History

I think in the end this was quite a well-balanced year. I got a bit ill and unsure of what I wanted to do in the first half of 2025, but by the end was much more positive about where I have found myself.

From January until May I was travelling the country doing the second leg of Can I Have My Ball Back? It felt like the show was getting better and I largely enjoyed it, but then I got an annoying virus that wouldn’t go away that made the second half of the tour quite gruelling. I recorded the show for DVD and download in Stevenage in May – thanks to the people who backed the Kickstarter to make this happen!

Once again most of my year was taken up with doing self-created projects, but there were a few more podcast and radio appearances than last year.

In February I was on 5 Live talking about a mildly depressing Prime Minister’s Question Time that I had just witnessed. I saw Neil Kinnock having lunch.

I also recorded two episodes of Russell Kane’s Evil Genius, one about Florence Nightingale, and the other about my old pal Nostradamus.

In July I appeared on Wrong Turns with Jameela Jamil (and Simon Pegg) and there were many fun revelations (mainly from the other two).

RHLSTP is a never ending juggernaut and I managed to keep up the huge number of episodes despite the tour, doing shows in London, Leicester, Chesham, Bewdley and maybe most memorably Sheffield with Bernie Clifton.

Other guests included Paul Whitehouse, Richard Ayoade (I also interviewed him on his book tour in November at the Warwick Arts Centre) and Paul F Tompkins with book clubs from such luminaries as Sebastian Faulkes and Chris Tarrant!

I also returned to the Edinburgh Fringe to record 12 podcasts at Stand 3 with guests including Tim Key, Nina Conti and Nish Kumar, plus a Fringe debut from Ernest Herring in one of them. Phoebe was not left out as she also appeared in Catie’s stand up show for a couple of performances.

I had become a bit frustrated with the podcast in the Spring and thought about quitting, but by getting ahead by doing shows in Edinburgh, plus recording some in a studio at The Podcast Room in London, I began to feel the joy of it again and it shall continue into 2026.

Post Fringe I had a terrific night appearing in the first tour show of Inside Number 9: Stage Fright in Bromley.

Amazingly I even recorded two TV shows, but they are both secret for now and will be out in 2026. I’m back in the big time, baby.

I did not do as many Twitch of Funs, stone clears or snooker podcasts as I would have liked this year, though am planning to do some special for Christmas and the New Year.

I continued my blog on my website (now 23 years old) and Substack and started an attempt to write Everything Happens For No Reason as a novel (though so far have only done 2 chapters).

Looking forward to 2026 we’re hoping to begin work on a feature film funded by adverts on the podcast, called The Cheddar Beheader and a new podcast called “Impossible Questions From Kids”. Plus I am back on the telly at some point so I can finally give up on podcasting and hang out with Elton John. Let’s see how much of that happens in the next instalment of my history!