The Collings and Herrin Podcast

Last updated

The Collings and Herrin podcast
Title card for Collings and Herrin Podcast.jpg
Presentation
GenreComedy
UpdatesWeekly
Production
No. of episodes167
Publication
Original release1 February 2008 – 4 November 2011
Website www.comedy.co.uk/podcasts/collingsherrin/

The Collings and Herrin Podcast was a topical podcast produced by broadcaster Andrew Collins and comedian Richard Herring. Its title derives from the recurring Richard Herring trope of misspelling names for comic effect.

Contents

Described as a "sideways look at the news", [1] the podcast was discursive and based mainly on humorous analysis of the week's media coverage. It was light in tone but often veered into black comedy and crude humour as satire. It contained frequent uses of strong language and was described by a review in The Times as unsuitable for "sensitive souls". [2]

A typical episode length was one hour, six minutes and thirty-six seconds, due to this being the maximum length of a GarageBand recording, the software normally used to record the podcast. The podcast was made for and hosted by the British Comedy Guide and was also distributed via iTunes.

On 26 July 2008, the podcast was named "Podcast of the Week" [3] by the Times Newspaper and in November 2009, was regularly being downloaded by 23,000 listeners a week, with some episodes peaking at 29,000 listeners. The Guardian noted that the podcast captured "the spirit of Derek and Clive."

History

Herring and Collins in 2009 Richard Herring & Andrew Collins.jpg
Herring and Collins in 2009

Between 10 April 2005 and 25 March 2007, Richard Herring would review the week's newspapers on Andrew Collins' BBC 6 Music radio show. These segments would often end with corpsing.

Collins and Herring have mentioned that they had felt constrained by BBC guidelines and had wanted to produce a darker, more humorous segment with a longer runtime. The idea of producing an independent podcast was first mooted publicly on Collins' blog on 14 January 2008, leading to a number of comments in support of the idea. [4]

The first Collings and Herrin Podcast went live on 1 February 2008.

In June 2011, the podcast was announced to be on hiatus due to bad feelings between the pair. Andrew took an opportunity to host their old Saturday 6Music slot with another comedian, Josie Long, which Richard considered a betrayal of their double act. [5] The podcast was resurrected on 4 November 2011 for podcast 167, [6] [7] but on 21 November the podcast ended permanently due to Andrew Collins feeling it was time to end the project. [8]

In other media

Live shows: An unusual development for a podcast was a number of recordings with a live audience, the first being on 6 August 2008 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and others following in Brighton, London, Lincoln, Cardiff [9] and more Edinburgh Festival shows. [10] During 2009 these were often presented alongside Andrew Collins' solo 60 minute Secret Dancing performances. On 1 February 2010, the second anniversary of their first podcast, the pair performed their "100th" podcast (in actuality their 105th) to a sell-out crowd at the Leicester Square Theatre in London.

Radio: In January 2010 it was announced [11] that the duo (as "Collins and Herring" rather than "Collings and Herrin") would be filling in for Adam and Joe on BBC 6 Music from 30 January. Their residency continued until April 2011. Each week the highlights were released as podcasts on the BBC website.

CD: On 22 March 2010 they released a CD of exclusive podcasts called Collings and Herrin: The Best of Earth, Wind and Fire* *(and water) through Go Faster Stripe. [12] A second CD called Collings and Herrin: War and Peace, Crime and Punishment was released through Go Faster Stripe on 15 December 2010. [13]

Vodcast: A number of video podcasts have been released parallel to the official podcast count. These are usually released as bonus features on Richard Herring comedy DVDs.

Bootleg: A bootleg recording of "legendary" Podcast 123 rescued this installment from permanent loss: This episode, recorded live at the 2010 Edinburgh Festival, [14] is dubbed "legendary" in that technical problems ruined the official podcast recording and resulted in an audience evacuation towards the end of the show. [15] For three weeks, the podcast was assumed lost until a fan came forward with a bootleg recording of poor but serviceable sound quality.

Themes and running jokes

Who is Virgilio Anderson?

Collins and Herring launched a culture jamming campaign, spreading the message "Who is Virgilio Anderson?" after a so-named member of the public from Macedonia used Richard Herring's name as the primary key for his Facebook page[ clarification needed ].

