Richard Keith Herring (born 12 July 1967) is an English

stand-up comedian Stand-up comedy is a performance directed to a live audience, where the performer stands on a stage and delivers humorous and satirical monologues sometimes incorporating physical acts. These performances are typically composed of rehear ...

and writer whose early work includes the comedy

double act A double act (also known as a comedy duo) is a form of comedy originating in the British music hall tradition, and American vaudeville, in which two comedians perform together as a single act, often highlighting differences in their characters' ...

Lee and Herring (alongside Stewart Lee). He is described by ''The British Theatre Guide'' as "one of the leading hidden masters of modern British comedy". Towards the end of the double act, Herring also worked as a writer, producing four plays. After Lee and Herring went their separate ways he co-wrote the

sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

'' Time Gentlemen Please'', but quickly returned to performance with concept-driven

one-person show A solo performance, sometimes referred to as a one-man show, one-woman show, or one-person show, features a single person telling a story for an audience, typically for the purpose of entertainment. This type of performance comes in many varieti ...

s like '' Talking Cock'', ''Hitler Moustache'' and ''Christ on a Bike'' as well as regular circuit stand-up. Herring has created fourteen of these stand-up shows since 2001, performing them for eleven consecutive years from 2004 to 2014 at the

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

, with annual tours and a final performance recorded for DVD. His 2016–17 show was a 'best of' tour, drawing from these shows. Herring is recognised as a pioneer of comedy

podcasting A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an episodic series of digital audio files that users can download to a personal device or stream to listen to at a time of their ...

, initially with broadcaster Andrew Collins on '' The Collings and Herrin Podcast'' and subsequently with high-profile comedians and celebrities such as

Dawn French Dawn Roma French (born 11 October 1957) is a British actress, comedian and writer. She is known for writing and starring on the BBC sketch comedy series '' French and Saunders'' (1987–2007) with her best friend and comedy partner Jennifer Sa ...

Michael Palin Sir Michael Edward Palin (; born 5 May 1943) is an English actor, comedian, writer, and television presenter. He was a member of the Monty Python comedy group. He received the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award, BAFTA Fellowship in 2013 and was knig ...

and

Stephen Fry Sir Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director, narrator and writer. He came to prominence as a member of the comic act Fry and Laurie alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring in ''A Bit of ...

on ''

Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast ''Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast'' (or ''RHLSTP'' ()) and ''Richard Herring's Edinburgh Fringe Podcast'' are two related comedy podcasts, created and hosted by United Kingdom, British comedian Richard Herring. Hosted on The B ...

''. He has maintained a daily blog called ''Warming Up'' without a break since 25 November 2002. His blog is archived by the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

for purposes of UK documentary heritage. In September 2024 he started publishing the blog (and other material) on Substack where he has 10000+ subscribers.

Early life

Herring was born on 12 July 1967 in

Pocklington Pocklington () is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish at the foot of the Yorkshire Wolds in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, its population was 10,123. It lies east of York, and ...

East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, often abbreviated to the East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, S ...

, and grew up in Cheddar, Somerset. He is the youngest of three children. He attended The Kings of Wessex School, where his father was the headmaster and maths teacher. This later formed the basis of his 2008 stand-up show, ''The Headmaster's Son''. Herring’s mother was also a teacher. The 2007 ITV comedy drama ''You Can Choose Your Friends'', which he wrote and also starred in, was based on his family. Some of the same characters later featured in the Radio 4 series "Relativity". Herring was a student at

St Catherine's College, Oxford St Catherine's College (colloquially called St Catz or Catz) is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. In 1974, it was also one of the first men's colleges to admit women. It has 528 un ...

, where he wrote and performed for a comedy troupe known as the Seven Raymonds as well as the Oxford Revue. He attained a 2:1 in

History History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

Career

Lee and Herring

Between 1992 and 2000, Richard was half of the stand-up comedy

with Stewart Lee. Their television work included '' Fist of Fun'', Festival of Fun, and '' This Morning With Richard Not Judy'', and they had been collaborating on stage and radio projects since the 1980s. Lee and Herring wrote material for Chris Morris and

Armando Iannucci Armando Giovanni Iannucci (; born 28 November 1963) is a Scottish satirist, writer, director, producer and performer. Born in Glasgow to Italian parents, Iannucci studied at the University of Glasgow followed by the University of Oxford. St ...

