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Join mates Johnny Vaughan and Gavin Woods as they uncover the jaw-dropping stories of history’s boldest icons and unsung heroes. From outrageous escapades to ingenious breakthroughs, every episode is packed with legendary tales you didn’t learn in school (but wish you had). With sharp wit and a shared sense of curiosity, Johnny and Gav turn history into a rollercoaster of laughs and surprises. Whether it’s daring escapes, bizarre inventions, or the quirky habits of history’s game-changers, you’ll be hooked on their unique take on the past. Perfect for history buffs, comedy lovers, and anyone who enjoys a cracking good story, Bloomin’ Legends is your new favourite podcast for unforgettable adventures through time. Get in touch with @BloominLegends on tik tok & Instagram. For advertising opportunities on this podcast, email: GlobalStudiosSales@global.com Bloomin' Legends is a Global Production, produced by Ben Fairclough.
- 120 - The Extra Legendary Bit: The Titanic's Food System
40,000 eggs. 75,000lb of fresh meat. One Atlantic crossing.
After our Titanic episode, listener Bazil sent in the stat Johnny and Gav have been craving, and it sends The Extra Legendary Bit straight down a rabbit hole of floating farmyards, sub-zero labyrinths and the great mystery of "long egg".
What you'll hear in this episode:
🥚 40,000 eggs, one crossing – the jaw-dropping shopping list behind a single Titanic voyage
❄️ The hidden sub-zero labyrinth – the steam-driven cooling plant, brine-filled pipes and separate meat, dairy and produce rooms that kept an egg tasting fresh on day seven 🐄 When ships carried the farm – why mid-19th century steamships packed live cows, sheep and poultry into deck pens and slaughtered them mid-voyage
🍳 The mystery of "long egg" – Johnny's former-caterer knowledge gets fully unleashed, plus a heated debate about where veal really came from
👁️ Cullen's all-seeing eye – the South African farmer who left his glass eye on a fence post to watch his workers… then spied on them through binoculars from over a ridge
If you love history, the Titanic and comedy, this episode of Bloomin' Legends is for you.
Got a story that can top this week's madness?
📩 Send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we'll decide if it's Bloomin' Legendary or just brilliantly bonkers
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legends is a Global production Produced by Ben Fairclough
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Sun, 27 Sep 2026 - 13min - 119 - Blackbeard: The Most Feared Pirate in History
He is the most famous pirate who has ever lived. The template for every terrifying pirate since. And he managed all of it in roughly two years.
He braided his enormous beard, tied it with ribbons, and wore slow-burning fuses under his hat so his head was permanently wreathed in smoke. He wore six pistols across his chest, plus cutlasses and knives. And it worked so well that merchant crews frequently just surrendered without a fight.
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods take on Blackbeard - and discover that for the most famous pirate in history, we know remarkably little about him, including his actual name.
What You'll Hear in This Episode:
🔥 The burning beard – the most committed piece of personal branding in maritime history. Braids, ribbons, and lit fuses under the hat so he appeared through his own smoke
🔫 Six pistols, worn as a statement – three pairs across the chest, cutlasses and knives on top, and a habit of using the pistol handle as a bludgeon once he'd fired it
🧠 Fear instead of violence – Blackbeard favoured psychological warfare over fighting, which was also good business. A ship captured intact was worth far more than one you'd shot to pieces
🏴 The flag – forget the standard skull and crossbones. Blackbeard's flag was something else entirely, and Johnny and Gav get into pirate branding, KFC versus Chicken Cottage, and why some pirate flags simply didn't work
💊 He blockaded Charleston for a chest of medicine – held an entire harbour hostage, took prominent locals prisoner, and threatened to kill one person an hour. Not for gold. For medicine
🏴☠️ Nobody knows who he was – Teach, Thatch, Thack, Thatche. Possibly Bristol, possibly Jamaica. The running joke is that his first act of piracy was stealing his own biography
⚔️ It took 20 cutlass wounds and 5 gunshots to finish him – and legend claims his headless body swam around the ship three times
If you love pirate history, maritime legends, eccentric characters and unbelievable true stories, this episode of Bloomin' Legends is for you.
Got a legend you want us to cover?
📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legends is a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Wed, 23 Sep 2026 - 48min - 118 - The Extra Legendary Bit: Mafia Punishments, Wrestling Moves & a Chindit in Burma
The mafia didn't just kill people. They made the punishment fit the crime, and Johnny and Gav have worked out exactly how the poetic justice system operated. Say the boss has his head up his own arse and you'll be found in a very literal state.
The Extra Legendary Bit is where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods dive into your messages and uncover the gloriously unhinged tales sent in by the Bloomin' Legends nation.
What You'll Hear in This Episode:
🔪 Mafia punishments that fit the crime – Johnny and Gav on the grimly poetic logic of mob justice, and the absurdity of the police having a boss on CCTV with a chainsaw, boasting about it in a deli, and still only being able to get him on tax
🤼 The greatest signature move in wrestling – Johnny makes the case for Jeff Hardy's Swanton Bomb, the only combat move in history built around using your own back as a weapon, and wonders what would happen if you tried it in a pub
🚚 A trucker's friend – Mark from Nottingham is working through the whole back catalogue on the Nottingham to Ipswich run, and is off to Angola to report back from the field
🌏 Great Uncle Albert, an original Chindit – James nominates his great-uncle, who slipped behind enemy lines into the green hell of wartime Burma, endured monsoons, malaria and the many-banded krait, then came home and never once mentioned it
🩲 The naked Brigadier – The officer whose obituary noted he might have achieved greater heights in the British Army were it not for his propensity to brief the men with no clothes on.
If you love funny true stories, listener tales, mafia history, wartime legends and comedy podcasts, this bonus episode of Bloomin' Legends is for you.
Got a story that can top this week's madness?
📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legends is a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Sun, 20 Sep 2026 - 17min - 117 - "This Man Won the War" – Hugh Dowding
It is genuinely rare that you can point at one man and say he won the war. This is one of those times.
He was nicknamed "Stuffy." He had no swagger, no flamboyance, and no interest in popularity. He won the Battle of Britain with radar stations, telephone lines, filter rooms and a terrifying level of organisation. but within weeks of doing it, the RAF removed him from his post.
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods take on Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding, the man who built the system that saved Britain, and whose full name is arguably the greatest set of middle names ever committed to a birth register.
What You'll Hear in This Episode:
📡 The Dowding System – radar, the Royal Observer Corps, telephone networks, filter rooms and sector control. Not a single act of derring-do, just making absolutely certain the right squadron reached the right place at the right time
✈️ He joined the Army, then saw an aeroplane – born in 1882, when powered flight did not exist. He learned to fly in 1913, ten years after the Wright brothers, and lived long enough to watch the moon landing
🇫🇷 The call that made him deeply unpopular – he refused to send as many fighters to France as were being demanded, arguing that if Britain lost too many there it would have nothing left to defend itself. He was accused of being too conservative
🥋 Big Wing versus fast interception – the tactical row inside Fighter Command, and why Dowding and Keith Park backed small, fast groups over enormous formations
🎖️ 15 September 1940 – Battle of Britain Day. 1,100 German aircraft sent over. The system held, and Operation Sea Lion went back in the drawer
🚪 Sacked in November – he saves the country from German air superiority, then gets replaced by Sholto Douglas. "Thanks for that, old boy. Now off you go."
🐾 The strangest retirement – Dowding turned to spiritualism, spoke publicly about life after death, and campaigned against hunting and vivisection
If you love World War 2 stories, the Battle of Britain, British war heroes, military history and unbelievable true stories, this episode of Bloomin' Legends is for you.
Got a legend you want us to cover?
📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legends is a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Wed, 16 Sep 2026 - 51min - 116 - The Extra Legendary Bit: The Car Salesman Who Passed Himself Off as a War Hero
He convinced a room of actual airline pilots that he flew Boeing 757s for their own airline. He spent months letting a pub believe he was flying Hercules missions in the Gulf War. He was bought drinks and introduced as a war hero. He was, in fact, a car salesman.
The Extra Legendary Bit is where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods dive into your messages and uncover the gloriously unhinged tales sent in by the Bloomin' Legends nation.
What You'll Hear in This Episode:
✈️ The bullshido black belt – Ben from Dorset nominates his oldest friend Boley, a 90s chancer who talked his way through takeoffs, landings and approaches with real pilots and got away with it
🍺 The Gulf War pub bluff – not blurted out in one night but gently fed over weeks and months until the whole pub believed he was a decorated RAF pilot on leave. When the landlord found out the truth, the entire gang got barred
🥋 The one time it backfired – he once picked a fight well out of his league and came away with a black eye, courtesy of a female MMA fighter
🤠 Butch Cassidy's Wyoming – Nick writes in from Medicine Hat, Alberta with a brilliant follow-up to the Butch Cassidy episode: the general store Butch used is still open, still run by the founder's grandson, and the Sundance jail is still standing
📲 Telegram, engagement and traction – Johnny discovers what happens the moment you download a certain Russian messaging app, and reflects on being sent a DM that read like "alphabet spaghetti"
If you love funny stories, shameless chancers, Wild West history and comedy podcasts, this bonus episode of Bloomin' Legends is for you.
Got a story that can top this week's madness?
📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legends is a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Sun, 13 Sep 2026 - 16min - 115 - She rode zebras around Victorian London and bought her own artillery - Lady Meux
She was a village butcher's daughter from Devon who reinvented herself twice, married into one of Britain's greatest brewing fortunes, and then drove around Victorian London in a carriage pulled by zebras.
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods take on Lady Meux,quite possibly the most eccentric woman in Victorian London, and a masterclass in what happens when high society refuses to accept you and you simply buy your way past it.
What You'll Hear in This Episode:
🦓 The zebras – she had a high phaeton pulled by zebras, animals nobody has ever properly tamed, and drove it through the West End past the hats, horses and chimney smoke
🎭 Two complete reinventions – born Susie Langton, she arrived in London in the 1870s with no connections, no money and a brand new name, and worked her way into the theatrical world before marrying a baronet-to-be in secret
🏛️ She bought Christopher Wren's arch – when Temple Bar was dismantled and dumped in a builder's yard, she bought it and had it re-erected as the front gate of her country estate
🇪🇬 1,700 Egyptian antiquities – a serious collection, catalogued by an actual Egyptologist, which she tried to leave to the British Museum. They turned her down, so she sold the lot
💥 She bought her own artillery – told that British forces at Ladysmith were under-gunned in the Boer War, and refused by the authorities, she went directly to Armstrong and paid for a battery of field guns herself
💰 The inheritance twist – with no children, she left the entire brewing fortune to an army officer who'd simply come round and told her about the war, on one condition: he had to change his name
If you love eccentric history, Victorian scandal, self-made outsiders and unbelievable true stories, this episode of Bloomin' Legends is for you.
Got a legend you want us to cover?
📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legends is a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Wed, 09 Sep 2026 - 40min - 114 - The Extra Legendary Bit: "The BEST Story So Far"
Pee, Poo, Puke. The Grand Slam.
This week, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods celebrate your own Bloomin’ Legends, with two listener stories involving heroic determination, disastrous decisions and a truly staggering amount of bodily waste.
