Television Times with Steve Otis Gunn

In this repeat transmission, Dom Joly talks about how he invented a format, watched it become a global phenomenon, spent years explaining why the American version wasn't quite the same thing, and has since investigated the conspiracy theory that Finland might not exist.

Dom Joly is a British comedian, broadcaster, and author best known for Trigger Happy TV, and for a career that has expanded into travel writing and conspiracy theory investigation.

• The creative risks behind Trigger Happy TV — and how something that simple became so influential
• What happened when the format travelled internationally, and why translation is always more complicated than it looks
• The misunderstood moments in his career — including This is Dom Joly and why he still wants to talk about it
• His time on Celebrity Island with Bear Grylls — what he expected and what happened
• Why conspiracy theories are more interesting as a subject than their believers

Connect with Dom here:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• Official Website

Find us on social media — links on the About page.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Matt Reed believes Newcastle has one of the best comedy audiences in the country. He's also still recovering from Allo Allo and Watership Down, in roughly equal measure.

Matt Reed is a comedian and co-host of the comedy podcasts This Tastes Funny and Mother's Ruin.

• Why the North East is the most joyously funny region on the planet — and why Bill Bryson got off the train at Durham just to prove it
• Why Watership Down traumatised an entire generation more effectively than anything modern horror has managed since
• The fascination of seeing Jaws as a child, then seeing The Shark Is Broken on stage as an adult — and the brilliant on-set stories about Bruce the mechanical shark
• Why Top of the Pops needs to come back — with fewer dodgy presenters, more live performances, and everyone miming badly just for fun

Connect with Matt here:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• TikTok

Find us on social media — links on the About page.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jake Donaldson was once a teenage street magician, and this year he's weaving parts of his old magic act into his Edinburgh Fringe show

Jake Donaldson is a comedian and writer known for his groundbreaking comedy shows, including Spectacle, which explores his visual impairment.

• How performing card tricks for on the streets of Newcastle as a teenager led him toward comedy — and why magic and stand-up are closer cousins than people think
• Growing up with Victoria Wood as a comedy hero, and what it taught him about gender and power
• Why he resisted the word 'disabled' for years — and how that became Spectacle, a show all about his eyesight
• The CBT motorbike test that he somehow passed despite crashing the bike mid-test

Connect with Jake here:

• Instagram
• TikTok

Get tickets to Jake's EdFringe show here

Find us on social media — links on the About page.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andrew P. Stephen and Steve Otis Gunn have been friends since 2001, toured India together with The Woman in Black, and recently Andrew toured China performing Shakespeare.

Andrew P. Stephen is a British actor whose career spans decades of theatre touring and recent screen work, including Apple TV+'s Silo and the horror thriller Dark Game.

• The day trip to the Taj Mahal that broke down on the way back — a minibus, an open sewer, a man with a big spanner, and a director who nearly fainted after the ordeal.
• Smoking cigars in a high-rise Singapore hotel and playing billiards in Raffles.
• Woman in Black in India: stagehands eating samosas in the wings, the ghost unable to get through the auditorium, and the company manager holding the door shut.
• Andrew in China touring Shakespeare — including an unrehearsed performance in front of 5,000 people.

Connect with Andrew here:

• Instagram
• Facebook

Find us on social media — links on the About page.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Megan Lockhurst is back on the podcast with plenty to catch up on. Fresh from her parents' 50th wedding anniversary in Mexico, she's been busy with auditions, filming, and a growing list of projects.

Megan Lockhurst is a Canadian actress based in the UK, who recently starred in Murder at the Highland Manor, appeared in Havoc, and continues to build an impressive career on both sides of the Atlantic.

• The commercial audition she went to at 16 — a long trip to Toronto, hours of waiting around, and a memorable introduction to the realities of casting
• Murder at the Highland Manor — what it's like to lead a TV movie, and read reviews of your own performance
• Why social media feels completely unnatural to her, regardless of the necessity to engage
• Why elevators can be the scariest places of all

Connect with Megan here:

• Instagram
• TikTok
• Website
• IMDb

Find us on social media — links on the About page.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A 50-degree heatwave, a rusty shower in a converted Indian palace, a chilli that nearly took Tony's face off, and a moped chase through Vientiane — this is the unaired adventure stories collection, and it's about as un-PC as the podcast gets.

