102 - OLLIE POWELL - WORLD'S WORST ADVERT

We’re indulging our consumerist instincts this week in the company of actor, host of the Average at Best Podcast and star of countless commercials, Oliver Powell. Ollie helps us glaze over in the face of the World’s Worst Adverts, with insights into life on the set of his recent Durex ad. Barry examines the product placement habits of 007, and Ben describes the public service advert of your nightmares.

Follow us on Twitter: @worstfoot @bazmcstay @benvandervelde @oliverpowell

Visit www.worstfootforwardpodcast.com for all previous episodes and you can donate to us on Patreon if you’d like to support us as we venture forth into professional recording studios: https://www.patreon.com/WorstFootForward

101 - SOOZ KEMPNER - WORLD'S WORST DIVA

Pop on your diamante slippers, swish your feather boa around your neck and strut your way in 2019 with tales of the world's worst divas.  Accompanied by magnificent musical comic Sooz Kempner we tell the tales of Handel's warring divas, Freddie Mercury's run-ins with Sid Vicious (and a lot of dwarves) and why the heir to the British throne doesn't understand how sandwiches work.

Follow us on Twitter: @worstfoot @bazmcstay @benvandervelde @SoozUK

Visit www.worstfootforwardpodcast.com for all previous episodes and you can now donate to us on Patreon if you’d like to support Ben’s new baby and Barry’s crippling trivia addiction: https://www.patreon.com/WorstFootForward

100b - THE WORLD'S WORST 'BEST OF 2018' EPISODE

New Year’s Eve, the clocks tick towards midnight with the prospect of turning the page on 2018. BUT NO! We keep you firmly rooted in the past as we look back at our so-called “best bits” from episodes released over the past year. There are returns for several old friends, not least the French president who died in flagrante delicto, an unwitting newsreader with a numerical disadvantage, and an English toff brandishing a wasp gun. Thanks for listening in 2018 and here’s to a 2019 full of more of the world’s worst stuff. Love, Barry & Ben.

Follow us on Twitter: @worstfoot @bazmcstay @benvandervelde

Visit www.worstfootforwardpodcast.com for all previous episodes and you can now donate to us on Patreon if you’d like to support Ben’s new baby and Barry’s crippling trivia addiction: https://www.patreon.com/WorstFootForward

100a - THE BEST OF THE WORST OF THE BEST 3

This week we head to the appendix of our encyclopaedia of heroic failure and talk about some stone cold heroes.

Way back in early 2017 we talked about the worst board games, fairy tales, professional wrestlers, TV comedies and first dates - now Ben and Barry return to the scene of the crimes to laud some champions.  On our way we uncover the real story behind Beauty and the Beast, why Calvin Coolidge was a hit with the ladies and laud a big, battle-scarred bear with a scabby heart of gold.

Follow us on Twitter: @worstfoot @bazmcstay @benvandervelde

Visit www.worstfootforwardpodcast.com for all previous episodes and you can now donate to us on Patreon if you’d like to support Ben’s new baby and Barry’s crippling trivia addiction: https://www.patreon.com/WorstFootForward

100 - BARRY & BEN - WORLD'S WORST CENTURY

Sweet holy mother of everything that's heroically awful: we made it to 100 episodes!  To celebrate Ben and Barry drill down into everything terrible about the number 100: from dodgy bank notes to terrible cricketers and golfers, suspiciously young super-centenarians, premature wartime celebrations and bang average cars.  

As ever, we take you on a journey including all human life from Ancient Etruscans to disappearing Carolingians, via the Venerable Bede and Edward VII.  

Follow us on Twitter: @worstfoot @bazmcstay @benvandervelde 

Visit www.worstfootforwardpodcast.com for all previous episodes and you can now donate to us on Patreon if you’d like to support Ben’s new baby and Barry’s crippling trivia addiction: https://www.patreon.com/WorstFootForward

099 - ANUVAB PAL - WORLD'S WORST EMPIRE

We are boldly setting out to civilise you this week, as we talk about the World’s Worst Empire. Our guest this week is regular contributor to satirical podcast The Bugle, comedian and writer Anuvab Pal. As a native of India, and with Barry’s as his sidekick, Anuvab gives the British Empire a bemused and loving revision. Barry takes us all the way from Haiti to a galaxy far, far away, and Ben has a nosey around the micronations of the world, in all their tax-evading glory. 

