Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast (RHLSTP)

RETRO RHLSTP #65 - Brian Blessed and the Big Foot It’s the final episode of series 10 of RHLSTP and Rich meets a bearded man who has managed to find a partner (find out how he did it nerds). His guest is the laid-back and yet also intense (and rather beautiful) Peter Serafinowicz. They talk about how it’s almost impossible to parody the new President of the United States, but the effective way tha...

Book Club #72 - The British Bloke, Decoded - Rich welcomes back comedian Geoff Norcott to talk about his new book about UK masculinity, The British Bloke, Decoded. Is it possible to generalise about a whole sex? And more importantly is it funny? Is size important (both penis and height in general)? Can you beat a chimp in hand to hand combat? Are women as deluded about their tennis...

#475 France’s Youngest Shepherd - Richard has come to Exeter, where there is some very bad news about the bins. His guest is amazing actor and comedy genius Spencer Jones. They talk about how a last minute self-tape got him a recurring role in Ted Lasso, where Death in Paradise meets Milton, how his first double act led to him losing his virginity and then his bottle, the extraordinary s...

RETRO RHLSTP #64 - Sarah Kendall  - Richard is amazed how a joke on Twitter now pretty much always gets taken at face value by someone, even if it's in an open letter to an 8 month-old baby. His guest is Nicole Kidman impersonator and fantastically thoughtful yet and puerile stand-up Sarah Kendall, fresh from her nomination for the big comedy award at the Fringe. They discuss the horrors of c...

Book Club #71 - My (Illustrated) Autobiography - It’s another live Book Club from the Leicester Square Theatre with Joe Wilkinson talking about his groundbreaking book My Autobiography - illustrated by the brilliant Henry Paker. Though the chat is mainly an attempt to discover Joe’s true life story rather than the fictitious one involving scrumping and bus timetables. They chat...

#474 Very Bad Lieutenant - Richard is back in Winchester for another week and they are having so much trouble with their clocks (I said clocks). His guest is stand up and actor and internet sensation Matt Green. They chat about working with Idris Elba and Sacha Baron-Cohen, what it’s like sitting in a car for six hours with Harvey Keitel, playing a corpse in the Cambridge Footlights, the...

RHLSTP Book Club 70 - Chapters - Richard is joined by a man who Steve Coogan finds funny, but doesn’t know why, to talk about his latest anthology of poetry - Chapters. Richard expresses his distrust of poetry and fails to remember any of the stuff he’s read and Tim explains why he self-publishes, his collaboration with designer Emily Juniper and how much truth and beauty there is i...

Ham Hand versus Suncream Armpit - It’s another compilation of favourite answers to classic EQs and this one has a star-studded cast of funny people musing over whether they want pig meat digits or a protective layer of screening shooting out their armpit nozzl, including Adam Buxton, Sue Perkins, Mr and Mrs Coren-Mitchell and Rebecca Front. Which would you choose? (rhetorical) SUPPORT THE SHOW! Co...

#473 Sexy Nostradamuses - Richard has returned to Winchester to help the local people through their swimming pool disaster. His guest is the delightful Harriet Kemsley. They talk about the perils of combining dyspraxia with allergies, how unusually becoming a comedian was her parents’ idea, doing a roast battle with your partner, why she did a podcast about crying and Richard delves deep...

#9 - Apprentice Chemo - This is the final instalment of this bollocky podcast (for now) as Richard’s stand up takes us through his precautionary chemo and have some playdough on hand to make your own scale model of Richard’s tumour. His guest is the genius stand up comedian Simon Munnery who had the idea of having testicular cancer and doing a show about it decades before Herring. Plus another bal...

RHLSTP Book Club 69 - Geneva - Richard talks to actor turned novelist, Richard Armitage about his gripping thriller Geneva. How it started its life as an audiobook, why he didn’t want a ghost writer, what made him want to write about big Pharma and Alzheimers, how being a disciplined actor has helped inform his characters, a twist on the unreliable narrator as well as creating a character who...

#472 The Fonz’s Parking Space - Richard liked Liverpool so much last week that he’s come back again and his guest is Neil Fitzmaurice, a man who defied his career’s advisor to become an actor, writer and stand up with an incredibly impressive CV including Phoenix Nights, The Office and Peep Show. They talk about being one of the first people to have to interact with David Brent, terrifying Da...

