In her new podcast, national treasure and bullshit caller Kathy Burke turns her potty mouth to the biggest taboo of them all.
In a welcome shake-up of the celebrity-on-celebrity interview format, each episode sees Burke invite a famous friend to bring their best gallows banter and fantasise about their deaths.
She has described it as her “fantasy football” version of death and funeral planning. The likes of James Acaster, Jamali Maddix and Stewart Lee are on the line-up. But the draw is undoubtedly Burke herself, and it’s as sweary and smutty a podcast as you could hope for from her.
Having said that, in Dawn French she finds the perfect first guest and one who barely needs prompting. The two are long-term pals and they share the same raunchy streak, so it’s not long before the laughs come flowing.
They cover all the circumstances of French’s death, the funeral service, her will and any other business she’d like to finish as a ghost. Her answers are both hilariously thorough and thoroughly hilarious. Especially when describing her plans for the service.
She wants her hearse to be trailed by a procession made up of her previous lovers (who would then be thrown on the funeral pyre). The coffin itself would be solid gold with a Perspex front, and be raised upright on the Tamar bridge. To top it off, “the front would have two holes with my tits coming through and, if you want, you can rub them for luck as you enter Cornwall.”
After her guest is dead and buried, says Burke, “I’m one of those wankers that’s got bonus content, too.” She plans to record a series of follow-up episodes entitled 6 Feet Under, reading out her listeners’ funeral yarns and posing any questions they have to the resident undertaker (and author) Ru Callender.
It’s a riot, but, beyond all the laughs, it might also go some way toward helping you embrace what Burke reminds us is “the only thing that’s definitely gonna happen”.