Follow us on Twitter: @worstfoot @bazmcstay @benvandervelde @AnuvabPal

Visit www.worstfootforwardpodcast.com for all previous episodes and you can now donate to us on Patreon if you’d like to support Ben’s new baby and Barry’s crippling trivia addiction: https://www.patreon.com/WorstFootForward

098 - LUCY JOHNSTON - WORLD'S WORST VENDING MACHINE

Inspired by the mot batshit crazy Patreon suggestions we've had so far, we plunged head first into the surprisingly fertile and unsurprisingly weird world of terrible vending machines.  

Thankfully we had a responsible adult with us as our guide in the shape of Lucy Johnston - author, curator, futures consultant and, as it turns out, a fairly impressive authority on vending machines.

This week we discover a Roman inventor to rival Da Vinci, the folly of Piggly Wiggly, a lobster nightmare and, of course absolutely loads of bizarre stuff from Japan.  

Follow us on Twitter: @worstfoot @bazmcstay @benvandervelde @destructo9000

Visit www.worstfootforwardpodcast.com for all previous episodes and you can now donate to us on Patreon if you’d like to support Ben’s new baby and Barry’s crippling trivia addiction: https://www.patreon.com/WorstFootForward

097 - ANDREW O'NEILL - WORLD'S WORST GOD

Our listeners, who art in the internet, hallowed be this episode of Worst Foot Forward. We are getting blasphemous this week in every possible religion by denouncing the World's Worst God with comic, musician and practicer of magic, Andrew O'Neill. We look at obscure ancient deities, eternal bacon, Dutch eel-vendors and Andrew tells us about the ultimate case of 'cutting your nose of to spite your face'.

Follow us on Twitter: @worstfoot @bazmcstay @benvandervelde @destructo9000

Visit www.worstfootforwardpodcast.com for all previous episodes and you can now donate to us on Patreon if you’d like to support Ben’s new baby and Barry’s crippling trivia addiction: https://www.patreon.com/WorstFootForward

096 - ANNA PLOSZAJSKI - WORLD'S WORST MATERIAL

We're joined this week by the eminently qualified Dr Anna Ploszajski - Young Engineer of the Year, Channel Swimmer, science explainer and graphene-hater to talk about the worst material on earth.

As eclectic as ever, we uncover a World War 2 plan by the British military to create aircraft carriers out of icebergs made of ice and sawdust, the blackest substance on earth, an astonishingly petty art spat featuring Anish Kapoor and how to make a prison that Ant Man could never escape from.

Follow us on Twitter: @worstfoot @bazmcstay @benvandervelde @AnnaPloszajski

Visit www.worstfootforwardpodcast.com for all previous episodes and you can now donate to us on Patreon if you’d like to support Ben’s new baby and Barry’s crippling trivia addiction: www.patreon.com/WorstFootForward

095 - SCHALK BEZUIDENHOUT - WORLD'S WORST GIG

Testing, one two one two, is this thing on…? We’re met by a mix of cricket sounds, flying bottles and scathing reviews this week as we perform the World’s Worst Gig. We have the company of South African comic Schalk Bezuidenhout who shares a first-person tale of steakhouses, strippers and stand-up. Ben takes us to the worst Beatles gig ever (those of you playing the Ben/Beatles drinking game, down it) and Barry goes to the not-so-genteel theatres of Covent Garden. 

Follow us on Twitter: @worstfoot @bazmcstay @benvandervelde @shalkiebez 

Visit www.worstfootforwardpodcast.com for all previous episodes and you can now donate to us on Patreon if you’d like to support Ben’s new baby and Barry’s crippling trivia addiction: https://www.patreon.com/WorstFootForward

094 - MIKE STUCHBERY - WORLD'S WORST EPIDEMIC

This week we're donning our sterilised plastic gloves, three face masks and a full hazmat suit as we prepare to deal with the world's most peculiar, disturbing and deadly epidemics. We're joined by outstanding historian and curator of one of the most informative and sinister Twitter feeds around, Mike Stuchbery.

