
Acting
Richard Herring
Born 1967-07-12 · Pocklington, Yorkshire, England, UK
British comedian best known for being one half of 90s comedy double act Lee and Herring, with Stewart Lee.
Acting credits
7.4Richard Herring is getting desperate. At 39 years old, he's still making jokes about monkey semen, is wilfully nose-diving into middle-aged pedantry and what's more the love stakes are looking decidedly low. The makings of a midlife crisis? Yes, we thought so too, but - well you don't like to say do you? Still, a life of misanthropic singledom doesn't have to be all doom and gloom - at least his misogyny is postmodern and ironic, unlike Bernard Manning's (actually, is that a good thing?). And he can always take heart in his experience with the carwash company rather carelessly name 'The hand job centre'...
Richard Herring: Menage a Un
2007
3.5Loss and love in the storm of guitars and broken glass that was the 2000s UK indie music scene.
Giddy Stratospheres
2021
NRAlso known as The Battersea Ripper, this is a comic crime thriller set in London concerning a young girl's kidnapping and the hapless police and reporters trying to get to the truth. It has never been released to DVD and has only ever had a limited theatrical screening in 2006.
Manilla Envelopes
2006
NRBilal introduces his strange Dad to his new girlfriend.
Meeting Dad
2023
7.0The Edinburgh Festival is a funny place to be... When you're not funny.
Peacock Season
2010
6.5Jesus Christ - Son of God! Saviour of mankind! Superstar! Richard Herring - Son of Keith, a retired headmaster! Once saved a spider that had become trapped in his bath, only crushing three of its legs in the process! Hosted 10 episodes of a chatshow about poker on a satellite channel which subsequently closed down! At first sight they have little in common. Or do they? Join Rich as he answers this question, substantially reworking his first and favourite solo work, Christ on a Bike. Now ten years older than the Messiah when he died, has Herring achieved as much with his life?
Richard Herring: Christ On A Bike
2011
There's a mosquito that takes more than just your blood...
Mosquito
2015
NRECU Audience Award winning short film starring Richard Herring and Rachel Stubbings. While You Were Away is the story of a normal husband and wife having a far from normal argument.
While You Were Away
2016
6.5Rich is single, never been married, has got no kids. Has he wasted his life? Is it time to finally grow up and get out the pipe and slippers and await the blessed release of death? Or does life really begin at 40, giving him the excuse to go around in nappies and make jokes about poo and wee for a good three years to come?
Richard Herring: Oh Fuck, I'm 40!
2008
7.0This documentary explores the legacy of one of the most notorious British sitcoms of all time. Launching alternative comedy onto our screens, the show made household names of its performers and writers and proved to be a huge influence, despite the BBC reportedly being baffled by what they'd commissioned back in 1982. Never before had a flagship comedy show contained so much violence, depravity and anarchy - it was a shot across the bow to mainstream comedians that things would never be the same again.
How The Young Ones Changed Comedy
2018
6.7In The Headmaster's Son, a nostalgic and faintly disturbing juvenile romp through the 1980s, Richard Herring considers what could possibly be worse than being a podgy, swotty, virginal schoolboy. What if your dad's the headmaster too?
Richard Herring: The Headmaster's Son
2010
6.0"Oh Frig, I'm 50!" is the sequel to Herring's 2007 show "Oh F*ck, I'm 40!". Ten years on, he's more reflective and less hedonistic, poking fun at life's changes and his own ageing body. The show is both introspective and celebratory, coinciding with the 30th anniversary of his first Fringe appearance.
Richard Herring: Oh Frig, I'm 50!
2018
6.9TV Comedy from radio award-winning writers Stewart Lee and Richard Herring.
Lee and Herring Live
1996
NRIn the lockdown of January 2021, Richard Herring went to his GP to find out why his right testicle seemed to be growing bigger. It turned out that he had testicular cancer and one month later he was lying in hospital waiting to have his murderous gonad removed. Would he survive? (No spoilers!) For a comedian who had done a whole show about male genitalia (Talking Cock) and written a book about toxic masculinity (The Problem With Men), this seemed like a cruel twist of fate. But because he’s a comedian, he was able to get a book and a stand-up tour out of it all. And now he’s got a DVD too! Recorded at the Gordon Craig Theatre in Stevenage (just 1.9 miles from where Richard’s knacker was excised) by the fabulous gofasterstripe.com crew. Featuring a special appearance by Right Bollock and with extras including one of the first live performances of this material, the full audio podcast series and a commentary track from a mystery celebrity.
Richard Herring: Can I Have My Ball Back?
2025
6.0Herrring shares with us his world of gonorrhea-transmitting magpies, his attempts to become successor to Pope John Paul II, and his local supermarket's utterly humiliating new checkout service: the grocery interrogation.
