Worst Foot Forward

For tickets to our first ever live show in London on February 29th 2020, follow this link:  https://vaultfestival.com/whats-on/worst-foot-forward-live-recording/ For tickets to Barry's play The First on February 11th - 16th, follow this link: https://vaultfestival.com/whats-on/the-first/ For tickets to Ben's tour of Fablemaker, head to his website and follow the ticket links: https://www.benvander...

For tickets to our first ever live show in London on February 29th 2020, follow this link: https://vaultfestival.com/whats-on/worst-foot-forward-live-recording/ Boom-bang-a-bang! Worst Foot Forward are waving their deadly weapons around. Ben and Barry are joined by former army man and current defence correspondent at The Daily Telegraph, Dom Nicholls who tries his best to be sergeant-major to thei...

**For tickets to our first ever live show on February 29th 2020, follow this link:  https://vaultfestival.com/whats-on/worst-foot-forward-live-recording/ We're gonna make you an offer you can't refuse: an hour of sinister and stupid tales about mobsters who often make Bugsy Malone look like Don Corleone.  Accompanied by award-winning stand-up comic Rahul Kohli, who mines his own chequered past gro...

**For tickets to our first ever live show on February 29th 2020, follow this link: https://vaultfestival.com/whats-on/worst-foot-forward-live-recording/ Ho ho ho! Happy "that time of year again when the old year dies and the new one rises from its ashes"! But this time we're also changing decades. For those of you who find this much change far too scary, we've got some good ol' fashioned nostalgia...

** Still need a last-minute Christmas gift...Well, why not buy some tickets to our first ever live show, which is in London on February 29th 2020! Follow this link: https://vaultfestival.com/whats-on/worst-foot-forward-live-recording/ Merry Christmas one and all! If you've already run out of topics of conversation with your family members, well Worst Foot Forward is here to help! Join us for a bat...

**For tickets to our first ever live show on February 29th 2020, follow this link: https://vaultfestival.com/whats-on/worst-foot-forward-live-recording/ It's a momentous episode as we have our first ever $20/month Patreon donor joining us as a guest on the show! It's Sara Pettit, a history graduate, American gal and old chum of Ben from way back when, and she joins us to bring some of the World's...

Peer into your perpetually murky crystal ball and you might just be able to pick up this week's episode with comedian Chris Stokes, all about the world's worst mysteries.  There's everything from the wildly implausible to the disappointingly mundane as we discover who might (but probably didn't) kill JFK, the sad tale of a very hungry French circus freak and why herring farts almost started a war....

For tickets to our first ever live show on February 29th 2020, follow this link: https://vaultfestival.com/whats-on/worst-foot-forward-live-recording/ This week our lipstick is smeared, our eyeliner is running and our foundations are subsiding as we apply the World's Worst Make-Up. We are joined by prosthetics artist Suzi Battersby ( http://www.suzibattersby.com ) who talks us through her work on...

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT TIME! We are doing our first ever LIVE RECORDING of Worst Foot Forward! It's time to allow an audience to witness just how shambolic things are behind-the-mic… On February 29th 2020, at 4.30pm, we are throwing the World's Worst Dinner Party at the VAULT Festival in Waterloo in London. Ben and Barry will be joined by 3 former guests of the podcast - yet to be announced, but we prom...

Come brethren, follow us into the unknown in search of greater glory - or certainly greater glorious failure, as we set off on the World's Worst Pilgrimage. We are joined barefoot and penitent by comedian and history buff Mike Shephard who teaches us all we could ever hope to know about the Children's Crusade. Ben leads us three times around a few Irish islands, and Barry gives creepy Japanese dol...

Check out 'Literally Everyone Else In The World' , the Dungeons and Dragons-themed Christmas single from The Oxventurers Guild, who are DM-ed and inspired by former pod-guest Johnny Chiodini. Proceeds from the song go to Mind, the mental health charity. This month's Third Foot is itself inspired by our episode with Johnny, where we discussed the World's Worst D&D Class. Ben takes us to the weird a...

Say "konichiwa" to an hour of wayward ass-kicking (we were actually aiming for our elbows) in the company of brilliant Irish comedian Alison Spittle as we dive into the bizarre and tasteless world of terrible martial arts movies. We discover the mercenary world of Brucesploitation, the homemade kitsch of Ireland's only martial arts movie and how one American gymnast turned a pommel horse into a de...

