Ed Gamble & Matthew Crosby on Radio X

Episode 340 – Permanent Space Between Christmas and New Year
Date: December 28, 2025

Main Theme & Purpose

This episode finds Ed Gamble and Matthew Crosby (aka Crunch & Crumble) grappling with the unique limbo of the week between Christmas and New Year—a time they dub as "the most pointless and aimless week of the year." The show wends through personal Christmas stories, listener messages, silly new gameshow concepts, and culminates in their annual review of the year (albums, films, TV, podcasts, gigs). The tone is typically loose, absurd, and charmingly self-deprecating, with extended riffs on tiredness, festive mishaps, and the questionable logic of their own routines.

Episode Structure & Key Segments

1. Radio Limbo: The Eternal Post-Christmas Fog

• Setting the Mood
  • The hosts joke about why they're live (“We could have pre-recorded this. Need a sleep, man. I need a rest.” —Ed, 09:15), noting how this week is like "the purge, but for doing sod all" (A, 08:00).
  • They muse on the existential weirdness of late December, where “calories don’t count and nothing you listen to shows up on your Spotify Wrapped.”

2. Post-Christmas Catch-up

• Fatigue & Festive Washed Outness
  • Matthew admits to feeling knackered:

    “I'm actively yawning during this bit. You're knackered, aren't you?” —Ed, 01:17

• Gifts & Family Fiascos
  • Ed recounts accidentally “Homering” himself with a Christmas ring gift for his wife, which ended up fitting him better (12:15).
  • Matthew’s haul: M&M-branded yellow socks (“Like an offender. A branded offender.” —Matthew, 13:27).
  • The perils of accidentally buying your partner gifts you like for yourself (“You bought me something you would like.” —Charlie via Matthew, 15:08).

3. Listener Emails & Quirky Segues

• Pitbull Concert Cosplay
  • Discussing fans wearing bald caps to look like Pitbull:

    “How would you feel as performers if fans started dressing up as you at your live gigs?” —Listener John G., 05:18

    • Ed: “I think I've got more of a look...You are just generic handsome.” —Ed to Matthew, 05:49
    • Matthew on lookalikes: “I get Buzz from Home Alone. You unfortunately get Elon Musk, which I think is really cruel.” —06:14

4. Christmas Disasters & Culinary Freestyling

• Festive Food Fails

  • Both hosts navigated illness or family mishaps, leading to unusual Christmas meals:

    “Our Christmas dinner was some burgers from the freezer, and a stir fry.” —Matthew, 19:52
    “I was also ill on Christmas Day…” —Ed, 20:56

  • Food influencer identity crisis:

    “I'm just gonna have to go on dry carrots from now on.” —Ed, 21:39

• Boxing Day Traditions (“Bangwangs”)

  • “Bangwang”—the show’s pet name for leftover food mashups.
  • The hosts invite listeners to share creative leftover uses (31:24).

5. Tangents, Toilet Humour & New TV Formats

• Toilet Broadcasting and Format Brainstorms
  • Fantasizing about a radio setup with “a plumbed-in toilet” (33:56) as Matthew’s stomach contents wage war.
  • The gameshow “Am I Pooping or Not?” (“It’s a fantastic idea...It’s five boxes, the opposite of Naked Attraction.” —Matthew, 35:00) with celebrities in “poo boxes” whose facial expressions must be analyzed by contestant panels.
  • Listener puns: “Mark Pooh Hatch,” “Big Nasty done a big nasty,” “Spray Burley,” etc. (39:39)

6. The Year in Review

• Top Albums

  • Ed’s Picks:

    • Crippling Alcoholism — Cam Girl
    • Architects — The Sky, The Earth, & All in Between
    • Viagra Boys — Viagra
    • Dinosaur Pile-Up — I Felt Better
    • Conjurer — Unself

      “There you go. There's my top five.” —Ed, 57:26

  • Matthew’s Picks:

    • Cheek Face — Middle Spoon
    • Martha — Standing Where It All Began (compilation)
    • Lemonheads — Love Chant
    • Dochi — Alligator Bites Never Heal (extended edition)
    • CMAT — Euro Country

  • Vin’s Picks (Spotify Rap):

    • Anthony Schmarrick — Universe
    • Radiohead — In Rainbows & A Moon Shaped Pool
    • Makoto Matsushita — First Light
    • Bow TAA — Stunt Doubles Pt. 2 (Indian electronica)

• Top TV

  • Ed: "Pluribus" (Vince Gilligan), “I watch a lot of TV.”
  • Matthew: “Traitors and Celeb Traitors,” “Righteous Gemstones,” “Will Kristen Bell Marry a Rabbi? Nobody Wants This,” “The Studio.”
  • Vin: "Adolescents," "Hip Hop Evolution," "Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy," "Gogglebox," "Peep Show."

