is how it's done.
Jake Woolf: Well, it was just dumbed down enough for, remember, 5%. don't like us, 5% love us, 90% really don't care. So it was done very tastefully, I thought. But I've got something here for you, chaps.
Avian Sandercock: Go on then.
Jake Woolf: If someone has watched the gentleman, and that episode on season 2 we're talking about, who has never been shooting and has just been invited on their first day, they're going out tomorrow, right? What's the one thing you'd tell them before they go tomorrow?
Avian Sandercock: Take me with you. No. Ears open, mouth shut.
Jake Woolf: Samuel.
Sam Turner: What if they've just watched The Gentleman and then...
Jake Woolf: They've never been shooting before. Tomorrow morning's their first day. What's the one thing you'd tell them?
Sam Turner: Yeah, listen to The Keeper. It's going to be basic stuff like that, isn't it?
Jake Woolf: Fair play. You wouldn't tell them to have the spiced breakfast with the eggs and the.
Avian Sandercock: Kedgiri. Have you never had Kedgiri?
Jake Woolf: Never. Never had it.
Avian Sandercock: It's A Victorian breakfast staple. It's kind of all the leftovers with curry and eggs on top.
Sam Turner: I've never had it for breakfast.
Jake Woolf: Yeah, never had it.
Avian Sandercock: Easier to eat with a hangover than kippers, that's for damn sure. Lonely little. I love them, but they're lonely little \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*. Is there any last thoughts then?
Jake Woolf: I could go into it for a long time. Like I want to talk about the criminals. No, I've watched episode one, obviously, but I was really taken back with the way that there was a whole kind of, there was so much going on with the personalities that it was so far-fetched and taken out of shooting that just poised that meeting point of bringing all the characters for then set the scene for the whole series. And I thought the way that it was done, as we've just discussed, was actually very, very well represented and shooting showed itself to be a gathering place for lots of various different people. It's how I felt.
Sam Turner: And there would be many ways that a director could get the group of people, you know, he could say, right, they're all going to go and play golf or they're all going to meet up and play poker or they're all going to.
Avian Sandercock: Or they're going to shoot from the hip and the leagues or, try and make it, do zoom shots and dead carters everywhere. No, I think you're right. I think you're right.
Jake Woolf: But shooting is, it's my knowledge, not full of drug dealers, money launderers.
Avian Sandercock: Well, this is the point. This is the problem I had with the first series. And you can see it's going to be a problem with the second series is if you're running a shoot like that with all the, I mean, you must have had 20 or 30 pickers up and God knows how many in the beat team. How do you keep a drug cartel factory secret with all those Herberts running around?
Jake Woolf: Listen mate, you're not meant to know anything. You keep your mouth right shut and you take the money. You take that brown packet.
Sam Turner: And you go home son. I think all this drug talk and shooting talk brings us nicely to this. Is it going to be this week's quiz? Are we doing a quiz every week?
Avian Sandercock: Oh, go on. If you've got one, let's do it. Let's see how we go. You are becoming the king of the silky Segway, though, won't you?
Sam Turner: I wouldn't say that. If you want to call me that, I'll...
Jake Woolf: Don't have that on your Tinder profile, mate.
Avian Sandercock: Go on. Not a game.
Jake Woolf: Good game.
Sam Turner: It's a quick game. Let's go, go, go.
Avian Sandercock: Go on then.
Sam Turner: Quiz, quiz. It's a quick game. I've got a table, so the scoring will take less time. Calling effort last one. And it is quite simply weed or pheasant. God. 10 to go. Malawi gold. Avian. Pheasant.
Avian Sandercock: Jake.
Jake Woolf: I'm worried I'm going to give away my weed donnage. Don't be good at this one.
Sam Turner: Japanese green. Jake.
Jake Woolf: Pheasant. Yeah, I'll go pheasant.
Sam Turner: Ave, you'll go pheasant. Moroccan black avian.
Avian Sandercock: Weed.
Sam Turner: Jakey boy.
Avian Sandercock: Pheasant, just say pheasant.
Sam Turner: Go on, go on. Melanistic mutant. Ave.
