Ramadan, junta and teacups – the Keys-Gray podcast is comedy gold
Ramadan, junta and teacups – the Keys-Gray podcast is comedy gold
Thom GibbsTue, August 18, 2026 at 12:48 PM UTC
0
Richard Keys pops the cork on his new podcast venture with broadcasting partner of 33 years, Andy Gray
If you have found recent additions to the Alan Partridge canon a little patchy then please allow me to introduce the new podcast starring Richard Keys. Keys and Gray Unleashed launched on Monday with a 35-minute episode and it is unironically one of the funniest things I have watched all year. Often on purpose.The sheer density of laugh-out-loud moments in the opening five minutes is glorious compared with the usual tedious openings of podcasts. Not for Keys faux-humble bonhomies or “like and subscribe” drivel, instead he fluffs his intro and immediately switches into an unnecessarily serious voice to draw attention to the “essential” bottle of champagne between him and his old friend Andy.He pronounces the name of the restaurant they are filming from with affected Gallic heartiness then freewheels into a rant about the state of modern teacups. Dizzying stuff from a master of the art. Recorded in the shadows of Tower Bridge outside the most 1990s restaurant imaginable, Le Pont de la Tour, Keys and Gray Unleashed is manna from heaven for Keys aficionados.
Devotees of his blog, or listeners to the industry-leading Keysology specialists on the Football Clichés podcast, will recognise his tone. Keys is a confident man with some axes to grind, let us leave it at that.You do not his modern body of work to enjoy his idiosyncrasies. The World Cup of 1978 is mentioned, which gives Keys a chance to pronounce “junta” with affricative relish. He says he “knew exactly what to expect” from living in Qatar, then says Ramadan was “a shock” 10 seconds later.He jokes that Donald Trump may have altered his foreign policy if he had consulted Keys and Gray first while casually and silently uncorking a bottle of champagne. Gray, phasers set to pundit at all times, offers: “When you’re opening a bottle of champagne, I think there should be a small sound.”There is something quite “slow TV” about it. I could quite happily put it on and doze off, perhaps because of the accumulated days I spent in Keys and Gray’s company in my youth. Forget a meditation app, give me a familiar voice yammering on about wonderful lunches and how Sky changed football.
Gray and Keys in their Sky Sports’ heyday with Jamie Redknapp, for whom Keys retains little affection, and Ruud Gullit - Christopher Lee/Getty images
But the overwhelming Partridge of it all is the defining characteristic. Let us play a quick game of Richard or Alan, with the following four quotes:“I had breakfast with Eamonn Holmes and the Daily Mail said I was laughing at his injury. No, I was laughing at his joke.”“I’ve got about four group chats on my phone.”“I’m often asked by people – you don’t have a lot of time for the Redknapps, do you? And the answer is… no.”“I’m going back to the British Hair Clinic for added treatment.”“I didn’t want to besmirch the memory of what I’d seen in Qatar.”The answers: entirely Richard.As a man 27 years his junior with some lingering aspirations to dress fashionably, it is alarming to note how easily I could replicate Keys’ current Peter Jones-coded look (chinos, loose T-shirt and matching baseball cap) with items from my own wardrobe. Truly, the game has gone. As have the luminous blazers.
Advertisement
Keys and Gray are back on familiar territory both geographically and in subject matter
No room for traditional neutrality either from a career presenter, in its place some genuinely punchy punditry. “England will win nothing with that clown in goal,” says Keys of Jordan Pickford. That certainly would have altered the tone on the cosy BBC Sport sofa in Salford this summer.
There is a less energetic final section with some vague Premier League predictions, which remind you how much football broadcasting has changed in the 15 years since Keys and Gray were regularly on British screens. Personally I would steer away from this and lean into the easy teasing of Keys towards Gray and vice versa. Podcasts endure when the central relationship is strong, and I am more interested in Keys and Gray aimlessly shooting the breeze over Laurent-Perrier than where either of them think Brighton will finish in the Premier League.
Gray in perpetual pundit mode
Twice a week in a studio with guests is the likely format from here, but Keys recognises the need to change. “The pre-show and post-show is over,” he tells me. “I don’t think people are that interested any more in what we did and that hurts me to say.” There are plans for live watchalongs à la Mark Goldbridge for which I may cancel social engagements.Some will never forgive Keys and Gray for their misogynistic remarks, revealed by a series of leaked videos in 2011, which led to their departures from Sky Sports. Others may feel they were punished and are now ready for rehabilitation. Who gets to be forgiven? Surely almost everyone, for misdeeds at work at least, but some may reach the point quicker than others.There will always be a vocal constituency appalled by Keys in particular and quick to mock everything he does, but that view may be softening. At one point a passing member of the public walks past and says: “The boys are back in town.” If he is a plant it is a great bit of stagecraft.Keys now gives the impression of truly not caring what anyone thinks, which makes for entertaining viewing. Whether you find him odious or charming he is compelling, far more now than in his Premier League pomp. He could also be on the verge of a surprisingly triumphant final act.
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