Together we talk about renaissance nuns pretending to be cats, Singaporean men who think their wangers have disappeared and why it’s never a good idea to throw a smallpox party. We also discover the unusual genesis of cooties (hi America listeners!), dabble in some medieval witchcraft and discover why Portuguese schoolchildren have taken the biscuit with excuses for taking days off school.

Follow us on Twitter: @worstfoot @bazmcstay @benvandervelde @mikestuchbery_

Visit www.worstfootforwardpodcast.com for all previous episodes and you can now donate to us on Patreon if you’d like to support Ben’s new baby and Barry’s crippling trivia addiction: www.patreon.com/WorstFootForward

093 - JOEL MORRIS - WORLD'S WORST MUSICAL FILM

This week we are jazz-handing, kicklining and tumbling sideways off a swirling staircase into a pile of soggy Busby Berkeley girls. It’s time for us to explore the World’s Worst Musical Films with a show-stopping guest in the form of acclaimed comedy writer Joel Morris. If you think you’ve seen bad musicals well, you ain’t heard nothing yet folks. Barry plots his way through a plotless film starring The Beegees but using the music of The Beatles, Joel teaches us to be sexy with octogenarian Mae West and Ben…oh Ben…Ben gives us the gift of Franz Liszt.

Follow us on Twitter: @worstfoot @bazmcstay @benvandervelde@gralefrit @ruleofthreepod

Visit www.worstfootforwardpodcast.com for all previous episodes and you can now donate to us on Patreon if you’d like to support Ben’s new baby and Barry’s crippling trivia addiction: www.patreon.com/WorstFootForward

092 - AIDAN GOATLEY - WORLD'S WORST TATTOO

Bite down hard and prepare to feel some unusual pain as we inflict the world's worst tattoos on you. Joined by the charming stand-up comic Aidan Goatley we return to the terrifying world of Russian prisons, uncover some creepy Cold War secret, Japanese pelts, the mysterious Edith and why early 20th century royalty were absolutely covered in ink.

Follow us on Twitter: @worstfoot @bazmcstay @benvandervelde@MrAidanGoatley

Visit www.worstfootforwardpodcast.com for all previous episodes and you can now donate to us on Patreon if you’d like to support Ben’s new baby and Barry’s crippling trivia addiction: www.patreon.com/WorstFootForward

091 - BEX LINDSAY - WORLD'S WORST TOY

This week we enter one of the creepiest world's imaginable: the nightmarish dimension of terrible toys. With award-winning children's radio host Bex Lindsay as our guide we uncover the dark truth about the Beanie Babies, a darker truth about how certain people like to make babies and quite a lot of toys that you absolutely must keep away from babies.

Follow us on Twitter: @worstfoot @bazmcstay @benvandervelde @BexLindsay

Visit www.worstfootforwardpodcast.com for all previous episodes and you can now donate to us on Patreon if you’d like to support Ben’s new baby and Barry’s crippling trivia addiction: www.patreon.com/WorstFootForward

090 - ANDREW SHAFFER - WORLD'S WORST FAN FICTION

Let your imaginations run wild - this week we are reading the World's Worst Fan Fiction. Our guest is Andrew Shaffer, New York Times best-selling author and fan fiction parody writer extraordinaire. He tells us about the genesis of 50 Shades Of Grey among thousands of other Twilight fan fiction tales, while Ben talks about sex and Barry dives back in time to some of the earliest fan fiction stories around. It's a very saucy episode - if there isn't slash fiction written about us after this one, then you're all clearly made of wood!

Follow us on Twitter: @worstfoot @bazmcstay @benvandervelde @8thcirclepress

Visit www.worstfootforwardpodcast.com for all previous episodes and you can now donate to us on Patreon if you’d like to support Ben’s new baby and Barry’s crippling trivia addiction: https://www.patreon.com/WorstFootForward

089 - JACK BERNHARDT - WORLD'S WORST PRESIDENT

Having already determined the worst monarch and emperors of all time we return to what can best be described as History's Marianna Trench of awful leaders to uncover the Worst President. And no, it's not who you think it is - but only because he's not had enough time to do that much damage.

