Howzat? 4.1 / 6

Do you like listening to in-jokes at a hair salon? If so, this is the podcast for you. 

Jordan North – the witless half of this podcast duo – and his northern star is rising at the moment. He is the new breakfast show presenter for Capital FM and ‘Help I Sexted My Boss’ has been the vehicle to help propel him into the big time. 

The problem is that he sounds tired. Actually, he sounds more lethargic than that. He sounds like a man who’s just woken up from an alcohol induced coma on a traffic island in Ipswich after a four-day bender (although to be fair to the boy-man, he does admit on this episode that he hasn’t been feeling too well recently). 

William Hanson on the other hand – the ying to his yang and co-presenter – sounds like a posh and equally camp Joe Lycett and his uber politeness and received pronunciation highlights the pair’s schtick: a kind of cabaret straight out of a Disney movie where the “everyman” [read: commoner] manages to convince a Princess [read: wanker] that they’re equals. 

As you can probably guess from the title, this episode is all about our dynamic duo counting down the days until their UK tour. In between the anxiety-induced finger biting, there is a smattering of light-hearted banter (Jordan) and laughter through gritted teeth (William). They discuss, for example, the difference between a conservatory and an orangery (who cares) and at one point, we discover how many times Jordan “opens his bowels” per day (usually 2, sometimes 3) because – SHOCK! HORROR! – he’s going to have a colonic cleanse on-stage to a (presumed) horrified live audience. 

But despite many eye-rolling moments, this show works on the whole and the balance is right. You can tell that there’s a real relationship between the two presenters, which would be painful if forced. 

Thankfully, it’s not. Sure, I can do without the ‘zoo format’ (producer laughing at everything in the background, STFU!), the pointless music underneath various format points, and mis-placed ad breaks (oops!) but that’s not Jordan and William’s fault.    

GF