Richard Herring
Encyclopedia
Richard Keith Herring is a British comedian
and writer, whose early work includes his involvement in the double-act, Lee and Herring
. He is described by the British Theatre Guide as "one of the leading hidden masters of modern British comedy".
He has written and performed in a body of live one-man comedy shows including the acclaimed Talking Cock and the resulting book of the same name. He has collaborated with the broadcaster Andrew Collins
, initially on the radio comedy series Banter
, then on Collins' BBC 6 Music
show and the well received Collings and Herrin Podcast
.
During the 2000s, Herring has toured with a new stand-up show almost every year. His 2009 show Hitler Moustache was the subject of much controversy, but also received critical approval and sold out for the entire Edinburgh Festival
. His 2010 show Christ on a Bike: The Second Coming received several 4 and 5 star reviews and was taken on a 94 date tour of the UK in the Spring of 2011. It was the subject of protests from Christians in Glasgow and Lowestoft
, East Riding of Yorkshire
, but grew up in Cheddar
, Somerset
. He was educated at St Catherine's College, Oxford
, where he wrote and performed for a comedy troupe known as the Seven Raymonds
as well as the Fringe
favourites the Oxford Revue
. He attained a 2:1 in History
, but having never picked up his degree, he is one of the country's best known graduand
s.
With Stewart Lee, Herring wrote material for Chris Morris
and Armando Iannucci
's On the Hour
(1991). It was during this time that the duo contributed to the creation of the character Alan Partridge
. In 1992 and 1993, they wrote and performed Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World
for BBC Radio 4
. For Radio 1
, they wrote and performed one series of Fist of Fun
(1993), which was later remade for television. They also hosted a series on Radio 1 in 1994 and 1995, simply called Lee and Herring
. A final television partnership with Lee, This Morning With Richard Not Judy
, was a victim of BBC management reshuffles.
In 2002 Herring played the role of Renchard in the Doctor Who
webcast
Real Time, with Stewart Lee as Carey.
Since cordially ending his informal partnership with Stewart Lee, Herring has written and performed one-man shows to critical acclaim. Most noteworthy of these shows were Talking Cock – released as a book in 2003 – which The Guardian
described as "man's answer to The Vagina Monologues
. " Like Patrick Marber
(a long-standing rival who was described as "curmudgeonly" or "a Cornish curmudgeon" in Fist of Fun), he has also written and produced several plays.
Herring co-wrote and presented the history based sketch show That Was Then, This Is Now
(or TWTTIN), a six-part series produced for Radio 2
. A second series was commissioned and aired in September and October 2006. On the broadcast of 2 September, he urged listeners to edit Wikipedia
's Mother Teresa
entry to suggest that she grew up with the middle name "Gonk
". It took a whole 3 months before someone carried out his plan, although his own page had been edited in the same manner within days of the broadcast. A third series of the show began broadcast on 29 November 2007.
He has also written for television, most notably penning a large portion of Al Murray
's sitcom vehicle Time Gentlemen Please
, on which Stewart Lee worked as script editor. Herring has also contributed to the third series of Matt Lucas
and David Walliams
' popular TV sketch show Little Britain
, as script editor. He has also worked for Russell Howard
.
On 25 November 2002 Herring started his blog
Warming Up as a way to overcome writer's block
. He has written an entry for every single day since then, around about 3000 consecutive entries. It is estimated that he has a regular readership of over 3,000. Some of the ideas from Warming Up were used in his 2005 Edinburgh show Someone Likes Yoghurt, his 2006 Edinburgh show Ménage à Un and his 2007 Edinburgh show Oh Fuck, I'm 40!. In December 2008 the first six months of his blog were published in a book called Bye Bye Balham. The blog also proved a useful source for his 2010 book "How Not To Grow Up" and his 2011 stand up show "What is Love, Anyway?"
In 2005, he presented a chat show
called Heads Up with Richard Herring
on the Pokerzone
channel, in which he interviewed professional poker
players and celebrities about their careers and their love of the game. There were ten episodes in total.
Herring also made weekly appearances on Andrew Collins
' BBC 6 Music
radio show on Saturday afternoons, where the two would discuss the weeks papers. Occasionally he hosted the show in Collins's absence and joined him for the whole of his final show on 31 March 2007. Herring is also a panellist on BBC Radio 4
gameshow Banter
, which is presented by Collins.
In January 2007, Herring's live stand-up show Someone Likes Yoghurt was filmed in Cardiff and released on DVD on 16 May by the independent distributor Go Faster Stripe
. A recording of an earlier show, The 12 Tasks of Hercules Terrace, was released on 5 March 2007. Herring returned to Cardiff in June 2007 to film his third DVD, ménage à un. This DVD was released on 19 December 2007. He recorded Oh Fuck, I'm 40 on 21 March 2008. This DVD was released by Go Faster Stripe on 9 December 2008. He recorded "The Headmaster's Son" on 2 June 2009 at the Bristol Tobacco Factory. This was released by Go Faster Stripe on 11 February 2010. The DVD of "Hitler Moustache" was recorded on 2 April at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff and was released through PIAS/Go Faster Stripe on 25 October 2010.
In February 2007, filming began on Herring's new comedy drama You Can Choose Your Friends. As well as writing the script, Herring also played one of the characters alongside Gordon Kennedy
, Claire Skinner
, Rebecca Front
, Sarah-Jane Potts
, Robert Daws
, Anton Rodgers
and Julia McKenzie
. The show was broadcast on ITV1
on 7 June 2007.
In January 2008 he began producing the Collings and Herrin
(sic) podcast with Andrew Collins
. They celebrated their two year anniversary with a live "100th" podcast (it was actually about the 105th one they had done) at the Leicester Square Theatre. On 30 January 2010 the pair started sitting in for Adam and Joe
on BBC 6 Music on Saturdays mornings.