There’s a dad who thinks he can outmanoeuvre a septic tank pump, a naval aviator whose big weekend ends in the dreaded “grand slam”, and a potential merchandise scheme where your reward might be permission to buy something.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
💩 The sludge pump incident – when a pipe comes loose and sewage starts flooding the garden, Sean’s dad decides to reconnect it while the machine’s still running. It requires split-second timing. He does not have split-second timing
🔧 “I’ve come this far…” – already covered from head to toe, one determined father keeps trying the same manoeuvre, with increasingly brown results. His family have never laughed harder. He never sees the funny side
⚓ A seagull, some jelly powder and a big night out – after a week of escape and evasion training, a group of budding naval aviators ignore the warnings about overindulging and head straight for a weekend on the booze
🤢 Johnny One Stroke completes the grand slam – one small sink, several urgent problems and an ambitious series of turns. A listener nomination that leaves Johnny and Gav in absolutely no doubt: he’s straight in
👕 The exclusive right to buy a sweatshirt – the boys discuss mugs, merchandise and a coupon system that makes being rewarded for your loyalty sound suspiciously like an application process
Got a legend you want us to cover? A disastrous DIY dad, a one-eyed wonder or another grand slam contender? We want your stories.
📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin’ Legends is a Global production.
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Sat, 05 Sep 2026 - 13min - 113 - Mark Anthony: The John Terry of Ancient Rome
Friends, Romans, countrymen… get a load of this.
He was a disgraced party boy in his twenties, a war hero in his thirties, and ruling a huge chunk of the Roman world by his forties. He became Julius Caesar’s right-hand man, fell for Cleopatra, and went all in on battles, banquets and spectacularly bad decisions.
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods take on Mark Antony — the brilliant soldier, legendary liability and hopeless romantic they’ve dubbed “the John Terry of ancient Rome”.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
🍷 Brilliant soldier, terrible dinner guest – drinking, gambling and hiding from creditors before he’d even turned twenty. How Rome’s wayward party boy found his calling commanding cavalry
💪 Apparently related to Hercules – Antony claimed divine ancestry and even styled himself to look the part. Johnny and Gav consider whether being descended from a demigod is the ancient equivalent of having had trials at Crystal Palace
🗣️ The funeral speech that sent Rome into meltdown – with Caesar murdered, Antony turns a public funeral into a political masterstroke. Blood-soaked clothes, an inheritance for the people, and a crowd that’s suddenly very interested in finding Brutus
🐍 Cleopatra knows how to make an entrance – she arrives on a golden barge dressed as a goddess. He’s a man with a taste for lion-drawn chariots. Naturally, they hit it off and start a dining club dedicated to outrageous excess
⚔️ Marrying your rival’s sister only gets you so far – fragile alliances, brutal revenge and a return to Cleopatra. How Antony’s relationship with Octavian went from sharing power to fighting for control of the Roman world
💔 A disastrous battle and an even worse message – the retreat at Actium, the false report of Cleopatra’s death, and a tragic ending that sounds like Shakespeare made it up
If you love ancient Rome, larger-than-life characters and history’s most spectacular rises and falls, this episode of Bloomin’ Legends is for you.
Got a legend you want us to cover? Or know someone who’s brilliant at their job but an absolute liability after a few drinks? Johnny and Gav want to hear about them.
📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin’ Legends is a Global production.
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Thu, 03 Sep 2026 - 45min - 112 - The Extra Legendary Bit: The Worst Party Tricks We've Ever Heard
A man who attempted to sniff a piece of string up his nose and pull it out of his mouth, with no practice, in a packed pub, on a Sunday lunchtime, and got thrown out covered in his own sick. And a dad whose signature party piece involved a recorder, an empty sleeve, and a finger poking out of his flies.
The Extra Legendary Bit is where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods dive into your messages and uncover the gloriously unhinged tales sent in by the Bloomin' Legends nation.
What You'll Hear in This Episode:
🪢 Gary and the string trick – he'd seen someone do it once, never practised, gathered everyone round the bar to watch… and it ended in vomit and a barring
🎼 The one-armed flute player – one listener's dad had a party routine so cringeworthy his own sons would leave the room when they saw him reaching for the jacket
🏥 Johnny's grandad, the tube-insertion champion – a pioneer of modern anaesthesia who has a engraved tankard from his grateful students for winning a competition doing basically the same trick as Gary
🍺 Man Size Issues – Johnny and Gav accidentally start a men's health podcast about moobs, Spanx, and why nobody can trust anything they're told about butter
If you love funny true stories, listener tales, terrible party tricks, pub disasters and comedy podcasts, this bonus episode of Bloomin' Legends is for you.
Got a story that can top this week's madness?
📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legends is a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Sun, 30 Aug 2026 - 14min - 111 - Leo Major: The Canadian Sniper Who Captured 93 Germans on His Own
He lost an eye at Normandy and refused to go home. He broke his back and carried on. He captured 93 German soldiers on his own. And then, in April 1945, he liberated an entire Dutch city single-handedly by running around it all night with a machine gun and a bag of grenades, convincing the Germans they were surrounded.
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods take on Leo Major, the French-Canadian scout and sniper who treated his own safety as an optional extra, and became one of only a handful of Canadians ever awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal twice.
What You'll Hear in This Episode:
👁️ He lost an eye and stayed anyway – hit in the face by a phosphorus grenade days after landing on Juno Beach, doctors wanted to send him home. He pointed out he only needed one eye to fire a rifle
🪖 93 prisoners, one man – how a single Canadian scout captured two German soldiers, marched them to their own commanding officer, and ended up with an entire company surrendering to him
🎖️ The medal he allegedly refused – the story goes he turned down a decoration because he didn't think Montgomery deserved the respect of a salute
🦴 A broken back, then back to work – a landmine killed the chaplain and driver beside him and threw him through the air. Thirty miles to a field hospital, morphine every fifteen minutes
🔥 The liberation of Zwolle – after his friend Willie Arsenault was killed, Major spent an entire night alone faking a full-scale invasion, organised the Dutch Resistance, burned down the Gestapo HQ, and by dawn the Germans had gone. The city named a street after him
🇰🇷 Korea in running shoes – he goes back for another war, slips 18 men through the Chinese lines in plimsolls, takes a hill, and then refuses an order to retreat for three days
If you love World War 2 stories, war heroes, military legends and unbelievable true stories, this episode of Bloomin' Legends is for you.