Joined by BBC Radio 4 and Guardian writer Jack Bernhardt examine likely candidates from the IOC, the Hall of Presidents and a French President who died perhaps the most French death of all time.

Follow us on Twitter: @worstfoot @bazmcstay @benvandervelde @jackbern23

Visit www.worstfootforwardpodcast.com for all previous episodes and you can now donate to us on Patreon if you’d like to support Ben’s new baby and Barry’s crippling trivia addiction: www.patreon.com/WorstFootForward

088 - HELEN MCCARTHY - WORLD'S WORST CULT

The Church of the Holy Worst Foot holds the secret to eternal satisfaction you've been looking for all your life. Available for a low low lifetime subscription fee of several million pounds! This week, we are joined by host of That's A Cult?, Helen McCarthy, to discuss the World's Worst Cults. There are Japanese foot-readers, Indian bike-worshippers, Quebecois masochists, militant nudists and The Crown Prince of Hell himself. Just another day in the compound then...

Follow us on Twitter: @worstfoot @bazmcstay @benvandervelde @thatsacult@helenlmccarthy

Visit www.worstfootforwardpodcast.com for all previous episodes and you can now donate to us on Patreon if you’d like to support Ben’s new baby and Barry’s crippling trivia addiction: www.patreon.com/WorstFootForward

087 - MATT HIGHTON - WORLD'S WORST DEATH SCENE

Slashed down in a shower, melted by a girl and her little dog too or just squashed by an ACME anvil - it’s time for this podcast to die in the World’s Worst Death Scene possible. Taking on this topic suggested by Patreon supporter Catherine Pugh is comedian Matthew Highton who revisits the third instalment in the legendary Basket Case trilogy. Remember guys? Remember Basket Case? Ah you do. No? Really? There’s also plenty of paltry perishing from Barry and Ben too, with diversions into Shakespeare and snuff films, Ancient Rome and Ethan Frome. This one has the occasional gross description, so do listen with care.

Follow us on Twitter: @worstfoot @bazmcstay @benvandervelde @MattHighton

Visit www.worstfootforwardpodcast.com for all previous episodes and you can now donate to us on Patreon if you’d like to support Ben’s new baby and Barry’s crippling trivia addiction: www.patreon.com/WorstFootForward

086 - MOLLY KER HAWN - WORLD'S WORST FICTIONAL CHILD

In this episode we line up some of the stickiest, naughtiest, most badly behaved and obnoxiously prodigious children ever created by authors and line them up for six of the best. We're joined by literary agent Molly Ker Hawn, someone who is steeped in children's literature as National Programs Director at the Children’s Book Council and a past board member of the United States Board on Books for Young People. Like all good agents she knows what she likes and doesn't hold back when she finds something that doesn't cut the mustard. We end up talking about Belgian newspapers, Roman foundational myths, Roald Dahl's offcuts and an audacious wartime fraud.

Follow us on Twitter: @worstfoot @bazmcstay @benvandervelde @mollykh

Visit www.worstfootforwardpodcast.com for all previous episodes and you can now donate to us on Patreon if you’d like to support Ben’s new baby and Barry’s crippling trivia addiction: www.patreon.com/WorstFootForward

085 - TAYLOR GLENN - WORLD'S WORST DETECTIVE

Gumshoes on, private dicks at the ready, it’s time to crack the case of the World’s Worst Detective. With us is the multi-talented Taylor Glenn, host of the Drunk Women Solving Crime podcast and she sweeps her magnifying glass across the questionable tactics of on-screen detectives. Meanwhile, Ben looks into the weird and wild biography of the father of modern detection, and Barry journeys to Cabot Cove, murder capital of the world, to hunt down Angela Lansbury.

Follow us on Twitter: @worstfoot @bazmcstay @benvandervelde @taylorglennuk @drunkwomenpod

Visit www.worstfootforwardpodcast.com for all previous episodes and you can now donate to us on Patreon if you’d like to support Ben’s new baby and Barry’s crippling trivia addiction: https://www.patreon.com/WorstFootForward