His 2008 stand-up set The Headmaster's Son earned critical respect with four 5 star reviews and several 4 star reviews. The set covers his experience growing up in The Kings of Wessex School in Somerset where his father worked as headmaster and how this may have encouraged him to make puerile jokes. The show was seen by critics as a thoughtful look at his upbringing, and his relationship with his father, to whom the show is dedicated.
The original idea behind his 2009 show, Hitler Moustache, was to see if he "could reclaim the toothbrush moustache
for comedy – it was Chaplin
's first, then Hitler ruined it." The show discusses broader issues, such as fascism and the British National Party
. Herring and some of his contemporaries, including Dave Gorman
, were angered when comments he makes in his show were grossly misrepresented in an opinion column written by critic Brian Logan in The Guardian
. In his piece about offensiveness in comedy, Logan failed to communicate that Herring's line "that racists have a point" is accompanied by a critical commentary of democracy.
Amateur video of a stand-up routine interrupted by a heckler was mounted on YouTube
and has been viewed by more than 1,500,000 people. In Warming Up, Herring noted ruefully that this was more than had ever seen him perform his prepared material.
On 12 October 2009, he recorded the first episode of As It Occurs To Me
, a weekly stand-up and sketch show made especially for internet download. It also features Emma Kennedy
, Dan Tetsell
and Christian Reilly and had an initial run of 10 episodes. The show made a modest profit and a second series of eight episodes ran from 17 May to 5 July 2010. It was nominated for best internet show at the 2010 Sony Awards
, though failed to place. An Edinburgh special took place during the Fringe on 17 August and there were three autumn specials in October and November 2010. A third series of six episodes started on 16th May 2011.
On 8 April 2010, Herring made his first appearance on the BBC's Have I Got News For You
. He returned to the show as a guest on 13 May 2011 for episode five of the 14th series.
On 14 October 2010, his Radio 4 series "Richard Herring's Objective" was first broadcast. In it Herring attempted to reclaim demonised items, starting with the Hitler moustache. The other episodes revolve around the hoodie, St George's Flag and Dolly the Sheep. An Edinburgh special about the "See You Jimmy" Hat was broadcast in August 2011 and a second series is being recorded in October 2011 with episodes about the Golliwog, the wheelchair, the Page 3 girl and the Old School Tie.
On 27 December 2010, Herring finished second on Celebrity Mastermind
with a final score of 35 points. His specialist subject was Rasputin
.
He was The Pod Delusion
"Comedian of the Year 2010"
On 7 February 2011, As It Occurs to Me won the first Chortle Internet award
On the 18 May 2011 he recorded a live performance of his 2010-11 show, Christ on a Bike: The Second Coming, which is due to be released by Go Faster Stripe on October 31st 2011.
In May 2011 it was announced that Fist of Fun
would be released on DVD via Go Faster Stripe. The first series will be released in November 2011.
His 2011 Edinburgh show What Is Love, Anyway premiered at the Cow Barn on 3 August, and will be taken on tour between October 2011 and April 2012. Richard Herring's Edinburgh Fringe Podcast topped the iTunes chart for 3 weeks during August 2011 and guests included Adam Buxton, Sarah Millican, Al Murray and Omid Djalili. During the 2011 Festival Richard referred to himself as "The King of Edinburgh". This was then picked up in several Festival focused publications.
, according to The Daily Telegraph
:
. "My ideal woman has the head of Julia Sawalha and the body of Julia Sawalha," went the running gag.
When Stewart Lee pointed out that it would be easier just to say that his ideal woman was Julia Sawalha, Richard added: "No, Stew, you're not listening. I said the head of Julia Sawalha and the body of Julia Sawalha. I said nothing about them being attached."
Herring has raised money for the Scope charity since 2003, and ran the London marathon in aid of the charity in 2004 as well as the Royal Parks Foundation Half Marathon in 2011. In January 2011 he was nominated for a Just Giving Life Time Achievement Award for his extensive work in helping to raise money, awareness and support for Scope
Richard is a supporter of York City Football Club
and in April 2010 performed a one-off fund-raising gig in aid of the club's cash-strapped youth fund.
In 2010 he was made a Distinguished Supporter of The British Humanist Association
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
and writer, whose early work includes his involvement in the double-act, Lee and Herring
Lee and Herring
Lee and Herring were a British standup comedy double act consisting of the comedians Stewart Lee and Richard Herring. They were probably most famous for their work on television, most notably Fist of Fun and This Morning With Richard Not Judy but had been working together on stage and on radio...
. He is described by the British Theatre Guide as "one of the leading hidden masters of modern British comedy".
He has written and performed in a body of live one-man comedy shows including the acclaimed Talking Cock and the resulting book of the same name. He has collaborated with the broadcaster Andrew Collins
Andrew Collins (broadcaster)
Andrew Collins is the creator and writer of Radio 4 sitcom Mr Blue Sky. His TV writing work includes EastEnders and the sitcoms Grass and Not Going Out .-Personal life:Collins was a member of the Labour Party between the late 1980s and early 1990s, leaving after Labour's...
, initially on the radio comedy series Banter
Banter (radio show)
Banter is a radio programme that is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in the UK, starring Andrew Collins and Richard Herring. The pilot and the first 2 series were broadcast from August 2005 to November 2006, and a third series was broadcast in April and May 2008. There have been 19 half-hour episodes so far...