We are sunny sides up this week, going back to past subjects and finding the very bests instead of absolute worsts. We revisit shows with Sindhu Vee, Tobi Wilson, Dr Keir Shiels, Edd Kimber and Tom Crowley. Among our discoveries are the adventures of Mrs Einstein, the true name of Scooby-Doo, the doctor with the fastest scalpel in the west, the soggiest soggy bottom ever, and an art gallery full o...

Open wide and prepare to swallow some truly terrible ideas as we uncover the wild and bizarre history of dieting this week.  We're joined by the globe-trotting, myth-busting, BAFTA-nominated doctor and TV presenter Xand Van Tulleken who is there to fact-check us on our science and quackery. As usual we ping from the ancient world to the modern as we discover the $10,000 bottle of water it's too da...

Ladies (and gents, but only if you're ready to play nice), let's march arm in arm towards a more equal, happier future. Along the way, we're likely to learn from the mistakes of some of the World's Worst Feminists that we discuss with powerhouse performer Roann McCloskey. Roann turns her ire on the disappointing lack of solidarity from the likes of Germaine Greer and Paula Radcliffe. Barry dons a...

Join us on the red carpet for our bonus episode as we pick over the bones of the weirdest, wildest and most ill-judged moments in the history of the greatest show on earth. Follow us on Twitter:  @worstfoot   @bazmcstay   @benvandervelde  Visit  www.worstfootforwardpodcast.com  for all previous episodes and you can now donate to us on Patreon if you'd like to support Ben's baby and Barry's crippli...

We are rattling the cages and walking the yards of the World's Worst Prison this week in the company of convict-by-birth, Australian comedian Dan Muggleton. Dan's love of prison documentaries sees him lead us into the terrifying but also porous 'Breakout Prison' of Papua New Guinea. Meanwhile, Ben squeezes into the smallest prison in the world, and Barry guides us round some of the most famous pri...

Peep! The whistle is being blown this week, not just on the pitch but off it too as we turn both barrels on the World's Worst Sports Club Owners. We are joined by 'online joker' Jonny Sharples who wallows alongside Ben as a fan of the long-suffering Newcastle United FC. It's not just football clubs who get a drubbing, even though some of their owners have included the hardened criminals, arsonists...

Don your cardboard shinpads, make sure your studs are the right way round and prepare for some shoulder-high tackles as we present the worst football teams in the history of the game. We're joined by Icelandic stand-up comic Ari Eldjarn: grandson of a president and son-in-law of an international footballer as we enjoy the most hapless starting XIs in history. In a game of three halves we meet a te...

We're jazz-handing, grape-vining, box-stepping and kick-lining our way through this week's episode, alongside comedian Rob Mulholland in the cast of the World's Worst Musical. It's an episode we've been looking forward to some time and, if the reviews are anything to go by, this is a surefire flop! We've got appearances by Spiderman and Hyacinth Bucket, a pile of bird poo and a motorway service st...

Since you've been very good we've saved up and gift-wrapped you this episode.  Along with our guest - stand-up comic, producer and Douglas Adams acolyte Rachel Wheeley - we discover some of the worst presents in history.  From diplomatic gifts like crocodile insurance, elk chairs and jellybean portraits to tasty camels, Saddam Hussein's favourite video nasties and a royal penis sheath, literally a...

It's time to hit the high seas (via a woodland stronghold, a monastery and a burning pentagram) as we feature one of our favourite discoveries from our time on this podcast: Eustace the Monk.  Featured on our worst pirates episode with Will Seaward, Eustace lived one of the most eventful lives of medieval, or indeed any, times.  Part folk hero, part swashbuckling outlaw, part servant of the dark l...

With elbows raised high and a steeplechase full of horseshoes crammed into our boxing gloves we spit in the face of the spirit of the game and talk to globe-trotting commentator Andy Bodfish about the world's worst sportsmen and women.   There are dastardly disguises for men, horses and racecourses, baseball bats full of cork, comfort-eating judokas and the worst ever soundtrack to warm up to. Fol...

Bleep blorp, does not compute! This week, we risk infuriating our future overlords by naming and shaming the World's Worst Robots. We are joined by the implausibly handsome Rob Taylor-Hastings, actor and co-host of the podcast Roboteers Standby. He educates us about the history of Robot Wars and the magical geeky gladiators who engage in robot combat. Meanwhile, Barry stays in a hotel staffed by a...

All aboard! Anyone who has ever used public transport in the UK knows that one of our favourite past times is complaining about our unbelievably sub-standard rail network, so it's about time we found out where it comes in the global and historical standing of terrible railways. Joined by musical comedy legend and self-confessed maverick trainspotter Steve Gribbin, Ben and Barry chug along on a jou...