Adam Buxton

The Adam Buxton Podcast

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The story of Adam Buxton’s podcast begins with his old friend Louis Theroux. The first episode features a lengthy conversation between the pair about holiday buffet etiquette (with Louis being strongly against Adam’s habit of taking extras from the all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet to feed his family at lunchtime). This is somewhat the epitome of The Adam Buxton Podcast: Buxton sitting down with various friends (most of whom have a background in comedy, music or film) and just allowing the chat to meander wherever it does. And with someone like Buxton at the helm, having dipped his toes in some of the best quality comedy waters, from The IT Crowd, to Hot Fuzz, to Never Mind the Buzzcocks, the laughter comes frequently, and often from the silliest of things.

Beginning in September 2015, there have been over 80 episodes to date, and guests have included Simon Pegg, Romesh Ranganathan, Caitlin Moran and Michael Palin. Joe Cornish (from The Adam and Joe Show and also writer of Attack the Block) has even popped up a few times, to reminisce about their Radio 6 Music days and often just to have a general catch up. But the interviews with Theroux are amongst my favourites. The pair share a surprisingly similar sense of humour, so we get to see a different side to the typically serious and brooding journalist and presenter.

© Matt Crockett

There’s something intentionally rustic and homemade about the whole production of the podcast. This is surely partly down to the simplicity of the conversation format, but also because Adam records the opening and closing segments while out walking his dog, Rosie (the ‘Hairy Bullet’) in the East Anglian countryside.

Anyone who knows Buxton, perhaps those who have been to see one of his BUG shows, will know that he has rather musical bones. With a remarkable ability to construct and perform funny, ludicrous songs in an impressively short space of time, it’s no wonder that Buxton’s jingles feature quite heavily throughout the podcasts. ‘Ramble Chat’ and ‘Like and Subscribe’ are amongst the core jingles featured in each episode, which certainly break up the ‘ramble chat’ a little. And the songs, just like the actual conversations, never take themselves too seriously, which makes for a truly unpretentious podcast that is a delight to listen to.

The latest series of The Adam Buxton Podcast has just come to an end, featuring interviews with Desiree Burch and Roisin Conaty, and you can listen to all previous episodes here.

Top 5 Moments… The IT Crowd

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The IT Crowd ran between the years 2006 and 2010 for four series (with one special finale episode in September 2013). With it being such a well-known and loved British sitcom, jam-packed with such immense comedy talent, I thought it would be a nice idea to present to you my top five moments from all of the twenty five episodes.

5) A Suicide at Reynholm Industries (Series 2, Episode 2)

Denholm Reynholm, played by the infamous Chris Morris, was the original head of Reynholm industries until one fateful day during series two of the show. Everybody already knew that Denholm was prone to getting a bit hot under the collar, with frequent moody stares and bellowing fits, so we shouldn’t really have been too surprised to see his latest smart move. Upon being interrupted in a meeting to be told that the police want to look into some “financial irregularities” in the industry’s accounts, he promptly gets up and jumps out of the window, falling quickly to his death. The promptness and simplicity of this will always make this funny for me, and it was the perfect way for the talent that is Morris to leave the show (though it’s a shame he had to).

4) Roy and his Disabled Legs (Series 2, Episode 1)

During a work outing to the theatre with Moss, Jen and Jen’s new boyfriend, Roy and Moss encounter a dreaded toilet attendant so are forced to visit the disabled toilets instead. Roy quickly regrets this decision when he mistakingly pulls the emergency cord rather than the toilet chain and is bombarded with theatre staff thinking he is in a crisis. In typical IT Crowd style, of course Roy pretends he is disabled and has, in fact, had his wheelchair stolen. He informs the staff that he is disabled “in the legs” and the reason for this is “acid”, and of course, that makes perfect sense to them and they try to help him in every way they can…

3) That’s Right, We’re Looking at You (Series 3, Episode 6)

Roy is sent to do something that a man from IT is very rarely sent to do: go and fix something IT-related. While he is there, he notices a framed picture on a girl’s desk. The picture shows a young man looking “absolutely mental” in Roy’s opinion. This is because the man is boss-eyed. In a rapid string of strange events, Roy ends up directing a “geek” calendar in order to raise money for the charity and he rakes in all of his nerd friends in to help.

2) Goth 2 Boss (Series 4, Episode 6)

When Douglas Reynholm’s wife, Victoria, returns and demands a divorce, with significant monetary payouts, he realises that he is going to need a lawyer. And who better to represent Douglas than IT Relationship Manager, Jen? (She knows about relationships, right?). So Jen is stuck trying to form some kind of defence for Douglas and is rapidly running out of ideas; that is until Richmond, renowned socially-rejected goth at Reynholm Industries, steps up with his fantastic “Goth 2 Boss” related reason for why Victoria is a fraud. Unfortunately, and typically, Richmond turns out to be mistaken but we still get remarkable insight into his new business venture.

1) She’s Dead! (Series 1, Episode 5)

When Moss is left to tell a little white lie to Jen’s new boyfriend, Bill Crouse (Adam Buxton), regarding why Jen wasn’t at the office at that present time, he accidentally blurts out that she has, in fact, died. As the lies spiral out of control, Bill continues to see Jen walking around the building (because, believe it or not, she isn’t actually dead). The circumstances are painfully poised to convince the poor man that he is being haunted by the ghost of his past lover, and he becomes increasingly terrified throughout the episode:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZowBasLBFk

What is your favourite IT Crowd moment of all time? Let me know in the comments, or by tweeting me at @moodycomedy.