Got a legend you want us to cover?
📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legends is a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Wed, 26 Aug 2026 - 49min - 110 - The Extra Legendary Bit: Worst dinner guests in history
Johnny picks a war criminal over David Walliams as a dinner companion. That's where this one starts.
What You'll Hear in This Episode:
🍽️ Dinner Party Guests From Hell – Listener Kevin assembles a 10-person table including John Fury, Slobodan Milošević, Katie Price, James Corden and David Walliams. Johnny would rather sit next to the war criminal. Any day of the week.
🧖 Celebrity Steam Room – Johnny recalls the time the steam cleared and he found himself naked with Ross Kemp, Ainsley Harriott, Lee Chapman and Dr. Fox. Ross pitched a show. It was terrible.
💣 History's Biggest What If – The boys debate the single decision that may have saved Britain in WWII — and why one bomber over Berlin changed the course of modern history.
🏅 George Broadley: A Real Blooming Legend – Listener Lee shares the story of a man who dug through Blitz rubble with his bare hands, rescued children, and was awarded the George Medal by King George himself.
Got a story that can top this week's madness? 📩 Send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we'll decide if it's Bloomin' Legendary or just brilliantly bonkers.
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
New episodes every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss one!
This is a Global Original Podcast, produced by Ben Fairclough.
Sun, 23 Aug 2026 - 15min - 109 - Joan of Arc: The Saint Who Led an Army at 17
She was 17, had never held a sword, and travelled 300 miles across France to find a king who was hiding among his own courtiers. She walked straight past the decoy, found him immediately, then told him something privately that apparently only he could have known. Within moments, the sceptical future king was visibly shaken, and Joan was given an army.
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods take on Joan of Arc, the teenage peasant girl who claimed she was on a mission from God, lifted the Siege of Orléans, crowned a king, outsmarted France's most educated theologians and became one of history's most extraordinary saints.
What You'll Hear in This Episode:
👑 The secret meeting – how Joan spotted the real Charles among a crowd of courtiers and told him something that apparently turned him from sceptic into believer. But what did she actually say?
🐎 300 miles on horseback – how a 17-year-old girl travelled across France to find the future King after claiming she'd been ordered to drive the English out.
📚 Joan vs the professors – how an uneducated teenager went head-to-head with France's top theologians and left them struggling for answers.
⚔️ The teenage general – how Joan helped lift the Siege of Orléans, led French armies into battle, took a cannonball to the helmet and carried only a banner rather than a weapon.
👑 Crowning a king – how Joan marched Charles to Reims and helped turn the supposedly illegitimate Dauphin into the crowned King of France.
🔥 The trial – how Joan was interrogated, accused of heresy and condemned at just 19, with wearing men's clothes becoming part of the case against her.
👻 The fake Joan – how, five years after her death, another woman appeared claiming to be Joan of Arc — and somehow even Joan's own brothers went along with it.
If you love history, saints, medieval warfare, unbelievable true stories and comedy, this episode of Bloomin' Legends is for you.
Got a legend you want us to cover?
📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube.
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legends is a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Wed, 19 Aug 2026 - 58min - 108 - The Extra Legendary Bit: Why All Guard Dogs Are German Soldiers
Johnny has gone full barking mad this week, realising that all three of the world's top guard dogs are German, you can imagine every one of them in a helmet, and that Alsatians are only called Alsatians because nobody in Britain would buy a German dog after World War I.
The Extra Legendary Bit is where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods dive into your messages and uncover the gloriously unhinged tales sent in by the Bloomin' Legends nation.
What You'll Hear in This Episode:
🐕 Johnny's German dog theory – Rottweilers, Dobermans, German Shepherds: all guards, all German, all looking like they should be wearing a helmet. Plus the true story of why Alsatians are called Alsatians (only in Britain) 🐟 The Doberman who saved a koi carp – one listener's dog bangs on the back door "like the Gestapo demanding entry" while gently holding a 14-inch fish in her mouth 🏛️ The pharaoh's curse update – Tertius returns to Egypt with a fedora and a stolen pyramid shard, hoping to undo a curse, and ends up bribing his way into sealed tombs 🦈 The naked shark swim – four drunk Australian teenagers strip off to swim across Sydney Harbor in the dark, nearly get hit by a speedboat, and later discover bull sharks had moved in
If you love funny true stories, listener tales, dog nonsense, Australian chaos and comedy podcasts, this bonus episode of Bloomin' Legends is for you.
Got a story that can top this week's madness?
📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legends is a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Sun, 16 Aug 2026 - 15min - 107 - "The Worst Woman Who Ever Lived?" Elizabeth Báthory
She spoke four languages, owned more land than the King of Hungary, and may have tortured and murdered up to 650 young women over 25 years. When they finally caught her, she was so powerful they couldn't even put her on trial - so they bricked her up inside her own castle and left her there until she died.
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods tackle Elizabeth Báthory - the 16th century Hungarian countess considered the most prolific female serial killer in recorded history, and the first true villain Bloomin' Legends has ever covered.
What You'll Hear in This Episode:
🏰 The Blood Countess – how one of Europe's most powerful noblewomen allegedly used her wealth, land, and total impunity to torture and kill for over two decades
🐴 The most horrific execution ever? – as a child, Báthory witnessed a man sewn alive into a dying horse with his head left poking out, and it may have shaped everything that followed
🩸 The blood-bathing myth – did she really bathe in the blood of virgins? Almost certainly not — that detail was invented by a Jesuit writer over 100 years later
🤴 Too powerful to punish – why the King of Hungary wanted her gone, how her downfall was probably motivated by debt, and why she never stood trial
🧱 Bricked up alive – her final punishment: walled into a room in her own castle with no doors, no windows, and no sunlight for three and a half years until she died
If you love true crime, dark history, serial killers, medieval horror and comedy, this episode of Bloomin' Legends is for you.
