It was so popular last year that we decided to do it again! Join us this holiday season as we introduce you to twelve of our favourite podcasts in the 12 Days of Podmas.
The name’s Pod. Smersh Pod.
The brainchild of John Rain, a frankly ridiculously talented individual with fingers in many media pies, plus a lifelong fan of James Bond, Smersh Pod sprang into life as a rather affectionate – plus, in equal measure, irreverent – look at the series of films featuring Ian Fleming’s gentleman spy (or, if you prefer, the perpetually regenerating, borderline alcoholic inveterate shagger extraordinaire with a penchant for gadgetry, quips, casual violence, and improbably named women).
Rain started recording Smersh Pod back in 2017, and it was swiftly declared We Are Cult’s Podcast of the Week, which showed it was off to a flying start. Since then, its reputation and standing have continued to gather momentum, leading to it being picked earlier this year by no less than Esquire as one of the best comedy podcasts around. In fact, it comes as quite the surprise to discover that Smersh Pod has yet to feature in our 12 Days of Podmas. Still, the best things come to those who wait.
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Beginning as a run through of every Bond movie (as well as some Bond-adjacent flicks), with Rain being accompanied by “people who love, hate or aren’t really arsed about them”, Smersh Pod has since gone on to cast its net far wider and now encompasses other features – and even Columbo – within its increasingly broad remit. For good reason has it been described as being “The film podcast that does a bit of everything”. It certainly does it all rather splendidly, not to put too fine a point on it.
There truly is no brow too low for Smersh Pod, nor any barrel ever left unscraped in its gleeful voyage through the world of cinema (plus the odd morsel of telly). For every Superman: The Movie, It’s A Wonderful Life, or Star Trek: The Motion Picture, you will also get a Highlander II: The Quickening, Blackbird, or any number of Carry On films. Each episode of Smersh Pod has Rain joined by a guest (with some previous participants including the likes of Mark Gatiss, Mitch Benn, Mark O’Connell, and Samira Ahmed), and they deconstruct (sometimes without the ‘con’ part) their subject matter, in a frequently inventively profane, but always deeply amusing and entertaining manner.
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Smersh Pod has also wrapped its tentacles around another medium, with Rain giving us publications Thunderbook: The World of Bond According to Smersh Pod, Explodobook: The World of 80s Action Movies According to Smersh Pod, and the recently-published Superbook: The World of Superhero Movies According to Smersh Pod. Whether you should come across it in either podcast or printed form, Smersh Pod truly is a sheer delight, one which is definitely guaranteed to leave you shaken (with laughter), as well as stirred.
Smersh Pod is available from wherever you get your podcasts.