Clair & James Buckley put marriage under the microscope with ‘In Sickness and in Health’
It’s a summer’s day, and the hubbub of a heaving train station is lit with a golden hour glow. Two passengers inbound for Liverpool are riddled with the peculiar nerves that come with expectations unknown. Fast-forward a few hours, and James Buckley and Clair Meek are sheltering from the hot sun in a pub. All has gone well with their rendezvous so far, and an awkward kiss – the type where teeth collide – is approaching. In the background, the sound of The Beatles is floating around, as though beckoned from the ether by the would-be lovers to mark the occasion, and yet both are too dizzy with delirium and perhaps Stella Artois to remember what song was playing was when their lips first met.
Nevertheless, having discussed the band extensively on Twitter before meeting, Clair sees it as a sign, whereas James simply jokes, “I paid the bar”. They are now Mr and Mrs Buckley, and they have been for ten years. And yet, without the connective ways of the Fab Four, they might not have been. As James admits: “It’s one of the first conversations we had. If The Beatles didn’t exist, we probably wouldn’t be married. My children wouldn’t exist. It’s bizarre how a pop band can be so important.”
There are, no doubt, millions of couples who can say the same thing. “It’s quite scary, really,“ Clair muses on the enormity of it. “We often talk about it and say, ‘I wonder if you’re Paul McCartney or Ringo Starr, whether you know how much of an impact you’ve had when it comes down to the tiniest little personal thing‘. From our experience, The Beatles have been instrumental from the beginning in everything we’ve done. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it is true.”
In truth, it is these seemingly facile connections that cement all relationships. Would it have worked out with my partner if it wasn’t for a bonding conversation about Tim Key on our second date? What would I talk about with my mates without football? As life unfurls, little things like conversations about favourite Beatles songs become important, so I pose just that to Clair and James. “I have so many,“ Clair begins, “But the one that always springs to mind for me is ‘A Day in the Life’. I just love everything about that song. You could listen to it for hours and not get bored.”
James is cagier; he hums and haws before mustering, “I was about to cop out of that and go with my favourite album.“ I acquiesce and say that’s fine; he’s given me enough laughs over the years for a minor liberty like that. “I’ll go with Revolver then,“ he says, initially confident in his choice. “But then, Sgt. Pepper, The White Album and Abbey Road as well. All of them. I’ll go with all of them.” This is not only indicative of the fandom of the Fab Four, or how much of an ”embarrassingly big” part of their relationship they have proven for James and Clair, but rather societally transcendent art can be.
In the modern age, that notion has evolved. It is no longer just the masterful anthems or silver-screen masterpieces that people fill their days with. The world is hectic for many of us, so simply reclining into the familiar tones of a favoured podcast has all the same catharsis as high art. With this in mind, I tentatively posit that, who knows, maybe in 60 years time, people will still be listening to In Sickness and in Health. “Yeah, our podcast will have the same cultural impact as The Beatles,” James jokes, followed by mirthful protestations from Clair not to use that line. Too late.
Alas, my assertion wasn’t smoke-blowing. Podcasts are as connective and personal as entertainment gets. The relatable, humorous and comforting quality of In Sickness and in Health, the couple’s new podcast, will undoubtedly become a welcome crutch for people who simply can’t fall asleep without embracing its quilted tones for a moment, nervous flyers that download endless episodes to get them through a flight, spontaneous quips from the three-minute mark of episode 22 will enter the parlance of a couple’s vernacular, and so on and so on. We are so hurried these days that podcasts are the happy little bedsheet dens for adults. As Clair comically quips, “It’s so mundane, but in the best sort of way.”
In the 21st century, that is a cracking selling point for their show. “I suppose it is your classic couples podcast,“ James expands. “Everyone does one these days, so we thought we may as well jump on that bandwagon. I’d like to think that we put our own spin on it because I’ve listened to these couple of podcasts, and usually one of them is a bit of an idiot, and the other one is really happy. But we’re both really miserable, and there is no fall guy here; there is no foil. We both just talk about the stuff that annoys us about each other.”
