They were two of Noughties British culture’s most prolific faces, and now real-life best friends Lily Allen and Miquita Oliver are back with a brand new BBC Sounds podcast, Miss Me?
The premise of the podcast involves the pair getting together twice a week for transatlantic catch-ups (Oliver lives in London, while Allen lives in New York), as they dissect and dive into the kinds of conversations on pop culture, politics, music, family, love, life and death that you could only have with a life-long best friend.
Despite Oliver admitting in 2011 that it would be 'terrible' to work with Allen - a charge she copped to as the pair played Knowing Me, Knowing You with ELLE UK - she quickly joked, 'Obviously I've changed my mind!'
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If they hadn't endeavoured to launch a podcast together, Oliver suggested that perhaps they'd have started an advertising agency. 'I'm quite interested in marketing?' she said, as Lily scoffed, before Oliver corrected herself and joked that maybe they'd have started a hedge fund, before they dissolved into fits of giggles.
'No, no,' the former T4 presented joked. 'This [podcast] is the only thing we could've done together. That's why it's taken so long to do anything together.'
When they're not chewing the fat on either side of the pond, the born-and-bred Londoners both enjoy watching TV, although their tastes differ ever so slightly. While Allen correctly guessed that she was the one of them who has watched every single episode of ER, she also confessed that she'd recently watched Irish crime drama series Kin, whereas Oliver, who joked that her tastes sounded 'basic' admitted that she's most recently enjoyed The Bear and One Day. When Oliver asked whether Allen had actually watched the hit Netflix adaptation of the David Nicholls bestseller, the 'Smile' singer admitted that she had, but had a differing opinion to her best friend. 'I did watch it [One Day] and I didn't think it was very good,' Allen said plainly.
Asked to describe her best friend in three words, Oliver said, 'Difficult, loyal and kind' before Allen quipped, 'Are you talking about yourself?! Can you elaborate on difficult please?' In response, the trio of adjectives Allen used to summarise her best friend were 'Tall, funny and social,' which Oliver replied to saying 'God, I sound like such an arsehole!'
Having spent much of their 20s partying in and around London - former night club YoYo is a particularly fond memory of Oliver's - their favourite girls' nights now look decidedly different from how they used to. 'Mine would be my children leaving me alone, and me watching terrible television in bed with my husband bringing me cups of tea - chamomile tea,' Allen said.
'We sort of have FaceTime girls nights, which is her there doing that and me, at home, doing whatever I'm doing,' Oliver added. 'FaceTime's weird, it makes you forget that you haven't seen each other in so long.'
From revealing their go-to workouts to their favourite night-out memories, you can watch the rest of Lily Allen and Miquita Oliver’s Knowing Me, Knowing You video at the top of this article.
Miss Me? with Lily Allen and Miquita Oliver is available to stream now on BBC Sounds
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Naomi May is a freelance writer and editor with an emphasis on popular culture, lifestyle and politics. After graduating with a First Class Honours from City University's prestigious Journalism course, Naomi joined the Evening Standard as its Fashion and Beauty Writer, working across both the newspaper and website. She is now the Acting News Editor at ELLE UK and has written features for the likes of The Guardian, Vogue, Vice and Refinery29, among many others.
