The Chris and Rosie Ramsey Show
The Chris and Rosie Ramsey Show makes a welcome return to the BBC this month. Gemma Dunn finds out what’s to come.
SINCE launching their hit podcast in 2019, Chris and Rosie Ramsey have barely come up for air.
The side-splittingly funny Sh**ged. Married. Annoyed. – which sees the real-life husband and wife duo chatting about relationships, annoyances, parenting and everything in between – has seen more than 145 million downloads to date, spawned a Sunday Times #1 best-selling book and broke the Guinness World Record for the biggest live podcast show.
In London alone, the South Shields duo, both 36, sold out The O2 Arena, Wembley Arena and The Palladium.
Then came the fittingly named Chris and Rosie Ramsey Show, which imported their same comic chat to the realms of TV, airing last year on BBC Two. A huge hit, a second season is about to start – though this time on BBC One.
Filmed in front of a live studio audience, the latest series will see the co-hosts welcome more celebrity couples to air their candid confessions, vent their hilarious ‘Beef ’ and share in incredible audience moments.
Other popular elements, beloved by fans, such as Please Keep Me Anonymous and It Goes or I go, will also feature. Which, judging by past standards, will certainly bring the laughs.
We cannot wait. So what else can the Ramseys tease ahead of their latest six-episode run?
What can you tell us about the new series?
C: We’ve got a couple of good names floating around for celebrity guests, but I don’t want to jinx it because we had dropouts last series, as with the nature of the industry. But we’re excited. Whoever we get on, we always know it’s going to be a laugh, because we’ve got me, Rosie, and the third presenter, which is our audience. They’re like another member of the cast.
R: We’re just looking forward to doing it all again. And we’ll be on BBC One this time, so it’s even more exciting. It’s a real honour.
What do you enjoy most about filming in front of a live audience?
R: We prefer it. We’ve got more experience with a live audience, than TV.
C: It’s our natural habitat. The podcast is just me and Rosie, but a TV show with a studio audience, I find excruciating. I find it really, really hard to do. [The live audience is] like a night out, a raucous gig, the fans are fantastic, and they get involved and they’re really happy to be there. Which helps us a lot. We try to make the audience at home feel like they’re in on the party.
The series sees the return of your famous ‘What’s Your Beef ?’, ‘It Goes or I Go’, and ‘Please Keep Me Anonymous’ segments – which is your favourite?
R: I love It Goes or I Go, where members of the public bring stuff in that they want their partners to get rid of. That was so much fun. I looked forward to that part of the show every time, because it was just so crazy.
Which stars would feature on your dream guest list?
C: Well, what we see as an unrealistic dream couple is John Krasinski and Emily Blunt. I’d love to sit them down and pick through their relationship, not even for the TV show, just for our own amusement. I did have a dream that we got Barack and Michelle Obama on.
Why do you think the format works so well with celebrities at the forefront?
C: I think it’s getting them into our world of oversharing. We’ve never had anyone after the show go, ‘I wish I hadn’t said that; make sure that doesn’t go on’. Relationships are so relatable to people at home, to everyone everywhere, and so when you hear someone who you regard as a big celebrity come on our show and say, ‘My partner does this’, it makes a connection with people. As long as they want to come on, have a laugh at themselves and laugh at each other, we’ll have a mint time.
What do you love about working together?
R: For me, personally, it’s nice to work with somebody who I trust wholeheartedly. He’s my husband, I trust him, and in workplaces, it’s really hard to get that sort of relationship to build up. It takes years, whereas we already have that.
C: I just love that everyone else is seeing how funny and talented Rosie is. When she says something on one of our arena shows, or on the TV, and it gets a massive round of applause or a massive laugh, just a joke or a little quip, it’s amazing.
You go on another tour later this year with your podcast. Are you excited?
R: The tour is brilliant, we loved [the last one] so much. We did arenas, it was unbelievable, it was the best experience ever.
C: The TV show and the arenas are some of the best nights I’ve ever had in my life. Dare I say, I enjoyed the live show more than I enjoy stand up.
The Chris and Rosie Ramsey Show will start on BBC One on Friday, May 12 at 10.40pm.