's '' On the Hour'' in 1991 and the duo contributed to the creation of the character that was to be

Alan Partridge Alan Gordon Partridge is an English comedy character portrayed by Steve Coogan. A parody of British television personalities, Partridge is a tactless and inept broadcaster with an inflated sense of celebrity. Since his debut in 1991, he has ap ...

. In 1992 and 1993, they wrote and performed '' Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World'' for Radio 4. For Radio 1, they wrote and performed one series of '' Fist of Fun'' in 1993, remaking it for television in 1995 and 1996. They hosted a series on Radio 1 in 1994 and 1995, called '' Lee and Herring''. A final television partnership with Lee, '' This Morning With Richard Not Judy'', ran for 18 episodes over two series until being cancelled "as a result of BBC management reshuffles".

Solo work

Herring has written and performed in fourteen

s, eleven of them in consecutive years. A Herring show typically starts with a run at the

, continues with an extensive UK tour and ends with a recorded performance for DVD. For radio, Herring co-wrote and presented the history-based sketch show '' That Was Then, This Is Now''. For television, he co-wrote Al Murray's sitcom '' Time Gentlemen Please''. He also contributed to the third series of '' Little Britain'' as script editor. In 2005, he presented a

chat show A talk show is a television programming, radio programming or podcast genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Show', pp.3-4Erler, Robert (20 ...

called '' Heads Up with Richard Herring'' on the Pokerzone channel, in which he interviewed professional

poker Poker is a family of Card game#Comparing games, comparing card games in which Card player, players betting (poker), wager over which poker hand, hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, with varying rules i ...

players and celebrities about their careers and their love of the game. There were 10 episodes in total. In February 2007, filming began on Herring's

comedy drama Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau dramedy) is a hybrid genre of works that combine elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. In film, as well as scripted television series, serious dramatic subjects (such as death, il ...

''You Can Choose Your Friends''. As well as writing the script, he also acted alongside Gordon Kennedy, Claire Skinner,

Rebecca Front Rebecca Louise Front (born 16 May 1964) is an English actress, writer and comedian. She won the 2010 BAFTA TV Award for Best Female Comedy Performance for '' The Thick of It'' (2009–2012).Jennifer Lipma"Bafta for Jewish actress Rebecca Front" ...

, Sarah-Jane Potts,

Robert Daws Robert Daws (born 4 May 1959) is an English actor, and crime fiction author. He is best known for his television roles, including Tuppy Glossop in ''Jeeves and Wooster'' (1990–1993), gruff cricketer Roger Dervish in the comedy '' Outside Ed ...

, Anton Rodgers and Julia McKenzie. The show was broadcast on ITV on 7 June 2007. In January 2008 he began the '' Collings and Herrin'' (sic) podcast with Andrew Collins. They celebrated their second anniversary with a live "100th" podcast (it was actually the 105th recording) at the Leicester Square Theatre. On 30 January 2010 the pair began a tenure of sitting in for Adam and Joe on BBC Radio 6 Music on Saturdays mornings, a slot they occupied for more than a year. Herring's 2008 stand-up set ''The Headmaster's Son'' earned four 5-star reviews and several 4-star reviews. The set covers his experience growing up in The Kings of Wessex School in Somerset where his father worked as headmaster and how this may have been the origin of his fondness for telling puerile jokes. The show was seen by critics as a thoughtful look at his upbringing, and his relationship with his father, to whom the show is dedicated. Herring launched his show, ''Hitler Moustache'' in 2009 to see if he "could reclaim the

toothbrush moustache The toothbrush moustache is a List of facial hairstyles, style of moustache in which the sides are vertical (or nearly so), often approximating the width of the nose and visually resembling the bristles on a toothbrush. First becoming popular in ...

for comedy – it was

Chaplin Chaplin may refer to: People * Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977), English comedy film actor and director * Chaplin (name), other people named Chaplin Films * ''Unknown Chaplin'' (1983) * Chaplin (film), ''Chaplin'' (film) (1992) * Chaplin (2011 fi ...

's first, then Hitler ruined it." The show discusses broader issues, such as fascism and the

British National Party The British National Party (BNP) is a Far-right politics, far-right, British fascism, fascist list of political parties in the United Kingdom, political party in the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in Wigton, Cumbria, and is led by Adam ...

. Herring and some of his contemporaries, including Dave Gorman, were angered when material from his show was misrepresented in a '' Guardian'' column by critic Brian Logan. On 14 October 2010, his Radio 4 series ''Richard Herring's Objective'' was first broadcast. Here Herring attempts to reclaim controversial items, starting with the toothbrush moustache and moving onto the

hoodie A hoodie is a type of sweatshirt with a hood that, when worn up, covers most of the head and neck, and sometimes the face. The most common 'pullover' style hoodies often include a single large knife pocket or muff on the lower front, whil ...