, then on Collins' BBC 6 Music
BBC 6 Music
BBC 6 Music is one of the BBC's digital radio stations, was launched on 11 March 2002 and originally codenamed Network Y. It was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years....
show and the well received Collings and Herrin Podcast
Collings and Herrin (podcast)
The Collings and Herrin Podcast was a topical podcast produced by broadcaster Andrew Collins and comedian Richard Herring. Its title derives from the recurring Richard Herring trope of misspelling names for comic effect....
.
During the 2000s, Herring has toured with a new stand-up show almost every year. His 2009 show Hitler Moustache was the subject of much controversy, but also received critical approval and sold out for the entire Edinburgh Festival
Edinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
. His 2010 show Christ on a Bike: The Second Coming received several 4 and 5 star reviews and was taken on a 94 date tour of the UK in the Spring of 2011. It was the subject of protests from Christians in Glasgow and Lowestoft
Career
Herring was born in PocklingtonPocklington
Pocklington is a small market town and civil parish situated at the foot of the Yorkshire Wolds in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, approximately east of York....
, East Riding of Yorkshire
East Riding of Yorkshire
The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Yorkshire, is a local government district with unitary authority status, and a ceremonial county of England. For ceremonial purposes the county also includes the city of Kingston upon Hull, which is a separate unitary authority...
, but grew up in Cheddar
Cheddar
Cheddar is a large village and civil parish in the Sedgemoor district of the English county of Somerset. It is situated on the southern edge of the Mendip Hills, north-west of Wells. The civil parish includes the hamlets of Nyland and Bradley Cross...
, Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
. He was educated at St Catherine's College, Oxford
St Catherine's College, Oxford
St Catherine's College, often called Catz, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its motto is Nova et Vetera...
, where he wrote and performed for a comedy troupe known as the Seven Raymonds
Seven Raymonds
The Seven Raymonds were a comic revue troupe founded in 1987 by Oxford University undergraduates.The Seven Raymonds were Stewart Lee, Richard Herring, Emma Kennedy, Michael Cosgrave, Richard Canning, and Jo Renshaw...
as well as the Fringe
Edinburgh Fringe
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the world’s largest arts festival. Established in 1947 as an alternative to the Edinburgh International Festival, it takes place annually in Scotland's capital, in the month of August...
favourites the Oxford Revue
The Oxford Revue
The Oxford Revue is a comedy group featuring students from Oxford University, England. Founded in the early 1950s, The Oxford Revue has produced many prominent comedians and satirists. The Revue writes, produces and performs several shows each term...
. He attained a 2:1 in History
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
, but having never picked up his degree, he is one of the country's best known graduand
Graduand
Graduand refers to the status of an undergraduate or graduate student in the United Kingdom and certain Commonwealth states who has finished his or her studies at university, but not yet graduated in a formal ceremony....
s.
Chris Morris (satirist)
Christopher Morris is an English satirist, writer, director and actor. A former radio DJ, he is best known for anchoring the spoof news and current affairs television programmes The Day Today and Brass Eye, as well as his frequent engagement with controversial subject matter.In 2010 Morris...
and Armando Iannucci
Armando Iannucci
Armando Giovanni Iannucci is a Scottish comedian, satirist, writer, director, performer and radio producer. Born in Glasgow, he studied at Oxford University and left graduate work on a PhD about John Milton to pursue a career in comedy....
's On the Hour
On the Hour
On the Hour was a British radio programme that parodied current affairs broadcasting, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 1991 and 1992.Written by Chris Morris, Armando Iannucci, Steven Wells, Andrew Glover, Stewart Lee, Richard Herring and David Quantick, it starred Morris as the overzealous and...
(1991). It was during this time that the duo contributed to the creation of the character Alan Partridge
Alan Partridge
Alan Gordon Partridge is a fictional radio and television presenter portrayed by English comedian Steve Coogan and invented by Coogan, Armando Iannucci, Stewart Lee and Richard Herring for the BBC Radio 4 programme On The Hour...
. In 1992 and 1993, they wrote and performed Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World
Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World
Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World was a BBC Radio 4 comedy series starring Stewart Lee and Richard Herring , and narrated by Tom Baker as the titular character, Lionel Nimrod, an over the top parody of Leonard Nimoy. The show itself somewhat parodies the Leonard Nimoy program "In Search Of..."...
for BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
. For Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
, they wrote and performed one series of Fist of Fun
Fist of Fun
Fist of Fun was a popular 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...
(1993), which was later remade for television. They also hosted a series on Radio 1 in 1994 and 1995, simply called Lee and Herring
Lee and Herring (radio series)
Lee and Herring was a British radio series broadcast on BBC Radio 1 in 1994 and 1995, named after the comedy double act who hosted it, Lee and Herring.The show ran for three series and a total of nineteen hour-long episodes...
. A final television partnership with Lee, This Morning With Richard Not Judy
This Morning With Richard Not Judy
This Morning With Richard Not Judy or TMWRNJ was a BBC comedy television programme, written by and starring Lee and Herring. Two series were broadcast in 1998 and 1999 on BBC2...
, was a victim of BBC management reshuffles.
In 2002 Herring played the role of Renchard in the Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
webcast
Webcast
A webcast is a media presentation distributed over the Internet using streaming media technology to distribute a single content source to many simultaneous listeners/viewers. A webcast may either be distributed live or on demand...
Real Time, with Stewart Lee as Carey.
Since cordially ending his informal partnership with Stewart Lee, Herring has written and performed one-man shows to critical acclaim. Most noteworthy of these shows were Talking Cock – released as a book in 2003 – which The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
described as "man's answer to The Vagina Monologues
The Vagina Monologues
The Vagina Monologues is an episodic play written by Eve Ensler which ran at the Off Broadway Westside Theatre after a limited run at AFRICA in 1996. Ensler originally starred in the production which was produced by David Stone, Nina Essman, Dan Markley, The Araca Group, Willa Shalit, Mike Skipper...
