With guests recalling the moment they said, 'Eff it'

Helen Lederer is launching a new podcast.

Recorded live on stage at the Phoenix Arts Club in London, each episode of Eff It, focuses on the point at which her guest realised something was wrong and decided to act on it. 

Lederer, best known for playing Catriona in Absolutely Fabulous, says the idea grew out of her experience of years of people-pleasing and doing what she was told, before she decided to stop.

Her guests for the first recording on Monday are comic Stephen Bailey and The Wanted singer- songwriter Jay McGuiness. 

Lederer says: ‘We can’t wait for you to hear the stories of Jay and Stephen, who are both fabulously successful in their own right. There’s no place to hide on stage and we can’t wait for you to listen in and have a laugh. PS - there’ll be wine.’

Lederer has recently published her memoir, Not That I’m Bitter, and says that writing it made her stop worrying about what other people think of her. 

She has also just released the last of her seven-episode podcast Writing Funny – aimed at aspiring comedy writers and spawned from her work running the Comedy Women in Print (CWIP) Prize,  which she founded in 2018. 

Each live recording of Eff It at the Phoenix Arts Club is a double bill, which will be released as a podcast with one guest per episode from October. Further recordings take place on October 12 and November 2. 

Published: 22 Sep 2026