The Channel 84 Variety Show / Untitled Trek Show

About The Channel 84 Variety Show / Untitled Trek Show

The Variety Show Podcast from Studio:Channel84 Running since 2021, hosted by Rob and TJ, The Variety Show is a comedy podcast that mixes pop culture, films, TV, gaming, music, nostalgia, parenting, strange news, quizzes, taste tests and whatever else grabs our attention that week. One minute we're debating classic movies or reviewing the latest cinema releases. The next we're arguing over ridiculous snacks, reliving growing up in the 80s and 90s, or trying to make each other laugh with bizarre games and challenges. Nothing is off the table for long. Expect honest opinions, plenty of laughs, questionable decisions and the occasional tangent that somehow becomes the best part of the episode. If you enjoy conversations that feel like sitting in the pub with two mates—funny, unfiltered and never taking themselves too seriously—you'll fit right in. New episodes are released every other Monday. Formerly The Channel 84 Variety Show. Same hosts. Same chaos. New name. Any other Variety Shows are impersonators!

Publisher

Studio:Channel84

Category

comedy · leisure

Language

en

Explicit

Yes

First episode

20 Feb 2023

Latest episode

26 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

237 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   26 Oct 2026

   Whats wrong McVities, are you and Jaffa ok?

   Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! (https://rss.com/podcasts/thechannel84varietyshow/voicemail) McVitie’s, are you and Jaffa okay? This week, Tom and Rob put Jaffa Cookies, Club Mint Digestives and white Hobnobs through the Snack Sack. There are high hopes, missing flavours and a level of biscuit disappointment that feels deeply personal. Rob celebrates another birthday with a box of Maltesers, while our non-BBC-affiliated Question Time tackles envelope licking, what every modern cinema needs and whether schools should keep the junk modelling they send home with our kids. Do You Remember takes us back to handwritten Game Boy level codes and knowing phone numbers off by heart. Then it’s your turn to play along: can you identify ten children’s and family TV theme tunes played backwards? Finally, the Smurfs take on The Prodigy’s “Firestarter” in Was It Best Left in the 90s? What could possibly go wrong? How did you score in the quiz, and have you tried the Jaffa Cookies? Send us your verdicts, questions and snack suggestions at thevarietyshow.co.uk (http://thevarietyshow.co.uk). Follow the show, leave a review and share this episode with your favourite biscuit critic. #TheVarietyShow #ComedyPodcast #BritishPodcast #SnackReviews #JaffaCakes #McVities #90sNostalgia #RetroGaming #GameBoy #TVThemeQuiz #TheProdigy #StudioChannel84

2. 

   11 Oct 2026

   Before Smartphones, We Read Toilet Duck

   Welcome back to The Variety Show, where Tom and Rob are asking the important questions in life. How do you get out of paying a restaurant bill? Are social media influencers becoming unbearable? And can you identify a classic video game from nothing more than its sound effects? Having survived Blackpool, the pair return with another helping of questionable opinions, retro nostalgia, ridiculous conversations and the sort of arguments that really shouldn’t require this much thought. Question Time (but definitely not the BBC version) kicks things off with a restaurant bill dilemma and listener questions. As usual, what should be a straightforward discussion takes a few unexpected turns. Then it’s time for Do You Remember?, the nostalgia game where Tom and Rob attempt to drag forgotten memories back into the daylight. Expect a trip through the sort of things you haven’t thought about for years, alongside the usual arguments about what counts as a proper memory. There’s also a rant about modern influencers, the joys of wandering around St Albans with a camera, and Tom’s plans for a new YouTube series called Lunch Break. Because apparently having several podcasts isn’t enough to keep him occupied. The Snack Test returns, and this time the humble Jaffa Cake gets dragged into the world of digestive biscuits. Is combining two British biscuit favourites a stroke of genius, or have we created something that doesn’t quite satisfy either craving? Tom and Rob put their taste buds to work and deliver their usual unnecessarily specific verdicts. For the main quiz, it’s Guess the Video Game from the Sound Effect. Ten games spanning the late 1980s, early 1990s and 2000s, with Rob challenged to identify each one using only its familiar noises. How much gaming knowledge has survived the decades, and how much has been replaced with completely useless information? And, naturally, there’s more 1990s music nostalgia before the episode wraps up, with some familiar names from the era making an appearance. It’s another episode of The Variety Show from Studio:Channel84. British comedy podcasting with retro gaming, snack reviews, pop culture, nostalgia and two blokes who can turn absolutely anything into a debate. New episodes every other Monday at https://thevarietyshow.co.uk (https://thevarietyshow.co.uk) #TheVarietyShow #UKComedyPodcast #RetroGaming #90sNostalgia #Podcast E-mail Us: podcasts@channel84.co.uk (mailto:podcasts@channel84.co.uk) (Both) tj@thevarietyshow.co.uk (mailto:tj@channel84.co.uk) rob@untitledscifishow.co.uk (mailto:rob@untitledscifishow.co.uk) Find out more about the Studio: https://channel84.co.uk (https://channel84.co.uk)

3. 

   27 Sept 2026

   One Pringle or Four? This Is Apparently an Argument

   A nostalgic Transformers cinema trip should be straightforward. Book the tickets, watch some robots, explain why everyone needed the toys. Instead, Tom gets a PG-versus-12A headache and a son who’s spotted a useful opening in the ongoing Spider-Man negotiations. In Episode 90 of The Variety Show from Studio:Channel84, Rob and Tom dig into Tom’s experience booking the Transformers 40th anniversary screening through Cineworld, the conflicting age-rating information he found, and the bonus footage they missed because someone needed a wee. Would you complain, leave, or spend the opening minutes frantically checking the BBFC on your phone? Listener questions send the film chat in several directions. Tom wants Pierce Brosnan to have had a shot at Casino Royale, Rob wants six-hour Lord of the Rings films, and Jurassic Park briefly gets a Care Bears makeover. Then there’s the cinema snack debate: McDonald’s at the door, nachos in the auditorium, disappearing ice cream counters and the entirely reasonable ambition to watch a film with a Chinese takeaway. Rob’s car also has opinions, mostly expressed through alarms and unexpected braking. Cue a rant about parking sensors, automatic full beams and touchscreen controls that turn switching on the fan into a small administrative task. Bring back the bloody buttons. In the Snack Sack, three tubes of Pringles face judgement: baked cheese and garlic, Burger King Bacon Double Cheeseburger XL and the Fallout mystery flavour. There’s disagreement over garlic, a surprisingly convincing burger aftertaste, and a separate argument about whether normal people eat one Pringle or a stack. The Fallout verdict? Leave it in the vault. Fancy testing your film knowledge? Play along with eight rounds of a five-clue movie quiz featuring IMDb ratings, release years and some baffling five-out-of-ten reviews. Apparently, a film can make you laugh, cry and punch the air while still being aggressively average. Finally, the 90s music showdown pits Guns N’ Roses’ November Rain against Westlife’s I Have a Dream. First, though, Rob and Tom need a word about a greatest rock songs list featuring Britney Spears, TLC and Dr. Dre. Movies, music, snack reviews, parenting and everyday irritations. New episodes every other Monday. #TheVarietyShow #StudioChannel84 #UKComedyPodcast #MovieQuiz #Pringles

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

22,134

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

2 ratings

Spotify

4.8 / 5

18 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 71 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

79

Social presence

0

YouTube

76

Engagement

82

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Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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