RHLSTP #148: Robert Webb - The Ideal Age To Die. Richard is still prickling with mortification after an encounter with Michael Portillo, as if turning 50 and moving house wasn't enough, but he has still found time to read his guest's fantastic new book "How Not To Grow Up", I mean "How Not To Be a Boy", Robert Webb. They chat about their mutual inability to draw 8s; and hours (and relationships) lost to Civilisation II; the way tragedy (or not) can shape a comedian; where you would seek release ...
Oct 05, 2017•1 hr 12 min•Season 11Ep. 14
RHLSTP #147: Arthur Smith - Rage and Balloon: Rich tries to find someone older than him in the audience, as he tries to squeeze some joy out of the last few hours of his forties. His guest is older and sager than he and has been doing the Edinburgh Fringe for a full decade longer, it's the self-proclaimed Mayor of Balham, Arthur Smith. They discuss smashing bottles over people's heads, worst and most uriny heckles, the honours system, near death experiences, brushes with the law, Are You Being S...
Sep 27, 2017•55 min•Season 11Ep. 13
RHLSTP #146: Limmy - Monopoly Penguin. Rich is on the cusp of a couple of massive life changes, but he won't let ageing and moving get in the way of asking comedians strange questions in an attempt to make them reveal intimate truths. Today he talks to a man with inventive ideas for revenge and murder, Limmy. They discuss being concreted into the pavement, manspreading, swearing xylophones, fake whatsapps, undescended testicles, sea lion genitals, how to save money when touring, the joy of trave...
Sep 22, 2017•1 hr 10 min•Season 11Ep. 12
RHLSTP #145: Julian Clary - Fist of Fun. Richard is still bugging last week's audience about Lego Batman - it's amazing they keep coming back. His guest is Gillian Pieface, or as she is sometimes known, Julian Clary. They chat about how the Universe lets you know it's time for a break, psychic teeth, burning pianos, perverted monks, the inability to escape innuendo, living next door to hyenas, having a head full of skin, the Tracey family and Aquamarina, Piers Morgan, cocaines, Brian Blessed, Ji...
Sep 13, 2017•58 min•Season 11Ep. 11
RHLSTP #144: Katy Brand - Catering for the Dead. Richard hasn't eaten enough in a last-ditch attempt to lose weight before he turns 50, but no time for stomach rumbles because his guest is professional Margaret Thatcher impersonator and teenage evangelical Christian, Katy Brand. Questions, emergency and non-emergency are asked, like how does Brian Blessed feel about hobgoblins? Where do demons go when they have been dispossessed? Are Medusa and Emily Bronte the only women in history? When is Int...
Sep 06, 2017•1 hr 9 min•Season 11Ep. 10
RHLSTP #143: Dan Skinner - Tape in a Bag. Richard has his least successful attempt to meet his audience of all time, but no matter, he has a great guest on hand in the form of Angelos Epithemiou creator, Dan Skinner. They chat about how the character came to life, the audacious way in which he inadvertently auditioned for Shooting Stars, how he failed to get a part in Richard's sitcom, the story of why Jim Broadbent appeared in Around The World In Eighty Days, working with Ken Campbell and Ben W...
Aug 30, 2017•1 hr 12 min•Season 11Ep. 9
RHEFP 2017 #4: John Robins and Ahir Shah - Suck Each Other Off A Bit. Richard reveals the hypocrisy of his parenting techniques and reminisces about the death of Lady Di. His first guest is Edinburgh Comedy Prize nominee Ahir Shah - they chat about Brexit, how looking into the sun proves your strength and wisdom and the older generations disregard for metaphorical ladders. His second guest is Edinburgh Comedy Prize nominee, Jon Robbins (sorry) John Robins. They talk about break ups, being in rel...