“The episodes could get really long,” Clair jokes in a fine insight into the podcast’s patter. “It is what I like to hope is a much more honest and realistic portrayal of what it is like to be married for another ten years,” James adds. Is that the original twist? “No, there is nothing original about this whatsoever,“ he continues. “It’s just I think me and Clair bickering is quite funny. One of my favourite things to do in the world is to wind Clair up and make her angry, and she does take the bait a lot of the time. I find that hilarious, and I think other people will, too.”
They’ve been welcoming people into this little world of theirs for a while now with their YouTube channel, At Home With The Buckleys, and the book of the same name that the success of their community curation spawned. The podcast is an extension of that, focusing on the potholes usually airbrushed out of the family content. “Obviously, we are married, so we do get along… sometimes. So, usually, when we argue, it is hopefully quite funny and never anything too serious. But, it just felt like a natural little progression from the YouTube channel where we get a bit deeper and into the weeds a little bit,” Clair explains.
“I think the podcast is where me and Clair are really at our best,” James adds before Clair counters, “You’ve set the bar there.” So, James clarifies, “Oh yeah, I should clarify: our best is really not very good.” This, along with other comic remarks from our interview, such as, “There isn’t really that much depth in the marriage,” set the tone for what to expect from the show. As James surmises with his wholesome tagline: “I think a lot of people will relate to us. I think our marriage is the same as everyone else: it’s with two people who love each other a lot, who get on each other’s nerves (a lot).”
The podcast realm seems like the perfectly liberating place to express that. It allows James to freely swig Stella and belch as he goes along. “That’s the big appeal,“ he says. “Being an actor – which, by the way, is the best job in the world – but you still literally get told what to do, what to wear and what to say. That is the job. So, it is nice to have more control and create something that means more to me personally. And I can’t think of anything more personal than talking about your marriage.”
Acting, like music, is a part of their marriage; careers are all part of the gambit of in sickness and in health (and in everything else to boot), and to bring it all full circle, James shares the sort of tale that may well crop up on the podcast too when I ask whether his acting has ever afforded him the fortune of meeting a Beatle. “I have,“ he says. “I haven’t,“ Clair wearily interjects. “Well, do you want to stop talking? Because I think this is a conversation we’re having.“
“Yeah, I met Ringo,“ he continues, trying to sound as casual as is humanly possible. He goes beyond the equivalent human disposition of sweatpants and overacts the casualness. Clair comically chips in, “Alright, relax.“ Before James continues with the tale: “He came in to do a little bit of work on a film I was in. It was actually my day off, but I said, ‘Well, I’m coming in, you can’t stop that, I wanna see Ringo do his thing’. And he was really great and really, really lovely. And I asked him a couple of questions about The Beatles. And he seemed very pleased to talk about it; I don’t know if he actually was or not, but he seemed fine.“
“And he sort of summed it up for me because I did ask him, ‘What was it like being in The Beatles?’, which must be the most annoying question in the world, and he just said, ‘Look, I was 19, I was in the biggest band in the world, girls loved us, it was absolutely amazing’,” as James adds, you can’t say it fairer than that.
Alas, the beauty of the podcast is epitomised by Clair quickly adding, “That is the one thing he has ever done that I’m jealous of.“ It is that sort of humility, away from the champagne tales of chinwagging with a Beatle, that makes In Sickness and in Health so appealing. It is a relatable boon to soothe you through the duller days, and although Buckleymania might not ensue, that fact that they already have a little legion of people who would now place them in their karass – a term coined by Kurt Vonnegut to mean people who you find your life tangled up with – as everyday comforts to ease the grind.
James and Clair’s new podcast, In Sickness and In Health, is available now on all streaming platforms. New episodes every Tuesday. You can follow them @insicknessandinhealthpodcast
