My Dad Wrote a Porno podcast finally reaches its climax

“All bad porn must come to an end,” says Jamie Morton in the penultimate episode of My Dad Wrote a Porno, the podcast built around his father’s late-blooming career as a writer of substandard smut. The hit series, which launched in 2015, has been downloaded 430mn times and spent much of its existence near the top of the podcast charts.

During this time, the formula has remained unchanged: in each episode, Morton reads out extracts of his dad’s erotica, self-published under the nom de plume Rocky Flintstone, charting the adventures of Belinda Blumenthal, a travelling pots and pans saleswoman who has a lot of sex in a lot of unusual places (highlight: in a garden maze while handcuffed to a trellis). As Morton reads, his two best friends, former Radio 1 presenter Alice Levine and writer and producer James Cooper, provide gleefully horrified commentary.

In the series’ final throes of ecstasy, there is still comedy gold in Flintstone’s mangled prose and in his tenuous grasp of human anatomy. The last two episodes yield a marriage proposal, a period of reflection around a campfire and an X-rated farewell dinner during which “goosepimples flooded [Belinda’s] skin like a non-contagious type of chickenpox” and her genitals began “whistling like a kettle”. As ever, practical questions abound: how exactly do genitals whistle? And can a woman really be hit in the eye by her own breasts?

Much has changed since the series was launched — media giants including Amazon, Spotify and the BBC have muscled in on the podcasting game and the market is impossibly crowded. Would My Dad Wrote a Porno have the same impact were it launched today? Possibly not. Nonetheless, Morton, Levine and Cooper have shown the value of building a listening community — Elijah Wood, Michael Sheen and Emma Thompson are among the celebrity listeners to have appeared on their bonus “Footnotes” episodes.

They have also provided a lesson in how to turn a simple idea into a money-spinning juggernaut, taking in not only podcasts but books, live shows (they have played London’s Royal Albert Hall and Sydney Opera House) and an HBO TV special. Their series has shown us that it is not only true-crime podcasts that go stratospheric; done right, comedy is similarly a force to be reckoned with.

At the core of the series, besides the obvious filth, is the chemistry of the three presenters and the affection, rather than disdain, with which they poke fun at Morton’s father. Next week, the series will sign off with a bonus episode featuring a conversation with Rocky Flintstone himself — it will be the first time anyone has heard him speak. But for now, the trio sign off by thanking the “loyal gang of perverts” who have made My Dad Wrote a Porno what it is: a dirty little secret beloved by millions.

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