Two-time Oscar nominee Peter Baynham (Borat, I’m Alan Partridge, Brass Eye, The Day Today, Arthur Christmas), and Never Mind the Buzzcocks and Number One in Heaven writer Jeremy (Jez) Simmonds have released a brand-new podcast series Brain Cigar, which is available to stream on all podcast platforms now.
Beginning at Episode 7, after the first six shows were lost in a tragic server crash that also claimed the first 38 instalments of H from Steps' Guide to Affordable Laptops, Brain Cigar is an essential new podcast focused on world events, TV shows, movies, music, books and products that Peter and Jez remember very clearly, even if you don’t.
Surely everyone recalls ‘Bowie Dinners’, rock legend David Bowie’s early nineties range of microwaveable meals? Or the Reverend Audrey’s disturbing accompaniment to the Thomas the Tank Engine books, The Anatomy and Bodily Functions of Thomas the Tank Engine (and Friends)? And what became of ‘Naturally Occurring Music’™, packets of which could be purchased in seedling form from the back of DC comics by those lucky enough to live in the USA, yet which somehow caused a 1979 airline tragedy? Whose childhood wasn’t scarred after witnessing Hollywood icon Jack Nicholson – appearing as a live guest on Noel Edmonds’ Multi-Coloured Swap Shop – calling a viewer’s Action Man ‘a little bitch’ before destroying the set of Grandstand? (Why he’d even be promoting The Postman Always Rings Twice on a Saturday morning kids’ show is a long-running mystery finally explained in the podcast.)
Brain Cigar also features fascinating guests, including funeral reviewers, a woman raising money for Loneliness Action UK who callously drove her own father to solitary suicide, and a restaurateur who will provide a discount for customers he has poisoned, on condition that they provide ‘faecal or vomitory evidence’. And of course there’s the necessary weekly instalment of John Church’s entirely un-necessary autobiography The Architecture of Bacon.
Brain Cigar features performances from Julia Davis (Nighty Night, Gavin & Stacey, Sally4Ever, Jam, Dear Joan and Jericha), Robert Chase (Conspiracy, Wild Justice, The Greasy Poll) – and more to be announced.
Peter Baynham and Jeremy Simmonds said: ‘Please accept it - we know what we saw. We know what we heard and what we read. Not to mention what we ate, smelt, or felt crudely rubbing against our legs as we hummed show tunes in a cheap Lyme Regis B&B. So, if you don’t remember these things, relax - we’re right here for you. And if you don’t want our help, fine - but we can’t personally guarantee that things won’t get…tricky. All we’ll say is, for your own sakes - please try to understand.’
In the 1990s Baynham appeared in Stewart Lee and Richard Herring's cult BBC comedy Fist of Fun. Among other things he played a 31-year-old Welsh virgin from Balham called Peter who provided lifestyle tips from his unique perspective, usually cheap (and revolting) alternatives to well known recipes.
Brain Cigar is an Ambulenz Podcast produced by Francis Jones.
Website: www.braincigar.com.
