9/9 - Christmas in the Vicarage

Olly heads to St Andrew’s Church, Islington, to meet Reverend Jessica Swift, an inner-city vicar managing a diverse congregation; some reliant on food banks, others living in million-pound homes.

As she explains, for the modern-day parish clergy, the Christmas season is as much about meetings and bookkeeping as it is mistletoe and wine.

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Meanwhile, it’s Christmasssss!... well, nearly: so time is running out for our charity single, ‘The Sounds of Christmas’, to crack the UK festive Top 40. In this week’s Zeitgeist, Ollie Peart reveals the surprise celebrity friends who’ve added their weight to the campaign, whilst a generous Mann-fan blows our fundraising target out of the water.

Elsewhere, in our very festive Foxhole, Alix Fox welcomes Ollie and Olly to sample some Lovehoney crackers, play a round of ‘Bango’, and a memorable game of ‘What’s That Smell?’ You’ll never look at a bag of popcorn in the same way again.

Finally, our Record of the Week is a certain song by Podcast All-Stars called ‘The Sounds of Christmas’. You can and should support Samuel’s Charity by buying it now.

And HERE’s the video - lip-synched by Mannfans from around the world:

We’ll be back in the first week of January (with our annual How To Be A Dad episode) - but, until then, Happy Holidays to all Mann-fans, everywhere!

3/9 - Mr Panto

Hollywood stars, regional theatres and slapstick comedy - how to make the perfect Panto 

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Eric Potts and John Thomson in Aladdin at the Manchester Opera House

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Olly Mann and Eric Potts

Pantomime: the most peculiarly British of festive entertainments.

Each year, we Brits gather the family together to watch the same old stories. To cheer at the hero, hiss at the baddies, and watch a bloke in drag doing the same call-and-response routines that have enraptured crowds since the days of music hall. Why? 

Eric Potts is a maestro of the genre. As head writer for First Family Entertainments, he churns out ten panto scripts per year, and even finds time to play the Dame in one of them (this year, Aladdin in Manchester)

In this insightful interview with Olly, he explains why super-producers have duopolized the industry, how they persuade Hollywood stars to come over and tread the boards (it’s not just the money...), and why the key to panto success is not tradition or nostalgia - but ADVENTURE.

(Oh Yes It Is!)

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Also this week: Ollie Peart uses his Instagram account as an experiment in automation, and, after an extended Super Mario Run session, offers up one-handed gaming to The Zeitgeist. Plus, why the pen-and-paper notebook just might be a thing of the past.

And - jingle your balls! - Alix Fox finishes us off with a festive Foxhole for all the Modern Mann family. You’ll learn about ‘the Smith’s Salt N Shake of condoms’, why you should ‘get lusty with leftovers’, and how ‘sex Bisto’ might change your bedroom in a very special XXXmas edition of Alix’s favourite party game, ‘Tip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah!’. The Foxhole is proudly sponsored by our friends at MyCondom.Com - use the discount code ‘FOXHOLE’ to get 15% OFF at Checkout.

Finally, Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas without a good sing-a-long, so do wrap your ears around our song of the week, ‘Honest’, by Martha Gunn. 

And remember, in this time of goodwill to all Mann, that we are always thrilled to receive your monies in exchange for this humble podcast offering. If you’d like to donate, we’d be ever so grateful, guv. Just click Beer Money.

Merry Christmas one and all - we’ll see you straight after the holidays, for our season finale!

1/9 - Being Santa Claus

It's beginning to sound a lot like Christmas.

What's it like being Santa Claus? In our Christmas Spectacular episode, Olly meets actor Nigel Harvey, who makes a living playing Father Christmas all year round - and hears about the highs and lows of life inside the iconic red-and-white outfit. 

Meanwhile, at the invitation of listener Paul from delicious ice cream cafe Cloud 9, the rest of the team have decamped to Brighton, where Ollie Peart considers Tim Peake's Christmas in space, and Alix Fox presents us with her Christmas-wrapped selection of the year's best sex toys*. Ding dong!

Olly meets Nigel Harvey, aka Celebrity Santa

The Modern Mann team decamp to Brighton. It's Winter, you know. Mum always says to bring your scarf, and your vibrator.

Alix, OIlie, and Ollie sample a delicious Cloud 9 cake with our ACTUAL FACES on it!

That Cloud 9 Manncake in all its glory. #Manncake

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* In case you're keen to try them out, Alix's 2015 pick of the sex toys (SPOILER ALERT!) were: The Womaniser 'sucking' clitoral stimulator from Sh! emporium; The Lester heat-up vibrator by Svakom; The Motorhead Ace of Spades vibrator from Lovehoney, and fizzy cola-flavoured condoms by Pasante. 

It's a hell of a show, but we've still got one more episode left in us before this series is done - we'll see you for the 'season finale' - when else, but next Tuesday. 

Have a very, very happy Christmas. And, if Santa ends up giving you loads of money and you don't know what to do with it, do consider buying us a beer, won't you? Thanks.