Flag of England The flag of England is the national flag of England, a constituent country of the United Kingdom. It is derived from Saint George's Cross (heraldic blazon: ''Argent, a cross gules''). The association of the red cross as an emblem of England ...

and Dolly the Sheep. An Edinburgh special about the See-you-Jimmy hat was broadcast in August 2011 and a second series was recorded in October 2011 with episodes about the

golliwog The golliwog, also spelled golliwogg or shortened to golly, is a doll-like character, created by cartoonist and author Florence Kate Upton, which appeared in children's books in the late 19th century, usually depicted as a type of rag doll. I ...

, the

wheelchair A wheelchair is a mobilized form of chair using two or more wheels, a footrest, and an armrest usually cushioned. It is used when walking is difficult or impossible to do due to illnesses, injury, disabilities, or age-related health conditio ...

Page 3 Page 3, or Page Three, was a British newspaper convention of publishing a large image of a topless female glamour model (known as a Page 3 girl) on the third page of mainstream red top tabloids. '' The Sun'' introduced the feature in Novembe ...

and the old school tie. On 27 December 2010, Herring finished second on '' Celebrity Mastermind'' with a final score of 34 points. His specialist subject was

Rasputin Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin ( – ) was a Russian mystic and faith healer. He is best known for having befriended the imperial family of Nicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia, through whom he gained considerable influence in the final ye ...

. He was ''The Pod Delusion'' "Comedian of the Year 2010." In May 2011 it was announced that '' Fist of Fun'' would be released on DVD by Go Faster Stripe. The first series was released in December 2011 and the second in November 2012, winning 'Best DVD' at the 2013 Chortle Awards In August and September 2015, he performed all 11 of his previous one man shows, plus a new one, ''Happy Now?'', at the Leicester Square Theatre over the course of six weekends in a season called "The Twelve Shows of Herring". ''Happy Now?'' was taken on a 50-plus date UK tour between October 2015 and June 2016. His 2017 tour show was called ''Richard Herring — The Best''. His 2017 Edinburgh Fringe show is called "Oh Frig, I'm 50!" This was taken on a UK tour in the Spring of 2018. In 2020, Herring was a contestant on the tenth series of '' Taskmaster''. He was the series' eventual winner. Herring later returned to compete against fellow winners Ed Gamble, Kerry Godliman,

Liza Tarbuck Liza Tarbuck ( ; born 21 November 1964) is an English actress, comedian, and television and radio presenter. Early life Liza Tarbuck was born in Liverpool and grew up near Kingston upon Thames. She is the daughter of comedian Jimmy Tarbuck an ...

and Lou Sanders for the second "Champion of Champions" special, which he also won. In May 2024 he began a tour of a new stand up show, 'Can I Have My Ball Back?' based on his experience of testicular cancer. A second leg of the tour began on 31st January 2025.

Blogs, podcasts and internet

On 25 November 2002 Herring started his blog, ''Warming Up'', as a way to overcome

writer's block Writer's block is a non-medical condition, primarily associated with writing, in which an author is either unable to produce new work or experiences a creative slowdown. Writer's block has various degrees of severity, from difficulty in coming ...

. He has written an entry for every day, and has over 8,000 consecutive entries. His regular readership is estimated to be around 3,000. Some ideas recorded in ''Warming Up'' have been used in his live shows. The first year of his blog is collected in two books, ''Bye Bye Balham'' and ''The Box Lady and Other Pesticles''. In the autumn of 2024 the blog also became available on Substack where he has over 10,000 subscribers. On 12 October 2009, Herring recorded the first episode of ''As It Occurs To Me'', a weekly radio-style stand-up and sketch show made for the Internet. It stars himself alongside Emma Kennedy, Dan Tetsell and Christian Reilly. It currently stands at 18 episodes and 5 bonus mini-episodes. It was nominated for best internet show at the 2010 Sony Awards, though it failed to place. On 7 February 2011, ''As It Occurs to Me'' won the first Chortle Internet award On 20 March 2012 he retained it. In 2017, ''As It Occurs To Me'' returned as a six-episode

web series A web series (also known as webseries, short-form series, and web show) is a series of short scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet (i.e. World Wide Web), which first emerged in the late 1 ...

