According to Metro, Matt Lucas has launched a twice-weekly podcast called *Howler* with former footballer and talkSPORT presenter Jason Cundy, inviting famous faces to revisit their most embarrassing career mistakes.

The show promises to revisit football's most spectacular failures, from dressing-room disasters to what its creators describe as 'infamous career blunders'.

The first episode, released Tuesday, November 10, features former Arsenal and England goalkeeper David Seaman reflecting on a disagreement with teammate Patrick Vieira and some questionable fashion choices.

While the guest list is currently restricted to retired footballers, the timing of the launch is certainly interesting given the headlines surrounding Lucas's longtime collaborator.

The podcast arrived just days before David Walliams, Lucas's comedy partner of more than two decades, became embroiled in a major controversy.

On Tuesday, a joint investigation by The Guardian and ITV News published allegations that Walliams had used his celebrity status to pursue and allegedly exploit young women; he has vehemently denied wrongdoing, saying he is 'not a sexual predator' and has 'not broken the law'.

Metro notes there is no suggestion Lucas was aware of Walliams's alleged conduct, and Walliams is not being considered as a guest, since *Howler* has announced only football-related bookings.

Meanwhile, Jonathan Ross said in a statement reported by the BBC that he was 'horrified' by the allegations against Walliams and the rape conviction of Russell Brand, and called his own 2004 awards-show joke about Walliams 'tasteless'.

According to Metro, upcoming *Howler* guests include Steve Bruce, Lee Dixon, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Fara Williams and Emmanuel Petit.

The main podcast drops every Tuesday, while a Thursday companion show, rather cheekily titled *No Balls Allowed*, invites guests to discuss absolutely anything except football.

TalkSPORT's head of podcasts, Abi Paterson, said Lucas and Cundy possess a natural ability to encourage guests to revisit uncomfortable memories without feeling judged, explaining that 'there's a fine line between laughing at someone and laughing with them, and Matt and Jason hit that sweet spot effortlessly'.

The Evening Standard reports that Lucas and Walliams met in 1990 at the National Youth Theatre and launched *Little Britain* on the BBC between 2003 and 2006, later collaborating on the airport mockumentary *Come Fly With Me* before ending their professional partnership in 2011.

According to the Standard, their friendship became strained during the Little Britain Live tour in 2005 and their 2007 Australia tour, with Lucas's autobiography describing backstage screaming matches; they reconciled after their mutual friend Dale Winton died in 2018 and reunited publicly in 2019.

According to Metro, *Howler* is available on YouTube, the talkSPORT app and major podcast platforms, with new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday.

For now, the show is sticking to misplaced passes, embarrassing changing-room encounters and the occasional disastrous haircut, rather than the far more serious questions currently confronting Lucas's former comedy partner.

The stakes for the wider comedy scene are considerable: the BBC has removed *Little Britain* from iPlayer while calling the allegations against Walliams serious, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told the BBC the claims were the 'latest in a long line of reported abuses of power' in the media, and Downing Street called the allegations 'deeply troubling'.

Metro has contacted representatives of Matt Lucas for comment.