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Collings and Herrin (podcast)
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The Collings and Herrin podcast is a podcast produced by Andrew Collins and Richard Herring, which is made for and hosted by the British Comedy Guide. Herring has a habit of misspelling people's names for comic effect and it is for this reason that the podcast is named in the way it is.
It was named "Podcast of the Week" by the Times on July 26, 2008 and is estimated to have between 15,000-20,000 listeners.
Content
The content is based mainly on an analysis and critique of the week's media coverage. It is light in tone, but often veers into very dark humorous digressions. They describe their work as a "sideways look at the news."
Hosts
Andrew Collins is an English journalist and scriptwriter. He has written for New Musical Express, been the editor of Q and Empire and film editor for the Radio Times. If offered enough money he is prepared to admit to having "loved" 1980, 1981 and 1982. He has been a presenter on BBC 6 Music and has written a series of autobiographical books starting with Where Did It All Go Right? in 2003. His latest book, That's Me in the Corner: Adventures of an Ordinary Boy in a Celebrity World, was released in paperback on July 3, 2008. It failed to reach the top 10, despite a campaign by Richard Herring to get everybody who listens to the podcast to buy it in its first week of publication.
Richard Herring is a nationally known comedian and writer. He has been described as "one of the leading hidden masters of modern British comedy" [1] and "A reliable Fringe pleasure" by the Guardian. Herring has worked with a number of other comedians, including Ben Moor as part of the double act Herring and Spaz, and with Stewart Lee, as part of Lee and Herring. Other notable works include the radio series, That Was Then, This Is Now and various live shows including the acclaimed Talking Cock and the resulting book of the same name. He has also had a successful collaboration with Andrew Collins who worked with him on the radio comedy series Banter; and hosted Herring on Collins' 6Music show. His 2008 stand up set 'The Headmaster's Son' earned critical respect with four 5 star reviews and several 4 star reviews.[2] [3] [4] [5]
Inception
The podcast had its inception in Andrew Collins' BBC 6 Music radio show. Collins asked Herring to come in and review the week's newspapers on a Sunday. This commenced on 10 April, 2005 and ended almost two years later, on 25 March, 2007. The reviews often ended in both of them corpsing, and they both seemed to enjoy it. Both participants have mentioned that they felt constrained by the BBC guidelines and wanted to produce a darker, more humorous and longer segment, hence the podcast.
The idea for the podcast was first mooted publicly on Collins blog on the 14th January 2008. This led to a large number of comments from readers in support of the idea. [1]
Episode Guide
| # |
Date |
Length |
Overview |
| 01 |
February 1, 2008 |
43 min |
In their first podcast, "recorded with the in-built mic on Richard's laptop because our expensive microphones didn't work, we cover David Beckham, Britney Spears, the Woolworth's "Lolita"[6] range of children's bedroom furniture, the US election and much, much more." |
| 02 |
February 15, 2008 |
51 min |
Their second podcast covers "everything from feral thugs and Katie Price to the Beijing Olympics (well, not literally everything, obviously). Younger listeners should be aware that 40 minutes is our new watershed, after which we stop using polite euphemisms". |
| 03 |
February 29, 2008 |
51 min |
In their third pocast they "are forced to discuss Prince Harry in Afghanistan as it's the only story in all the newspapers[7]. Plus, capital punishment, Paris Hilton's kitten, Lemsip Max and the sweaty Cupid and Fate." |
| 04 |
March 14, 2008 |
52 min |
In their fourth podcast, they cover "everything from the Budget, the Cheltenham Gold Cup, old mens' noses and wheat to the McCartney divorce settlement [8]and the big question: whether we should do our podcast every week." |
| 05 |
March 21, 2008 |
51 min |
In their fifth podcast, the first to appear weekly, they cover "everything from our arch-rivals the Nuts Podcast, the paedo who landed, the sad death of Captain Birdseye and the sad split of Kym and Jack Ryder[9]. And wish the new Iraq a happy fifth birthday.[10]" |
| 06 |
March 28, 2008 |
51 min |
In their sixth podcast "either our second (or third) weekly podcast, we join the nation in Carla Bruni Mania[11], ask why the Sun won't publish the harmless slang word "nosh" and examine our own personas within the new double act. And get a free muffin." |
| 07 |
4th April, 2008 |
52 min |
In their seventh podcast, Richard eats a gluten-free biscuit and threatens bran-related odours, and they cover everything from Robert Mugabe and Gary Rhodes to Nick Clegg and Britannia [12]. |
| 08 |
11th April, 2008 |
55 min |
Even though Richard is on holiday, the podcast continues! They talk about Ed Balls and the human-cow hybrid[13] and whether it's acceptable to talk about owls after a September 11th-style tragedy, and it's almost as if Richard is there. |
| 09 |
18th April, 2008 |
55 min |
In their ninth podcast, they put the world to rights, albeit mainly the world of Gordon Brown's body language to the wronged Hillary Clinton, a BEFORE and AFTER spam email that we suspect is not wholly trustworthy, and the perils of taking Oasis and Lucozade onto a plane for perfectly innocent reasons[14]. One of them is a left wing goody two shoes, but which one? |
