Billie Piper’s ‘Growing Pains’

BBC Learning EnglishWeekender
Billie Piper’s ‘Growing Pains’
　　Amber 1: Hello, I'm Amber, and you’re listening tobbclearningenglish.com.
　　Today, we listen to an interview with a famous pop star,actor and author – and she’s only 24 years old!
　　Billie Piper first shot to fame at the age of 15 when shesigned a million pound record deal. She went on to have 3number 1 singles. More recently, she’s won an award forher role as Rose in the long-running BBC television series‘Dr Who’. And now, she’s just published herautobiography – the story of her life so far! It’s called‘Growing Pains’.
　　Here is Billie Piper talking about what it was like growingup in the public eye and finding fame so young. As youlisten, try to catch the 3 adjectives she uses to describethe more difficult times when she was growing up.
　　Billie Piper‘You know, there was a period in my life (like 4 or 5years) where I found growing up in the world that I wasliving in quite stressful, quite painful, quite hysterical 2.
　　But you know there were great times as well and I thinkthat’s very important – and that’s in the book as wellas some of the bigger revelations.’
　　Amber: So Billie Piper says that being a teenage star wasdifficult and demanding – it hurt! She says it was ‘quitestressful, quite painful, quite hysterical’, althoughthere are ‘great times’ in the book too. And there are ‘revelations’ - new andsurprising pieces of information – about her life.
　　Next, Billie Piper talked about her pop music career. Shelistened to her hit song ‘Because we want to’ and shecouldn’t stop laughing! Here she is explaining why.
　　As you listen, try to catch the expression she uses todescribe her hit records –they’re for teenagers, so she calls them ‘teen something’.Billie Piper‘Ummm! Because they’re quite funny! And well, also –yeah – they’re quite funny - they’re‘teen anthems 4’ and at the time, I felt really kind ofstrange about singing them because I was a bit of a musicsnob when I was younger. That’s changed! But, yeah, I wasvery into Motown and Soul and all of those things and Ithought I was going to have a crack at that myself, when infact, we produced songs such as ‘Because we want to’
　　which obviously was a huge success and loads of kids lovedit and I suppose that’s all that matters!’
　　Amber: Billie Piper says her early records were ‘teenanthems’ – an anthem 3 is a song of loyalty 5 towardssomething, a country or cause, for example. She also saysshe was ‘a bit of a music snob’ when she was young – shelooked down on people who didn’t like the music she liked.
　　Listen again, and notice that Billie Piper uses theexpression ‘To have a crack at …’ ‘To have a crack’ atsomething means to try it.
　　Billie Piper‘Ummm! Because they’re quite funny! And well, also –yeah – they’re quite funny - they’re‘teen anthems’ and at the time, I felt really kind ofstrange about singing them because I was a bit of a musicsnob when I was younger. That’s changed! But, yeah, I wasvery into Motown and Soul and all of those things and Ithought I was going to have a crack at that myself, when infact, we produced songs such as ‘Because we want to’
　　which obviously was a huge success and loads of kids lovedit and I suppose that’s all that matters!’
　　Amber: When Billie Piper was 18 she married a high-profileDJ called Chris Evans in a high-profile wedding in LasVegas. 3 years later, they had a very public divorcealthough the pair are still good friends.
　　Billie Piper talks now about her feelings. She says shewants to achieve things‘on my own ‘merit’ – through her own abilities.
　　Billie Piper‘I’ve come away from that marriage with so many wonderfulthings and I know how to handle myself a bit more. I knowhow to be domestic which I had no idea about when I was17, and just how to get on in life and try and be good andtry and work hard. So I’ve come away with all of thosefantastic lessons. I don’t really want any of his money, Ireally don’t, I don’t care for it at all, it’s not in myinterest. I wanted to do things on my own – you know – onmy own merit and work hard to achieve good things.’
　　Amber: So Billie Piper thinks she learned a lot from hermarriage – she learned‘fantastic lessons’. Now here again is some of thelanguage we focussed on in today’s programme.
　　Stressful Painful Hysterical Revelations Teen anthems Amusic snobTo have a crack at somethingOn my own meritMore news stories and language explanations next time atbbclearningenglish.com