• Top Films

  • Ed: “One Battle After Another, probably my favorite film from the last five years.” (60:22)
  • Matthew: “Suitropolis 2,” “Gabby’s Dollhouse movie,” “Snowman and the Snow Dog,” “Amy Carlson doc: Lover’s 1.”
  • Vin: “The Truman Show” (first viewing, “top of my list”—66:47), “Us” (Jordan Peele).

• Top Podcasts

  • Ed: “Panic World,” “Hyper Fixed,” “Search Engine” (ex-Reply All hosts), “If Books Could Kill.”
  • Discussion about the unintentional comedy of “Jimmy Carr on podcasts.”
  • Matthew: “Just anything Jimmy Carr comes on and tells people how the world works. Sign me up.” (66:40)

• Best Gigs

  • Ed: "Battlesnake," "Bloodstock Festival (Machine Head set)," "Clutch gig," "Cheek Face & Martha double-header," "LCD Soundsystem," "REM covers by Jason Narducci/Michael Shannon."
  • Matthew: Missed Nearly Daphne (yet again).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Christmas-New Year limbo:

  “A week when calories don’t count and nothing you listen to shows up on your Spotify Wrapped. It’s basically the purge – but for doing sod all.” —Ed, 08:00

• Realizing the show’s energy:

  “That interaction sums up our show and the energy on our show – a load of old waffle for five minutes before you eventually find a punchline and move on.” —Matthew, 07:29

• On gifting gone wrong:

  “I've absolutely homered myself. Bowling ball with my name card on.” —Ed, 13:02

• On dietary misadventures:

  “My Christmas dinner was burgers from the freezer, kid’s burgers, and a stir fry... Sometimes you just roll the dice on Christmas Day.” —Matthew, 19:52
  “By the time you sit down to a big pile of stuff…it’s just a bit much.” —Ed, 26:52

• Re: inventing 'Am I Pooping Or Not?'

  “It’s a big box with five doors. We open them up and, sure, we’ve got a few celebrities. You just see the face – it’s the opposite of Naked Attraction.” —Matthew, 35:05
  “Let’s open the Mark Pooh Hatch.” —Matthew riffing, 39:43

• Defining 'Bangwang':

  “Your Boxing Day leftovers, or this week’s leftovers, all the food you chuck together—you call it your bangwang.” —Ed, 31:26

• On the remarkable uselessness of some gadgets:

  “It’s not a portable charger. You do port it...” —Ed about Matthew’s phone charger saga, 47:41
  “You're just generic handsome, which is why you get a lot of lookalikes. Unfortunately, I get the other end—Buzz from Home Alone.” —Matthew, 06:08

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Time | Segment | |-------|--------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:06 | Opening theme, Radio X context, show intro | | 01:10 | Fatigue and festive limbo discussion | | 12:00 | Christmas gifts/gifting mishaps | | 17:30 | Emails segment (Pitbull concert question, lookalikes) | | 19:47 | Christmas illness/food gone awry | | 31:15 | “Bangwang” leftovers traditions | | 33:50 | Toilet humour/concept: ‘Am I Pooping or Not?’ | | 39:30 | Listener puns/celebrity pooping panel game | | 56:13 | On-air Year in Review (albums, films, TV, podcasts, gigs) | | 66:47 | Vin’s best-of-the-year, classic films | | 67:33 | Closing banter |

Tone, Energy, and Takeaways

The tone is trademark Gamble & Crosby: loose, meandering, and happy to chase tangents (“It always comes back to You Bet, doesn’t it?” —34:45). Tiredness, anti-climax, and the slightly deranged energy of post-festive torpor give the episode its uniquely relatable flavor. The playful, exasperated chemistry between the hosts is on full display, with personal Christmas mishaps yielding bigger existential laughs (“If anyone works for a charging company—wait, we can’t do that. That’s against the rules.” —Matthew & Ed, 52:43).

Listeners who haven’t tuned in can expect a rambling, self-effacing dose of comic relief—a mix of real life and nonsense, with year-end lists thrown in for good measure.

Endnote

Despite slow moments and some toilet-related detours, Episode 340 stands as both a post-festive survival guide and a joyful salute to mediocrity, mishap, and the small pleasures of the in-between week. For podcast regulars and Radio X’s "12 listeners of Thickness," it's as comfortingly daft as a Boxing Day Bangwang.