| 10 |
28th April, 2008 |
54 min |
In their tenth anniversary podcast, they wonder how "sensational" Alan Levy's memoir[15] is going to get on Tuesday, what makes Austrians put people in cellars[16], why on earth would Trinny and Susannah go naked for publicity and what if Lembit Opik actually married both Cheeky Girls? |
| 11 |
2nd May, 2008 |
53 min |
In their eleventh podcast, recorded during the knife-edge count in the London mayoral elections, we discuss both the "bloodbath" and the "meltdown" for Labour, while sparing a thought for fascist Italy, Miley Cyrus, drunk women in Northumbria and the fools who spend money asking 118 118 questions when they can answer them for free. |
| 12 |
9th May, 2008 |
57 min |
In their twelfth podcast, they defend Ant and Dec, defend Hitler, share their memories of being in the Bullingdon club and find out what they were both doing on May 5, 1982 by using our diaries. Don't turn off when they start talking about the bouncy castle as it get unexpectedly much better after it. |
| 13 |
16th May, 2008 |
62 min |
Will their thirteenth podcast be unlucky? Yes, if you don't want to hear Andrew talking about Lion Man, but no, if you want to hear Richard trying to talk about pandas' hands and why Cherie Blair had to "put out" on her first date with Tony Blair in 1976. What has Andrew been controversially drinking? Two sips of caffeine or alcohol? Find out inside! |
| 14 |
23rd May, 2008 |
60 min |
In the fourteenth podcast, they try to put Lion Man behind us, and investigate the ins and outs of zoophilia, plus Crewe and Nantwich, the need for fathers, what to really do if you feel chest pains and the difficulty of sticking chewing gum on Blade Runner-style moving adverts. |
| 15 |
2nd June, 2008 |
87 min |
In their 15th nervous breakdown, they cover such burning issues as the Universal Studios Disaster, mini-socks, gym etiquette, Fern Britton's 'diet fib', Britain's Got Talent and 'a delicious explosion of unmatched responses.' |
| 16 |
6th June, 2008 |
58 min |
In the sixteenth podcast, not by any stretch either of their finest work, unrehearsed, they discuss the Big Brother hopefuls whilst trying not to learn their names, the subtext of Planet Of The Apes, crybaby Jon Gaunt, Richard's advanced colour-blindness and our first ever review in a national magazine that's not as good as it used to be. And they go on about ginger beer - again! |
| 17 |
13th June, 2008 |
61 min |
In our seventeenth podcast, we wish Wayne Rooney and Coleen McLoughlin the very best, rail against the Stop and Search policy of the Metropolitan Police because it mainly singles out Andrew, investigate the wording of the Queen's Regulations about moustaches in the RAF, and wonder whether either Planet Of The Bulls or Planet Of the Catholics would be more entertaining that the one with Apes. |
| 18 |
20th June, 2008 |
55 min |
In our eighteenth podcast, we look closely at David Beckham's pants, discuss the sexism of Ascot coverage, come up with a recession-beating way of saving money on stamps in Taiwan, calculate where we both stand in the celebrity hierarchy by measuring the distance between Ant and Dec and the VIP area of a fashion show in Northampton, and roundly ignore the man who said Andrew sounds like Mr Bean, thus depriving him of the oxygen of publicity. Plus! Extra 5% News Free! |
| 19 |
27th June, 2008 |
61 min |
In our nineteenth podcast, we ponder our big relaunch with a brainstorming session that unequivocally rules out the possibility of a Vernon Troyer-style sex tape scandal; we also say happy one-year anniversary to Gordon Brown, give one of the more popular political parties in Henley some marketing advice, discuss the sexism of The Sun's sports coverage and have a look in our wheelie bins for Iraqis. |
| 20 |
4th July, 2008 |
61 min |
In the relaunched podcast, which is very different to the others, we discuss theology, Nazism, Communism, homosexuality, transexualism, hypocrisy, the ageing process, the importance of context in the media and why Ian Blair should wear a tie, the idiot. (Alright, it's just like all the others.) |
| 21 |
9th July, 2008 |
65 min |
In our twenty-first podcast, two days early this week, we discuss corn-stuffed caviar, kelp-flavoured cold Kyoto beef shabu-shabu, hairy crab "Kegani" bisque soup, salt-grilled bighand thornyhead with vinegary water pepper sauce, milk-fed lamb, G8 fantasy dessert and coffee. (Thanks to the G8 leaders with their faces in the trough for that menu.) |
| 22 |
17th July, 2008 |
64 min |
In our 22nd podcast, we bring perhaps the most important news story of the year to wider notice, unfathomably buried at the bottom of Page 6 in this week's Sun, and ignored by all the other papers. We also start a campaign to make necrophilia illegal and review the 1983 TV drama Reilly Ace Of Spies. You don't get reviews of 1983 TV dramas on the Cobra Pubcast with Danny Wallace and Dom Joly. |
| 23 |
25th July, 2008 |
59 min |
In our twenty-third podcast, in light of Radovan Karadzic's arrest for being an acupuncturist, we discuss the amazing disguise possibilities of growing a beard, Christian Bale getting bail, the key differences between a Milton Keynes NCP call centre operator and a concentration camp guard, and conduct a calm, reasoned, evidence-based debate about homeopathy. We also reveal details of the first ever live podcast with an audience in Edinburgh. |
| 24 |
1st August, 2008 |
63 min |