Television Times Presents: Adventure Stories Vol. 1, a full-length episode pulled together from unused travel story segments recorded during the show's brief run as All My Clothes Need Burning. Steve is joined by his friend Tony P for stories that didn't quite fit the regular format — and some that probably shouldn't fit any format.

• Delhi, 1999: rickshaw scams, a hedgerow hideout, and a tale that's hard to look good in
• The converted Indian palace with two showers in one room, one producing nothing and the other producing pure rust — and the brine-pickled chilli that nearly demanded a second toilet
• A local "currency collector" on the road to a shipyard inspection
• A moped chase through Vientiane after two masked men on a scooter sliced off Steve's wife's bag, followed by an encounter with a police officer who tried to fine them for reporting the crime

Find us on social media — links on the About page.

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Following the news of Keir Starmer's resignation, I wanted to jump on the mic and share a few thoughts on why these moments feel like television events in their own right, especially after seeing that bloody lectern again!

I also look back at my brief involvement in Labour politics during the 2010 leadership contest and recount my own encounter with Andy Burnham. Having met various political figures over the years, I explain why I think Burnham could make a compelling future Prime Minister.

This isn't a political podcast, and it certainly isn't a conventional bonus episode, but when the nation's eyes are glued to the screen and history is unfolding live on television, it feels very much in the spirit of Television Times.

Find us on social media — links on the About page.

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Cal was doing impressions in the playground before he knew it could be a job, appeared on Britain's Got Talent (twice), and is currently touring a show featuring 100 impressions in 60 minutes — and if you catch him at the Edinburgh Fringe, you'll get 101!

Cal is a comedian, impressionist, and pantomime regular from the North East, known for his appearances on Britain's Got Talent and a magnificent touring show that is exactly what it says on the tin.

• How Robin Williams in Mrs Doubtfire made him realise that doing voices could be a job
• Why learning an impression is easier now than ever — and conversely, why finding someone worth impersonating is harder than it's ever been
• Why Jeremy Vine is more fun to impersonate than Piers Morgan, and why mimicking Donald Trump is the exception to every rule
• Why, if you were famous in the 70s, you're famous forever — and why those names still get a bigger reaction than anyone who went viral last week

Connect with Cal here:

• Instagram
• YouTube
• TikTok

Find us on social media — links on the About page.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Meka Mo grew up in Queens, worked on Wall Street, watched the Miracle on the Hudson happen from her office window, lost a South London church basement crowd the moment she swore in front of some Jamaican grandmas, and has never once been pickpocketed anywhere in the world. She's been navigating cultural minefields ever since — and making it look easy.

Meka Mo is a New York City-based comedian, host of the emotional wellness comedy podcast We're Done Here, and a regular on the international comedy circuit. Her new show, New York City Dreams, will be playing at this year's Edinburgh Fringe.

• Why performing internationally means constantly working out which jokes travel and which ones don't
• Why she's never been pickpocketed anywhere in the world — and the flatmates who kept getting robbed in London
• The Columbus Day joke that went badly in Las Vegas
• Watching the Miracle on the Hudson happen in real time from her office window on Wall Street.

Connect with Meka here:

• Instagram
• YouTube
• Website

Get tickets for Meka's Edinburgh Fringe show here: NewYorkCityDreams

Find us on social media — links on the About page.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Steve returns to the microphone to explain why his brief podcast rebrand has already been abandoned, why Television Times is back, and what he learned from watching listener numbers dwindle.

In this short bonus episode, he talks honestly about burnout, second-guessing three years of work, and the surprisingly emotional experience of trying to rename something that people already know and trust.

• Why the rebrand to All My Clothes Need Burning lasted only a handful of episodes before being reversed
• The listener reaction that convinced Steve he'd made a mistake — and the awkward task of re-editing episodes and contacting guests
• What three years and 120+ episodes have taught him about podcasting, branding, and knowing when to stop fighting your audience

Plus, an adventure story from Thailand in 1999 featuring malaria tablets, questionable holiday hair braiding, and a brief encounter with the Thai police that could have gone very differently.

Normal service resumes shortly. Television Times is back, and Steve will now try to refrain from starting any more unnecessary rebrands.

Find us on social media — links on the About page.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.