Camp showbiz, odd stories, quick-fire queer banter.
Chewing the Cud turns celebrity news, TV-adjacent gossip, internet oddities, and nostalgia into fast, playful studio chat. Its pairings keep the mood loose, with LGBTQ+ humour, mock outrage, games, and gleeful tangents doing as much work as the headlines.
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Chewing the Cud is an LGBTQ+ entertainment chat show with a taste for the silly end of showbiz. Its basic ingredients are simple: a pair of presenters, a handful of celebrity or culture stories, and enough sideways conversation to make the running order feel permanently at risk. That looseness is the point. The show can start with Mel B, Kim Kardashian’s face shapewear, Adam Lambert, Trixie Mattel, Justin Bieber, Jaden Smith, or John Travolta, then wander into urination research, drink nostalgia, disappointing online purchases, caftans, grooming products, or whether muffins should have an oozy filling. It moves quickly. The jokes often come from mock offence, deliberate misunderstanding, camp exaggeration, and the presenters nudging each other into more ridiculous territory. Recent episodes feature Lee Robertson and Mike Bennion-Rowe as a lively pairing, with showbiz items passed back and forth between interruptions and personal tangents. Other excerpts show River Scott, Mickey Taylor, Mist Kinsman, and Nick Charles fitting into the same format of queer studio chat, games, social-media mentions, and celebrity commentary. The show has a distinctly light-entertainment texture: part magazine segment, part podcast hangout, part friends catching each other out on camera. It is not aiming for deep critical analysis of television or film. It is more interested in the odd, camp, memorable detail that makes a story worth retelling. A discussion of a revamped musical can sit comfortably beside a joke about ageing or a game of the week. A celebrity headline can become an argument about supermarket outfits, snack branding, or the proper nature of a sing-along screening. That breadth gives Chewing the Cud its personality. It feels queer, quick, and deliberately unserious, with enough showbiz structure to keep each episode moving and enough looseness to make the detours the main event. The best fit is a listener who enjoys celebrity chatter but wants it filtered through LGBTQ+ humour, friendly needling, and a refusal to treat pop culture as precious.
Made for: For listeners who enjoy LGBTQ+ entertainment chat, celebrity gossip, drag culture, theatre snippets, and odd internet stories with a teasing studio rhythm. It especially suits fans of light entertainment rather than formal criticism.
What sets it apart: Chewing the Cud stands apart through its showbiz-chat format, where showbiz headlines are only the starting point. The real texture comes from chemistry, games, camp digressions, and comic arguments over tiny pop-culture details.
Weekly LGBTQ+ TV show/podcast. 🏳️🌈📺 🎧 Showbiz, trends & chat with a guest. Made in Manchester, shown in Brighton, Belfast, Sheffield & Kent on Freeview 7 and VirginMedia 157.
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Chewing the Cud filters celebrity news through queer wit, friendly disagreement and comic detours into everyday life.
Chewing the Cud turns showbiz headlines and odd internet finds into a running comic exchange between Mike Benyon-Rowe, Lee Robertson and occasional guest hosts.
Celebrity headlines enter; a caftan, a dry muffin and Chris Hemsworth leave with your attention.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A bladder fact, 90s sweets and celebrity chat give Lee and Mike plenty to argue about.
Lee Robertson starts by asking how long it takes to wee, and Mike Bennion-Rowe brings in the law of urination. Soon they are arguing over the flavour of a Breezer and talking about 90s sweets. The return of Opal Fruits branding sets off another exchange about changing names.
Lee's printed-sequin caftan gives the hosts plenty to tease before a turn to learning for free.
Mike Benion-Rowe and Lee Robertson move from showbiz news to a clothing order that did not quite deliver. Dame Helen Mirren comes up early, but the caftan story gives the pair more to play with: Lee expected sequins and got pictures of sequins printed on the fabric.
An awkward pregnancy question and pricey beard oil give Mike and Lee plenty to riff on.
Mike Benyon-Rowe has a story about asking a woman when she was due, then discovering she was not pregnant. It is the sort of mistake that can make a room go quiet, and he and Lee Robertson get comic mileage out of the discomfort.
Mike and Nick turn a list of famous people reaching 40 into age jokes and candid actor-crush banter.
Mike Benyon-Rowe's 40th year gives guest host Nick Charles a list to play with: famous people reaching the same age. Mike takes the age jokes in stride, though Nick has trouble accepting that Henry Cavill is turning 40.
TV fandom, argued out loud.
Genre fandom, interviews, reviews, and convention energy.
Geek reactions with franchise memory.
Fast recaps for restless genre fans.
Stargate recap with jokes, grief, and receipts.
This episode features an ad for AutoCamp before transitioning into the show's regular LGBTQ+ TV discussion with hosts and a guest.
Hosts Missed Kinsman and Mike Benyon-Rowe banter about TikTok, share celebrity showbiz news about Justin Bieber and Jaden Smith, and tease upcoming segments including a game.
The hosts banter about gnomes, introduce showbiz news for Pride Month, and tease a map story, a Father's Day segment, and a game.
Chewing the Cud with Mike Benyon-Rowe and Nick Charles moves from a bleach-and-Asda-bag hair disaster to the Prime drink shortage and Wakey Wines price-gouging.
Lee Robertson and Mike Bennion-Rowe open with Georgia Tech’s “law of urination,” which says mammals over three kilograms usually empty their bladders in about 21 seconds.
Lee Robertson discusses Dame Helen Mirren’s Netflix series "The Thursday Night Murder Club" and her advice that tomato flowers should be "tremble[d]" or gently "finger[ed]." Mike Benion-Rowe then shifts to Ollie Bird, a 17-year-old from Cumbria who saved over £1,000 by learning to drive through YouTube and go-karting.
A groom said “I take thee Sarah” at the altar, then blamed his fiancée’s middle name.
Kim Jong-un reportedly got soaked while watching tourists use North Korea's new water park.
River Scott and Mickey Taylor discuss a revamped musical, play a game, and share showbiz news including Adam Lambert's casting in Jesus Christ Superstar.