T-shirts were printed, [25] Anderson-themed music videos were circulated on YouTube [26] and many personalities (such as Steven Moffat) added the phrase to their websites. #virgilioanderson became the second most popular trending topic on Twitter on Thursday 2 July 2009 and the words "Who is Virgilio Anderson?" were scribbled in the grouting of the tiles in a toilet cubicle at the British Library (the cubicle second from the left in the east wing, first floor) on 16 July 2009.

Little is known of the true identity of Virgilio Anderson but information on his interests, favourite books and political beliefs were visible at his Facebook page, before it was deleted.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Herring</span> English comedian and writer (born 1967)

Richard Keith Herring is an English stand-up comedian and writer, whose early work includes the comedy double act Lee and Herring. He is described by The British Theatre Guide as "one of the leading hidden masters of modern British comedy".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stewart Lee</span> British stand-up comedian, screenwriter and television director

Stewart Graham Lee is an English comedian, screenwriter, and television director. His stand-up routine is characterised by repetition, internal reference, deadpan delivery, and consistent breaking of the fourth wall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Mortimer</span> English comedian and actor

Robert Renwick Mortimer is an English comedian, podcast presenter and actor. He is known for his work with Vic Reeves as part of their Vic and Bob comedy double act, and more recently the Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing series with comedian Paul Whitehouse. He has also appeared on panel shows such as Would I Lie to You? and Taskmaster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Collins (broadcaster)</span> English writer and broadcaster

Andrew Collins is an English writer and broadcaster. He is the creator and writer of the Radio 4 sitcom Mr Blue Sky. His TV writing work includes EastEnders and the sitcoms Grass and Not Going Out. Collins has also worked as a music, television and film critic.

Trevor Neal and Simon Hickson are a British comedy duo and are best known for a family-friendly version of anarchic alternative comedy on BBC1 Saturday-morning shows Going Live! (1987-1993), and Live and Kicking (1993-1997).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lee and Herring</span>

Lee and Herring were a British standup comedy double act consisting of the comedians Stewart Lee and Richard Herring. They were most famous for their work on television, most notably Fist of Fun and This Morning with Richard Not Judy but had been working together on stage and on radio since the late 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reginald D. Hunter</span> UK based American comedian and actor

Reginald Darnell Hunter is an American stand-up comedian based in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Josie Long</span> British comedian (born 1982)

Josie Isabel Long is a British comedian. She started performing as a stand-up at the age of 14 and won the BBC New Comedy Awards at 17.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucy Porter</span> English actress and comedian

Lucy Donna Porter is an English actress, writer and comedian. She has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe, the Brighton Festival and many clubs around Britain. She is also a regular voice on BBC Radio 4 in various panel shows, including Quote... Unquote and The Personality Test.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew Crosby</span> English comedian and writer

Matthew Crosby is an English comedian and writer.

Brian Limond (born 20 October 1974), known as Limmy, is a Scottish comedian, author, and Twitch streamer.

Thomas Paul Allen is an English comedian, actor, writer and presenter. In 2005, Allen won the So You Think You're Funny contest.

The Museum of Curiosity is a comedy talk show on BBC Radio 4 that was first broadcast on 20 February 2008. It is hosted by John Lloyd. He acts as the head of the (fictional) titular museum, while a panel of three guests – typically a comedian, an author and an academic – each donate to the museum an 'object' that fascinates them. The radio medium ensures that the suggested exhibits can be absolutely anything, limited only by the guests' imaginations.

Sarah Kendall is an Australian comedian from Newcastle, New South Wales. She won the Raw Comedy competition in 1998, regularly appeared on Australian television. She moved to the United Kingdom in 2000 at the age of 24.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Comedy Guide</span> Website covering all forms of British comedy

British Comedy Guide or BCG is a British website covering all forms of British comedy, across all media. At the time of writing, BCG has published guides to more than 7,000 individual British comedies - primarily TV and radio situation comedy, sketch shows, comedy dramas, satire, variety and panel games. Other notable features on BCG include a news section, a message board, interviews with comedians and actors, a series of comment and opinion articles, a searchable merchandise database, and a section offering advice to aspiring comedy writers. The website also runs The Comedy.co.uk Awards and hosts several podcast series, some of which have won awards.

