Matt Forde: A Fireside Chat with William Crawley

This event involves approximately a 20-minute stand up set followed by a 40-minute Fireside Chat with the BBC’s William Crawley. Matt has toured multiple shows nationwide including, Clowns To The Left of Me, Jokers To The Right in 2022, Inside No. 10 in 2023 and most recently, Matt Forde: The End of an Era Tour in 2024.

Matt’s hit live podcast The Political Party transferred to the West End’s Duchess Theatre in 2021 after over 70 sold out shows at Westminster’s The Other Palace, for a twice extended fortnightly residency continuing into 2024. Matt has hosted some of politics’ most powerful figures on the podcast, including Sir Keir Starmer, Nicola Sturgeon, Tony Blair, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Angela Rayner, Nigel Farage and Gordon Brown, to name just a few.

He has received numerous nominations from award bodies including the British Podcast Awards and Chortle Awards and the show is regularly highlighted as a top podcast pick in the press.

Matt was one of the main writers and voice artists behind the revival of hit sketch series Spitting Image (BritBox/ITV), providing the voices of Boris Johnson, Sir Keir Starmer and Donald Trump among others. The show ran for two series before being adapted for a live stage show (Spitting Image Live: Idiots Assemble) co-created by Matt and Al Murray, originally at the Birmingham Rep before transferring for an extended run in London’s West End.

Matt hosted four series of Unspun with Matt Forde on Dave, receiving several nominations at the Broadcast Digital Awards, and has numerous other broadcast credits including: Have I Got News For You (BBC One), The Royal Variety Performance (ITV), Mock The Week (BBC Two), 8 out of 10 Cats (Channel 4), Question Time (BBC One), This Week (BBC One), Newsnight (BBC Two) and Daily Politics (BBC Two).

In 2019 alone, Matt hosted the Alternative News Desk for Channel 4’s election night coverage, chaired the One Nation Conservative leadership hustings and debated Britain’s withdrawal from the EU with Tony Blair for the Institute of Global Change.

Matt is the host of Absolute Radio’s Saturday afternoon Rock ‘n’ Roll Football alongside co-host Matt Dyson. He is also the co-host of Wondery’s flagship British Podcast Award-winning British Scandal alongside Alice Levine.

Matt’s first book Politically Homeless was listed by The Sunday Times as one the Best Political Books of 2020.

William Crawley presents Talkback on BBC Radio Ulster, and Sunday on BBC Radio 4, and won the Speech Broadcaster of the Year Gold Award in the Irish broadcasting awards 2022 and 2024. On TV, he has written and presented more than 30 documentaries on subjects ranging from politics and history to science and religion, winning RTS Awards for natural history broadcasting, and was elected a Member of the Royal Irish Academy for contributions to journalism.

Part of Imagine! Belfast Festival of Ideas & Politics>>