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Private Notes
RHLSTP (rhlstp) is back and Richard has stories from Armenia and the Amalfi Coast and is threatening to reveal the plot to the final episode of Breaking Bad (no spoilers, don't worry). His guests today are Shappi Khorsandi and a load of flies that have invaded the theatre (you don't get this on Graham Norton). Whilst trying to kill flies, the human beings in the show discuss how to check for car bombs, Tucker Jenkins, what English people smell of, dating rock stars and telling Julian Fellowes to fuck off.
Richard's guest is ex-moustachioed comedian and actor, Rufus Hound. The initial twins chat about what it's like working for Claire's Accessories, Peter Wyngarde's ill-judged pop career and a protracted and fascinating insight into the reasons that Rufus really left Celebrity Juice (including an incredible stand-off with the woman off of How Clean is Your House?). Also see who comes off best in a fight between Rufus and a chair.
Richard's guest this week is Miranda Hart. The pair last appeared together in the short film, A Very British Cult, in which Richard was the STAR, so let's just remember that and none of the stuff that's happened subsequently. They also chat about the different comedy they have created from falling into graves, being mistaken for the wrong gender, laughing at inappropriate times and Miranda's trial for QPR. There's a further exciting evolution for the ham hand/suncream armpit question (which leaves ham and armpits behind) and a treat for fans of the opening credits of some of the series of Not Going Out (that's just Richard then).
Richard tells a story of a terrifying prediction made by an Armenian fortune teller and is needlessly insulting to a dead broadcaster before introducing this week's guest, Miles Jupp. Although Jupp has appeared in films with George Clooney and Jon Stewart and won plaudits for his stage and TV work, Richard is keen to talk to him about the children's television show, Balamory, and NOTHING ELSE. The audience do not share the host's fascination with this lazily acted, repetitive show for pre-schoolers, but Herring's view is clouded by watching it in a fun of alcoholic despair, so it made him question the very nature of being. Don't worry, the Balamory part only lasts about 25 minutes, so there's still at least an hour of chat about divinity, the Harry Potter franchise, tea tasting and fly fishing, Miles' suspiciously late booking for the podcast and a bizarre phobia of lettuce. You'll also find out some of the good things that terrorists have said and done and witness Richard losing the ability to speak and the will to live as his half-marathon exhaustion finally overcomes him. At least he's not an Imp Pervert.
Richard is stuffed to the gills with giant chocolate buttons and recounts the time he got lost in Buckingham Palace, and still on the prowl for flies to murder.
There is a beef with his guest, Dara O' Briain, who still remembers the scathing review that Herring gave him in an online diary back in 1998. And there's more online comment as the pair discuss the sexual fantasies that comedy fans harbour on Dirty Britcom Confessions.
There's also chat about how to cope with fatalities on aeroplanes, whether it was worth almost dying on the Zambezi to stop African children being able to play, the paradoxes of digit based time travel and the truth about goose rescuing myths. And Dara has definitely seen a Bigfoot.
If you take nothing else away from this podcast then let it be that.
The company director with the sexiest voice in the world is in the front row and Richard is needlessly rude to his less sexy fans.
His guest is one of the world's greatest improvisors, Ross Noble and Richard shows how hard interaction can be by failing to find anything funny to say about the rest of the front row. But luckily from there on in he is not going to get a word in edgeways as Ross talks non-stop for approaching 100 minutes about TAI Fridays, what it's like to own a tank, convincing his daughter that he's a wizard, why you can't trust Twitter to provide medical advice, why he's more Geordie than Cheryl Cole and how difficult it is to peel potatoes when all your possessions have been destroyed.
There are also pyres of burning animals and mad cow leather trousers and criticisms of a hopefully still living Bruce Forsyth.
Can Ross get comedy gold where Richard failed by interrogating a child therapist in the front row or can it only end in disaster? Can the pair keep the podcast going forever? Is it still going on now? Will you ever be able to catch up?
Richard has just returned from Vienna, burdened with ice-cream disappointments and further worries about his wife's insensitive choice of cheese. But he's got a blinding guest to cheer him up, a man who has appeared in the triumvirate of sci-fi classics, but that won't mean anything until he's learned to jaunt, Simon Pegg. They discuss what Tom Cruise is really like, the pressures of being a godfather to a superstar baby, playing pranks and throwing up on the set of Star Trek, what it's like working with your teenage film star crush, time-travel cock rings, Ben Dover's merchandise and Richard suggests a new sitcom which might provide an opening for the return of Spaced. It probably won't though. And Richard dares to ask Simon what he himself considers his worst film. There could be fireworks!
Richard gives his surprise mystery (to the audience at least) guest possibly the worst introduction known to mankind, but gigantic Stephen Merchant is more than a match for this tiny Somerset hobbit. The pair discuss big foot-based anal sex, the disappointing lack of shenanigans in the bar at the 1997 reboot of Blockbusters, setting up Jack Bauer's Facebook page, penis-length anxiety, how Stephen accidentally ended up shooting a porn film, the Wookey Hole paper-mill, what it's like picking up Ricky Gervais' Bafta and the rigours of filming with Halle Berry. Tim from The Office might get a mention. Due to Richard getting a bit overtired and overexcitable it goes a bit weird towards the end, but Stephen has achieved a lot of success through the comedy of embarrassment, so it's nice for him to witness some at such close quarters. You are going to enjoy Richard trying to dig himself out the hole he creates and doesn't seem to want to escape. It's an awkward end to a fun series of which Richard is both proud and ashamed.