. " Like Patrick Marber
Patrick Marber
Patrick Albert Crispin Marber is an English comedian, playwright, director, puppeteer, actor and screenwriter.-Early life and education:...
(a long-standing rival who was described as "curmudgeonly" or "a Cornish curmudgeon" in Fist of Fun), he has also written and produced several plays.
Herring co-wrote and presented the history based sketch show That Was Then, This Is Now
That Was Then, This Is Now (Radio Series)
That Was Then, This Is Now was a BBC Radio 2 history based comedy sketch show co-written and presented by Richard Herring. The series also featured musical interludes from a live band, fronted by Christian Reilly. The show ran for three series between 2004 and 2008.Herring was assisted each week...
(or TWTTIN), a six-part series produced for Radio 2
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...
. A second series was commissioned and aired in September and October 2006. On the broadcast of 2 September, he urged listeners to edit Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
's Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa , born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu , was a Roman Catholic nun of Albanian ethnicity and Indian citizenship, who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India, in 1950...
entry to suggest that she grew up with the middle name "Gonk
Gonk
A gonk is a small, furry, soft toy that was popular in the 1960s, created by artist Robert Benson and Sheila Stanton. They were egg-shaped and had small arms and legs. An inflatable vinyl version was sold in America....
". It took a whole 3 months before someone carried out his plan, although his own page had been edited in the same manner within days of the broadcast. A third series of the show began broadcast on 29 November 2007.
He has also written for television, most notably penning a large portion of Al Murray
Al Murray
Alastair James Hay "Al" Murray , is a British comedian best known for his stand-up persona, The Pub Landlord, a stereotypical xenophobic public house licensee. In 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy...
's sitcom vehicle Time Gentlemen Please
Time Gentlemen Please
Time Gentlemen Please is a British sitcom. Commissioned by Sky One, it was primarily written by Richard Herring and Al Murray and ran for two series between 2000 and 2002.- Premise and characters :...
, on which Stewart Lee worked as script editor. Herring has also contributed to the third series of Matt Lucas
Matt Lucas
Matthew Richard "Matt" Lucas is an English comedian, screenwriter and actor best known for his acclaimed work with David Walliams in the television show Little Britain; as well as for his portrayals of the scorekeeping baby George Dawes in the comedy panel game Shooting Stars, Tweedledee and...
and David Walliams
David Walliams
David Edward Walliams is an English comedian, writer and actor, known for his partnership with Matt Lucas on the TV sketch show Little Britain and its predecessor Rock Profile...
' popular TV sketch show Little Britain
Little Britain
Little Britain is a British character-based comedy sketch show which was first broadcast on BBC radio and then turned into a television show. It was written by comic duo David Walliams and Matt Lucas...
, as script editor. He has also worked for Russell Howard
Russell Howard
Russell Joseph Howard is an English comedian best known for his TV show Russell Howard's Good News and his appearances on the topical panel TV show Mock The Week...
.
On 25 November 2002 Herring started his blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
Warming Up as a way to overcome writer's block
Writer's block
Writer's block is a condition, primarily associated with writing as a profession, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work. The condition varies widely in intensity. It can be trivial, a temporary difficulty in dealing with the task at hand. At the other extreme, some "blocked"...
. He has written an entry for every single day since then, around about 3000 consecutive entries. It is estimated that he has a regular readership of over 3,000. Some of the ideas from Warming Up were used in his 2005 Edinburgh show Someone Likes Yoghurt, his 2006 Edinburgh show Ménage à Un and his 2007 Edinburgh show Oh Fuck, I'm 40!. In December 2008 the first six months of his blog were published in a book called Bye Bye Balham. The blog also proved a useful source for his 2010 book "How Not To Grow Up" and his 2011 stand up show "What is Love, Anyway?"
In 2005, he presented a chat show
Talk show
A talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....
called Heads Up with Richard Herring
Heads Up with Richard Herring
Heads Up with Richard Herring or HUWRH, was a British celebrity chat show written by and starring Richard Herring, who is best known as one half of comedy duo Lee and Herring, the stars of BBC Two shows Fist of Fun and This Morning With Richard Not Judy...
on the Pokerzone
Pokerzone
Pokerzone was a channel dedicated to poker, broadcasting on Sky Digital channel 843 since 19 May 2005. Previously known as Game In TV it rebranded on 26 April 2005 and launched the following month....
channel, in which he interviewed professional poker
Poker
Poker is a family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown , limits on bet sizes, and how many rounds of betting are allowed.In most modern poker...
players and celebrities about their careers and their love of the game. There were ten episodes in total.
Andrew Collins (broadcaster)
Andrew Collins is the creator and writer of Radio 4 sitcom Mr Blue Sky. His TV writing work includes EastEnders and the sitcoms Grass and Not Going Out .-Personal life:Collins was a member of the Labour Party between the late 1980s and early 1990s, leaving after Labour's...
' BBC 6 Music
BBC 6 Music
BBC 6 Music is one of the BBC's digital radio stations, was launched on 11 March 2002 and originally codenamed Network Y. It was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years....
radio show on Saturday afternoons, where the two would discuss the weeks papers. Occasionally he hosted the show in Collins's absence and joined him for the whole of his final show on 31 March 2007. Herring is also a panellist on BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
gameshow Banter
Banter (radio show)
Banter is a radio programme that is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in the UK, starring Andrew Collins and Richard Herring. The pilot and the first 2 series were broadcast from August 2005 to November 2006, and a third series was broadcast in April and May 2008. There have been 19 half-hour episodes so far...
, which is presented by Collins.
