The Recs Podcast

The Recs' editor Steve Coats-Dennis chats to New York cabaret icon Salty Brine about the Living Record Collection, about where his creativity began and explores two of his shows, The Cyndi Lauper Show: He's So Unusual and The Annie Lennox Show: These Are The Contents of My Head, which Salty is performing in London's Soho Theatre and Cardiff's Wales Millennium Centre respectively in November 2025. 

In the final Edinburgh Fringe preview podcast, The Recs' editor Steve Coats-Dennis chats to the cast and creatives of the eagerly-anticipated Footballers' Wives The Musical:   (from 01:00) composer and lyricist Kath Gotts (from 23:00) Ceili O'Connor as Tayna Turner (from 30:15) Matt Beveridge as Jason Turner (from 35:35) India Chadwick and Tom Bowen as Chardonnay Lane and Kyle Pascoe (from 41:03) Leesa Tulley and Oliver Evans as  Donna and Ian Walmsley (from 48:50) Gillian Kirkpatrick as Nurse Dunkley and (from 54:15) legendary choreographer Dame Arlene Phillips    

In the fifth of The Recs' Edinburgh Fringe Specials, we chat to some of the purveyors of humour at the EdFringe 2025.  The episode features (from 01:15) Kieran Hodgson tells us about his new solo show Voice of America, about appearing in the big-budget Hollywood superhero movie, The Flash, his first two Edinburgh solo shows that the internet forgot, the new Two Doors Down Christmas Special and arousing The Recs' suspicion in Father Brown. (from 37:05) Freddie Walker and Sean Wareing of Fishing4Chips chat to us about their Fringe follow-up to Recs' favourite Burning Down The Horse. This year, their light-immersion-comedy takes us to 79AD and Pompeii for It's Gonna Blow. (from 50:50) and Fringe comedy newcomer Leo Mahr tells us about performing in Edinburgh at the world's biggest arts festival for the very first time. 

In the fourth of The Recs' Edinburgh Fringe Specials, Steve Coats-Dennis chats to some of the leading queer performers at the EdFringe 2025.  The episode features (from 01:06) Bryan Safi, star of star of ABC's 9-1-1  and co-host / co-creator of the podcast Attitudes!, chatting about his debut Fringe solo show, Are You Mad at Me?? - and about cooking with Mariah Carey. No really! (from 23:35) Awkward Productions, purveyors of queer joy in shows such as Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story and Gwyneth Goes Skiing, discussing their new show, The Fit Prince - and getting married at this year's Fringe for real! (from 40:45) Ryan Stewart telling us about their drag character Goody Prostate and their intriguing new show, Kinder.

In the third of The Recs' Edinburgh Fringe Specials, Steve Coats-Dennis explores the world of music and musical theatre at the EdFringe 2025 (and has a rather feisty discussion about Andrew Lloyd Webber with two of the guests!) We chat to: Arthur Hull about Flop (from 01:10 into the show) Grant Sharkey about Webber! (from 25:40) Thomas Currie about Basically Nocturnal (from 49:10) and the cast of Showstopper! The Improvised Musical (from 1:07:05)    

In the second of The Recs' Edinburgh Fringe Specials, we explore Solo shows. Steve Coats-Dennis chats to: Victoria Melody about Trouble, Struggle, Bubble and Squeak (0:50 in) Jason Woods about A Mad, Mad Wonderland and Bing! (23:30 in) Connor Delves about Cadel: Lungs on Legs (51:52 in) and Susan Harrison about Should I Still Be Doing This? (1:05:05 in)

In the first of The Recs' Edinburgh Fringe Specials, Steve Coats-Dennis chats to Michelle Collins about making her #EdFringe debut with a brand new solo show, Motorhome Marilyn, as well as discussing her return to EastEnders to play the iconic Cindy Beale, auditioning for Desperate Housewives, and much more. 

The Recs chats to actor Max Bowden about starring in the new musical Midnight Cowboy, about being one half of 'Ballum' and about life after EastEnders

The Recs' Steve Coats-Dennis goes backstage to chat with dancer Nikita Kuzmin about Strictly Come Dancing, Celebrity Big Brother and his huge debut solo tour, Midnight Dancer. Also his not being allowed to become a 'karate person'! This episode of The Recs Podcast is in association with Theatre and Tonic

The Recs editor Steve Coats-Dennis chats to Drag Race UK star Kate Butch about the show that shot her to fame, appearing on Celebrity Mastermind, being censored, her upcoming UK tour Wuthering Shites and much more...

Steve Coats-Dennis is joined by actor Noof Ousellam (Andor, Rebus, Bridgerton) to discuss the nominated films and performances of the 2025 Academy Awards. Expect strong opinions, some laughs, a lot of Scottish vowels and The Recs Podcast's first swear warning!

The Recs' editor Steve Coats-Dennis interviews Awkward Productions' Linus Karp and Joseph Martin about their first ever world tour, about their shows Gwyneth Goes Skiing and Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story, and get an exclusive about what their next project could be!

Exploring what's happening in the world of entertainment: The Recs' editor Steve Coats-Dennis interviews Rachel Leskovac about returning to the musical Spend Spend Spend 25 years after she appeared in the original production; chats to Laura Clare Horton about being owed thousands of box receipts in the Edinburgh Fringe Summerhall scandal debates the reasons that the musical Why Am I So Single? is closing so early in the West End with The Recs reviewer Iain The five theatre shows you should catch in December The five movies worth catching this month