Got a legend you want us to cover?
📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legends is a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Wed, 12 Aug 2026 - 44min - 106 - The Extra Legendary Bit: A Beach Bar Brawl and a Christmas Plumber
A night out turns into a beachside evacuation. Thirty Royal Marines charge into the dark wearing boots, body armour and ballistic helmets, armed with whatever they could find in the galley, including a two-handled boiling pot.
The Extra Legendary Bit is the bonus episode where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods leave the history books behind and dive into the unhinged, moving and brilliant stories sent in by you, the listeners.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
The Royal Navy Run Ashore That Got Out of Hand – Gareth remembers his late dad Sean: a teenage Navy recruit, a police-car-light heist in Pensacola, and the Caribbean night a beach bar bust-up required a full Marine rescue mission.Can a Dickhead Still Be a Legend? – Mary asks the big question: can one heroic act outweigh years of being difficult? Johnny answers with a surprisingly profound passage from Tolstoy about why human beings are like rivers.Uncle Dave, the Christmas Plumber – Jason nominates the man who has spent 40 years keeping elderly customers warm, fixing boilers for free and quietly being a bloomin legend.🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin' Legends YouTube channel!
Got a legend you want us to cover? 📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com 📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends 🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legends is a Global production
Produced by Cassie Merritt
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Sun, 09 Aug 2026 - 17min - 105 - Lachhiman Gurung: The Gurkha Who Took On 200 Men Alone
He was 4 foot 11, weighed eight stone, came from a mountain village with no electricity, no roads, and no running water… and then held off 200 Japanese soldiers in a Burmese jungle trench after a grenade blew his hand off.
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods take on take on Lachhiman Gurung, the Gurkha rifleman who became one of the most decorated soldiers of the Second World War. Four days after VE Day, while Britain was celebrating in the streets, Gurung was still fighting in the Burmese jungle. Half blind, badly wounded, and down to one usable hand, he spent four hours holding off wave after wave of Japanese attackers with a bolt-action rifle, a kukri, and pure bloody-minded courage.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
The trench stand - the astonishing night Gurung threw back grenades, lost his right hand, and still refused to give an inch“Come and fight a Gurkha” – the battle cry he reportedly shouted into the dark as 200 enemy troops closed inThe quiet hero – how one of the bravest men of the war went home, farmed in silence, and barely spoke about what he’d done...bloomin legend.🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin' Legends YouTube channel!
Got a legend you want us to cover? 📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com 📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends 🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legends is a Global production
Produced by Cassie Merritt
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Wed, 05 Aug 2026 - 46min - 104 - The Extra Legendary Bit: A Train Thief and a Secret Millionaire
His grandfather was told to move a train up the line. The driver had wandered off, so he thought, how hard can it be? Twenty miles later, he found out.
The Extra Legendary Bit is the bonus episode where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods leave the history books behind and dive into the gloriously unhinged stories sent in by you, the listeners.
What You'll Hear in This Episode:
The Man Who Accidentally Stole a Train – A 1960s signal technician gets an empty locomotive rolling with zero training and absolutely no idea how to stop it. Land Rovers give chase. His response when they finally catch up is magnificent.
The Tightest Man Who Ever Bought a House – Uncle Ray never spent a penny in his life. Same flat for 40 years. Fiver in every birthday card. Then the solicitor's letter arrived.
The Ford Focus of Justice – Someone parks across Dave's driveway. Dave parks directly behind them and puts the football on. Three hours later, he delivers one line that ends the whole situation.
🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin' Legends YouTube channel!
Got a legend you want us to cover? 📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com 📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends 🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legends is a Global production
Produced by Cassie Merritt
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Sun, 02 Aug 2026 - 13min - 103 - Casanova: The World’s Greatest Lover Was a Prison-Breaking Spy
He was a lawyer by 17, a priest who once fainted in the pulpit from a hangover, a professional violinist, a government spy, a prison escape artist, a con man, a duellist, and the man whose name became shorthand for the world’s greatest seducer.
He blagged his way through 18th-century Europe, convinced a Venetian senator he had mystical powers, escaped from an “inescapable” prison through the roof, invented the French state lottery, and somehow still found time to get exiled from half the continent.
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods take on Giacomo Casanova, the Venetian adventurer whose real life was far wilder than his reputation.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
The man behind the name - how Casanova became synonymous with seduction, even though his real life was much madder than just his love affairsThe prison break – Casanova’s legendary escape from Venice’s supposedly inescapable Leads prison by climbing out through the roof and strolling out dressed as a noblemanThe great European blag – how he convinced a senator he had magical powers, worked as a spy, and charmed his way into courts and palaces across the continentCasanova’s seduction formula – Johnny breaks down the four-act game plan that made him history’s most famous romantic operator🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin' Legends YouTube channel!
Got a legend you want us to cover? 📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com 📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends 🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legends is a Global production
Produced by Cassie Merritt
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Wed, 29 Jul 2026 - 44min - 102 - The Extra Legendary Bit: Drunken Sailors, Top Trumps & Plum Schnapps
He jumped into freezing Portsmouth water after a few sherbets, swam to HMS Warrior, climbed to the very top of the mast, and tied his trousers up there like a denim flag. He got caught in his pants by security dogs and thawed out under a heater in the guard room. Somehow, that still wasn't the maddest part of the story.
The Extra Legendary Bit is the bonus episode where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods leave the history books behind and dive into the gloriously unhinged stories sent in by you, the listeners.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
The Man Who Boarded HMS Warrior In His Underpants – Andy “Wing Commander” Wing takes a drunken strength bet far too seriously, scales a historic warship in the dead of night, and leaves his jeans fluttering from the mast for months.
Johnny Fish vs a Flaming Rope – Inspired by his mate’s heroics, one listener casually mentions attempts at parachute-less jumps and plans to abseil down a rope he’s set on fire.
