FORDE’S POLITICAL PARTY PODCAST GOES DAILY FROM 3RD JUNE
“Matt Forde’s podcast is like Top of the Pops for Westminster…phenomenally popular fortnightly show…refreshingly positive”
The Sunday Times
“Forde’s Political Party podcasts have become essential listening for both comedy fans and Westminster wonks”
The Evening Standard
“Forde is a brilliant interrogator, being just friendly enough to coax out some surprising admissions and insights. It successfully makes politics funny, which is no mean feat in the current climate.”
ShortList’s No. 1 Political Podcast
“Forde is a master at the long- form interview and turns sometimes robotic politicians into human beings. This is without doubt the most entertaining and insightful political interview podcast of them all”
Iain Dale’s Top 50 Political Podcasts, Mace Magazine
28th May 2024 – Matt Forde is undertaking an ambitious challenge: attempting to interview a candidate from all 650 constituencies before polling day on the 4th of July. These interviews will be featured on his hit podcast, The Political Party, which will start releasing episodes daily from 3rd June.
No interviewer has ever tried this during a single election campaign for a very simple reason: it’s ludicrous. Forde’s interviews will unfold in various settings to capture the full range of candidate perspectives. Some will be conducted remotely, while others in-person, including select sessions in front of live audiences, or in more unconventional spots, which may or may not include pubs, battle buses and army barracks.
Talking about the feat Matt said: “I love interviewing politicians, so when the election was called, I thought I’d try and interview them all. After beating cancer, I need a new gruelling task. If politics is the art of the possible, then The Political Party is the art of the impossible”
The news arrives shortly after it was announced Matt is returning to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, ahead of the UK and US elections. His brand-new show The End of An Era Tour will run from 1st – 25th August at 8pm at Pleasance Beyond
Described as “our foremost satirical stand-up” by The Sunday Times, Matt has toured critically acclaimed shows nationwide including most recently Clowns To The Left of Me, Jokers To The Right in 2022 and Inside No. 10 in 2023.
Matt’s hit live podcast The Political Party transferred to the West End’s Duchess Theatre in 2021, after over 70 sold out shows at Westminster’s The Other Palace, for a thrice extended fortnightly residency continuing in to 2024. He has brought Parliament to life with his stand-up and debate with some of politics’ most powerful figures including Keir Starmer, Nicola Sturgeon, Tony Blair, Eddie Izzard, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Angela Rayner, Michael Heseltine, Anthony Scaramucci, Alastair Campbell, Gordon Brown and Gary Neville. The Political Party has over 9 million downloads, received numerous nominations from award bodies including the British Podcast Awards and Chortle Awards, and is regularly highlighted as a top podcast pick in the press.
Matt currently presents Absolute Radio’s weekly Rock ‘n’ Roll Football Show. He is also the co-host of Wondery’s flagship British Podcast Award winning British Scandal alongside Alice Levine.
Matt wrote and voiced characters for Spitting Image(BritBox/ITV) including Boris Johnson, Keir Starmer andDonald Trump. Spitting Image delivered record subscribers for BritBox UK, the BBC and ITV created streaming platform, as well as picking up huge critical acclaim. Across official social media channels, series content has been hugely popular with over 200 million views globally, three No. 1 trending videos on YouTube and achieved praise across political the political divide.
Idiots Assemble: Spitting Image The Musical, written by a tour de force comedy team made up of Matt Forde, Al Murray and Sean Foley, transferred to the West End’s Phoenix Theatre last year. Described by The Daily Telegraph as a five star ‘Lavish extravaganza’ and‘dazzling … a stunning technical achievement’ by The Times, the musical introduced by Master of Ceremonies Sir Ian McKellen, featured a stellar line-up of over 100 puppets of the great and the not so good
In 2019 alone, Matt hosted the Alternative News Desk for Channel 4’s election night coverage, chaired the One Nation Conservative leadership hustings and debated Britain’s withdrawal from the EU with Tony Blair for the Institute of Global Change.
Matt hosted four series of Unspun with Matt Forde on Dave, receiving several nominations at the Broadcast Digital Awards, and has numerous other broadcast credits including: Have I Got News For You (BBC One), The Royal Variety Performance (ITV), Mock The Week (BBC Two), 8 out of 10 Cats (Channel 4), Hypothetical (Dave) Rory Bremner’s Coalition Report and Rory Bremner’s Election Report (BBC Two), Question Time (BBC One), This Week(BBC One), Newsnight (BBC Two) and Daily Politics (BBC Two).
For more information and press tickets, please contact: Victoria Wedderburn at VWedderburn@avalonuk.com / 07557160139 and Chloe Waterhouse at CWaterhouse@avalonuk.com
What the Press Have Said About Matt Forde’s Previous Shows
“Forde is as gratifyingly sane as comedians come… smart, funny ideas”
★★★★ Dominic Maxwell, The Times
“the excellent Matt Forde…even more accurate than Starmer’s needling voice”
Lloyd Evans, The Spectator
“Is there a better political comic than Matt Forde currently working in the UK? I can’t think of another to touch him”
★★★★½ Jay Richardson, Chortle
“Matt Forde never fails with his state-of-the-nation address, a mix of bang-on-the-money political takedowns and spot-on impressions”
★★★★ Mark Wareham, Mail On Sunday
“Matt Forde is the consummate political comedian”
★★★★ Tim Cornwell, The Scotsman