In January 2007, Herring's live stand-up show Someone Likes Yoghurt was filmed in Cardiff and released on DVD on 16 May by the independent distributor Go Faster Stripe
Go Faster Stripe
Go Faster Stripe is an independent film production and distribution company that operates out of the Chapter Arts Centre, in Cardiff, Wales. The company specialises in the recording of live shows by stand-up comedians who, while in the public eye, may not normally be able to get a DVD released...
. A recording of an earlier show, The 12 Tasks of Hercules Terrace, was released on 5 March 2007. Herring returned to Cardiff in June 2007 to film his third DVD, ménage à un. This DVD was released on 19 December 2007. He recorded Oh Fuck, I'm 40 on 21 March 2008. This DVD was released by Go Faster Stripe on 9 December 2008. He recorded "The Headmaster's Son" on 2 June 2009 at the Bristol Tobacco Factory. This was released by Go Faster Stripe on 11 February 2010. The DVD of "Hitler Moustache" was recorded on 2 April at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff and was released through PIAS/Go Faster Stripe on 25 October 2010.
In February 2007, filming began on Herring's new comedy drama You Can Choose Your Friends. As well as writing the script, Herring also played one of the characters alongside Gordon Kennedy
Gordon Kennedy (actor)
Gordon Kennedy is a Scottish actor. Kennedy grew up in Tranent, East Lothian, and attended George Watson's College in Edinburgh...
, Claire Skinner
Claire Skinner
Claire L. Skinner is an English actress, who is well known in the United Kingdom for her television career.-Biography:Born and brought up in Hemel Hempstead, Skinner, the youngest daughter of a shopkeeper and an Irish-born secretary, was immensely shy as a child...
, Rebecca Front
Rebecca Front
Rebecca Front is a BAFTA Award–winning English comedian and actress best known for her performances in The Thick of It in the late 2000s, and series of critically acclaimed satirical comedies in the early 1990s: On The Hour, The Day Today and Knowing Me, Knowing You...with Alan Partridge...
, Sarah-Jane Potts
Sarah-Jane Potts
Sarah-Jane Potts , is an English actress, best known for her roles as Saint in Sugar Rush, as Ellie, Abs' on/off girlfriend on Casualty and as Jo Lipsett in Waterloo Road. Potts is also the sister of actor Andrew-Lee Potts, best known for his part as Connor Temple in Primeval...
, Robert Daws
Robert Daws
Robert Daws is an English actor. He is most notable for a variety of roles he has played in television dramas.-Career:Daws played Tuppy Glossop in the early 1990s version of Jeeves and Wooster...
, Anton Rodgers
Anton Rodgers
Anton Rodgers was an English actor and occasional director. He performed on stage, in film and in television dramas and sitcoms.-Life and career:...
and Julia McKenzie
Julia McKenzie
Julia McKenzie is an English actress, singer, and theatre director. She is best-known for her performance in Fresh Fields, but to current television audiences, she is best known for her role as Miss Marple in Agatha Christie's Marple...
. The show was broadcast on ITV1
ITV1
ITV1 is a generic brand that is used by twelve franchises of the British ITV Network in the English regions, Wales, southern Scotland , the Isle of Man and the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey. The ITV1 brand was introduced by Carlton and Granada in 2001, alongside the regional identities of their...
on 7 June 2007.
In January 2008 he began producing the Collings and Herrin
Collings and Herrin (podcast)
The Collings and Herrin Podcast was a topical podcast produced by broadcaster Andrew Collins and comedian Richard Herring. Its title derives from the recurring Richard Herring trope of misspelling names for comic effect....
(sic) podcast with Andrew Collins
Andrew Collins (broadcaster)
Andrew Collins is the creator and writer of Radio 4 sitcom Mr Blue Sky. His TV writing work includes EastEnders and the sitcoms Grass and Not Going Out .-Personal life:Collins was a member of the Labour Party between the late 1980s and early 1990s, leaving after Labour's...
. They celebrated their two year anniversary with a live "100th" podcast (it was actually about the 105th one they had done) at the Leicester Square Theatre. On 30 January 2010 the pair started sitting in for Adam and Joe
Adam and Joe
Adam Buxton and Joe Cornish are British comedy performers known together as Adam and Joe. They are best known for presenting Adam and Joe on BBC 6 Music, and The Adam and Joe Show on Channel 4 from 1996 to 2001.-History:...
on BBC 6 Music on Saturdays mornings.
His 2008 stand-up set The Headmaster's Son earned critical respect with four 5 star reviews and several 4 star reviews. The set covers his experience growing up in The Kings of Wessex School in Somerset where his father worked as headmaster and how this may have encouraged him to make puerile jokes. The show was seen by critics as a thoughtful look at his upbringing, and his relationship with his father, to whom the show is dedicated.
The original idea behind his 2009 show, Hitler Moustache, was to see if he "could reclaim the toothbrush moustache
Toothbrush moustache
The Toothbrush moustache is a moustache, shaved at the edges, except for three to five centimeters above the centre of the lip...
for comedy – it was Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
's first, then Hitler ruined it." The show discusses broader issues, such as fascism and the British National Party
British National Party
The British National Party is a British far-right political party formed as a splinter group from the National Front by John Tyndall in 1982...
. Herring and some of his contemporaries, including Dave Gorman
Dave Gorman
David James Gorman is an English author, stand-up comedian and presenter. He has performed comedy shows on stage in which he tells stories of extreme adventures and presents the evidence to the audience in order to prove to them that they are true stories...
, were angered when comments he makes in his show were grossly misrepresented in an opinion column written by critic Brian Logan in The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
. In his piece about offensiveness in comedy, Logan failed to communicate that Herring's line "that racists have a point" is accompanied by a critical commentary of democracy.
