“Have you got any idea what the f*** we should do?” Welcome to Pete Doherty’s chaotic new YouTube show
One of modern pop culture’s most unexpected redemption arcs, now in podcast form.
It seems somewhat ironic that the director of The Pete Doherty show - the ramshackle yet surprisingly wholesome new YouTube series fronted by the storied musician alongside comedian co-host Josh Pugh - came to the production fresh from a stint on 24 Hours In Police Custody.
For large stretches of his early career, The Libertines frontman would have been far more likely to pop up on the former programme. Yet now, clean for more than half a decade, living with his wife and daughter in rural France, and managing to hold down several bands simultaneously, Doherty’s pivot to beloved British institution is one of modern pop culture’s most unexpected redemption arcs.
The Pete Doherty Show acts as still-fairly-chaotic proof of his considerable charms. Filmed over five days, predominantly in Doherty’s former home of Margate where The Libertines’ recording studio The Albion Rooms still sits, it finds Doherty and Pugh interviewing guests from the sublime (a sing-song with old bandmate Carl Barat) to the ridiculous (Natalie Cassidy trying to play the Eastenders’ theme tune on a trumpet).
In between are clips of Doherty jumping in the Kent sea, messing about in the studio, and attempting to lead Pugh in a guerilla meditation session on the beachfront. Regular snippets of the first episode, featuring a guest spot from comedian Ivo Graham, are taken up with trying to figure out the question at the crux of the matter: what actually is this?
“That was just how it was edited, they weren't supposed to put those bits in,” Doherty pipes up, speaking to Shortlist from a Belfast dressing room where he’s currently on tour with his other reformed band, Babyshambles.
We want to make people laugh because, you know, you can't tickle yourself.
Pete Doherty
“It was just us desperately scrambling around for someone who might have the faintest idea what the fuck we were supposed to be doing.” Has he not harboured long-held dreams of hosting a TV show?
“Absolutely not, I was dragged in, kicking and screaming pretty much,” he jokes.
“I wasn’t really sure I wanted to be doing a podcast called The Pete Doherty Show, but I wanted to meet Josh because I’m a fan. It was the blind leading the blind,” he continues, an amused look forming, “quite literally!”
The conversation carries on for a few moments. “Just to add to the blind leading the blind thing,” Doherty clarifies, “Josh plays international men's football for the England blind team, just so you know.”
"It's just instinct"
It’s this sort of whimsical commitment to the bit that’s central to The Pete Doherty Show’s appeal. The loose framework allows its titular star to wander off down whatever trains of thought he might stumble upon, such as the truly insane tale of being held hostage in a Russian bunker that appears in Episode One. Doherty is clearly enjoying himself.
“Pete knows what he's doing, he's a born entertainer,” says Pugh. “It's just instinct, that stuff, and it's wanting to make people laugh - that’s the biggest thing. He’s got a glint in his eye that you can see. You can tell when he’s doing something, it's all just genuine.”
“We want to make people laugh because, you know, you can't tickle yourself,” the musician says sagely.
“It’s scientifically impossible. Hopefully that gets in the show somewhere because I said it about 11 times over the course of the week and I swear it got a laugh at some point. It's quite an interesting scientific fact though, that you cannot physically tickle yourself to the point of laughter…”
Doherty might not be able to tickle himself, but everyone else involved seems appropriately amused. In one social media preview clip, Doherty asks ‘disgraced’ ‘90s TV presenter Richard Bacon if he ever snorted cocaine off the Blue Peter tortoise. In another, he spends an interview with Sleaford Mods frontman Jason Williamson shouting random Mods lyrics at him, out of context.
“Jason comes over as a class warrior, with these angry, vicious lyrics about everyone in society, so I thought I'd like to shout out random lyrics of his, just shout ‘TIT RIFLE!’,” Doherty muses.
“He liked that, I think it put him off guard a bit because he's not actually the sort of bloke that goes around shouting ‘tit rifle’. He's just imitating some obnoxious bloke in the pub. But of course, when you first hear him on stage, he is just going ‘tit rifle!’”
The boys in the bands
At the end of each episode is a live performance from one of the artists on Doherty’s record label Strap Originals, filmed at Margate’s Dalby Cafe - the scene of the musician’s now-legendary big breakfast challenge.
“There was a Canadian bloke that did two full platters in a row,” Doherty tells us, “and [the cafe owner] bet two grand he wouldn't be able to do it because he was so sure that no man, especially a slightly-built fellow from Canada, would be able to wolf down 400 pounds of gluten.”
Specifically, for a long time now, I've noticed that there aren't any shows where you see me and Josh interviewing people
Pete Doherty
This time round, the treats are firmly in musical form, with a blistering set from Black Country duo Gans kicking the series off.
“We put that at the end so, even if people are fast-forwarding through, they've got to at least get there,” Pugh says. “You know like in a supermarket where they've got the bread and milk right at the back of the shop?”
A section of one episode is also dedicated to Doherty and Pugh trying to write the show’s theme tune: a scrappy, punky number that manages, impressively, to rhyme “voodoo” and “YouTube”.
“Even if I do say so myself, that’s a great lyric,” Doherty nods. “What you'd pay for that experience, people would absolutely love to do what I've done there,” Pugh grins of his drumming contribution.
There’s a genuine camaraderie between the pair that comes through even on two separate zoom screens. Quipping about the influence of Tony Hancock (“Pete Doherty’s Half Hour would have been a no-brainer title…”), Doherty clearly has comedy bones in him; a genuinely decent drummer, Pugh is visibly delighted to be around the show’s musical guests. There’s a haphazard charm and a mutual enjoyment to the whole production that’s the absolute antithesis of most polished YouTubers trying to sell their brand before people even know what it is. Instead, Pete and Josh don’t really know either, but they’re having a right old laugh figuring it out.
“Specifically, for a long time now, I've noticed that there aren't any shows where you see me and Josh interviewing people,” Doherty decides of the gap in the market he’s trying to fill.
“Yeah, there's been a real dearth of that over the last 20 years,” Pugh nods.
“I feel it's a beautiful template for something that could be a bit of a cult favourite,” the musician concludes.
From a big breakfast to The Big Breakfast, The Pete Doherty Show is bringing loose, lovable anarchy back to the chat show: it’s well worth raising a cuppa to.
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