Richard Herring
Loss and love in the storm of guitars and broken glass that was the 00's UK indie music scene
Ally and Herring’s Twitch of Fun - Richard Herring teams up with an 128 year old, “handsy”, ventriloquist doll made by his great-grandad to review the day’s newspapers in an attempt to put to rest the ghosts of old and failed double acts he’s been in. It’s a format that I am sure you’ve seen before, but hopefully we can give it a fresh spin. Unprepared and unrehearsed, Ally and Herring have no idea what the other one is about to say and as long as the offensive stuff is said by the dummy then no one can touch us. But which one’s the dummy?
This documentary explores the legacy of one of the most notorious British sitcoms of all time. Launching alternative comedy onto our screens, the show made household names of its performers and writers and proved to be a huge influence, despite the BBC reportedly being baffled by what they'd commissioned back in 1982. Never before had a flagship comedy show contained so much violence, depravity and anarchy - it was a shot across the bow to mainstream comedians that things would never be the same again.
This series features some of Britain's best-loved comedians and funniest comedy actors gathering together for a jolly night in front of the telly, watching clips from classic sitcoms and sketch shows both old and new.
After years of drifting aimlessly and alone, Richard Herring is now settled down with a wife and a tiny baby. Is he finally happy now? Or does responsibility for the lives of others come with its own terrors? In his twelfth solo stand up show, Richard examines whether we can ever hope to be or are meant to be truly content. If we were never unhappy would happiness have any meaning? Why do our brains force us to envision the worst possible outcomes even on a day when everything seems fine. How likely is it that Richard's baby will be skewered by a stalactite of frozen urine falling from a plane and is it really worth him wasting his time thinking about it? Does being happy mean a comedian loses his edge and true belly laughs only come from depression? How much pressure was there on Happy the dwarf to live up to his name? Is there any system that will guarantee us eternal bliss or should we just embrace the fact that life is a vale of tears and our only option is to laugh in its face?
ECU Audience Award winning short film starring Richard Herring and Rachel Stubbings. While You Were Away is the story of a normal husband and wife having a far from normal argument.
After covering weighty issues like death, love, religion and spam javelins, the 'King of Edinburgh' (6 Music) is in a frivolous mood with this show about daftness, whether the term cool comedian is an oxymoron, bouncing joyously on the sofa and how Herring's whole career is a failed attempt to top a piece of visual slapstick comedy he came up with at 16. Can he revisit the joke thirty years on, or will it smash his old bones?
Greg Davies is the Taskmaster, and with the help of his ever-loyal assistant Alex Horne, they will set out to test the wiles, wit, wisdom and skills of five hyper-competitive comedians. Who will be crowned the Taskmaster champion in this brand new game show?
After sorting out politics (Hitler Moustache), religion (Christ on a Bike), love (What is Love, Anyway?) and penises (Talking Cock) Herring's tenth consecutive stand-up show tackles the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveller returns (apart from Jesus and that canoe bloke). Is death a tragedy or an excuse to have an extended lie-in? Are we snuffed out or forced to endure eternity without bodily pleasures? Death is inevitable, so let's laugh in its face while our hearts still beat and our jaws are still attached.
It's an object of shame and pride; it can inspire laughter and fear; it's a symbol of power, yet it's incredibly fragile and weak; it can be a pound of flesh or an ounce of winkles, it can be used to express both love and hate; it creates life, it can condemn us to death... and it can do wees as well. How can one tiny flap of sponge and sinew be all these things? Though men may brag and exaggerate about their little chap, they rarely talk honestly about it or their insecurities. Whilst women celebrate their sexuality in worldwide smash The Vagina Monologues, men are twisting their genitals into the shape of hamburgers in Puppetry of the Penis. Isn't it time for the twisting to stop and the schlong celebration to begin. Isn't it time for a Vagina Monologues with balls?
'What is love, anyway?' is a heart-warmingly honest and personal examination of the romantic (and not so romantic) adventures and misadventures of the UK's most prolific comedian, as well as a genuine attempt to define this mysterious, debilitating, evil and wondrous emotion.
Richard Herring brings his Edinburgh Fringe Podcast south for a more leisurely weekly show in which he chats with some of the biggest names in comedy. It's ad-libbed and unedited and largely unplanned - the conversations can go off on all kinds of comedic tangents, or be serious. Recorded in front of a paying audience.
Jesus Christ - Son of God! Saviour of mankind! Superstar! Richard Herring - Son of Keith, a retired headmaster! Once saved a spider that had become trapped in his bath, only crushing three of its legs in the process! Hosted 10 episodes of a chatshow about poker on a satellite channel which subsequently closed down! At first sight they have little in common. Or do they? Join Rich as he answers this question, substantially reworking his first and favourite solo work, Christ on a Bike. Now ten years older than the Messiah when he died, has Herring achieved as much with his life?
In The Headmaster's Son, a nostalgic and faintly disturbing juvenile romp through the 1980s, Richard Herring considers what could possibly be worse than being a podgy, swotty, virginal schoolboy. What if your dad's the headmaster too?
'Welcome to my folly', declared Robin Ince as he opens Nine Lessons..., his massive sell-out Rationalist Celebration of comedy and science for Christmas. With a star-studded line-up included Richard Dawkins, Stewart Lee, Josie Long, Simon Singh, Richard Herring, Gavin Osbourne, Isy Suttie, Ben Goldacre, Andrew Collins, Waen Shepherd, Christina Martin and Philip Jeays - all accompanied by Martin White and his amazing Mystery Fax Machine Chamber Orchestra. What more could you ask for?.... Oh go on then, as it's Christmas there's also interview contributions from Dara O'Briain and Javis Cocker.