. In 2011, Herring began playing himself at snooker for an audio podcast called " Me1 vs Me2 Snooker". On 28 July 2016 he performed at the Tempting Failure extreme art festival In 2020 he started playing this with 32 personas on Twitch and appeared on Comedians: Home Alone on BBC2 in July with an edited frame of Me1 vs Me2. In 2012, Herring recorded the first 16 episodes of the long-running ''

'' with guests including

Tim Minchin Timothy David Minchin Order of Australia#Levels of membership, AM (born 7 October 1975) is an Australian comedian, actor, writer, musician, poet, composer, and songwriter. Minchin has released six CDs, five DVDs, and live comedy shows that he ...

, Herring's comedy partner Stewart Lee, Adam Buxton, David Mitchell and

. It was nominated for a Sony Award for Best Comedy alongside a list of BBC produced comedy shows in 2013. The show won the Bronze Award. In 2013, Herring won the Chortle Award for the podcast, which again won the award in 2014. In May and June 2013 he recorded nine podcasts with guests including

Russell Brand Russell Edward Brand (born 4 June 1975) is an English comedian, actor, podcaster and media personality. He established himself as a stand-up comedian and radio host before becoming a film actor. After beginning his career as a comedian and la ...

and Mary Beard. His interview with

was covered by national and international news media including the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

and

Sky News Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel, live stream news network and news organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of ...

when Fry revealed a recent suicide attempt. The series continued with Harry Shearer,

Eddie Izzard Suzy Eddie Izzard ( ; born Edward John Izzard, 7 February 1962) is a British stand-up comedian, actor and activist. Her comedic style takes the form of what appears to the audience as rambling whimsical monologues and self-referential pantomi ...

and David Cross. On 17 November 2013, he recorded the first episode of a six-part internet stand-up, sketch and interview show ''Richard Herring's Meaning of Life,'' structured around the philosophical concepts of 'Creation', 'the Paranormal', 'Love', 'Death', 'Good & Evil' and 'the Shape of Things To Come', the episode being broadcast online between February 2014 and early 2015. In February 2014, the first ''Richard Herring Show'' was broadcast on Fubar Radio. Herring presented this with comedian Lou Sanders weekly, before quitting the show together; their final episode was broadcast on 24 May 2014. On 8 March 2018, in aid of International Women’s Day, Herring raised over £150,000 for

domestic abuse Domestic violence is violence that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. In a broader sense, abuse including nonphysical abuse in such settings is called domestic abuse. The term "domestic violence" is often use ...

charity Refuge by responding to anyone on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

who asked when International Men's Day was (it is 19 November). He did the same on 8 March 2019, raising almost £130,000. He repeated the exercise on 8 March 2020 and streamed himself responding to tweets live on Twitch. He raised a further £70,000. In 2020 he wrote a book about his experiences and toxic masculinity called ''The Problem With Men'' which was published on 5 November. In March 2020 Herring started streaming regularly on Twitch as the world went into lockdown. He produced weekly remote episodes of his podcast, ''Richard Herring's

Leicester Square Leicester Square ( ) is a pedestrianised town square, square in the West End of London, England, and is the centre of London's entertainment district. It was laid out in 1670 as Leicester Fields, which was named after the recently built Leice ...

Theatre Podcast'', did a live feed of Stone Clearing most weekday mornings and played himself at snooker (with 32 personas) in the evening. He also did occasional non-director's commentaries for films, as well as a newspaper review with his 128-year-old ventriloquist dummy called ''Ally and Herring's Twitch of Fun''. In June 2023, Herring announced he would be touring ''Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast'' around the UK starting September 2023.

Body of work

Stand up shows

Television

Plays

Film

Radio

Podcasts/vodcasts

Miscellaneous home media

Books

Other writing

*''Warming Up'' blog (2002–present) *''Guardian How To Write'' (contributor) edited by Philip Oltermann The Guardian (2009) *''The Atheist Guide to Christmas'' Contributor (Editor Ariane Sherine) The Friday Project (2009) *''Shouting at the Telly'' (Contributor) (Editor John Grindrod) Faber and Faber (2009) *''Roger's Profanisaurus – Das Krapital'' Introduction Dennis Publishing (2010) *''Metro newspaper'' weekly column (2012–2016) *''Behind the Sofa: Celebrity Memories of Doctor Who'' (contributor) edited by Steve Berry Matador (2012) *''Dead Funny'' (Contributor) (Editors Robin Ince and Johnny Mains) Salt Publishing (2014) *''Goodbye Europe: Writers and Artists Say Farewell'' (contributor) W&N 2017 *''Slaughterhouse 5: 50th Anniversary Edition'' (contributor) Vintage 2019 *''Zippy and Me'' by Ronnie Le Drew (foreword) Unbound 2019

