Hellish

The Hellish Advent Calendar is back! Every day in the run up to Christmas we’re resurrecting former guests and forcing an extra song on to their Infernal Playlists: a Christmas song they cannot stand. Today we welcome back novelist JENNY COLGAN, who originally joined us for episode 38.  Jenny’s new book, The Secret Christmas Library, is out now. https://uk.bookshop.org/a/14263/9781399734271 C...

It's the last episode of season three, and what a season it has been! We're ending it in style by getting the incredible LAURA CHECKLEY to give us the five tracks she will meet in Hell! Laura's CV is stuffed full of amazing shows, including Detectorists , Red Dwarf , and King Gary , as well no less than three critically acclaimed hit shows this year alone: Dope Girls , The Change , and What It Fee...

The author of Telenovela and We are the End , GONZALO C. GARCIA, gives us the five tracks he will meet in Hell! Gonzalo told us all about his new book, Telenovela, which is set in Chile in the last days of Pinochet's dictatorship. We talked about growing up in and out of Chile, beer, the stupid British citizenship test, and we got a new number one most chosen song in the history of Hellish, displa...

Actor and writer ANTHONY SPARGO gives us the five tracks he will meet in Hell! (Oh no he doesn't! Oh yes he does!) Pantomime season is almost upon on us in the UK, and so it's fitting that we plucked a panto legend from the queue of damned souls this week. Anthony has appeared in ten pantomimes, writing four of them - his Dick Whittington won 'Best Script' at the 2025 UK Pantomime Awards. We got t...

Musician, writer, and sports fan FELIX WHITE selects the five songs he will meet in Hell! Well known as a member of the recently reunited Maccabees, and one third of the Tailenders podcast, Felix is also a great non-fiction writer. We got to talk to him about his new book, Whatever Will Be Will Be: A Matter of Life and Football in which he attended every round of last season's FA Cup. It's a great...

Screenwriter CATHERINE TREGENNA shows (not tells) us the five tracks she will meet in Hell! Catherine is much in demand as a screenwriter, having written for Lewis , Law and Order UK , and the Bergerac reboot. As well as talking us through her Infernal Playlist, Catherine tells us about writing for Torchwood and Doctor Who ; her crime drama The One That Got Away , which was filmed in both English...

Author LOUIE STOWELL guides us through the five tracks she will meet in Hell! Louie told us all about her bestselling series of children's books, which revolve around the Norse god Loki in the former of an eleven year old boy. They're very funny and you should read them if you haven't already. We also uncovered the heinous crime that got Louie sent to Hell, welcomed four artists who have never bee...

Politician GILL GERMAN MP gives us the five tracks she will meet in Hell! Gill is a Labour MP, who has represented the constituency of Clwyd North since 2024. Aside from assembling her infernal Playlist, Gill told us what it is like being a new MP, the changes she hopes to have a hand in bringing to the UK Parliament, and the cabinet position she would fill in Hell. We also found time to talk abou...

Writer and pop music expert JUSTIN LEWIS gives us the five tracks he will meet in Hell! Justin's latest book, Into the Groove , is a fun, fact-packed race through 1980s pop music, so we had a lot of fun talking about that. We also found time to touch on Radio X, Liz Kershaw's wrongun ways, how to write a biography in seven weeks, and the terrors of press day for a TV listings compiler. You can fin...

Comic creator NICK ROCHE gives us the five tracks he will meet in Hell! Nick is a prolific writer and artist in comics, having written or drawn loads of the world's most beloved characters, including Doctor Who , Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles , Spider-Man , Judge Dredd and, most notably, Transformers . We talked about Stan Lee, street theatre, autobots at the Last Supper and loads more. You can fin...

This time performer, writer, director and podcaster MOLLY NAYLOR gives us the five tracks she will meet in Hell! We talked about Molly's excellent podcast, Making Trouble, in which she interviews artists about the trouble they're having with the things they're making. (It's excellent, and can be heard here , or where you get your podcasts). We also found time to discuss wedding cringe, what direct...

Adult film-maker ED ALDRIDGE of AltSHIFT blows through the five tracks he will meet in Hell! We talk to Ed about how he became involved in making adult films*, the difficulties in making it pay, the teacher who tried to shame his tastes when he started school, and, most of all, we talk about Blowie, Ed's new 'sexy horror' feature film, which is set in the world of adult films without being an adul...

Musician ALEXANDER WOLFE talks us through the five tracks he will meet in Hell! As well as assembling an excellent Infernal Playlist, Alexander tells us about his forthcoming album, Everythinglessness, which is a narrative about mental health. We learn about how to make a concept album, writing for TV, smelly shoes, depression, AND Alex Gale delivers the most controversial statement of the show so...