Avian Sandercock: Pheasant.
Jake Woolf: Yeah, pheasant as well, Samuel.
Sam Turner: Okay. The old purple Afghani. Afghani. Jake.
Jake Woolf: Weed.
Avian Sandercock: I have no idea. Weed.
Sam Turner: Michigan Blue, gentlemen, is that a weed or is that a pheasant? Avian.
Avian Sandercock: Pheasant. Yeah, pheasant.
Sam Turner: You really are giving stuff away, but it's Avian. Blue Dream, Ave.
Avian Sandercock: Oh, hell, I'm going to go weed with that. I'll go weed as well. I'm thinking our invitations are shrinking with every question that's asked. Oh, I don't know. Well, differently.
Sam Turner: Depends what you want to be invited to. Right, go on then. How many have we got left? Kansas Thunder, Jake. Fezzy.
Avian Sandercock: Fezzy.
Sam Turner: White Russian, Avian.
Avian Sandercock: Weed or a drink?
Sam Turner: Jake.
Jake Woolf: I'll go pheasant on this one.
Avian Sandercock: Controversial.
Sam Turner: And the last but not least, Khalij. Khalij? Khalij. Let's go Khalij. Let's go weed.
Avian Sandercock: That sounds Moroccan.
Sam Turner: I can imagine. Jake. I'm going weed as well.
Avian Sandercock: Oh, sorry, Mum.
Jake Woolf: Sorry, Dad.
Avian Sandercock: Let's hope we got all the pheasant ones right and everything else wrong.
Sam Turner: You've both got eight out of 10. Oh, God. Have we got a tie breaker? I don't have a tie breaker.
Avian Sandercock: Oh, there we go. I tell you what, here's the tie breaker then. Whoever got the most pheasants wrong loses.
Jake Woolf: You can't see Sam's kind of grey matter working really hard now.
Sam Turner: It's really bad because you both got a pheasant wrong and you both got a weed wrong. I think that's a dead heat. It's a dead heat.
Jake Woolf: It's a dead heat. It's yeah.
Sam Turner: You're both you're both drug dealing.
Avian Sandercock: Jake, shall we retire for a little bowl somewhere?
Jake Woolf: I'll tell you what, we'll go and pull a bucket up and we'll be good for it.
Avian Sandercock: Thank you, Sam. That's completely destroyed our street cred.
Sam Turner: No problem.
Avian Sandercock: No quiz next week.
Jake Woolf: Anyhow, back to it. Abe, I will be more than happy to go and have a whiskey and a cigar with you. I don't like whiskey, but I do like a cigar. So that's about as much leaf as I'm prepared to smoke. However, this has been a lot of fun. We could chew the cud on this for a long time. Thank you very much.
Avian Sandercock: Well, I think if you haven't watched the first episode, Go and watch it. It's good fun. Don't take it all too seriously.
Jake Woolf: It's not meant to be taken.
Avian Sandercock: Not meant to be. It's moving a story along. It introduces the characters well. I think it's going to be a fun series. And I think there's enough in there to make game shooting look positive and bringing people together and go and give it a go.
Jake Woolf: They weren't trying to make it like we should all go game shooting and it's really good. Sam, what have we got coming up next week?
Sam Turner: Next time, I think we might have a little bit of correspondence that leads us to the a bit more down to earth, the pricklier side.
Avian Sandercock: Try that again. The prick, what?
Sam Turner: Pricklier.
Avian Sandercock: Have you been smoking?
Sam Turner: Only pheasants.
Avian Sandercock: They're bloody hard to light. So we're off with the beating line, are we?
Sam Turner: We're off in the beating line next week.
Jake Woolf: Looking forward to that one. Looking forward to that one indeed. Right, so that's us done. If you're enjoying fishing game, you know what to do. Chuck us a five star rating. It really helps and please give us a follow, share it with your mate who is always banging on about fishing and shooting. And if you've got a story to tell or a rant to have or just fancy a natter, e-mail us at hello at sidecountry.co.uk. We do actually read them and that is genuinely we do. So right, gentlemen, tight lines. and hot barrels and we will catch you next time.