#498 - Chilli Rice, Grieving Upside Down and Thames!
Elis James and John Robins
BBC
4.8 • 6K Ratings
🗓️ 16 December 2025
⏱️ 70 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
You might detect a slight difference in Elis’s demeanour this week; a bolstered confidence, an increased self-worth, a man with a purpose. Elis has tasted power, and he ain’t looking back. This is the new Elis, Elis 2.0, Elis ‘You’ll Do What I Say’ James. Because Elis has looked after 4 children on a school trip to The Monument. This feels significant.
Meanwhile John thinks we’re molly-coddling the next generation and has gone rogue. He’s chucking things into the Thames left, right and centre. Step on the wrong side of Robins in this mood and you’ll be swimming with the London fishes before you know it. Oh, and he's suffered the consequences of chilli rice…
There’s also a Cymru Connection which leaves Elis with mixed feelings, a festive Made Up Game classic, and some advice for young would-be stand up comedians.
Send in your festive missives, Shames, and Mad Dads to [email protected] or WhatsApp the show on 07974 293 022.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | My Christmas Mix is pure 90s festive nostalgia. |
| 0:11.1 | You know, the Christmas songs you listen to on repeat. |
| 0:14.0 | Ho! |
| 0:14.3 | Ho! Ho! No, no, no. |
| 0:17.5 | I'm all about the big hitting Christmas anthems. |
| 0:20.4 | Come on, guys. What about those tunes that really slay? |
| 0:23.7 | It's Christmas kitchen disco season, surely. |
| 0:26.4 | Give me hip-hip-christmas bangers every day. |
| 0:28.6 | Those Christmas tracks that are straight out of Lapland. |
| 0:30.9 | Get all kinds of Christmassy. |
| 0:32.6 | Just search Christmas music on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:52.9 | The Christmas music on BBC Sounds. Hello listeners. You might notice a slight pep in my step this week as in order to pull my weight on this show and having nothing else to do because my history podcast records in the evening. |
| 1:03.7 | And Mike Burbins is too busy promoting Mammoth to record a distant pod. This week... |
| 1:08.0 | That's clever, isn't it, Dave? |
| 1:09.4 | What's that? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. |
| 1:11.1 | Well, Mammoth is a BBC show available I player. |
| 1:13.7 | Yeah, but now everyone's aware that you do two of the podcast. It's not even its name. Congratulations. That's not even its name. It's called... Well, I'm not going to say it. What, do you know what? It's up to the people. This week I attended a residential course on how to unlock my creativity. |
| 1:32.8 | For years, I've marvelled at how my comedian peers have managed to keep things so fresh. |
| 1:40.9 | As contemporary, such as James A. Custer, Ed Gamble, find new, exciting ways to ask American celebrities I haven't heard of, whether they like sandwiches or not. |
| 1:46.0 | And every three years or so, John Robbins writes a show about how his bird has left him. |
| 1:57.5 | Now, I must admit, I was nervous as I pulled up to the country house in rural Sussex. |
... |
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