The Collings and Herrin Podcast is essentially two blokes (one looks like Ewan McGregor’s mate Charley Boorman and the other bares a strong resemblance to socialist comedian Mark Steel) sitting an attic and talking for about an hour about the news. It doesn’t sound like a good time but what’s amazing how the conversations develop between a stand-up comedian best known to the public for his work in the ‘90s and a music journalist famous for being a talking head.
This lo-fi output, recorded through a laptop mic in Richard Herring’s attic, was conceived after Andrew Collins’s run on BBC Radio 6 Music ended. Herring was a regular contributor to the show through his reviews of the newspapers and the pair decided to record their own podcast without the restraints set in place by a massive organisation.
Collings and Herrin, a lo-fi Podcast
It goes without saying that a large quantity of podcasts available on iTunes are simply edited versions of radio shows produced by major media outlets such as the BBC and Absolute Radio, that are neatly packaged with all the music removed. The Collings and Herrin Podcast works so well because the pair do this out of enjoyment and leave it unedited, except on rare occasions where parts are removed for libel reasons. A knowing sign of this happening is when the running time falls short of the usual 1:06:36.
For first time listeners the experience is a little jarring and hard to follow as there’s no lead in music or no set sequence of events, other than Collins reading stories from the day’s newspapers (tabloids mainly as they provide brilliant material) and Herring making jokes about it. Occasionally they drift off into other avenues when there’s a great anecdote to tell – the story of Herring’s iPhone being stolen took up almost 30 minutes.
Explicit Comedy and Who is Virgilio Anderson?
It’s also marked as “explicit”, a warning that should be heeded by those sensitive souls who are easily offended. Not because there’s a constant bombardment of foul language by any means, in some cases half an hour can pass before either of them utters a four letter word, but due to subjects being discussed it’s certainly only suitable for mature listeners interested in the definition of “nyum nyum nyum”.
Several themes have emerged over the year and a half of podcasts from the early days poking fun at The Sun’s opinionated loudmouth Jon Gaunt and The Daily Mail’s right-wing keyboard warrior Richard Littlejohn to Herring’s lustful advances on Collins, vandalising Wikipedia, ginger beer, discussing their position on the iTunes chart, secret dancing and seeking an answer to the eternal question: who is Virgilio Anderson?
But it’s not all about crudeness as Podcast 92 demonstrated featuring very little adult material and focused more on the literately exploits of a young Richard Herring, resulting in one of the best episodes ever produced.
Andrew Collins and Richard Herring Podcast
Okay it’s a fair cop to point out that some of targets are obvious, it’s not hard to dissect tabloid reporting or laugh at the levels of idiocy in the world, but without the restrictions of an employer or no mass audience to appeal to for financial gain they can really unleash their feelings whether they’re genuinely held opinions or synthetic observations exaggerated for comic effect, which is very funny when they are in full swing.
Not all the output is top notch and this is rectified by a shared knowingness when a section isn’t up to standard. Although some of the above descriptions sound horribly pretentious or, on the flip side, completely childish it’s highly recommended for fans of comedy disillusioned with some of the more rubbish TV comedy output lately and for some socially inept, 20-something sados this is one of the highlights of the week.
Anyone interested can check out the updates/download page hosted on The British Comedy Guide. Podcasts are added about once a week and are free.
Steven Cookson - Steven Cookson is a writer and attempted journalist based in Howden. Originally from Chester, that Hollyoaks place in North-West of ...