Aug 26, 2017•1 hr 5 min
RHEFP 2017 #3: Iain Stirling and Jason Manford - The Main Thing Is Ricky Gervais Didn't Win. Rich is mortified about having accidentally crashed someone else's show and is thinking of becoming someone who pays to sit in a hairdressers. But the good news is that Colin is back to remind his guests of times that things have gone wrong for them. Rich's first guest personally knows many of the people that Rich not-so-secretly lusts over at CBeebies - it's Iain Stirling. They chat about working alongs...
Aug 19, 2017•1 hr 3 min
RHEFP 2017 #2: James Acaster - Three Nights in Peterborough. Richard is so close to becoming the Radio Times Comedy Champion that he can almost taste it, which will just make his ultimate failure all the more painful and thus amusing, but luckily he almost shat his pants on a children's roundabout. HIs guest went one step further than that, it's the wonderful comedy genius James Acaster. They discuss how hot chocolate is not a flavour, sky diving in slip-ons, the dangers of eating chicken nugget...
Aug 12, 2017•1 hr
RHEFP 2017 #1: The Doug Anthony All Stars - The Boy Who Cried Batman. The King has returned and he's at the spooky New Theatre Grand Hall where the Masons get up to all sorts of mysterious time-travelling. And Richard is very excited to be welcoming comedy legends the Doug Anthony All Stars, Paul, Tim and Paul. There's lots of chat about the Edinburgh Fringe of the eighties, the point where comedy and tragedy meet, what happens when you become the carer for your comedy partner, what happens if y...
Aug 05, 2017•1 hr 4 min
RHLSTP #142: Brendon Burns and Craig Quartermaine - Race Off. Richard contemplates the now trickier commute to work that he has thanks to being forced to move to the country because he is 50, before introducing veteran comedian Brendon Burns and a man with only one credit, Craig Quartermaine. It's a more contemplative RHLSTP than usual, as the two Australians discuss the racial issues that many of their countrymen refuse to confront and how comedy can deal with questions of race (especially if a...
Aug 03, 2017•1 hr 12 min•Season 11Ep. 8
RHLSTP #141: David Baddiel -What is the Biggest Ant?. Richard is pondering what it must be like to buy a flat in BBC TV Centre, and appreciating his daughter's grasp of money. It's a reunion this week with a man he once shared a bed and a tiramisu with in a Presidential Suite, David Baddiel. They talk about double act reunions, the ethics of writing about your family secrets for comedy, the perils of getting older and needing comfort breaks, cat bum coffee, why all comedians are writing children...
Jul 26, 2017•1 hr 10 min•Season 11Ep. 7
RHLSTP #140: Andrew Collins - Frog Tape. Richard is over excited to find people 2/5ths of his age in the front row and tries to forget he is on the verge of his sixth decade. He's gone against the advice of last week's podcast and had a drink, and so has his guest, it's Classic FM's Andrew Collin(g)s. It's the first time the pair have spoken in over 60 months and it would be foolish to deny that there might be come tensions bubbling beneath (and all over) the surface, but there's still time for ...
Jul 19, 2017•1 hr 31 min•Season 11Ep. 6
RHLSTP #139: Zoe Lyons - The Camaraderie of the Jam Factory. Richard attempts to work out how a waitress in a pizza restaurant with a limited menu might be surprised by every order, before introducing former competent waitress and fudge packer, Zoe Lyons. The chat encompasses Alan Titchmarsh based humiliation, Cherie Blair, the bluntness of the Dutch, almost being the first person to die on reality TV, and performing to Australian miners. Plus travelogues to Alaska and Indiana, Voyager and anall...
Jul 12, 2017•1 hr 9 min•Season 11Ep. 5
RHLSTP #138: Adam Buxton - How Short Are You That You Can Not Reach? Richard has been gifted an almost free Twirl by the Universe. But has he been moral, immoral or amoral? To help us find out, the first ever three times returning guest on the podcast and multi-award winning podcaster, Adam Buxton. The pair discuss middle-aged confrontations and why the staff at WH Smiths in Cambridge station are maybe overzealous, how Adam appeared like a guardian angel when Richard was in trouble and telepathi...
