The Collings and Herrin Podcast

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 10,000 and 15,000 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.

Andrew Collins and Richard Herring describe their work as a "sideways look at the news."

People

Andrew Collins is an English journalist, scriptwriter and broadcaster. He has written for New Musical Express been the editor of Q and film editor for the Radio Times. 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.

Richard Herring (bummer as Richard requested on his recent podcast 1st August 2008, listen to it before you remove it again!!) is a nationally known comedian and writer. He is arguably best known as part of Lee and Herring, a double act with Stewart Lee. Other notable works include the radio series, That Was Then, This Is Now and various live shows including the acclaimed Talking Cock. Herring is the author of a book on the penis, Talking Cock (named after and featuring much of the stage show).

Inception

The podcast had its inception in Andrew Collins' BBC 6 Music radio show. Collins was a broadcast radio DJ and asked the comic Richard Herring to come in and give a short skit based on the week's news. 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.

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"[1] 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[2]. 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 [3]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[4]. And wish the new Iraq a happy fifth birthday.[5]"
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[6], 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 [7].
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[8] 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[9]. 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[10] is going to get on Tuesday, what makes Austrians put people in cellars[11], 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	57 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!

Relationship

A 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' isn't entirely appropriate e.g. "Way to go, colleague.". Herring has mentioned this in his newsletters, where he makes a point of over-explaining their relationship, even when it isn't particularly relevant, stating the podcast is done in conjunction with "my old 6 Music colleague (he is not my friend) Andrew Collings"

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.

External links

• Richard Herring's website
• Andrew Collins' website
• Richard Herring's blog
• The Podcast itself
• Times Review
• Clandestine Critic Review