If you’ve spent any time on the internet recently you will have no doubt seen the man in the pink hat, Johno Verity.
As it happens, Johno is one of my oldest and dearest friends. We first met back in 1998, in the first weeks of my first season in Meribel, and he’s been one of my closest friends ever since.
Not that it’s always been smooth sailing. Me and Johno are both big personalities, with plenty of ego and vulnerabilities, and there have been times we’ve really clashed, and almost fucked it up.
But one of the great joys of getting old are the consolations of old friendships, and in the past couple of years myself and Johno have dealt with all that and come out of it stronger and better friends than ever.
And this latter period has also coincided with the unlikely season of his great recent internet fame. We’ve been chatting about recording a Looking Sideways x Man in the Pink Hat episode for a while now, in London, or Croyde at various points. In the end we made it happen in mid August 2026, in my new hometown of Bracklesham, at the height of the fifth heatwave, and during a particularly febrile and emotional week for me.
So it was that at 5.30am one hot morning we set off on a cycling and walking mission around Bracklesham and East and West Wittering, recording this conversation as we went.
And it was a beautiful and, for me, vital morning: emotional, life-affirming, and a reminder of the great power of the consolation of lifelong friendship, with the Solent, the Isle of Wight, Hayling Island and Portsmouth in the distance, all burnished by the rising sun as myself and Johno chatted.
We laid some ghosts to rest, reminisced about our shared history, and I got to find out more about this long, strange recent trip Johno is on as the man in the pink hat.
This conversation came along at just the right time for me. Thanks Johno. I love you like a brother.
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00:00 Introduction
03:25 Daddy Issues
19:11 The Pink Hat Accident
33:36 History and the Pushback
48:06 In Bed With Meta
1:01:06 Tenacity Over Talent
1:15:39 London Empty at Dawn
1:22:29 30 Years of Friendship
1:29:08 Housekeeping Corner
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