The Collings and Herrin Podcasts Comedy.co.uk

Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast 140. It's the first time Andrew Collins and Richard Herring have spoken in over 60 months and it would be foolish to deny that there might be come tensions bubbling beneath (and all over) the surface, but there's still time for some banter that will take you back to the glory days of 2008-2011. Armed with emergency questions and an emergency folder of cherished tabloid memories the pair attempt to discuss the country's worst serial killers, the Mitfords, the evil of Cecil Parkinson, the debt they owe each other, the unresolved sexual tension (at least at the start of the evening), the disappointment of Northampton, decent and indecent proposals, whether it's OK to add cartoons to The Human Centipede and what the best kind of tape is. You will laugh, you will wince, you will remember the 1980s, but not possibly as fondly as Collings does.

No preamble. Podcast 167 comes exactly 21 weeks after Podcast 166, due to philosophical differences. Here we are again. Same attic, same settee, same hardware, same mugs, same lighting, less clutter, slightly different feng shui, nothing to prove, and arguably too much to talk about, and argue about. Does it work? Only you can decide.

BONUS! PRETEND PODCASTS! The Tugwell Tape Pt 6: The End Of History. Yes, having regaled you electronically with the entire 6 Music archive with the music taken out, from the end of 2006, through to the end of 2009, this is the final Collins and Herring 6 Music appearance of that period, and also historic in its own way: our first dep for Adam and Joe on Saturday morning, at which point we had no idea we'd ever be asked to do it again. So, on 8 November, 2009, we attack this hallowed slot with gusto, as it were. Audibly nervous, we. In the pic, you can probably sense those nerves. Having decided who's Adam and who's Joe, we discuss 'invasive' headphones, invent Diary Wars, the forthcoming ITV drama series Collision, ballet, Flight of the Conchords, and whether or not Andrew is using his 'audiobook voice' on the radio. What fun we all had. Another big thanks to archivist Graham Tugwell. Without him, the past couple of months would have been a wilderness with wind whistling spookily through it.

BONUS! PRETEND PODCASTS! The Tugwell Tape Pt 5: In this penultimate offering from the celestial Graham Tugwell Collins and Herring 6 Music archives, we find Andrew and Richard being invited for the first time ever to co-host someone else's show, in this case Jon Richardson's popular Sunday morning show. Their excitement is palpable. The talk moves from euphemisms to shortened names via Jon's Good Deeds feature, our version of it, cleverly called Bad Deeds, and the first ever accusation that Richard just plays with his phone when he should be working. The picture accompanying the podcast is actually accurate; it was taken via the studio webcam on the exact date of this historic recording, May 31, 2009. Apologies for the occasional technical blip. This is us, not you.

BONUS! PRETEND PODCASTS! The Tugwell Tape Pt 4: The next four vintage 'pretend podcasts' (they weren't podcasts) from Andrew Collins and Richard Herring, coincide with the filming of the latter's ITV1 comedy-drama You Can Choose Your Friends. Among those topical things discussed on consecutive Saturdays 24 Feb, 3 March, 10 March, 17 March 2007, are: the tumescent lump in David Beckham's shorts; a gigantic, 35-ft squid; a little girl making a stupid face behind Leader of the Opposition David Cameron in Israel; Beth Ditto's squirrel diet; Tony Blair on Comic Relief; Louis Walsh being kicked off The X-Factor (that dates it, right?); and Richard's nude scene in the aforementioned comedy-drama. Don't we sound young?

BONUS! PRETEND PODCASTS! The Tugwell Tape Pt 3: Bone-us! As if there aren't *enough* podcasts with Richard Herring on, here are the latest Tugwell Tapes, Pt3, ie. music-free recordings of the half-hour topical review that Richard used to do on Andrew's Saturday afternoon 6 Music show in the Olden Days of 2006-07 (and turned out to be a prototype for what became the Collings and Herrin podcast a year later). There are four here: 20 January, 27 Jan, 3 Feb, 17 Feb 2007, and what a wonderful, prelapsarian world it was, with pre-watershed chit-chat about spliff-denying Leader of the Opposition David Cameron, still-alive Jade Goody, still-insurging Iraqis, and the tantalising possibility of a Someone Likes Yogurt DVD (now *that* dates it).