Jemma Bennett explains why she is such a fan of Chris and Rosie Ramsey’s podcast

Chris and Rosie Ramsey are to break a world record for the world's biggest live podcast audience –  and I’m not surprised.

I started listening to their podcast Shagged Married Annoyed when it was first released a year ago. The catchy jingle, ironically titled ‘we had a fight about the jingle’, immediately drew me in, and the genuine and honest banter from the get-go meant that this was a podcast like no other I'd listened to before. 

Never before have I maintained my loyalty to a podcast like this, diligently tuning in, even counting down the hours to its release every Friday morning. 

My love for this podcast isn't just because I loved Chris in Strictly Come Dancing (the podcast started way before that), but because everybody loves to be silly and laugh – and everybody needs to be silly and laugh. 

Chris and Rosie are a team, both playing equal parts in this winning formula of mirth. There are of course in-jokes between them both about Rosie now having a ‘proper job’, but make no mistake, she is as integral to this podcast as Chris, and he makes it clear he knows it. 

They have come up with a structure to the podcast that I love – not only because it's highly entertaining, but because the weekly familiarity of what is coming next is addictive – they manage to intersperse each section with free-flowing conversation, that is full of humour, wit and plenty of surprises. 

Sections such as What's Your Beef? (a chance to air each other's annoyances), Questions From The P-P-Public and Celebrity Questions aren't hugely inventive objectively, but the way the Ramseys have orchestrated their delivery makes them endlessly amusing and unpredictable, thus keeping us coming back for more. Particularly funny is Barry Beef, a character invented by Rosie in an off-the-cuff moment during one of the podcasts. Rosie's ability to ad-lib shows her diversity and ability as a comedian in her own right.

The chemistry between Chris and Rosie, and more notably, their honesty and genuine friendship, makes their performance endearing. Their gratitude to the listeners for still listening 53 episodes on, and their ever-depleting list of celebrity friends they can call on for their feature, is humbling, and just makes them irresistible. We like Chris and Rosie, they feel like a friend to us, their devoted SMAs. 

And as for silliness, they've got it by the truckload. Sometimes the silly comes from them, sometimes it's spawned from one of the thousands of emails they've received from the p-p-public over the last year. 

But as I find myself laughing out loud while doing the ironing, listening to my weekly fix, I am reminded of the same uncontrollable laughter, and happiness I experience when watching The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer. Sometimes it can't be explained why it's funny, it just is. 

Numerous studies have shown that people who laugh regularly are more likely to be healthy both mentally and physically. So thanks for the silliness, and thanks for the laughs Chris and Rosie. Long may it continue.

Published: 1 Mar 2020