Has Adolf Hitler ruined that little moustache for everyone? The only time you'll see it these days is carved into the pubic hair of a naughty lady. Is it possible to reclaim the toothbrush moustache (as it should be called) for comedy? After all, Chaplin had it first. In the critically acclaimed "Hitler Moustache," comedian Richard Herring determines to find as well as discovering how people will respond to this contentious face furniture when it's growing out of his face. Will they assume he's crazy or a fascist or both? Will they spit at him, punch him or just laugh in his face?
A Very British Cult tells the story of David, a cult leader with a problem. He knows Jesus is returning but he forgot to confirm the date. His disciples are leaving in droves for another cult in Dorset with better facilities, his wife is thinking of leaving him and his remaining followers are more interested in Chocolate Hob-Nobs than the Almighty. But God is about to send David a message, if only he can figure out what it means?
Rich is single, never been married, has got no kids. Has he wasted his life? Is it time to finally grow up and get out the pipe and slippers and await the blessed release of death? Or does life really begin at 40, giving him the excuse to go around in nappies and make jokes about poo and wee for a good three years to come?
In his excellent Someone Likes Yoghurt, Herrring shares with us his world of gonorrhoea-transmiting magpies, his attempts to become successor to Pope John Paul II, and his local supermarket's utterly humiliating new checkout service: the grocery interrogation.
Richard Herring is getting desperate. At 39 years old, he's still making jokes about monkey semen, is wilfully nose-diving into middle-aged pedantry and what's more the love stakes are looking decidedly low. The makings of a midlife crisis? Yes, we thought so too, but - well you don't like to say do you? Still, a life of misanthropic singledom doesn't have to be all doom and gloom - at least his misogyny is postmodern and ironic, unlike Bernard Manning's (actually, is that a good thing?). And he can always take heart in his experience with the carwash company rather carelessly name 'The hand job centre'...
Comedy drama about a family reunion written by and starring Richard Herring. It's Ken and Margaret Snell's 45th wedding anniversary and their children and grandchildren along gather to celebrate. For Ken and Margaret's children, it's a day to revisit childhood arguments and to paper over present-day fractures in their relationships.
Richard Herring shares with us his mission to make something of his sad comedian's existence through a catalogue of seemingly impossible challenges. So will he succeed in running the London marathon, going skydiving, and dating 50 women in 50 nights? Or will he fail in his vain attempt to prove his superiority to the Greek demi-god? And does stealing Germaine Greer's bra strictly count as a Herculean task? Yes, I suppose it does...
Also known as The Battersea Ripper, this is a comic crime thriller set in London concerning a young girl's kidnapping and the hapless police and reporters trying to get to the truth. It has never been released to DVD and has only ever had a limited theatrical screening in 2006.
Documentary charting the Derek and Clive phenomenon. The two foul-mouthed toilet attendants were the creations of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore and were responsible for some of the filthiest comedy to come out of Britain. Despite being banned from radio and television the duo achieved great success and a cult status, but the act broke up one of the greatest comedy partnerships of recent years. Featuring excerpts from the actual records and video footage of Cook and Moore.
This Morning With Richard Not Judy or TMWRNJ is a BBC comedy television programme, written by and starring Lee and Herring. Two series were broadcast in 1998 and 1999 on BBC2. The name was a satirical reference to ITV's This Morning which was at the time popularly referred to as This Morning with Richard and Judy. The show was a reworking of old material from their previous work together along with new characters. The show was hosted in a daytime chat show format in front of a live studio audience, although it featured a small proportion of pre-recorded location inserts. It was structured by the often strange obsessions of Richard Herring; examples include his rating of the milk of all creatures and attempting to popularise the acronym of the show. The show featured repetition, with regular and vigilant viewers being rewarded by jokes that would make no sense to casual viewers. The show seemed to oscillate between the intellectual and puerile. However, irony was often used, even though the citing of irony as an excuse was mocked by the show's stars in one of many self-referential jokes.
Two friends try to track down their old nemesis Richard Herring to try to find out why on earth he is successful when they are not. The film is set against the madness of the 1995 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, was shot entirely on Super 8 film and was inspired by the films of Chris Marker and Nick Broomfield.
TV Comedy from radio award-winning writers Stewart Lee and Richard Herring.
Fist of Fun was a British comedy television and radio programme, written by and starring Lee and Herring. A lot of the show's comic material was adapted from Lee and Herring's radio programme Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World. Each episode of Fist of Fun featured several disparate sketches and situations. Fist of Fun began as a BBC Radio 1 series in 1993, before becoming commissioned as a television series on BBC Two in early 1995. It was broadcast at 9pm on Tuesday nights, and was successful, but not a major ratings-winner. The second series was aired on Friday nights, and although its ratings were relatively good, the show suffered from a lack of preparation and poor promotion. The show was not given a third series, and Lee and Herring went on to write This Morning with Richard Not Judy, for BBC Two. Many other comedians who appeared in the series went on to fame themselves, including Kevin Eldon, Peter Baynham, Ronni Ancona, Alistair McGowan, Al Murray, John Thomson, Rebecca Front, Mel Giedroyc, Sue Perkins, Ben Moor and Sally Phillips.