Christopher Ramsey is an English actor, comedian and presenter. After appearing in Hebburn as Jack (2012–2013), Ramsey began presenting series including I'm A Celebrity: Extra Camp (2016), Virtually Famous (2016–2017) and Stand Up Central (2017).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cariad Lloyd</span> British comedian, actress, writer and podcaster

Katie Cariad Lloyd is a British comedian, actress, writer, and podcaster who has been performing since 2007. She is a member of the improvisational comedy group Austentatious, the host and creator of Griefcast, and an improv teacher.

<i>Me1 vs Me2 Snooker with Richard Herring</i> Comedy podcast about snooker

Me1 vs Me2 Snooker with Richard Herring is the world's longest running snooker podcast, presented by stand-up comedian Richard Herring. First published in December 2011 it peaked at number one in the iTunes charts of the same month. In each podcast Richard Herring performs against himself in a game of snooker.

<i>No Such Thing as a Fish</i> Comedy podcast

No Such Thing as a Fish is a weekly British podcast series produced and presented by the researchers behind the BBC Two panel game QI. In the podcast each of the researchers, collectively known as "The QI Elves", present their favourite fact that they have come across that week. The most regular presenters of the podcast are James Harkin, Andrew Hunter Murray, Anna Ptaszynski and Dan Schreiber, and there are occasional guest presenters. When one of the regular presenters is unavailable for any reason, fellow QI elves Alex Bell and Anne Miller often take their place.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rachel Parris</span> English comedian (born 27 May 1984)

Rachel Sarah Parris is an English comedian, musician, actress and presenter. She hosts the satirical news show Late Night Mash.

References

  1. Guide, British Comedy. "Collings & Herrin". British Comedy Guide . Retrieved 20 June 2016.
  2. "Login" . Retrieved 20 June 2016.
  3. "Login" . Retrieved 20 June 2016.
  4. "Never Knowingly Underwhelmed". Archived from the original on 20 August 2010. Retrieved 20 June 2016.
  5. "A personal explanation | Never Knowingly Underwhelmed". Wherediditallgorightblog.wordpress.com. 29 June 2011. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  6. "Collings and Herring podcast". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 5 November 2011.
  7. "2011 November 04 « collinsandherring". Collinsandherring.wordpress.com. 4 November 2011. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  8. "Richard K Herring on Twitter" . Retrieved 20 June 2016.
  9. "COMEDY REVIEW: COLLINGS AND HERRIN PODCAST LIVE • Buzz Magazine". 21 January 2010. Retrieved 20 June 2016.
  10. Kettle, James (14 August 2009). "Comedy preview: Collings & Herrin Podcast Live! Edinburgh". TheGuardian.com . Retrieved 20 June 2016.
  11. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 25 January 2010. Retrieved 23 January 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  12. "Go Faster Stripe" . Retrieved 20 June 2016.
  13. "Go Faster Stripe". Go Faster Stripe. 3 November 2010. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  14. "Collings and Herrin Podcast 123 (Bootleg Version) – Podcasts – British Comedy Guide". Comedy.co.uk. 3 September 2010. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  15. "Warming Up". Richard Herring.com. 12 August 2010. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  16. Herring, Richard. "Tuesday 23rd March 2010 – Warming Up – RichardHerring.com" . Retrieved 20 June 2016.
  17. [ dead link ]
  18. [ dead link ]
  19. [ dead link ]
  20. Clark, Igor (24 September 2010). "Collings is a bummer | Flickr – Photo Sharing!". Flickr. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  21. "Warming Up". Richard Herring.com. 2 October 2009. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  22. "C&Ht-shirtselection". Flickr. 23 September 2009. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  23. John Sergeant dances through divide, BBC News, 17 November 2008
  24. "Collings and Herrin Podcast 68 – Podcasts – British Comedy Guide". Comedy.co.uk. 19 June 2009. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  25. Herring, Richard. "Tuesday 23rd June 2009 – Warming Up – RichardHerring.com" . Retrieved 20 June 2016.
  26. "Richard Herring - Who is Virgilio Anderson". YouTube . Archived from the original on 21 December 2021.