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Tim Worthington of the enjoyable and nerdy Looks Unfamiliar podcast tweeted a link to the
1995 Lee and Herring Radio 1 Christmas special. Of many of the extraordinary things from my career, the fact that I had a Radio 1 show is one that I struggle to process now. Even more extraordinary we were allowed to do whatever we wanted. And by 1995 with half a decade of making radio shows behind us, we had become surprisingly adept (albeit at making stuff that sounded like it shouldn't be allowed on the radio).
We did so much stuff back then that I have forgotten most of it, but this show is packed with jokes and characters and call backs to previous episodes, with an extraordinary cast and it still stands up. In many ways I think the radio shows were peak Lee and Herring. We didn't get much recognition at the time and one of us wasn't really into the double act and is quite dismissive of it now, but there is something glorious about this show and the way it is controlled chaos. It's in the past and a different time and I am glad about those things, but it was fun to listen to it again. And I can understand why the fans of this stuff have stayed loyal to us, even if they were never huge in number. It's terrifically exciting stuff and feels like some kind of terrible mistake where some idiots have got on the radio and no one has noticed. Because that's what it is.
It also features Annabel Giles, who turns up late after appearing on Win Lose or Draw and she too is unflappable amidst the chaos and very funny. So it's sad and funny to listen to. And tellingly the listeners who ring in are as funny if not funnier than us. And it all went out live on the actual radio.
It's also broadcast the week where I had seen Julia Sawalha at the Loaded party and failed to talk to her, so is full of me discussing how I had blown my chance. Which is funny with the benefit of hindsight.
The music choices are also insane and brilliant (Peter playing Cold Turkey as a Christmas song is a particular triumph) and though there are a few references to celebrities that I have now forgotten, it has aged well and mostly works, partly because the references we chose were obscure and weird at the time.
Some of it made it to the TV, but the beautiful story of the Christmas Maggot did not. It all made me laugh and cry. We play a Goons song from 39 years before our broadcast and knowingly joke about old comedy just being people doing stupid voices. Our own show is (fittingly) now 28 years old, so your chance to find out what (some of) the people of the past laughed at. It feels recent and ancient to me. So long ago and yet weirdly only 7 years before I started doing Warming Up. The years lasted longer then. My brain was teeming with ideas. How lucky we were to get that opportunity and how lucky I was to get to work with those amazing people.
I continue to produce unrecognised genius broadcasting content. In 28 years I wonder if I will listen to
today's Stone Clear and be as impressed. (I won't be around to listen luckily and I suspect if I was I'd find it terrible, but let's see - the 1995 Richard Herring had no idea what the future would hold for him and Julia Sawalha and the 2023 one doubtless has a few surprises in store).
