Episode 1

Springleaf

Mighty Bunny Ltd

Acaster, Comedy Fiction, Springleaf, James Acaster, True Crime, Comedy, Fiction

4.5 • 703 Ratings

🗓️ 21 November 2023

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A true(ish) crime podcast, based on James Acaster's undercover cop alter-ego Pat Springleaf, which sees Pat share police wire recordings from the biggest case of his career: working undercover to infiltrate and bring to justice the notorious SW6 gang, led by the villainous Lawrence (Domhnall Gleeson).

Back in 2013, ex-conman-turned-undercover-cop Pat was in the middle of a career-defining gig - but problems beset him on all sides: the gang are getting suspicious; his wife wants a divorce; the police are demanding results; and his ex partner in crime is blackmailing him. Not an ideal situation for someone with a burning need to please absolutely everybody.

In 2023, meanwhile, Pat and his producer Adams (Kath Hughes) play excerpts from his wire recordings to studio guests as they unpack the criminal hijinks that launched the comedy career of the man now reasonably widely-known as James Acaster.

In episode 1, Lawrence announces a side-step from drug dealing into a more glamorous branch of crime, Pat's wife Sita (Sindhu Vee) makes some life changing personal and career decisions and Pat takes the advice of fellow comic Evelyn Mok to find a better, more truthful, on-stage comic persona.

Featuring:

Chloe Petts - Nance

Domhnall Gleeson - Lawrence

Evelyn Mok - herself

Finn Wolfhard - Serpico

Freya Parker - Heckler

Jack De'ath - Compere

Jason Forbes - Police Officer

Kath Hughes - Detective Adams

Kemah Bob - Donna

Louis Theroux - Detective Shane Nicely

Nathaniel Metcalfe - Huey

Nish Kumar - himself

Pat Cahill - Reg

Sharon D Clarke - Police Chief Angela

Sindhu Vee - Sita

with studio guest Ed Gamble

Extra jokes by Alison Spittle, Celya AB, Ken Cheng, Matthew Crosby, Rose Johnson and Toussaint Douglass

Original Music by NNAMDÏ

Sound design by Charlie Brandon King

Assistant Producers - Katie Sayer and Mikaela Carmichael

Produced by Lyndsay Fenner

A Mighty Bunny Production

www.springleafpodcast.com / www.mightybunny.co.uk

Merch? Merch! https://springleaf.teemill.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Shut your filthy hole, Springleaf. All these years I thought you were an upstanding gangster, my loyal chum. But you were a piece of shit copper this whole time.
0:16.9	Lawrence, listen to me. It's a barmy evening. These ice cream sandwiches have 45 seconds max before their soup.
0:23.1	Put the gun down and let's talk about me being a piece of shit like the best friends we truly are.
0:28.9	Oreo ones? Or that posh place again.
0:31.5	They're objectively better, Lawrence. You have to trust me. The apricot and shortbread is to die for.
0:35.9	I regret phrasing it like that. Please don't use it as a set up for shooting me. The apricot and shortbread is to die for. I regret phrasing it like that. Please don't
0:37.5	use it as a set up for shooting me. Oh, you'll be dying for that apricot and shortbread ice cream
0:42.1	sandwich, all right? Shit. Literally dying. Wait, we can still save the...
0:47.5	Whoa, Mama! Sounds like old spring leaf is toast. Did I survive? You'll have to listen to the rest of this series to find out. My name is Pat Springleaf, but you may know me as James Acaster, star of Mock the Week.
1:19.3	Why the alias? Because I'm an undercover cop, baby.
1:22.9	You're a what? Sorry, is this a joke? I can't tell.
1:26.7	Well, ahoy there. Those are the sweet dulcet tones of this week's celebrity guest, Ed Gamble.
1:32.8	What's hanging, funny man?
1:34.5	Look, back up a bit. Are you serious? You're an undercover cop?
1:38.1	Affirmative. Years ago, I needed to infiltrate a gang of drug dealers dealing drugs to stand-up comedians.
1:44.1	Naturally, I assumed the identity of a stand-up comedians. Naturally, I assumed
1:45.3	the identity of a stand-up comedian to get close to the gang, and while the case moved at a
1:49.6	snail's pace, my comedy career took off like a rocket to the moon. So you've been lying to me,
1:55.1	our entire friendship. I host a podcast with you. You were a groomsman at my wedding. And now you're a guest on the most exciting true crime podcast in the world.
2:05.1	The only podcast where a real-life undercover cop shares his actual wire recordings with the public.
2:11.0	Yeah, I'm leaving. I can't handle this.
2:12.9	Wait, would you stay if I told you the wire recordings were from the biggest case of my entire career
	...

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