Awards and recognition

* Chortle Awards Internet Award 2011 * Chortle Awards Internet Award 2012 * Chortle Awards Internet Award 2013 * Radio Academy Awards Best Comedy – Bronze, 2013 (''

'') * Chortle Awards Internet Award 2014 * Chortle Awards Internet Award 2018 * Chortle Awards Legend of Lockdown 2021 * British Podcast Awards Nominated Best Entertainment and Best Interview 2023

Personal life

Herring was formerly in a relationship with the actress

Julia Sawalha Julia Sawalha (born 9 September 1968) is an English actress. She is best known for playing Saffron "Saffy" Monsoon in the BBC sitcom '' Absolutely Fabulous'' (1992–2012). Her other television roles include as Lynda Day in '' Press Gang'' (198 ...

, some years after joking on ''Fist of Fun'' that "My ideal woman has the head of Julia Sawalha and the body of Julia Sawalha." Before Sawalha he dated the actress Catherine Shepherd as revealed by

Sally Phillips Sally Elizabeth Phillips (born 10 May 1970) is an English actress, comedian, and television presenter. She co-created and was one of the writers of the sketch comedy show '' Smack the Pony''. She is also known for her roles in '' Jam & Jerusale ...

in 2022 on Herring's RHLSTP 409 podcast. He also dated

Kelly Marcel Kelly Marcel (born 10 January 1974) is an English filmmaker and former actress. After working as a child actor in the United Kingdom, Marcel had her breakout as a screenwriter in Hollywood when her script for '' Saving Mr. Banks'' made the 201 ...

and Sally Phillips. In April 2012, Herring married author and comedian Catie Wilkins. They had their first child, a daughter, in February 2015, followed by a son in October 2017. Herring has raised money for Scope since 2003, and ran the

London Marathon The London Marathon (also known as the TCS London Marathon for sponsorship reasons) is an annual marathon held in London, England. Founded by athletes Chris Brasher and John Disley in 1981, it is typically held in April, although it moved to Oct ...

in aid of the charity in 2004 as well as the Royal Parks Foundation Half Marathon in 2011, 2013 and 2014. In January 2011 he was nominated for a Just Giving Life Time Achievement Award for his extensive work in helping to raise money, awareness and support for Scope. In 2012 he was made a Patron of Scope. In 2010 he was made a patron of

Humanists UK Humanists UK, known from 1967 until May 2017 as the British Humanist Association (BHA), is a charitable organisation which promotes secular humanism and aims to represent Irreligion in the United Kingdom, non-religious people in the UK throug ...

(formerly The British Humanist Association) and said: In February 2021 he had an orchidectomy to remove a cancerous

testicle A testicle or testis ( testes) is the gonad in all male bilaterians, including humans, and is Homology (biology), homologous to the ovary in females. Its primary functions are the production of sperm and the secretion of Androgen, androgens, p ...

, undergoing one shot of

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated chemo, sometimes CTX and CTx) is the type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (list of chemotherapeutic agents, chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) in a standard chemotherapy re ...

a month later. In November 2021 he ran the Hertfordshire Half Marathon and raised £30,000 for the hospitals that treated his condition. His book about the experience ''Can I Have My Ball Back?'' was published in October 2022. In April 2022 it was announced that Herring had become an Ambassador for Movember.

Collections

The

University of Kent The University of Kent (formerly the University of Kent at Canterbury, abbreviated as UKC) is a Collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university based in Kent, United Kingdom. The university was granted its roya ...

holds material relating to Herring's career as part of the British Stand-Up Comedy Archive. The Richard Herring Collection contains performance scripts, promotional items, published material, and digital documents and scans.

References

External links

RichardHerring.com
*
Richard Herring Collection
at

BBC news story about ''Hitler Moustache''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Herring, Richard 1967 births Living people 20th-century English comedians 21st-century English comedians Alumni of St Catherine's College, Oxford British humanists Comedians from the East Riding of Yorkshire English male comedians English podcasters English puppeteers English radio writers English Twitch (service) streamers People educated at The Kings of Wessex School People from Pocklington People from Sedgemoor (district) Poker commentators