#8 - Can I Actually Have My Ball Back? It’s episode 8 of CIHMBB and Richard’s journey has taken him to meet his oncologist, Dr Arnand Sharma for the first time, who seems excited to meet the star of Taskmaster. For the podcast Richard gets to interview Dr Sharma to get his side of the story and find out where the excised ball is and the truth about whether Dr Sharma really knew who Richa...

RHLSTP Book Club 68 - Ghosts - The Button House Archives - Live from the Leicester Square Theatre, Richard has been in for his yearly human MOT. His guest has performed with and dug up monarchs, it’s the amazing Simon Farnaby. They talk about the importance of not making your Christmas TV tie-in a soulless cash grab, the fun of creating historical documents for all the ghosts, plus makin...

#471 Gravy Train - Richard finds himself in an unseasonably sweltering Liverpool, at the Playhouse and is joined the the city in human form, Peter Hooton from the Farm. They talk about stealing Joe Strummer’s bananas, tipping over Piers Morgan’s car, how “The End” fanzine came about, why getting a band’s name right might not be that important, Tony Wilson’s funeral and why Peter didn’t e...

#7 Navigating Nuts - The bollock Odyssey continues, with Rich finally finding out if he had cancer or not (spoiler he does) but also discovering that having cancer comes with some unexpected benefits. His guest is astronomer and scientist Harriet Witt who tells Rich about Polynesian way finders who used their balls to navigate the Pacific Ocean. Check out her website at  passengerplanet.com ....

RHLSTP Book Club 67 - Into the Uncanny -  Richard talks to comedian, podcaster and master of the Unexplained about his entertaining and unsettling new book, Into The Uncanny which looks into some very intriguing true life ghost and UFO stories. They chat about why Danny is the perfect person to tackle this genre, with a foo...

#470 Right Little Puck - Richard has some more incredible Birmingham facts to share with his Brummie audience. His guest is RHLSTP super fan and mischievous imp, Joe Lycett. They reveal how Richard was one of the few people who was in on the secret of his David Beckham money shredding, the surprising group of people who were offended by this stunt, whether accusations of Qatar-based hypo...

RETRO RHLSTP #63 - Alex Horne  - Rich offers to fill a school library with books, before introducing the multi-talented genius behind Taskmaster and much more, Alex Horne. Find out what it’s like to sit bare-arsed on a cake, the secrets of Tim Key’s kindle, the respective amounts the pair spent on their last hair cuts and whether the first rule of Taskmaster is you can’t go on Taskmaster if y...

RHLSTP Book Club 66 - The Funny Thing About Death - Richard interviews brilliant stand-up Jo Caulfield about her first book, a memoir about the loss of her sister, Annie, The Funny Thing About Death. They talk about why stand-ups don’t need cocaine, the honesty and humour required for taking on such a serious subject, the catharsis of writing ...

#469 Where Are You, Satish Patel? - Richard is delighted to be back in bankrupt Birmingham and in front of the third biggest crowd to ever come to RHLSTP. His guest is a man who has succeeded at everything he’s attempted, the remarkable Adil Ray. They discuss what it was like growing up in an Asian family in Yardley in the 70s and 80s, how racists nearly killed Adil as a baby a...

Who’s the Most Famous Person You’ve Ever Been in a Lift With? (That You Didn’t Get Into The Lift With) . It’s another fine compilation of multiple answers to the same question, but boy what incredibly different results! Do you want to know who Rachel Parris has been in a lift with or who Michael Spicer has travelled between floors with? Do you want to know if Aisling Bea understands the question?...

RHLSTP Book Club 65 - Unruly Richard chats with writer, comedian and actor David Mitchell about his funny and diverting book about English monarchs, Unruly. Are the royal family just the country’s most successful thugs? How did they convince people to believe in their divine right to rule? Why would they want the job anyway, when it results in so much misery? Is the White Ship tragedy the big...

#468 Seven- Nil - Richard is wondering about the profits made by the man (or maybe woman) who came up with the most delicious and ubiquitous flavour on earth. His guest, returning for a 7th shot at finally winning a podcast is the wonderful Sarah Millican. They discuss the romantic qualities of meat, who is best at the Chase and Taskmaster, how Sarah’s honesty about her life leads to amazing...

RETRO RHLSTP #62 - Maria Bamford  - Richard continues to be surprised by the difference of living in the country and surprises his neighbours with his specialised knowledge about genitalia, but is very excited to be welcoming American superstar comedian Maria Bamford. They talk about the difficulty of telling a joke to people who find out you're a comedian; how some people have no sense of hu...