Amateur video of a stand-up routine interrupted by a heckler was mounted on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
and has been viewed by more than 1,500,000 people. In Warming Up, Herring noted ruefully that this was more than had ever seen him perform his prepared material.
On 12 October 2009, he recorded the first episode of As It Occurs To Me
As It Occurs To Me
As It Occurs To Me is an internet comedy sketch and stand-up show written and performed by Richard Herring and co-starring Dan Tetsell, TV's Emma Kennedy and Christian Reilly. It has been performed since 2009 at the Leicester Square Theatre and occasionally at the Bloomsbury Theatre and is...
, a weekly stand-up and sketch show made especially for internet download. It also features Emma Kennedy
Emma Kennedy
Emma Kennedy is an English actress, writer and television presenter....
, Dan Tetsell
Dan Tetsell
Dan Tetsell is a comedian and writer for radio, television and stage. He has worked on a number of projects, including The Museum of Everything, That Was Then, This Is Now and Parsons and Naylor's Pull-Out Sections....
and Christian Reilly and had an initial run of 10 episodes. The show made a modest profit and a second series of eight episodes ran from 17 May to 5 July 2010. It was nominated for best internet show at the 2010 Sony Awards
Sony Radio Academy Awards
The Sony Radio Academy Awards , started in 1983, are some of the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. They are run by ZAFER Associates in association with the Radio Academy...
, though failed to place. An Edinburgh special took place during the Fringe on 17 August and there were three autumn specials in October and November 2010. A third series of six episodes started on 16th May 2011.
On 8 April 2010, Herring made his first appearance on the BBC's Have I Got News For You
Have I Got News for You
Have I Got News for You is a British television panel show produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC. It is based loosely on the BBC Radio 4 show The News Quiz, and has been broadcast since 1990, currently the BBC's longest-ever running television panel show...
. He returned to the show as a guest on 13 May 2011 for episode five of the 14th series.
On 14 October 2010, his Radio 4 series "Richard Herring's Objective" was first broadcast. In it Herring attempted to reclaim demonised items, starting with the Hitler moustache. The other episodes revolve around the hoodie, St George's Flag and Dolly the Sheep. An Edinburgh special about the "See You Jimmy" Hat was broadcast in August 2011 and a second series is being recorded in October 2011 with episodes about the Golliwog, the wheelchair, the Page 3 girl and the Old School Tie.
On 27 December 2010, Herring finished second on Celebrity Mastermind
Celebrity Mastermind
Celebrity Mastermind is a British television quiz show broadcast by BBC television. The show is a spin-off of the long running quiz show Mastermind, with the exception that all the contestants are celebrities. As with the main show, John Humphrys is the host and question-master...
with a final score of 35 points. His specialist subject was Rasputin
Grigori Rasputin
Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was a Russian Orthodox Christian and mystic who is perceived as having influenced the latter days of the Russian Emperor Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, and their only son Alexei...
.
He was The Pod Delusion
The Pod Delusion
The Pod Delusion is a weekly podcast about "interesting things". The usual format is a series of brief monologues from a variety of amateur contributors, usually discussing topics from a viewpoint that is best described as skeptical and humanist...
"Comedian of the Year 2010"
On 7 February 2011, As It Occurs to Me won the first Chortle Internet award
On the 18 May 2011 he recorded a live performance of his 2010-11 show, Christ on a Bike: The Second Coming, which is due to be released by Go Faster Stripe on October 31st 2011.
In May 2011 it was announced that Fist of Fun
Fist of Fun
Fist of Fun was a popular 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...
would be released on DVD via Go Faster Stripe. The first series will be released in November 2011.
His 2011 Edinburgh show What Is Love, Anyway premiered at the Cow Barn on 3 August, and will be taken on tour between October 2011 and April 2012. Richard Herring's Edinburgh Fringe Podcast topped the iTunes chart for 3 weeks during August 2011 and guests included Adam Buxton, Sarah Millican, Al Murray and Omid Djalili. During the 2011 Festival Richard referred to himself as "The King of Edinburgh". This was then picked up in several Festival focused publications.
Personal life
Herring was formerly in a relationship with the actress Julia SawalhaJulia Sawalha
Julia Sawalha is an English actress well known for her roles as Saffron Monsoon in Absolutely Fabulous, Lynda Day, editor of The Junior Gazette in Press Gang and Lydia Bennet in the 1995 television miniseries of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. She also played Dorcas Lane in the BBC's costume...
, according to The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
:
So taken was he that the Oxford-educated stand-up comedian even set up a shrine to her onFist of Fun, the television programme he wrote and acted in with Stewart Lee
Stewart Lee
Stewart Lee is an English stand-up comedian, writer and director known for being one half of the 1990s comedy duo Lee and Herring, and for co-writing and directing the critically acclaimed and controversial stage show Jerry Springer - The Opera...
. "My ideal woman has the head of Julia Sawalha and the body of Julia Sawalha," went the running gag.
When Stewart Lee pointed out that it would be easier just to say that his ideal woman was Julia Sawalha, Richard added: "No, Stew, you're not listening. I said the head of Julia Sawalha and the body of Julia Sawalha. I said nothing about them being attached."
Herring has raised money for the Scope charity since 2003, and ran the London marathon in aid of the charity in 2004 as well as the Royal Parks Foundation Half Marathon in 2011. In January 2011 he was nominated for a Just Giving Life Time Achievement Award for his extensive work in helping to raise money, awareness and support for Scope
Richard is a supporter of York City Football Club
York City F.C.
