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 writer JUSTIN LEWIS, who originally joined us for episode 58.  Justin’s new book, Into the Groove, is out now. https://uk.bookshop.org/a/14263/9781783969135 Come back tomor...

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 actor STEPHEN LOBO, who originally joined us for episode 48.  Allegiance, in which Stephen stars, is now on U&Alibi in the UK https://www.uandalibi.co.uk/?date=2025-11-...

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 writer-artist NICK ROCHE, who originally joined us for episode 57.  Nick’s graphic novel, Scarenthood, is out now. https://nickrocheart.bigcartel.com/product/scarenthood-si...

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 author LOUIE STOWELL, who originally joined us for episode 60.  Louie’s latest Loki book is A Bad God’s Guide To Causing Chaos, out now. https://uk.bookshop.org/a/14263/978...

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 JULIA RAESIDE, who originally joined us for episode 51.  Julia’s latest book, Don’t Make Me Laugh, is out now. https://uk.bookshop.org/a/14263/9781835011881 Come back tomor...

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 MARC BURROWS, who originally joined us for episode 39.  Marc’s new book on the Christmas number one, Mistletoe and Vinyl, is out now. https://uk.bookshop.org/a/14263/978085...

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 and podcaster EMMA NEWMAN, who originally joined us for episode 43.  Emma’s latest book, The Vengeance, is out now. https://uk.bookshop.org/a/14263/9781837861644 Y...

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 ANTHONY SPARGO, who originally joined us for episode 63.  Anthony is currently appearing in Peter Pan: A Pantomime Adventure at Greenwich Theatre. Tickets here: https://gre...

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 film director JANIS PUGH, who originally joined us for episode 34.  Janis’s film, Chuck Chuck Baby, is now on Sky Cinema/Now TV https://www.nowtv.com/watch/chuck-chuck-baby...

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...