Richard Herring: Someone Likes Yoghurt
2005
8.0Documentary charting the Derek and Clive phenomenon. The two foul-mouthed toilet attendants were the creations of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore and were responsible for some of the filthiest comedy to come out of Britain. Despite being banned from radio and television the duo achieved great success and a cult status, but the act broke up one of the greatest comedy partnerships of recent years. Featuring excerpts from the actual records and video footage of Cook and Moore.
Offensive: The Real Derek and Clive
2002
7.0Has Adolf Hitler ruined that little mustache for everyone? The only time you'll see it these days is carved into the pubic hair of a naughty lady. Is it possible to reclaim the toothbrush mustache (as it should be called) for comedy? After all, Chaplin had it first. In the critically acclaimed "Hitler Moustache," comedian Richard Herring determines to find as well as discovering how people will respond to this contentious face furniture when it's growing out of his face. Will they assume he's crazy or a fascist or both? Will they spit at him, punch him or just laugh in his face?
Richard Herring: Hitler Moustache
2010
6.0'What is love, anyway?' is a heart-warmingly honest and personal examination of the romantic (and not so romantic) adventures and misadventures of the UK's most prolific comedian, as well as a genuine attempt to define this mysterious, debilitating, evil and wondrous emotion.
Richard Herring: What Is Love, Anyway?
2012
6.0It's an object of shame and pride; it can inspire laughter and fear; it's a symbol of power, yet it's incredibly fragile and weak; it can be a pound of flesh or an ounce of winkles, it can be used to express both love and hate; it creates life, it can condemn us to death... and it can do wees as well. How can one tiny flap of sponge and sinew be all these things? Though men may brag and exaggerate about their little chap, they rarely talk honestly about it or their insecurities. Whilst women celebrate their sexuality in worldwide smash The Vagina Monologues, men are twisting their genitals into the shape of hamburgers in Puppetry of the Penis. Isn't it time for the twisting to stop and the schlong celebration to begin. Isn't it time for a Vagina Monologues with balls?
Richard Herring - Talking Cock (The Second Coming)
2013
6.0Comedy drama about a family reunion written by and starring Richard Herring. It's Ken and Margaret Snell's 45th wedding anniversary and their children and grandchildren along gather to celebrate. For Ken and Margaret's children, it's a day to revisit childhood arguments and to paper over present-day fractures in their relationships.
You Can Choose Your Friends
2007
NR"This is the most self indulgent thing I have ever done', says Richard Herring as he bounds on to the familiar stage of the Leicester Square Theatre. And who are we to argue - for the guest on this week's show is none other than Richard himself. With a combination of swagger and poor camera tricks we will finally get to see what makes the mysterious Herring tick. This DVD is a document to the kindness of the 2000 contributors to our recent KickStarter campaign to film every episode of the 8th series of Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast. It's also a joke that has got out of hand. As well as the hour long special RHLSTP with Rich, there's a backstage tour of the Leicester Square Theatre, every backstage interview from series 7, and hidden somewhere amongst the rushes is a short video of Rich before the camera trickery was added. He doesn't look very well.
RHLSTP Kickstarter DVD
2015
6.0After years of drifting aimlessly and alone, Richard Herring is now settled down with a wife and a tiny baby. Is he finally happy now? Or does responsibility for the lives of others come with its own terrors? In his twelfth solo stand up show, Richard examines whether we can ever hope to be or are meant to be truly content. If we were never unhappy would happiness have any meaning? Why do our brains force us to envision the worst possible outcomes even on a day when everything seems fine. How likely is it that Richard's baby will be skewered by a stalactite of frozen urine falling from a plane and is it really worth him wasting his time thinking about it? Does being happy mean a comedian loses his edge and true belly laughs only come from depression? How much pressure was there on Happy the dwarf to live up to his name? Is there any system that will guarantee us eternal bliss or should we just embrace the fact that life is a vale of tears and our only option is to laugh in its face?
Richard Herring: Happy Now
2016
7.0After covering weighty issues like death, love, religion and spam javelins, the 'King of Edinburgh' (6 Music) is in a frivolous mood with this show about daftness, whether the term cool comedian is an oxymoron, bouncing joyously on the sofa and how Herring's whole career is a failed attempt to top a piece of visual slapstick comedy he came up with at 16. Can he revisit the joke thirty years on, or will it smash his old bones?
Richard Herring: Lord of the Dance Settee
2015
NRWritten & directed by Jamie Adams
Real Love (Yes, It's Real Love!)
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Behind the camera
6.5Jesus Christ - Son of God! Saviour of mankind! Superstar! Richard Herring - Son of Keith, a retired headmaster! Once saved a spider that had become trapped in his bath, only crushing three of its legs in the process! Hosted 10 episodes of a chatshow about poker on a satellite channel which subsequently closed down! At first sight they have little in common. Or do they? Join Rich as he answers this question, substantially reworking his first and favourite solo work, Christ on a Bike. Now ten years older than the Messiah when he died, has Herring achieved as much with his life?
