Goodbye Crunch & Crumble

Ed Gamble and Matthew Crosby's radio show will end next Sunday after seven years.

The pair shared the surprise news on their Radio X show this morning, stating that it was their decision to wrap up. Crosby called it a 'sad announcement, melancholy announcement, bittersweet announcement.'

Gamble joked that they had 'made our point. We never truly have gotten to grips with [the show]. And we've decided that seven years, really, you've got to cut it off at some point.’

He also suggested that the commercial station's 'top brass have come to us and said, "Guys, the probation period is over. This is … it's not working."

Crosby joked that when they came to Radio X seven years ago as asking for a show, they were told: ‘OK, but we're only going to give you seven years, and if you can't get it straight after seven years, you're gone.’

However, Gamble then clarified that 'this is our decision to move on. We genuinely feel like we've done everything that we can do', before lapsing back into self-deprecation, stating 'there's no point. There's no point chipping away at this any more.'

Crosby concurred: 'It's been the same thing, really, quite a lot', before bemoaning the pair's ongoing failure to get Sam Fender on their show.

He then charged their long-time producer, Vinay Joshi, with securing the Geordie singer-songwriter for their final broadcast next Sunday.

Crosby and Gamble, who went by the nicknames Crunch & Crumble among other less celebrated aliases, and who gloried in having the 'thickest listeners in radio', will leave behind many recurring features.

These include many variations on Metal Education, in which heavy metal fan Gamble asked Crosby to identify genuine songs by obscure, cacophonous metal bands, with the opening answer invariably 'penis flytrap'; The Film Review, for which Gamble increasingly never bothered; and latterly, What Do You Not Know What It Is?, in which guests were asked about everyday phenomenon that they had absolutely no understanding of.

Crosby asked listeners to share their memories for the final show, 'just to jog our memory really’.

Several of them took to Instagram to register their sadness, with one writing: 'Devastating news this morning.'

Another posted: 'This show is genuinely the highlight of my week every week, which I guess makes me a saddo as well as a thicko? I'm going to miss Crunch and Crumble so much (and Vin... maybe Vin most of all). '

Gamble is touring the UK and Ireland from January with his stand-up tour, Fresh Hell, and now has a US following thanks to his appearance on Taskmaster and Off Menu, the food podcast that he hosts with James Acaster. 

His UK television commitments include the recently broadcast escape room show The Way Out on U&Dave, hosting TLC's upcoming say-the-unsayable show Unacceptable, plus The Traitors: Uncloaked, companion show to the BBC's hit reality format'.

Meanwhile, Pappy's sketch show member Crosby continues to write for many shows, including The Traitors: Uncloaked and The Last Leg.

Coincidentally, Guz Khan, the pair's solitary guest today – or 'single scoop for Daddy' in the show's parlance – also revealed the cancellation of his own show during the broadcast.

He disclosed that Guz Khan's Custom Cars will not be back for a second series on Quest.

Gamble joked that The Man Like Mobeen star's inability to recall what channel the show aired on when he appeared on Off Menu, might have been a factor in its cancellation.

A replacement for the Ed Gamble and Matthew Crosby Show has yet to be announced by Radio X.

- by Jay Richardson

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Published: 31 May 2026