Jul 05, 2017•1 hr 16 min•Season 11Ep. 4
RHLSTP #137: Jessica Knappett - Air Mattress. Richard is worried that he smells of cat wee, but he can't let that slow him down, he is chatting to the star of his as un-yet commissioned sitcom (but it will be commissioned in some universe somewhere), Jessica Knappett. Under discussion are the horrors of birth and death, the unfortunate associations that belong to the town of Bingley; what one is supposed to be getting out of a massage; the sweet, sweet taste of very long-term showbiz based reven...
Jun 28, 2017•1 hr 10 min•Season 11Ep. 3
RHLSTP #136: Joe Thomas - Pasta-based diet. Richard is excited about becoming a father for the second time, but not to witnessing the birth. His guest is, like him, a son of teachers and has a 2:1 degree in history and grew up in a town that begins with the letters Che, it's Joe Thomas. Thomas shows Herring what his life might have been if only he'd been in a hit show, whereas Herring serves as a dire warning for where Thomas could end up if things go wrong for him. They chat about how Joe nearl...
Jun 21, 2017•1 hr 11 min•Season 11Ep. 2
RHLSTP #135: Paul Merton - Waiting For Crawford. It's back for an eleventh series - who keeps commissioning this? - and Richard's new emergency questions are coming true as he's fresh from irking a postman. His guest is someone who he used to only be able to speak to in drunken awe at early 1990s BBC Radio Light Entertainment parties, Paul Merton. They discuss their similarly comedy-nerdy teenage years, the early days of the alternative comedy circuit where Alexei Sayle's stream of swearing migh...
Jun 14, 2017•1 hr 10 min•Season 11Ep. 1
Wells Comedy Festival Extra: Bec Hill - Passing The Baton. Rich has risked the wrath of everyone in his home town of Cheddar by travelling beyond the horizon to Wells, where the crazy people dwell, and doing a special podcast for the inhabitants. But don't worry Cheddar - he mocks the Wells insane asylum dwellers and won't let them get away with being called a city. He is armed with a copy, fresh off the presses of the new Emergency Questions book, which will be winging its way to kickstarter ba...
May 31, 2017•1 hr 7 min
RHLSTP #134: Peter Serafinowicz - Brian Blessed and the Big Foot. It's the final episode of Series 10 of RHLSTP and Rich meets a bearded man who has married to find a partner (find out how he did it nerds). His guest is the laid-back and yet also intense (and rather beautiful) Peter Serafinowicz. They talk about how it's almost impossible to parody the new President of the United States, but the effective way that Peter managed it and his fears and plans should there be repercussions from the th...
Feb 15, 2017•1 hr 38 min•Season 10Ep. 18
RHLSTP #133: Lucy Porter - Altercation With A Shepherd. Richard is worried that he's been experimented on by aliens and about whether a litigious Egghead will be coming for him. His guest this week is pocket dynamo, Lucy Porter. They chat about their varying success on quiz shows, how Danny Dyer saved 2016, what it's like being married to a Queen-loving giant and what it's like performing in front of a room full of babies. Also, how Kitchen Karaoke and Rich with his top off led to romance and ho...
Feb 09, 2017•1 hr 7 min•Season 10Ep. 17
RHLSTP #132: Simon Munnery - Don't Die. Richard quizzes his audience to find how little they have done with their lives, before introducing the comedian's comedian and avant garde comedy genius, Simon Munnery. In a frank interview Simon reveal the unwritten truth of Steve Coogan's 1992 Edinburgh Fringe hospital visit, how Mark Lamarr did the bravest thing ever witnessed on stage, how Simon met his wife as a voice in the darkness during a gig that was spiralling out of control, setting up a resta...
