Cats & Other
Celebrities

The project

Chrissy Iley has spent decades getting the world's biggest names to say things they have never said anywhere else. Barbra Streisand. Bono. Hillary Clinton. For this series she found the question that gets past every rehearsed answer: tell me about the animal in your life.

Some guests are household names, others are cult heroes and brilliant outsiders you have not heard of yet. All of them have lived remarkable lives, and all of them are undone by a question about a pet. The animal is never really the subject. The human is. What comes out is warm, funny, occasionally outrageous, and always the last thing you expected.

The production originally came to Laughing Around for studio hire and video recording. The team had created a bespoke set for the series, so we temporarily transformed our podcast studio around the production, bringing their set into the space and adapting the room for the look and feel of the show.

From studio hire to full post-production

The episodes

Six full-length episodes, all recorded on the bespoke set in our Soho studio. Each one runs between thirty-five minutes and just under an hour.

37:34 Episode 1 Richard E Grant Answers to a Blue-Eyed Ragdoll Called Neo 38:09 Episode 2 Arya Goggin On SKINDRED's battles and Disney cats 36:51 Episode 3 Smokin Jo World's No.1, Flash the Chihuahua, and Grace Jones 50:43 Episode 4 Adil Ray OBE From Citizen Khan to broadcast legend, and the cat that finally won him over 52:43 Episode 5 Smutty Smiff A pioneer of Neo-Rockabilly on being discovered in 1977 53:14 Episode 6 Patricia Quinn Magenta in The Rocky Horror Show, still touring fifty years on

Short clips from the series

An evolving partnership

What started as a studio hire and filming brief has grown into an ongoing production relationship. Addi London leads the concept, branding and wider marketing of the series, while Laughing Around provides the studio and technical production behind the recordings.

With our team now handling the editing as well, we are able to support the project across more of the production process, from the shoot itself through to the final episode. The series is available on all podcast streaming platforms and YouTube.