York City Football Club is an English football club based in York, North Yorkshire. The club participates in the Conference National, the fifth tier of English football. Founded in 1922, they joined the Football League in 1929, and have spent most of their history in the lower divisions...
and in April 2010 performed a one-off fund-raising gig in aid of the club's cash-strapped youth fund.
In 2010 he was made a Distinguished Supporter of The British Humanist Association
Radio
- On the HourOn the HourOn the Hour was a British radio programme that parodied current affairs broadcasting, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 1991 and 1992.Written by Chris Morris, Armando Iannucci, Steven Wells, Andrew Glover, Stewart Lee, Richard Herring and David Quantick, it starred Morris as the overzealous and...
Radio 4 (1991-2) - Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable WorldLionel Nimrod's Inexplicable WorldLionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World was a BBC Radio 4 comedy series starring Stewart Lee and Richard Herring , and narrated by Tom Baker as the titular character, Lionel Nimrod, an over the top parody of Leonard Nimoy. The show itself somewhat parodies the Leonard Nimoy program "In Search Of..."...
Radio 4/ Radio 1 (1992-3) - Fist of FunFist of FunFist of Fun was a popular 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...
Radio 1 (1993) - Lee and HerringLee and Herring (radio series)Lee and Herring was a British radio series broadcast on BBC Radio 1 in 1994 and 1995, named after the comedy double act who hosted it, Lee and Herring.The show ran for three series and a total of nineteen hour-long episodes...
Radio 1 (1994-5) - That Was Then, This Is NowThat Was Then, This Is Now (Radio Series)That Was Then, This Is Now was a BBC Radio 2 history based comedy sketch show co-written and presented by Richard Herring. The series also featured musical interludes from a live band, fronted by Christian Reilly. The show ran for three series between 2004 and 2008.Herring was assisted each week...
Radio 2 (2004–8) - BanterBanter (radio show)Banter is a radio programme that is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in the UK, starring Andrew Collins and Richard Herring. The pilot and the first 2 series were broadcast from August 2005 to November 2006, and a third series was broadcast in April and May 2008. There have been 19 half-hour episodes so far...
Radio 4 (2005–2008) - Collings and HerrinCollings and Herrin (podcast)The Collings and Herrin Podcast was a topical podcast produced by broadcaster Andrew Collins and comedian Richard Herring. Its title derives from the recurring Richard Herring trope of misspelling names for comic effect....
(2008–2011) (PodcastPodcastA podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
) - As It Occurs To MeAs It Occurs To MeAs It Occurs To Me is an internet comedy sketch and stand-up show written and performed by Richard Herring and co-starring Dan Tetsell, TV's Emma Kennedy and Christian Reilly. It has been performed since 2009 at the Leicester Square Theatre and occasionally at the Bloomsbury Theatre and is...
(2009–2011) (PodcastPodcastA podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
) - Collins and Herring 6Music (2010–2011)
- Richard Herring's Objective Radio 4 (2010-11)
- Warming UpWarming upA warm-up is usually performed before participating in technical sports or exercising. A warm-up generally consists of a gradual increase in intensity in physical activity , a joint mobility exercise, stretching and a sport related activity. For example, before running or playing an intense sport...
(2011) (PodcastPodcastA podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
) - Richard Herring's Edinburgh Fringe Podcast (2011) (PodcastPodcastA podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
)
Television
- Fist of FunFist of FunFist of Fun was a popular 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...
BBC 2 (1995–6) - This Morning With Richard Not JudyThis Morning With Richard Not JudyThis Morning With Richard Not Judy or TMWRNJ was a BBC comedy television programme, written by and starring Lee and Herring. Two series were broadcast in 1998 and 1999 on BBC2...
BBC 2 (1998–9) - Time Gentlemen PleaseTime Gentlemen PleaseTime Gentlemen Please is a British sitcom. Commissioned by Sky One, it was primarily written by Richard Herring and Al Murray and ran for two series between 2000 and 2002.- Premise and characters :...
Sky 1 (2000–2) - Heads Up with Richard HerringHeads Up with Richard HerringHeads Up with Richard Herring or HUWRH, was a British celebrity chat show written by and starring Richard Herring, who is best known as one half of comedy duo Lee and Herring, the stars of BBC Two shows Fist of Fun and This Morning With Richard Not Judy...
Pokerzone (2005) - You Can Choose Your Friends ITV 1 (2007)
DVD, Video and CD
- Lee and Herring Live BBC Video (1996)
- Time Gentlemen Please (episodes 1–6) (2006)
- The 12 Tasks of Hercules Terrace (2007)
- Someone Likes Yoghurt (2007)
- ménage à un (2007)
- Oh Fuck, I'm 40! (2008)
- Time Gentlemen Please (both series box set) (2008)
- The Headmaster's Son (2010)
- Collings and Herrin: The Best of Earth Wind and Fire * *(and water) (2010)
- As It Occurs To Me: Secret Stand Up (2010)
- Hitler Moustache (2010)
- Collings and Herrin: War and Peace, Crime and Punishment (2010)
- As It Occurs To Me: The Complete Cumpkin (2011)
- Christ on a Bike (2011)
- Fist of Fun: series 1 (2011)
Stand up
- Richard Herring is Fat (1994)
- Richard Herring is All Man (1995)
- Christ on a Bike (2001)
- Talking Cock (2002)
- The 12 Tasks of Hercules Terrace (2004)
- Someone Likes Yoghurt (2005)
- ménage à un (2006)
- Oh Fuck, I'm 40! (2007)
- The Headmaster's Son (2008)
- Hitler Moustache (2009)
- Christ on a Bike: The Second Coming (2010)
- What Is Love, Anyway? (2011)
Plays
- Ra Ra Rasputin (1993)
- Punk's Not Dead (1996)
- Excavating Rita (1997)
- Playing Hide and Seek With Jesus (1998)
- It's Not The End of the World (1999)
Edinburgh shows
- Old King Cole (1987) by Ken Campbell, played Faz. Oxford Theatre Group. Abbey Laird Theatre
- The Seven Raymonds KMnO4 (1987) OTG. St Mary's Hall
- The Oxford Revue – Waving at the Pigeons (1988) OTG St Mary's Hall
- the dum show (1992) with Stewart Lee, Steve Coogan, Patrick Marber and Simon Munnery. Pleasance 2
- Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World Live (1993) with Stewart Lee, Ronnie Ancona and Alistair Macgowan. Tom Baker on video. Pleasance 2
- Ra Ra Rasputin (1993) with Ben Moor, Sally Phillips, Andrew Mackay and Claire De Vries. Pleasance Upstairs.