Comedian KATIE GILL gives us the five tracks she will meet in Hell! Katie takes us through life as a stand up comedian, the differences between performing in English and Welsh, and she introduces us to the trash banger: a song that is rubbish but is also sort of great. This is the Extended Patreon Version of this episode, usually only available to our Patreon supporters. If you want quality extend...

Young Adult fiction superstar MELINDA SALISBURY gives us the five tracks she will meet in Hell! Aside from choosing her Infernal Playlist, Melinda told us about how the double whammy of writing fan fiction and getting fired put her on the road to becoming a four time Carnegie Medal nominee and bestseller; her pandemic era food mishap; and why you can never return to where you came from. You find o...

Journalist and novelist JULIA RAESIDE gives us the five tracks she will meet in Hell! We're back! We're thrilled to be kicking off season three with Julia, whose excellent debut novel Don't Make Me Laugh has just come out in paperback. It's a hilarious post-#MeToo revenge thriller, set in the world of stand-up comedy. We talked about the culture of silence around the bad behaviour of successful me...

Irish-Welsh indie rock band MANILLA TIMES give us the five tracks they will meet in Hell! We welcomed singer Jack, bassist Ollie, and guitarist Jase to hell for our first ever triple soul reaping. They told us about playing Glastonbury; what would need to be played for a satisfying Busted gig; why their drummer did not arrive in Hell with the rest of them, AND Alex asks the question we've all been...

Author and academic ADAM KOTSKO gives us the five tracks he will meet in Hell! Adam is a scholar of theology, and has written extensively about the devil and demons, so it was a real pleasure to get someone down here who didn't have to go through orientation. That's not all Adam does, however. As well as being a prolific academic with a string of books about politics and Christianity to his name,...

Actor STEPHEN LOBO gives us the five tracks he will meet in Hell! Stephen has appeared in tonnes of huge genre shows, including the X-Files , The Flash , Snowpiercer , Arrow , Travelers , Fringe , and Continuum , in which he played time travelling con-man Kellogg. He also appeared in the excellent Canadian film Donkeyhead , and is currently in the police procedural Allegiance (On CBC in Canada now...

Musician and co-host of the 'What is Music?' podcast ADAM SCOTT GLASSPOOL gives us the five tracks he will meet in Hell! We can a great time talking to Adam, and as well as extracting his Infernal Playlist we talked about the genesis of 'What is Music?', debated whether or not Charli XCX is serious, discussed who we would nominate to sing ALL of recorded music, AND Adam gave us the worst job he's...

Screenwriter and actor OLIVER LANSLEY gives us the five tracks he will meet in Hell! Oli is an incredibly prolific actor and writer ( check his IMDB if you don't believe us! ). He's responsible for a number of hit tv shows, including Flack with Anna Paquin and Where's Wanda? on Apple TV+. As well as getting his Infernal playlist, we asked Oli about how he gets things made, the rules that streamers...

Songwriter RAY HEFFERNAN gives us the five tracks he will meet in Hell! (PART TWO OF TWO) Things are a bit different on Hellish this week. It's our first two-parter and our first sequel (of sorts). After we discussed the authorship of Robbie Williams's hit song 'Angels' with Emma Newman last week, we thought we'd get in touch with the man who co-wrote it but gets none of the credit, and ask him to...

Songwriter RAY HEFFERNAN gives us the five tracks he will meet in Hell! (PART ONE OF TWO) Things are a bit different on Hellish this week. It's our first two-parter and our first sequel (of sorts). After we discussed the authorship of Robbie Williams's hit song 'Angels' with Emma Newman last week, we thought we'd get in touch with the man who co-wrote it but gets none of the credit, and ask him to...

Fantasy and SF writer - and genuine podcast pioneer - EMMA NEWMAN gives us the five tracks she will meet in Hell! Emma is the Arthur C. Clarke Award nominated author of the Planetfall , Industrial Magic , and Split Worlds series of books, as well as the creator and host of the classic Tea and Jeopardy podcast. We talked about grief, swearing, public speaking, historical accuracy, and the worst job...

Singer-songwriter - and incredible guitar player - LEONI JANE KENNEDY gives us the five tracks she will meet in Hell! Leoni tells us all about musician's apprenticeship playing guitar in pubs from the age of eleven; being named the Freddie Mercury scholar at the Academy of Contemporary Music; playing at the Houses of Parliament at fourteen; and having a Rush tribute band play her fifteenth birthda...