Best British Comedy Podcasts (2026)
British comedy podcasts have become their own genre — somewhere between panel show, pub chat and performance. The best ones feel like eavesdropping on genuinely funny people being themselves, which is exactly what they are. These 8 shows are the ones that actually make you laugh out loud on the bus.
Waking up with a podcast on iOS
Podcast Alarm is a fully featured podcast player and alarm. You can set up queues of your favourite episodes and listen to them whenever you like. Why not subscribe to your favourite podcast and have the latest episode wake you up every weekday morning. There are lots of screenshots and videos in our "How to set a podcast as an alarm on iphone?" blog post.
1. Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster
Ed Gamble and James Acaster run a fictional magical restaurant where celebrity guests order their dream meal — starter, main, side, dessert, drink. The premise sounds thin but the chemistry between the hosts is brilliant and the food chat always spirals into something unexpected. Consistently one of the UK's biggest podcasts.
2. No Such Thing As A Fish
The QI researchers share their favourite facts from the week. It's funny, fascinating and the kind of show that makes you unbearable at dinner parties because you keep starting sentences with "Did you know..." The back catalogue alone could keep you going for years.
3. Athletico Mince
Bob Mortimer and Andy Dawson started this as a football podcast and it quickly became something else entirely. Bob's improvised characters, rambling stories and casual absurdity make it one of the funniest podcasts in existence. The football chat is almost beside the point.
4. The Beef and Dairy Network
A spoof industry podcast for the beef and dairy community that is somehow one of the most inventive comedy shows around. Benjamin Partridge plays it completely straight while the world around him gets increasingly surreal. Dark, weird and absolutely hilarious once you tune into its frequency.
5. My Dad Wrote a Porno
Jamie Morton reads his dad's self-published erotic novel chapter by chapter while his friends Alice Levine and James Cooper react in real time. The writing is spectacularly bad and the reactions are genuine. It became a global phenomenon for good reason — you will cry laughing.
6. The Bugle
Andy Zaltzman's satirical news podcast has been running since 2007, originally with John Oliver. The format is simple — take the week's news and be relentlessly funny about it — but the execution is sharp and the wordplay is on another level. The pun runs alone are worth subscribing for.
7. Parenting Hell
Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe commiserate about the reality of raising small children. Sleep deprivation, soft play centres, school WhatsApp groups — they cover it all with the weary humour of people deep in the trenches. You don't even need kids to find it funny.
8. St Elwick's Neighbourhood Association Newsletter
Mike Wozniak and Henry Paker play residents of a fictional village reading out the local newsletter, which quickly descends into chaos, scandal and surreal tangents. If you like The Beef and Dairy Network or have ever read a parish newsletter and thought it was accidentally hilarious, this is for you.
Start Your Morning with a Great Podcast
Set any of these podcasts as your alarm with Podcast Alarm and wake up to something worth listening to.
Waking up with a podcast on iOS
Podcast Alarm is a fully featured podcast player and alarm. You can set up queues of your favourite episodes and listen to them whenever you like. Why not subscribe to your favourite podcast and have the latest episode wake you up every weekday morning. There are lots of screenshots and videos in our "How to set a podcast as an alarm on iphone?" blog post.