The Kosovo Chunder Challenge – A hungover RAF medic, a puking Finnish soldier, a helicopter ride over Kosovo, and one very attractive army officer combine to create a truly heroic act of British self-control.
🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin' Legends YouTube channel!
Got a legend you want us to cover? 📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com 📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends 🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legends is a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough and Cassie Merritt
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Sun, 26 Jul 2026 - 16min - 101 - Neil Armstrong: What He Actually Said on the Moon
He learned to fly before he could drive. At 20, a cable strung across a Korean hillside ripped three feet off his wing at 350 miles an hour, and he nursed the plane to the sea before ejecting with half a second to spare. A decade later, he stopped a spacecraft spinning at one revolution per second using nothing but his nerve. Then NASA gave him a $678 pay rise and told him to go and land on the Moon.
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods take on Neil Armstrong, the quiet kid from Ohio who became a naval aviator, a test pilot in a job with a one-in-four survival rate, the first civilian astronaut, and the first human being to set foot on another world. All while being described as the calmest man alive.
What You'll Hear in This Episode:
Flying before driving - How a kid from small-town Ohio got his pilot's license at 16, before he was even allowed behind a steering wheel
The Gemini 8 death spin – How Armstrong saved himself and David Scott from a spacecraft rotating once every second, and why NASA knew he was their man
40 seconds of fuel - The terrifying final moments of the Apollo 11 landing, when Armstrong took manual control to dodge a boulder field
🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin' Legends YouTube channel!
Got a legend you want us to cover? 📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com 📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends 🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legends is a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough and Cassie Merritt
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Wed, 22 Jul 2026 - 54min - 100 - The Extra Legendary Bit: Himalayan Cowboys & South African in Disguise
He rode a horse through the Himalayas in a dinner jacket, got dragged 30 yards along a mountain path, stood up, brushed himself off, and told everyone he was fine. He wasn't fine. He was heavily medicated and privately terrified.
The Extra Legendary Bit is the bonus episode where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods leave the history books behind and dive into the gloriously unhinged stories sent in by you, the listeners.
What You'll Hear in This Episode:
🐴 James Bond in the Himalayas - He turned up for a Tibetan horse trek in a dinner jacket. The horsemen gave him the wildest stallion and stuck him at the front. It went exactly as badly as you'd expect.
🥃 The Welsh Smuggler Who Forgot His Own English – A WWI veteran smuggles booze across the Irish Sea in WWII. When caught, he pretends he can't speak English and uses the interpreter's translation time to think up better lies.
🍺 Beer In, Ear Out, Australian Forever – A South African pours beer in his ear as a party trick, gets an infection, and accidentally lets the doctor think he's Australian. He has to keep up the accent at every appointment from then on.
📩 Send it to bloominlegends@global.com — we're celebrating dads all month. 📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
This is a Global Original Podcast, produced by Ben Fairclough and Cassie Merritt
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Sun, 19 Jul 2026 - 16min - 99 - Butch Cassidy: He Blew Up a Bridge & Vanished Forever
His first crime was stealing a pair of jeans and some pie. He left an IOU, got taken to court, and the jury let him off. Within a decade, he'd blown up a railroad bridge, robbed trains and banks across six states, and racked up the equivalent of $13.5 million, all while being described as charming, clever, and the least likely member of his gang to pull the trigger.
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods tackle Butch Cassidy, the Mormon butcher's boy from Utah who assembled the Wild Bunch, pulled off the longest string of successful bank and train robberies in US history, fled to Argentina with the Sundance Kid, and may or may not have died in a Bolivian shootout.
🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin' Legends YouTube channel!
Got a legend you want us to cover? 📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com 📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends 🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legends is a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough and Cassie Merritt
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Wed, 15 Jul 2026 - 48min - 98 - The Extra Legendary Bit: The Capsize King & Extraordinary Bastards
A man so obsessed with the perfect racing finish on his dinghy that he moved it into the family hallway, sealed it inside a polytunnel, and was found at 4am, naked, still battling a mysterious dust problem he couldn't solve. That man was Johnny's dad. And this is Johnny's tribute to him.
The Extra Legendary Bit is the episode where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods leave the history books behind and dive into the gloriously unhinged stories sent in by you, the listeners.
Got a legendary dad story? A classic catchphrase? The thing he always said when something went wrong?
📩 Send it to bloominlegends@global.com — we're celebrating dads all month. 📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
This is a Global Original Podcast, produced by Ben Fairclough.
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Sun, 12 Jul 2026 - 14min - 97 - She Stole a Dead Nun & Set a Convent on Fire: Julie D'Aubigny
She was a swordswoman who could beat three men at once, an opera singer with the greatest voice Louis XIV had ever heard, and a woman so fearless she broke into a convent, stole a dead nun's body, set the place on fire, and escaped with her lover. She was 17 at the time.
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods tackle Julie D'Aubigny, the 17th-century French hell-raiser who seduced counts, outfought noblemen, and became one of the most extraordinary figures you've never heard of, all before dying at 33.
What You'll Hear in This Episode:
⚔️ Sword-fighting child prodigy. By 12, she was fencing grown men, and by 14, she was the mistress of the Count of Armagnac
🏃♀️ On the run: after her fencing instructor boyfriend killed a man, they fled Paris and toured France doing sword exhibitions by day and singing in taverns by night
🔥 The convent escape: body snatching, arson, a dead nun used as a decoy, and a plan that almost worked… almost
🎭 Opera stardom: spotted singing in a Marseille tavern like a French Elvis in King Creole, she became one of the most celebrated voices in Paris
💔 The love that ended it all: she stole the most beautiful woman in France from the king's own son, fled to Belgium, and never recovered when her lover died two years later
If you love outrageous true stories, legendary women, French chaos, duels, opera, and comedy podcasts, this episode of Bloomin' Legends is for you.
🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin' Legends YouTube channel!
Got a legend you want us to cover? 📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com 📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends 🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legends is a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Wed, 08 Jul 2026 - 47min - 96 - The Extra Legendary Bit: A blunderbuss, a bomb & Diamond White Cider
He tried to flog an antique firearm to a dealer, kicked off over the price, stormed out — and was genuinely surprised when the police turned up. He wasn't bothered about nearly going to prison. He was fuming about losing the profit.
The Extra Legendary Bit is the bonus episode where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods leave the history books behind and dive into the gloriously unhinged stories sent in by you, the listeners.
What You'll Hear in This Episode:
🔫 Dave & the Blunderbuss – A proper Del Boy character tries to sell an antique firearm, gets into a row with the dealer, and ends up having his door knocked on by the feds. His only complaint? The couple of quid he missed out on.
💣 The Lottery of War – The same man served in Northern Ireland and swapped places with a terrified soldier moments before the IRA detonated a bomb. His bravery saved his own life — and the irony has haunted his family ever since.
🍏 "It's Never Seen a F***ing Apple" – A beautiful tribute to a late friend, a brutal woodwork teacher with a mallet, a rope swing gone wrong, and the funniest thing anyone's ever said about a bottle of Diamond White.
Got a story that can top this week's madness? 📩 Send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we'll decide if it's Bloomin' Legendary or just brilliantly bonkers. 📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
This is a Global Original Podcast, produced by Ben Fairclough.
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Sun, 05 Jul 2026 - 13min - 95 - Diego Maradona: Football God, Cheat & the Greatest Party Ever Thrown in a Prison
He grew up so poor his mum pretended she wasn't hungry so her kids could eat. By 15, he was playing professional football. By his mid-20s, he was the best player on earth, the most fouled man in the sport, and partying every single night in Naples with the mafia. He also threatened to shoot Liam and Noel Gallagher.
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods take on Diego Armando Maradona, the dirt-poor kid from Buenos Aires who became the greatest footballer the world has ever seen, the most famous cheat in sporting history, and possibly the only man alive who could out-party Pablo Escobar.
From breaking world transfer records twice, to brawling in front of the King of Spain, to scoring the greatest and most controversial World Cup goals in the same match, Maradona lived a life so outrageous it barely sounds real.
What You'll Hear in This Episode:
⚽ Pro at 15 – How a muscular kid from a family so poor his mum pretended she wasn't hungry got scouted at eight and was playing professional football by fifteen
🤚 The Hand of God – The most infamous moment in World Cup history, and why no one blames Shilton
🎉 Escobar's prison party – How Maradona ended up playing football with Pablo Escobar in a Colombian jail, and why he called it "the best party of his entire life"
🎸 "I will shoot you" – The night Liam and Noel Gallagher met Maradona in Argentina and were told if they touched any of his women, he'd have them killed
🇮🇹 The Naples years – Cocaine, the Camorra, partying every single night, and somehow still becoming the top scorer in Napoli's history
If you love football stories, larger-than-life characters, sporting legends and unbelievable true stories, this episode of Bloomin' Legends is for you.
Got a legend you want us to cover? 📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com 📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends 🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legends is a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Wed, 01 Jul 2026 - 43min - 94 - The Extra Legendary Bit: Dead Sheep, Blitz Heroines & Operation Village Green
A bloated, rotting ram floating in a Cornish quarry, a 12-year-old boy bullied into dragging it out, a finger inserted into a decomposing eye socket, and a long, smelly walk home that nobody ever forgot.
The Extra Legendary Bit is where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods dive into your messages and uncover the gloriously unhinged tales sent in by the Bloomin' Legends nation.
What You'll Hear in This Episode:
🐑 Byron and the dead ram – a group of teenage boys find a decomposing sheep floating in their swimming quarry and send the youngest in to deal with it, with truly horrifying results
✈️ Flight Lieutenant Willy Welsh – a six-foot Rand pilot who earned a DFC and bar for his complete disregard for danger flying Halifax and Whitley bombers
🔥 The five sisters of Erith – all named after plants, all blonde, all under 5'5", and they formed what's believed to be the first all-woman fire brigade team in Britain during the Blitz
😂 Randy George – a former Chief of Staff of the US Army with possibly the greatest name in military history
If you love funny true stories, listener tales, childhood disasters, wartime legends and comedy podcasts, this bonus episode of Bloomin' Legends is for you.
Got a story that can top this week's madness?
📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legends is a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Sun, 28 Jun 2026 - 18min - 93 - William Shakespeare: 1,700 Words, 6 Signatures & 7 Missing Years
He's the most famous writer in the English language, the inventor of over 1,700 words we still use today, and a man so legendary he's known simply as The Bard. There's just one problem: almost nothing is known about him, only six of his signatures survive, and none of them suggest an educated hand.
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods tackle William Shakespeare, the glove maker's son from Stratford who became Britain's greatest cultural export, and one of history's most debated figures. Johnny has a mind-blowing theory about who Shakespeare really was and what he actually did, and it might just change how you think about the most celebrated writer in history.
What You'll Hear in This Episode:
🎭 The mystery of Shakespeare – how so little is known about someone so famous, including 7 "lost years" where he vanished completely
✍️ The greatest writer who couldn't write? – only 6 signatures exist, all different spellings, none showing an educated hand
🧠 Johnny's controversial theory – was Shakespeare a "memory lovie" who collected and compiled plays from touring companies rather than writing from scratch?
🗣️ 1,700 words invented – from "eyeball" to "hobnob" to "advertising," the everyday language Shakespeare gave us
💰 The dodgy businessman – grain hoarding during a famine, a shady dad, and a monument that originally showed him holding a sack of grain, not a quill
If you love history mysteries, English literature, conspiracy theories, legendary figures and comedy podcasts, this episode of Bloomin' Legends is for you.
