Tony Slattery's Rambling Club

About Tony Slattery's Rambling Club

Embark on whimsical adventures with your hosts Paul Carmichael and Allan Lear, carrying on the legacy of their friend, the magnificent Tony Slattery!. Each episode, they dive into delightful discussions, accompanied by a special guest, as they navigate the quirky wonders of the Dewey Decimal System, guided by their magical (and rather tatty) bingo machine, voiced by the legendary Stephen Fry! Whether they're exploring the great outdoors or wandering through wild ideas, expect laughs, fascinating insights, and a touch of the unexpected. Tune in to Tony Slattery's Rambling Club and let your imagination roam free! You can become a member of the Rambling Club and obtain your signed membership card, club badges, access to episodes a month in advance, exclusive episodes you won't hear anywhere else, monthly AMA's and much more by heading over to www.patreon.com/slatterylive Music composed and performed by Michael Livesley & Andy Frizell Phwifffth voiced by Michael Livesley www.michaellivesley.com Producer- Erica Lear Executive Producer- Mark Strickson Official Website- www.tonyslattery.com Twitter/X- @SlatteryLive BlueSky- @ramblingclub Instagram- tony_slattery_official Facebook- www.facebook.com/groups/thetonyslattery Patreon- www.patreon.com/slatterylive Paul's Twitter/X- @PaulCarmichaelV Tony Slattery's Rambling Club is a Fanfaronade Production © 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

Publisher

Tony Slattery

Category

comedy · music · tv & film

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

24 Oct 2024

Latest episode

23 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

89 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   23 Oct 2026

   Second Anniversary Spesh! "What's A Podcast?"

   Would you believe it? Two whole years of Tony Slattery’s Rambling Club! And to celebrate, we’ve invited a few friends into the shed for a special gathering. There is, however, a slight hitch. The bingo machine, having served us faithfully for two years, has finally decided to take a well-earned rest. The gears are grinding, the balls have stopped rolling, and the great outdoors will have to manage without us for once. So, with no numbers to guide us and no particular destination in mind, we settle down for a good old-fashioned natter. Joining Paul Carmichael and Allan Lear are Erica Lear, Mark Hutchinson, James Payton, Jessica Mann and our very own mayor of the village, Rowland Rivron. Together, we look back at how the Rambling Club came into being, how a slightly mad idea became a podcast, and how Tony’s extraordinary ability to talk about absolutely anything gave the whole thing its heart. There are stories of first encounters, improvised mayhem, unexpected friendships and the sheer joy of being on stage with a man who could take a conversation somewhere nobody else could possibly have anticipated. Mark shares memories of Tony away from the spotlight, while James and Jess recall the delight, danger and occasional impropriety of performing alongside him. We also reflect on Tony’s remarkable talent, his kindness, his generosity towards fellow performers, and the importance of keeping his work and spirit alive. There are laughs, a few poignant moments, and at least one story involving a rather spectacular misunderstanding at a funeral. So pull up a chair, make yourself comfortable, and join us for a special anniversary gathering. The bingo machine may have gone quiet, but there’s certainly no shortage of things to talk about. And this time, we’re staying in the shed. Paul's new podcast, A Life with Paul Carmichael, is out now on every podcast app! iTunes-> https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a-life-with-paul-carmichael/id6819710823 (https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a-life-with-paul-carmichael/id6819710823) Spotify-> https://open.spotify.com/show/1aUTKyq2vZ1v9BGTEZCAmB?si=2Fc39XxgRsqzlhH6uaOb-Q&utm_source=copy-link Presented by Paul Carmichael & Allan Lear With their special guests Mark Hutchenson, Roland Rivron, Jessica Mann, James Payton and Allan Lear. Music composed and performed by Michael Livesley & Andy Frizell The voice of Pwfthhh- Michael Livesley www.michaellivesley.com Series Researcher- Soula Carmichael Series Producers- Erica Lear and Mark Hutchinson Producers- Alan Dyebing & Stuart Morris Executive Producer- Mark Strickson Join the rambling club and receive your club membership card, badges, exclusive content and access to early release episodes, an exclusive extra podcast you won't hear anywhere else and exclusive club-only perks! www.patreon.com/SlatteryLive Official Website- www.tonyslattery.com Twitter/X: @SlatteryLive Instagram: tony_slattery_official BlueSky: @ramblingclub Paul's Threads: @paul.carmichael.1213 Paul's Bluesky: @paulcarmichaeluk © Fanfaronade Productions 2026 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

2. 

   16 Oct 2026

   Guy Siner- “You Bloody Colonials”

