Again, with two small children it’s incredibly hard to commit yourself to anything because you’re just getting interested in it and someone comes along and goes I want Thomas The Tank Engine on, and screams the place down until you put it on.

Meaning of the quote

When you have young kids, it's really tough to focus on your own interests or hobbies. Just when you start to enjoy something, your kids will demand to watch their favorite TV show, like Thomas the Tank Engine. They'll keep yelling and throwing a fit until you give in and put the show on. It can be really frustrating trying to do your own thing with little kids around.

About Jo Brand

Jo Brand is an acclaimed English actress, comedian, presenter, and writer. She started her career in psychiatric nursing before transitioning to the alternative comedy scene and going on to star in numerous popular TV shows. Brand has also made regular appearances on radio and was once listed as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy.

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More quotes from Jo Brand

I just don’t like travelling very much.

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People say you should read your criticism because it will make you a better person but it doesn’t. It just makes you a sad bitter old showbiz nightmare.

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I find it difficult to judge myself, but people say that I have become a bit more socially acceptable over the years in terms of my material; which apparently at the beginning – though I never really intended it to be – was man hating and now is just a bit more cuddly.

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By crying on my bed, drinking quite a lot and feeling tempted by drugs. Well, just not reading it to be perfectly honest with you. I know it’s a bit of a copout.

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It’s a video release as well so I have to be perfectly honest and go, probably not specifically for DVD, but there are extra bits on it that aren’t on anything else, so as exciting as that sounds.

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Again, with two small children it’s incredibly hard to commit yourself to anything because you’re just getting interested in it and someone comes along and goes I want Thomas The Tank Engine on, and screams the place down until you put it on.

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Anything is good if it’s made of chocolate.

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With two small children, I haven’t had a wash since 2001 so the chance to go shopping is way down the list. It is something I do intend to get.

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So, my style has hopefully changed over the years and it is more relaxed, and I do tend to smile and have more than one expression these days hopefully – which I didn’t at the beginning.

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It’s got too much hard work slapping them and telling them to shut up.

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Who do I like? I am a big fan of French and Saunders – not that that they are particularly stand-up I have to say, but I think they have been great for women and they are of themselves just incredibly funny whether they are male or female.

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I don’t know if we will ever try again because those sort of things are very hard to organise but yes, I’ve known Doon for years and John as well but I hadn’t met Will before, and he turned out to be a good laugh.

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The thing I thought about doing it was it’s Comic Relief and you’ve got to be funny. So although I did try to sing properly it obviously has hilarious results when you can’t sing.

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I wouldn’t say I was organised at all. I just have to prioritise. Is it more important for them to be organised, or to have their dinner, do you know what I mean?

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It’s inevitable that if you do okay on something like that you don’t just annoy people, that it will make a difference because it seemed like such a lot of people so, yes I would have to say that it has done.

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I was really, because I thought it was extremely excruciating when I watched a tape of it, that my husband taped for me and I never watched it again after that.

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I don’t know really, it doesn’t feel like it has changed to me but I think to have to move with the times. Try out different areas and not get stuck in 1978.

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I made a supreme effort not to do that thing that parents do, which is to bore people without children to death by going on and on about how funny their children are, so there’s none of that hopefully.

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I think there’s a far more general audience now because I’ve done more populist stuff on telly.

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The reason I used a name was because I was a nurse at the time, and I didn’t want my name in Timeout and people from working coming along and taking the piss.

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I had always fancied a go at the comedy and when it started to go reasonably well and the opportunity arose for me to move into it full time, I just couldn’t turn it down. I just took the risk, and I just wanted to see if it would work and thankfully it did.

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I’m sure some cynical people would point to that as the main reason for doing it for a lot of people.

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One of the guys that used to run it – for some reason I’ve no idea why he used to call me the Sea Monster and I was just looking around for a name and thought that’ll do. That lasted for a couple of years probably.

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What they did was to make a pilot and it may well go to series at the next festival but I don’t have any news on that. It’s already been on Paramount actually, but as it’s on Paramount it’ll probably be on several more times… hopefully.

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Over the years I attempted to make my style a bit more relaxed ’cause the initial style you couldn’t watch for more than ten minutes without wanting to kill me.

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So, I kind of rather was hoping that people thought it would have a nice mixture of different topics and it also takes in the fact that I’ve had two children recently.

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