VYS0055 | Merry ChristMups! - The Muppet Christmas Carol - Vayse to Face with Phil Ristaino: Saturnalia 2025

Vayse — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 19:30:00 +0100

VYS0055 | Merry ChristMups! - The Muppet Christmas Carol - Vayse to Face with Phil Ristaino: Saturnalia 2025 - Show Notes

God help us, every one! 'Tis the season of good will to all creatures and, even better, that jolly old elf, Phil Ristaino, returns to Vayse after an absence of only 4 episodes for an urgent meeting about the Muppet Christmas Carol, a film which he had never seen before researching for the episode!

With Phil's help and encouragement Hine and Buckley joyously delve into a film which has been a Vayse favourite for over 3 decades, discussing the sad and sudden demise of the genius that was Jim Henson, the connections between the muppets and spirituality, why the Muppet Christmas Carol is one of the best Christmas movies, if not one of the best movies ever made, how the spirit of Jim Henson visited his successor to the voice of Kermit... and how the Muppets got the best performance of his career out of Michael Caine (recorded 4 December 2025).

The Muppet Christmas Carol

Christmas Recommendations

Buckley's Final Question

Vayse online

Special Guest: Phil Ristaino.

VYS0046 | Ding Dong Merrily On High Strangeness - Vayse to Face to Face with Stephanie Quick and AP Strange: Christmas 2024

Vayse — Wed, 18 Dec 2024 19:30:00 +0100

VYS0046 | Ding Dong Merrily On High Strangeness - Vayse to Face to Face with Stephanie Quick and AP Strange: Christmas 2024 - Show Notes

Ho, ho, holy shit that's another year gone and Christmas is here again! To mark the ever-increasing speed at which the years fly past in a blur of spiralling anxiety and gathering doom, Hine and Buckley invite two of the nicest, wisest and funniest people in Weirdosphere, Stephanie Quick and AP Strange, to help them celebrate away the winter blues.

Drawing on the British tradition of telling ghost stories at Christmas, Hine, Buckley, Strange and Quick (also the title of the upcoming Vayse autobiography) work their way around the cardinal points, each telling a ghost story from the place in which they were born: the North and South of England and the East Coast and West Coast of the US. There are tales of a murderous jester who stalks the corridors of a Cumbrian castle to this day; a red haired woman who haunting a pirate-built cottage in New England; a missing bride at a Christmas wedding in a very haunted stately home in Hampshire; and a revolutionary Californian abolitionist who still throws nuts from trees over 120 years after her death... and they discuss three lesser known British winter traditions: Raymond Briggs' Snowman, ignoring Thanksgiving and moaning about the weather... (recorded 8 December 2024)

Thanks to AP and Steph for preparing the stories and thanks to Keith for another year of show notes - follow the man on Blue Sky: @peakflow.bsky.social.

Merry Christmas everyone, thanks for listening!

Steph Quick online

Ghost Dog is a Mystery Box (Steph’s blog)
Steph on YouTube
Steph on Instagram
Steph on Facebook
Steph on Bluesky

AP Strange online

AP Strange's Weird Writings
The AP Strange Show podcast
AP on YouTube
AP on Instagram
AP on Bluesky

Hine’s intro

A Visit from St. Nicholas - All Poetry
VYS0013 | A Vayse-man Came Travelling - Yule 2022
VYS0028 | Psychic Jizz - Vayse to Face with Stephanie Quick
VYS0037 | Elvis with a Flaming Sword - Vayse to Face with AP Strange

A short history of the Christmas ghost story

Yule - Wikipedia
A Christmas Carol - Wikipedia
The Pickwick Papers
The Story Of The Goblins Who Stole A Sexton (BBC Radio Drama) - Archive.org
A Ghost Story for Christmas (BBC anthology series) - Wikipedia
M.R. James - Wikipedia
Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad - Wikipedia
Whistle And I'll Come To You - Dream Sequence (BBC Omnibus 1968) - YouTube