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Today was the 10th Birthday of RHLSTP. Or at least the 10th birthday of the first release - we’d recorded the chat with Tim Minchin a couple of days earlier. Since then we’ve recorded about 400 episodes (probably a few more including Specials, Book Club and non-broadcast eps - plus there were 100 extra Edinburgh Fringe ones). It’s pretty remarkable that it has endured this long and that neither you or I seem to have tired of it yet.
It’s also a decade of our lives up in smoke. Though wasn’t it nice in May 2012 with the benefit of hindsight?
I don’t think I would have expected it to last this long and I certainly could not have predicted that it would actually start to generate the kind of money that would allow us to consider funding other projects, but here we are. Will we still be going in ten years time? As long as I am still going in ten years time it seems pretty likely.
Obviously there’s a lot more competition now and the days of topping the iTunes Charts are far behind us and it strikes me how useless we have been at promoting the podcast, which makes the success all the more impressive. We haven’t even really gone to the trouble of releasing little snippets on social media to draw in new listeners, even though we have the vast majority of these shows on film. We are going to try and get better at doing stuff like that though, but if, in the meantime, you could keep recommending it to people then that would be a huge help.
To assist you with this I thought I would attempt to collate my top ten episodes, though this is a fool’s errand and I can’t possibly do this with any justice.
Here are ten episodes that I would suggest would be a good starting point for a newbie
Stephen Fry. Obviously an incredibly important episode for us, not only in getting such a high profile guest, but for this leading to international headlines. But it’s a perfect episode in terms of comedy mixing in with tragedy and returning to comedy
Bob Mortimer - I think he’s the funniest man in the UK and both his appearances have been incredible. His first one was very special
Michael Palin - This might not only be the best RHLSTP, but is in contention for being the greatest night of my life (including wedding and birth of kids). The backstage interview was also incredible - worth becoming a badger for his improv about Herod alone)
Greg Davies - Another comedian who seems to be constantly and effortlessly funny, but I loved the way we bounced off each other in this one.
Mary Beard - This was, I think, the first time we had a non-comedy guest, though I knew Mary was very much up for a laugh.
Barry Cryer - Possibly the great man’s last ever appearance on stage and an absolute masterclass
Dawn French - Another of my comedy heroes that it was just incredible to be in the same company as
Les Dennis - A revelatory interview and the lots of laughs
Brian Blessed - Just had to be. This was one of my most incredible nights on stage ever. I’ve never experienced anything like it.
There are also loads of repeat guests who I can’t pick a favourite episode from, including David Mitchell, Sarah Millican, Armando Iannucci, James Acaster and probably most of all Adam Buxton. The Richard E Grant one is awesome too. Plus if you ask me again tomorrow there will be loads of different ones I’d pick out. But this is a pretty good starting point. If you want to browse, then just head to
Acast and see what you can find
What an absolute privilege to have been able to do this show. And also a stroke of luck. I never thought that podcasts would be the main way I made a living. Though admittedly it took a good few years of them making little or nothing to get to this point. Thanks for the support.
But what about the seven and three quarter billion people who’ve never heard it? It’s your job to tell them. And possibly also translate it for them.
Happy Birthday RHLSTP. What an amazing ride.