Richard Herring: Christ On A Bike
2011
6.5Rich is single, never been married, has got no kids. Has he wasted his life? Is it time to finally grow up and get out the pipe and slippers and await the blessed release of death? Or does life really begin at 40, giving him the excuse to go around in nappies and make jokes about poo and wee for a good three years to come?
Richard Herring: Oh Fuck, I'm 40!
2008
6.9TV Comedy from radio award-winning writers Stewart Lee and Richard Herring.
Lee and Herring Live
1996
6.0Herrring shares with us his world of gonorrhea-transmitting magpies, his attempts to become successor to Pope John Paul II, and his local supermarket's utterly humiliating new checkout service: the grocery interrogation.
Richard Herring: Someone Likes Yoghurt
2005
7.0Has Adolf Hitler ruined that little mustache for everyone? The only time you'll see it these days is carved into the pubic hair of a naughty lady. Is it possible to reclaim the toothbrush mustache (as it should be called) for comedy? After all, Chaplin had it first. In the critically acclaimed "Hitler Moustache," comedian Richard Herring determines to find as well as discovering how people will respond to this contentious face furniture when it's growing out of his face. Will they assume he's crazy or a fascist or both? Will they spit at him, punch him or just laugh in his face?
Richard Herring: Hitler Moustache
2010
6.0'What is love, anyway?' is a heart-warmingly honest and personal examination of the romantic (and not so romantic) adventures and misadventures of the UK's most prolific comedian, as well as a genuine attempt to define this mysterious, debilitating, evil and wondrous emotion.
Richard Herring: What Is Love, Anyway?
2012
6.0Comedy drama about a family reunion written by and starring Richard Herring. It's Ken and Margaret Snell's 45th wedding anniversary and their children and grandchildren along gather to celebrate. For Ken and Margaret's children, it's a day to revisit childhood arguments and to paper over present-day fractures in their relationships.
You Can Choose Your Friends
2007
NR"This is the most self indulgent thing I have ever done', says Richard Herring as he bounds on to the familiar stage of the Leicester Square Theatre. And who are we to argue - for the guest on this week's show is none other than Richard himself. With a combination of swagger and poor camera tricks we will finally get to see what makes the mysterious Herring tick. This DVD is a document to the kindness of the 2000 contributors to our recent KickStarter campaign to film every episode of the 8th series of Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast. It's also a joke that has got out of hand. As well as the hour long special RHLSTP with Rich, there's a backstage tour of the Leicester Square Theatre, every backstage interview from series 7, and hidden somewhere amongst the rushes is a short video of Rich before the camera trickery was added. He doesn't look very well.
RHLSTP Kickstarter DVD
2015
NR"This is the most self indulgent thing I have ever done', says Richard Herring as he bounds on to the familiar stage of the Leicester Square Theatre. And who are we to argue - for the guest on this week's show is none other than Richard himself. With a combination of swagger and poor camera tricks we will finally get to see what makes the mysterious Herring tick. This DVD is a document to the kindness of the 2000 contributors to our recent KickStarter campaign to film every episode of the 8th series of Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast. It's also a joke that has got out of hand. As well as the hour long special RHLSTP with Rich, there's a backstage tour of the Leicester Square Theatre, every backstage interview from series 7, and hidden somewhere amongst the rushes is a short video of Rich before the camera trickery was added. He doesn't look very well.
RHLSTP Kickstarter DVD
2015
6.0After years of drifting aimlessly and alone, Richard Herring is now settled down with a wife and a tiny baby. Is he finally happy now? Or does responsibility for the lives of others come with its own terrors? In his twelfth solo stand up show, Richard examines whether we can ever hope to be or are meant to be truly content. If we were never unhappy would happiness have any meaning? Why do our brains force us to envision the worst possible outcomes even on a day when everything seems fine. How likely is it that Richard's baby will be skewered by a stalactite of frozen urine falling from a plane and is it really worth him wasting his time thinking about it? Does being happy mean a comedian loses his edge and true belly laughs only come from depression? How much pressure was there on Happy the dwarf to live up to his name? Is there any system that will guarantee us eternal bliss or should we just embrace the fact that life is a vale of tears and our only option is to laugh in its face?
Richard Herring: Happy Now
2016
8.5Stewart Lee and Richard Herring, lacking the food and drink required to watch association football, end up instead watching a video tape in which Carol Vorderman counts down the 9 scariest horror creatures.
Lee and Herring's Reasonably Scary Monsters
1998
7.5The 12 Tasks of Hercules Terrace was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2004. Richard Herring shares with us his mission to make something of his sad comedian's existence through a catalogue of seemingly impossible challenges. So will he succeed in running the London marathon, going skydiving, and dating 50 women in 50 nights? Or will he fail in his vain attempt to prove his superiority to the Greek demigod? And does stealing Germaine Greer's bra strictly count as a Herculean task? Yes, I suppose it does.
Richard Herring: The Twelve Tasks of Hercules Terrace
2007