British Comedy Guide

Joe Wilkinson & David Earl adapting Gossipmongers for Channel 4

ExclusiveFriday 5th November 2021, 12:53pm by Jay Richardson

Gossipmongers
  • Gossipmongers, the podcast hosted by Joe Wilkinson and David Earl, has been filmed as a TV show
  • The Channel 4 pilot is described as "really similar" to the podcast, in which listeners' "sordid tales" are shared
  • Wilkinson explains that "they're just talking nonsense", with "a few little TV additions"

Joe Wilkinson and David Earl are adapting their Gossipmongers podcast for Channel 4, British Comedy Guide can exclusively reveal.

"We're just a couple of middle-aged gossips" Wilkinson told British Comedy Guide in an interview published today.

The pilot, which is being made by Steve Coogan's production company Baby Cow, is "really similar" to the podcast, in which stand-ups Wilkinson and Earl read out "sordid tales" that members of the public have sent them about friends and family.

"Whether it goes ahead is in the lap of the gods" Wilkinson said. He described the recording as "good fun" and featured the pair, who also created Gold sitcom The Cockfields, "just talking nonsense, then a few little TV additions. But we wanted to keep it as similar as we could really."

Wilkinson declined to comment on claims made by his former Gossipmongers collaborator Poppy Hillstead last year that she had been unceremoniously sacked from the podcast's fourth series, with news of her firing coming from Wilkinson and Earl's agents rather than the pair delivering it to her personally.

However, in the wide-ranging interview to promote The Cockfields' second series, he did reveal that his 2020 pilot for Dave, Joe Wilkinson In Cars With Other People's Mums, which featured him driving about Brighton with Seann Walsh's mum, appeared unlikely to go to series. And that plans to further develop his and Earl's 2017 Sky short Giddy Up Gunty set in the Wild West, in which they starred alongside Jayde Adams, have also so far come to nothing.

Alongside The Cockfields, Wilkinson will shortly be seen as a guest on David O'Doherty's cycling chatshow for Channel 4, The Ride. Meanwhile, Earl's film Brian & Charles, revolving around the unlikely relationship between his alter-ego Brian Gittins and a robot named Charles, is expected to be released soon.

Next year, both Earl and Wilkinson will also be seen reprising their roles in the third series of Ricky Gervais' comedy After Life.


Joe Wilkinson interview

Share this page