Feb 01, 2017•1 hr 7 min•Season 10Ep. 16
RHLSTP #131: Sarah Millican - Old Man's Pants Under The Bed. Rich has just had to stand impassive in a stranger's guff for fear of looking like the one who smelt it and thus dealt it and it's been a bad day all round, but everything should be OK as it's round 5 of the verbal boxing match (that threatens to become a naked wrestling match) with Sarah Millican. They chat about Daniel Craig's bum, who invented the lifeboat, whether we only remember the times we were bullied and not the time we were ...
Jan 25, 2017•1 hr 15 min•Season 10Ep. 15
RHLSTP #130: Jess Thom - Biscuit. Rich meets some people who have never tried sushi before introducing Tourettes Superhero (though that's a secret) Jess Thom. It's a battle to see who will say the most inappropriate thing, but for once Richard is given a run for his money as the pair discuss the facts about Tourettes, the positive effects in terms of creativity, the gatekeeper of the brain and what it's like to be able to inadvertently create brilliant emergency questions. Plus discussion of the...
Jan 18, 2017•47 min•Season 10Ep. 14
RHLSTP #129: Susan Calman - Milk Tart. Weeks have passed for you in the Donald Trump President Elect alternate universe, but this was recorded less than a week after the result and Richard and the world are trying to process what he means. He makes a bold prediction that we can only hope has come to pass, before introducing the never efficiently researched Susan Calman. There's chat about the loneliness of touring, the terror of the new world order and what it might mean for minorities and wheth...
Jan 12, 2017•1 hr 25 min•Season 10Ep. 13
RHLSTP #128: Tom Davis - Nervous Lord's Prayer. You have us at an advantage this week, as you know who the next US President will be and we don't. What terrible future are you in? Either way. But let's forget about that and welcome the smiling man-mountain that is Tom Davis. Suddenly he is appearing in everything, most notably the brilliantly fun Murder In Successville, but we'll find out about how he made it and what he was doing before. Are Scaffolders really the craziest of all the tradesmen?...
Jan 05, 2017•1 hr 6 min•Season 10Ep. 12
RHLSTP #127: Dawn French - Mmmmm Yes, Do It That Way. Rich is giddy with fanboy excitement at having one of his childhood (and adulthood) comedy heroes in the off-white seat, it's the loveliest person in the United Kingdom, Dawn French. They discuss what it is like to be in a double act where you actually like your partner, on stage vertigo, the Queen Mother's teeth, whether it's worse to lose a pet or be an orphan and a choice between getting students through their exams and international comed...
Dec 21, 2016•1 hr 22 min•Season 10Ep. 11
RHLSTP #126: Deborah Frances-White - Alien Orifice. Rich is reeling from a Pointless betrayal of the twin-Judases, but he rises above it to introduce podcaster, writer, businesswomen, feminist and champion of diversity Deborah Frances-White. There are some fascinating stories of adoption, what Jehovah's witnesses can and can't expect from the earthly paradise, whether relationships continue in the after-life, and one of the best explanations of how privilege works that you will ever hear. Plus t...
Dec 14, 2016•1 hr 9 min•Season 10Ep. 10
RHLSTP #125: Ed Gamble - Harry Potter Trivial Pursuits. Rich finds a woman in the audience who doesn't seem to know where she is, who he is or understand the concept of remembering. She continues to be bamboozled throughout the show. And perhaps with reason, as this chat with pretend aristocrat and real diabetic Ed Gamble takes some odd turns. In one of the giddiest podcasts for quite some time Richard tries out a lot of new emergency questions which prompt discussions about the sleeping habits ...
Dec 07, 2016•1 hr 30 min•Season 10Ep. 9
RHLSTP #124: Chris Addison - Cut Up By Prince Phillip. Rich discovers that someone from US TV is in the audience and considers sending the guest home so he can audition for a stand-up special, but Chris Addison is backstage and it would be rude to do that after he's bothered to come in. The pair chat about Wikipedia-based factual inaccuracies, the true story of how Chris was nearly Doctor Who, the technical realities of sewing people together anus to mouth, some thoughtful exposition about a wor...
Nov 30, 2016•1 hr 24 min•Season 10Ep. 8
