Amy Gledhill wrote her dissertation on Richard Herring
Comic's Hitler Moustache was an inspiration
Amy Gledhill has revealed that she wrote her university dissertation about Richard Herring’s stand-up show Hitler Moustache.
Before becoming a comedian, Gledhill studied at Leeds University’s School of Performance and Cultural Industries, based at Bretton Hall in Yorkshire, whose alumni includes The League of Gentlemen, Joe Kent-Walters, Mark Thomas and Natasia Demetriou.
However, Gledhill admitted she initially struggled with the ‘wanky course’ where they were encouraged to ‘all go dance in the woods and devise theatre’ and with the fact that everyone on it seemed to be from London.
‘I’d never interacted with anyone who wasn’t a working-class kid and I didn’t understand,’ she told Russell Howard on his Five Brilliant Things podcast. ‘I was a bit like "What’s this? Why are we doing that? That’s daft. I thought we were going to do reading scripts and that, what do you mean dance?"
But after her initial reluctance to dive in, she confessed she ‘was the most pretentious of everyone’.
She wrote her dissertation on the power of performance to effect positive social change, having been inspired by Herring’s 2009 show. In it, he sought to reclaim the moustache favoured by both Hitler and Charlie Chaplin for comedy.
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Gledhill said the show inspired her to analyse ‘which was the best medium to talk about difficult things, is it comedy or is it something that’s more serious?’ and to conclude that ‘comedy is more able to effect a change’.
Hitler Moustache ‘just sort of blew my mind that a comedian was tackling [that] – it was when the BNP was coming up, and [the show] was funny’ she recalled.
‘I didn’t go and watch it to do my dissertation on it, I watched and was like "I think that’s changed my brain a bit that. I didn’t know comedians could effect social change".’
- by Jay Richardson
Published: 11 Feb 2026
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Products
Book (2022)
Can I Have My Ball Back? by Richard Herring
Book (2021)
Richard Herring's Would You Rather?
Book (2020)
The Problem With Men
DVD (2011)
Richard Herring: Christ On A Bike
DVD (2010)
Richard Herring: Hitler Moustache
Book (2008)
Bye Bye Balham
Book (1995)
Fist Of Fun
Past Shows
Edinburgh Fringe 2009
Aaaaaaaaaarrghh! It's Bollock Relief
Andrew Collins And Richard Herring: Collings and Herrin Podcast Live!
Richard Herring: Hitler Moustache
Edinburgh Fringe 2010
Collins And Herring Podcast Live
Richard Herring: As It Occurs To Me
Richard Herring: Christ on a Bike – The Second Coming
Edinburgh Fringe 2011
Richard Herring: What Is Love Anyway?
Richard Herring’s Edinburgh Fringe Podcast
Edinburgh Fringe 2012
Richard Herring: Talking Cock: The Second Coming
Richard Herring's Edinburgh Fringe Podcast 2012
Edinburgh Fringe 2013
Richard Herring: We’re All Going to Die!
Richard Herring's Edinburgh Fringe Podcast 2013
Agent
We do not currently hold contact details for Richard Herring's agent. If you are a comic or agent wanting your details to appear here, for a one-off fee of £59, email steve@chortle.co.uk.