- This Morning With Richard Not Judy (1994) with Stewart Lee and Sally Phillips. Pleasance Attic.
- Richard Herring is Fat (1994) with Kevin Eldon and Sally Phillips. Pleasance Upstairs.
- Richard Herring is All Man (1995) with Sally Phillips and Tom Binns. Pleasance Upstairs
- Lee and Herring Live off of TV's Fist of Fun (1995) with Peter Bayhnham. Pleasance One?
- Lee and Herring Live (1996) Pleasance One?
- Punk's Not Dead (1996) with Paul Putner, Ewan Bailey, Jason Freeman and Paul Reynolds. Dir Jeremy Herrin. Pleasance Upstairs.
- This Morning With Richard Not Judy II (1997) with Stewart Lee, Richard Thomas, Trevor Lock and Natalie Brandon. Pleasance Cabaret Bar
- Excavating Rita (1997) with Paul Putner, Catherine Hood, Jason Freeman, Trevor Lock and Natalie Brandon. Pleasance Above.
- Playing Hide and Seek With Jesus (1998) with Paul Putner, Emma Kennedy, Selina Boyack, Matthew Pidgeon, Amelia Curtis and Matt Wilkinson. Dir. Jeremy Herrin. Pleasance Above.
- Lee and Herring (1998) George Square Theatre.
- It's Not The End of the World (1999) with Paul Bown, Rebecca Lacey and Ruth Grey. Dir Jeremy Herrin. Pleasance One.
- Christ on a Bike (2001) Dir Jeremy Herrin. Pleasance Dome
- Talking Cock (2002) Dir Jeremy Herrin. Pleasance Above
- The 12 Tasks of Hercules Terrace (2004) Dir Jeremy Herrin. Pod Deco
- Someone Likes Yoghurt (2005) Pleasance Above
- Ménage à un (2006) White Belly, Underbelly
- Oh Fuck, I'm 40! (2007) White Belly, Underbelly
- The Headmaster's Son (2008) White Belly, Underbelly
- Collings and Herrin Podcast Live(2008) White Belly, Underbelly
- Hitler Moustache (2009) White Belly, Underbelly
- Collings and Herrin Podcast Live (2009) Belly Laugh, Underbelly
- Christ on a Bike: The Second Coming (2010) The Ball Room Assembly Rooms
- Collings and Herrin Podcast Live (2010) GRV Five Pound Fringe
- As It Occurs To Me Live (2010) Ball Room Assembly Rooms
- What Is Love, Anyway? (2011) Cow Barn, Underbelly
- Richard Herring's Edinburgh Fringe Podcast (2011) The Stand One
Writing
- Fist of Fun with Stewart Lee BBC Books, 1995. ISBN 0563371854; ISBN 978-0563371854
- Warming Up blog (2002–present)
- Talking Cock Ebury Press ISBN 978-1560256083 (2003)
- Warming Up Volume I: Bye Bye Balham Go Faster Stripe ISBN 978-0-9560901-0-2 (2008)
- Guardian How To Write (contributor) edited by Philip Oltermann The Guardian ISBN 0852651384 ISBN 978-0852651384 (2009)
- The Atheist Guide to Christmas Contributor (Editor Ariane Sherine) The Friday Project ISBN 978-0007322619 (2009)
- Shouting At The Telly Contributor (Editor John Grindrod) Faber and Faber ISBN 0571248020 ISBN 978-0571248025 (2009)
- How Not To Grow Up Ebury Press ISBN 0091932084 ISBN 978-0091932084 (2010)
- Roger's Profanisaurus – Das Krapital Introduction Dennis Publishing ISBN 978-1907232909 (2010)
External links
- RichardHerring.com
- Go Faster Stripe
- Collings and Herrin – His podcast (with Andrew CollinsAndrew Collins (broadcaster)Andrew Collins is the creator and writer of Radio 4 sitcom Mr Blue Sky. His TV writing work includes EastEnders and the sitcoms Grass and Not Going Out .-Personal life:Collins was a member of the Labour Party between the late 1980s and early 1990s, leaving after Labour's...
) - http://www.comedy.org.uk/podcasts/as_it_occurs_to_me/ As It Occurs To Me – his stand up and sketch podcast]
- Richard Herring's Edinburgh Fringe Podcast – his 2011 podcast from Edinburgh Fringe
- Warming Up – The podcast of his blog
- fistoffun.net
- Interview with The Humourdor
- Richard Herring Oh Fuck I'm 40 review from suchsmallportions.com
- Interview with BBC Somerset (March 2007)
- GQ GQ review
- Guardian Guide To Writing Comedy
- Extensive Interview with Mustard Magazine
- Independent interview about Hitler Moustache and AIOTM
- Interview with Den of Geek
- BBC news story about Hitler Moustache
- Interview with Gigglesbeat
- Interview with Dave