In this twenty-fourth podcast, Richard is in Edinburgh (as evinced by his Loch Ness monster hat and local drink) and Andrew is in London, but miraculously, they have made a podcast anyway. In it, rather than get worked up about topical matters, they discuss the wider issues of Giles Coren, Barabbas, Argentina Brunetti, the 'quite surreal' nature of Un Chien Andalou and the precarious nature of the Collings & Herrin Podcast Wikipedia entry. |
| 25 |
6th August, 2008 |
59 min |
In this historic podcast, recorded live in front of a committed, rain-sodden, early-morning weekday Fringe audience at the Underbelly in Edinburgh, we go through the Scottish versions of the daily newspapers, and talk - into an actual PA system, but then put through the usual in-built mic on the MacBook - about a girl who looked a bit like Maddie, Heath Ledger, the cloned puppies, Jon Gaunt's Dad's tears, the man who chopped off the other man's head on a Greyhound bus and walking alongside a pigeon. |
| 26 |
15th August, 2008 |
53 min |
In this, our slightly tired twenty-sixth podcast, recorded last week in Richard's rented flat in Edinburgh, we offer up Jon Gaunt's autobiography Undaunted to the book club, pay tribute to Private Schultz, describe the previous week's Tempting Tatties performance-art 'happening' and invent a new Wikipedia game that all the family will enjoy, and does not involve vandalising it in a childish way. We are having a week off now, but plan to return the week after, refreshed. |
| 27 |
28th August, 2008 |
66 min |
We return to podcasting after two weeks and one day to discuss such burning issues as whether Gary Glitter should be 'tagged', whether David Beckham was paid to kick that ball off a bus at the Olympics, just how lazy are journalists on the BBC News website and whether the Falklands need defending any more. It is indeed good to be back, good to be back. Now with added jingles! |
| 28 |
5th September, 2008 |
66 min |
Hello. In this twenty-eighth edition of The Moral Maze, we debate such burning issues Sarah Palin's surname, the likelihood of political prisoners being released due to the sight of Richard in cotton wool-filled Amnesty International pants, gang violence, gym etiquette, the sexiness of Esther Rantzen and other powerful women, and whether it's helpful to describe all paedophiles as "monsters". We also re-enact the photograph from the Mail of a concerned mum and her Superman costume-wearing seven-year-old son. Guaranteed jingle-free. Bye. |
| 29 |
12th September, 2008 |
66 min |
This week, in our post-end-of-the-world podcast, we explain what those men in Geneva were actually trying to achieve, congratulate The Media for continuing to mislead us and do no work, catch up with what happened ten months ago in Holloway Prison, promote eugenics but not the bad kind, apply for the job of caption writer on the Express and enjoy the aroma of a roll-on deodorant that may or may not contain sodium laureth sulphate. This podcast was recorded in spite of Richard having food poisoning and Andrew having to sit near him |
Running jokes
Both Collins and Herring often tackle the same issues in several podcasts or refer back to moments of high amusement from previous recordings. This has given rise to a number of running jokes which might leave newcomers to the podcast nonplussed.
One of their more frequent topics is the writings of the Sun newspaper columnist Jon Gaunt. They have often made humour out of Gaunt's obesity and right-wing views, though these two factors are seen as merely correlative and not contingent. Other running jokes focus upon Collins's aural resemblance to Mr Bean; Herring's dieting and fitness regimen; rival and more successful podcasters, such as Adam and Joe; and Herring's relative failure, both critically and comercially, when compared to his erstwhile partner Stewart Lee.
An oft repeated running joke between the two alludes to the fact that they are colleagues and categorically not friends. Collins has stated this in a number of blog entries, deliberately using phrases where the term 'colleague' is not entirely appropriate e.g. "Way to go, colleague."[2]. Herring has mentioned this in his newsletters, where he makes a point of over-explaining their relationship, even when it is not particularly relevant, stating the podcast is done in conjunction with "my old 6 Music colleague (he is not my friend) Andrew Collings".[3]
It has been suggested that the physical closeness of the two men, alone, in a house together, rather that in a professional environment such as a studio, was what prompted Collins to make clear the distinction between friendship and working relationship. Furthermore, Richard has frequently "joked" that he would like to "bum" Andrew. This joke has been taken further by Herring who incited his listeners to amend pages on wikipedia to suggest, or simply state as (untrue) fact, that the person the page refers to is a "bummer".
Herring often calls Andrew Collin's Mum a "fucking idiot". Indeed, in the only live recording of the podcast the phrase "fucking idiot" was met with a cheer. Collins is often quite upset by this.
The listeners
The suscribers of the podcast are frequently referred to as an "army of geeks" or "nerds" with Herring stating he would "rather eat mud than have sex with anyone who listened to this podcast". The impact of this statement is limited, however, since Herring's views on mud-eating remain unknown.
External links
References
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