The hugely successful podcast My Dad Wrote A Porno is to end in December after seven years, 440million downloads and two sell-out tours. There will be three more episodes of the podcast before it ends in December, reports the BBC.
The sexually explicit comedy podcast features Jamie Morton reading and deconstructing the bizarre amateur erotic fiction penned by his father, known by his pen name Rocky Flintstone, while joined by friends James Cooper and Alice Levine.
It is based on Morton’s father’s self-published Belinda Blinked e-books about the exploits of Belinda Blumenthal, an international sales director at a UK-based pots and pans business and was turned into an HBO TV special in the US.
Speaking in 2019, Cooper said: “We’ve got listeners in Korea, and Saudi Arabia. I don’t know who is listening over there. We found out there’s a small but dedicated audience in the Vatican City, which is hilarious. There’s pockets of listeners all over the place. We keep getting word that South Africa has a listenership too.”
Referring to the nickname used by dedicated fans of the podcast, Cooper added: “The Vatican City is hilarious, I hope the Pope is an avid Belinker!”
Cooper said he was surprised about the podcast’s success in the US, because “podcasting is massive over there” and they have many podcast networks, so they “weren’t sure we’d ever break through in any significant way”.
On the sexually explicit theme of the podcast and its response Stateside, he said: “I think what’s landed there, as far as the prudish stuff, it’s because we’re reading it in British accents, that really helps.
“And sometimes, for me anyway, you kind of forget that it’s about sex because there’s so much else going on.
“There’s some really graphic stuff in there, but it’s softened by our accents and everything else that’s going on, because it’s so absurd. You get over the fact that it’s rude.”
Cooper said that fans consider the podcast to be a “nice escape” from the constant news agenda.
He said: “We do try and steer clear of that stuff deliberately. Not that it doesn’t interest us outside of that, but we just like the world of Belinda Blinked to be an escape, an oasis from everything that’s going on outside.
“It’s just 40 to 45 minutes a week where you don’t have to worry about anything else and you just listen to porn, finally!”
Speaking to BBC News, the friends said now "felt like the right time" to bring the podcast series to a close and they "wanted to go out on a high", but promised "it's not the end of the brand".
Alice Levine said: "We were all pretty emotional" recording the final episode, "but it was satisfying to feel we'd done it proud".
The final episode will feature an exclusive interview with author Rocky
Alice said there is "something very exciting in the works. If people are sad about today's news, hopefully they'll be buoyed by this", with the trio saying an announcement will be coming after Christmas.
Flintstone will continue to write more of his niche work.
In a statement the podcasters said: "This show has been the backbone of our lives for the past eight years. We've had new jobs, new homes, break ups, breakdowns and a truck load of Chilean Chardonnay."
