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.