   This week’s guest President is the wonderfully entertaining Guy Siner. A ctor, raconteur, accidental international man of mystery and, of course, the man who brought Lieutenant Gruber magnificently to life in ’Allo ’Allo! Once safely installed, Tony’s enchanted bingo machine does its usual work, conjuring three numbers from the Dewey Decimal System and sending us off into the great outdoors. And our first destination is… 213 — Creation What do you believe happens when all of this begins? Guy was brought up as a Christian, confirmed at eleven so that he could become a godfather, but eventually arrived at a rather more humanist philosophy: we are here, we have been created somehow, and while we are here we might as well enjoy ourselves. That leads us into faith, atheism, the emotional nature of belief, and whether you can ever actually argue somebody into or out of faith. It also leads, inevitably, to Guy’s considerable love of the natural world. Animals, trees, meadows, landscapes and the simple pleasure of being alive all feature prominently although, as Guy cheerfully admits, he loves animals rather more than he loves people. There is also the small matter of cats. 379 — Educational Policy Our second number gives us an excuse to go back to the beginning. Guy is Anglo-American, born in New York to an American father and English mother, before being brought back to England at the age of five and educated here. That experience of belonging simultaneously to two countries and, in a sense, to neither of them completely. is one of the fascinating threads running through his story. From there we arrive at the extraordinary training ground that was the old repertory system. After drama school, Guy was sent away to learn his trade and, in just thirteen months, appeared in twenty-two plays. Drama, comedy, musicals, old men, young men, singing, dancing- the lot. It was an apprenticeship in the fullest sense, and Guy is passionate about what that kind of training taught him: that everybody in a theatre or studio matters. The actor cannot do their job if the person operating the cable cannot do theirs. 940 — History of Europe And now, surely, we must talk about Europe. There is Doctor Who, where a young Guy Siner terrified a generation as General Raven. There is his extraordinary work in television and film. There is That’s My Bush!, where he discovered that the supposedly German dialogue had been translated into complete gibberish and decided, brilliantly, that the best thing to do was simply perform the nonsense exactly as written. And then, of course, there is ’Allo ’Allo! Guy takes us behind the scenes of one of Britain’s most beloved sitcoms, explaining why the writing of David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd was so extraordinarily precise, why the cast worked so well together, and why the programme could make virtually everyone the butt of the joke without giving anybody the moral high ground. Presented by Paul Carmichael & Allan Lear With their special guest President Guy Siner and Sir Stephen Fry as the voice of the Bingo Machine. Music composed and performed by Michael Livesley & Andy Frizell The voice of Pwfthhh- Michael Livesley www.michaellivesley.com Series Researcher- Soula Carmichael Series Producers- Erica Lear and Mark Hutchinson Producers- Alan Dyebing & Stuart Morris Executive Producer- Mark Strickson Join the rambling club and receive your club membership card, badges, exclusive content and access to early release episodes, an exclusive extra podcast you won't hear anywhere else and exclusive club-only perks! www.patreon.com/SlatteryLive Official Website- www.tonyslattery.com Twitter/X: @SlatteryLive Instagram: tony_slattery_official BlueSky: @ramblingclub Paul's Threads: @paul.carmichael.1213 Paul's Bluesky: @paulcarmichaeluk © Fanfaronade Productions 2026 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

3. 

   9 Oct 2026

   David Schofield- "I’ve Paid £32.50 For You To Make Me Feel It”

   Would you believe it? This week’s guest President is the magnificent David Schofield and after a brief encounter with darts, Yorkshire tea and a suspicious-looking path through the shed, the enchanted bingo machine sends us off into the great outdoors once again. Our first destination is 324 — Political Processes, which turns out to be a surprisingly good place to begin. Does an actor have to be political? David thinks not. His job, he tells us, is to interpret the writer and director, even when the character’s views are entirely opposed to his own. We wander through Valkyrie, Our Friends in the North, corrupt policemen, the responsibilities of an actor and the dangers of being told, particularly on social media, what you ought to think. But politics also takes us back to David’s childhood in Wythenshawe, and to his father, a committed socialist who worked on the railways and found his political convictions in a very simple realisation: being ordered to stand on a mat so that his working boots didn’t mark the boss’s carpet was, quite simply, wrong. Then the machine gives us 470 — Latin and Classical Languages, which provides our rather tenuous but entirely legitimate route from Rome to Julius Caesar, Shakespeare and the Royal Shakespeare Company. David talks about iambic pentameter, the extraordinary musicality of Shakespeare’s language and the way the rhythm itself can carry an actor through a speech. We hear about his love of Henry V, Michael Bryant’s extraordinary ability to make pentameter sound like ordinary speech, and the strange magic of knowing that Shakespearean text can remain lodged in the memory for decades. Finally, the machine produces 024 — General Reference Works, Libraries and Books, and we find ourselves talking about acting itself. David remembers the extraordinary Michael Bryant, the dangers of trying to “show” the audience how much acting you are doing, and the importance of remembering that the audience is paying to feel something, rather than simply watch an actor feeling it. There is room for Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard, Pirates of the Caribbean, the difference between theatre and enormous Hollywood productions, and David’s feeling that the industry has perhaps become rather too serious about itself. And then, back in the shed, comes perhaps the most revealing moment of all. Asked whether his extraordinary career turned out as he expected, David remembers the advice of his first proper agent, who asked what he wanted from acting. He could have said fame, money or stardom. Instead, he said he wanted to make a living out of it for the rest of his working life. Presented by Paul Carmichael & Allan Lear With their special guest President David Schofield and Sir Stephen Fry as the voice of the Bingo Machine. Music composed and performed by Michael Livesley & Andy Frizell The voice of Pwfthhh- Michael Livesley www.michaellivesley.com Series Researcher- Soula Carmichael Series Producers- Erica Lear and Mark Hutchinson Producers- Alan Dyebing & Stuart Morris Executive Producer- Mark Strickson Join the rambling club and receive your club membership card, badges, exclusive content and access to early release episodes, an exclusive extra podcast you won't hear anywhere else and exclusive club-only perks! www.patreon.com/SlatteryLive Official Website- www.tonyslattery.com Twitter/X: @SlatteryLive Instagram: tony_slattery_official BlueSky: @ramblingclub Paul's Threads: @paul.carmichael.1213 Paul's Bluesky: @paulcarmichaeluk © Fanfaronade Productions 2026 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

Who has been a guest on Tony Slattery's Rambling Club

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Vincent Franklin
• Daniel Hill
• Ian Reddington
• Jo Caulfield
• Mark Wingett

Reach and audience

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

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

16 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 17 / 100

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

Quality

34

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

0

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