This Christmas, podcast Tony Slattery’s Rambling Club will mark the life and talent of one of Britain’s most beloved performers with two special events, honouring Tony Slattery’s wit, warmth and formidable creative intelligence.
The podcast, which launched in 2024 as a bespoke vehicle for Slattery’s singular mind, was conceived as a joyful, playful space in which he could do what he did best: think aloud, digress brilliantly, and surprise everyone, including himself! Following Tony’s death in January this year, the show has continued in his memory with the blessing of his partner, Mark Hutchinson.
At the heart of Tony Slattery’s Rambling Club is a gloriously eccentric format: a bingo machine — voiced by Sir Stephen Fry — randomly generates numbers linked to the Dewey Decimal System, throwing up subjects that form the jumping-off point for a free-wheeling, deeply unusual chat show. What began as a mechanism to prompt Tony to “ramble” has evolved into a uniquely funny and insightful conversational format, featuring guests from across comedy, acting and broadcasting.
Christmas Tribute Events
Christmas Eve – Wednesday 24 December, 8:00pm GMT
The podcast will release a very special recording of The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe, read by Tony Slattery. Recorded in December last year, this was Tony’s final acting job, and stands as a powerful testament to his dramatic ability, vocal mastery and emotional depth. It is a haunting, moving performance that reminds listeners that Tony was not only a comic improviser of rare brilliance, but also a serious and compelling actor.
Christmas Day – Thursday 25 December
An unheard edition of Tony Slattery’s Rambling Club will be released, featuring Tony in full, free-associative flow, tackling a fresh selection of Dewey Decimal subjects with curiosity, humour and characteristic unpredictability. The episode captures Tony at ease, engaged, and clearly relishing the format that had become such a source of joy for him in the final year of his life.
A Celebration of a Creative High Point
Speaking about the Christmas releases, co-host Paul Carmichael said: “Working with Tony was an absolute privilege. He was a genuine genius — not just quick or funny, but profoundly intelligent, curious and generous with it. The Rambling Club gave him space to be entirely himself, and being part of that was one of the great honours of my career.”
Producer Erica Lear added: “Tony brought something utterly unique into the room every time we recorded. There was a sense that anything could happen — and often did. These Christmas episodes are deeply emotional for us, but they’re also joyful, because they capture Tony doing what he loved, at a time when he felt creatively fulfilled.”
Tony’s partner Mark Hutchinson said: “The last year of Tony’s life was one of the happiest I’d known with him. He was so proud of The Rambling Club — it gave him purpose, pleasure and a sense of play. He loved the people involved and the sheer oddness of it all. I know how much these episodes would have meant to him, and I’m very glad they’re being shared.”
The Christmas Day episode marks the end of Series One of Tony Slattery’s Rambling Club. The show will return in February 2026 with the launch of Series Two, opening with a special edition featuring the legendary Don Warrington (Rising Damp, Death in Paradise).
As the podcast moves forward, it continues to do so in the spirit in which it was created: playful, curious, unafraid of digression, and always driven by a love of ideas — a fitting legacy for a performer whose mind never stood still.
Tony Slattery’s Rambling Club is available on all major podcast platforms.