Got a legend you want us to cover?
📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legends is a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Wed, 24 Jun 2026 - 51min - 92 - The Extra Legendary Bit: Mad Grandads, Fast Cars and Family Legends
A Dutch resistance fighter with a taste for fast cars, a grandad who held a 40-year grudge, and a family tradition of driving so wildly it terrified everyone in the passenger seat.
The Extra Legendary Bit is where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods dive into your messages and uncover the gloriously unhinged tales sent in by the Bloomin’ Legends nation.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
🚗 The Opa who drove like a lunatic – one listener nominates his extraordinary Dutch grandfather, a wartime resistance fighter who loved fast cars, held epic grudges and terrified the family behind the wheel
⚔️ A proper wartime blooming legend – from forging papers and sabotaging the Nazis to being shot while escaping, this grandad’s life sounds too wild to be true
🏎️ Johnny’s own family of speed freaks – Johnny shares stories of his dad and grandad treating the A1 like Le Mans and turning family visits into unofficial time trials
📮 More extra legendary listener stories – including the sort of grandparent madness that becomes family folklore forever
If you love funny true stories, listener tales, mad grandparents, fast cars and wartime legends this bonus episode of Bloomin’ Legends is for you.
Got a story that can top this week’s madness?
📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin’ Legends is a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Sun, 21 Jun 2026 - 19min - 91 - The First Man Ever to be Awarded the Victoria Cross Twice: Arthur Martin-Leake
A doctor who kept treating the wounded after being shot three times, the first man in history to win the Victoria Cross twice, and a war record so extraordinary only two other men have ever matched it.
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods tell the story of Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Martin-Leake, the British Army medic who became the first ever recipient of a Victoria Cross and Bar, making him one of only three people in history to receive the honour twice.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
🏅 The first ever Double VC – how Arthur Martin-Leake became the first man to win the Victoria Cross twice, a feat only three men have ever achieved
🩺 The medic who would not stop – during the Boer War, Martin-Leake kept treating wounded soldiers under heavy fire, even after being shot three times himself
💥 Bravery under constant fire – in the First World War, he repeatedly went out to rescue and treat men near enemy positions, earning the bar to his VC through days of relentless gallantry
📜 Why the Victoria Cross matters so much – Johnny and Gav dig into the history, rarity and mystique of Britain’s most famous medal for bravery
⚔️ An unbelievable military life – from South Africa to India, the Balkans, Ypres and beyond, Martin-Leake seemed to spend his life heading towards danger in order to save others
If you love heroic true stories, military history, unbelievable acts of bravery and comedy podcasts, this episode of Bloomin’ Legends is for you.
Got a legend we should cover?
📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin’ Legends is a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Wed, 17 Jun 2026 - 49min - 90 - The Extra Legendary Bit: Chased Down the Beach by a German Plane
A man chased down Weston-super-Mare beach by a low-flying enemy plane, a briefcase stuffed with the modern equivalent of £1 million, and a life so chaotic it sounds completely made up.
The Extra Legendary Bit is where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods dive into your messages and uncover the gloriously unhinged tales sent in by the Bloomin’ Legends nation.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
✈️ The WW2 beach strafing story – one listener nominates his grandfather Fred Coombs, who somehow escaped unscathed after being chased down Weston-super-Mare beach by a low-flying enemy aircraft during the Second World War
📻 The man who may have invented the BBC beeps – Fred’s wildly improbable life also includes a spell as a BBC engineer and family legend has it he created the pips before the radio news
💼 The Jersey cash dash – convinced the 1983 election would go the wrong way, Fred withdrew what would now be roughly £1 million, packed it into a briefcase and took it to Jersey guarded by two Old English sheepdogs
😂 More bonus madness from the Bloomin’ Legends inbox – including a ridiculous military character submission and a message demanding to know why Pablo Escobar still hasn’t made the main show
If you love funny true stories, wartime madness, unbelievable family legends, British eccentricity and comedy podcasts, this bonus episode of Bloomin’ Legends is for you.
Got a story that can top this week’s madness?
📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin’ Legends is a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Sun, 14 Jun 2026 - 14min - 89 - Napoleon's Comeback That Should Never Have Happened: Bonaparte - Part 2
He conquered Europe… lost everything… and then came back for one last go.
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods dive into Napoleon Part 2 — from exile and ego to one of the greatest (and most ridiculous) comebacks in history.
What you’ll hear:
⚔️ The fall of Napoleon – how Europe finally caught up with him
🏝️ Exile… and the comeback nobody stopped – the moment history basically said “this is a terrible idea”
👑 The Hundred Days madness – Napoleon returns and everyone just… lets it happen
💥 Waterloo – the final showdown and one of history’s most famous defeats
If you love history, warfare, ridiculous confidence, and unbelievable true stories, this episode is peak Bloomin’ Legends.
Got a legend you want us to cover?
📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legends is a Global production Produced by Ben Fairclough
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Wed, 10 Jun 2026 - 45min - 88 - The Extra Legendary Bit: The Great Made-Up Military Men Special
A man called Edith, a colonel archbishop, and yet more proof that the Bloomin’ Legends audience may be every bit as unhinged as the people on the main leaderboard.
The Extra Legendary Bit is where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods dive into your messages, your made-up masterpieces, and the gloriously absurd listener creations that somehow feel weirdly plausible.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
🎖️ Men with women’s names at war – listeners send in brilliantly overblown military heroes with names like Edith, Hilary and Anastasia
🪖 Fake military legends with very real detail – from Gallipoli to Monte Cassino, the backstories get more elaborate, more eccentric and more ridiculous by the minute
🥄 Billiard cues, horseradish and whiff-whaff paddles – the sort of detail that makes these invented war heroes feel alarmingly believable
📬 Listener legends at full power – Johnny and Gav celebrate the audience’s growing talent for creating the most absurd military men in British history
If you love funny true stories, comedy podcasts, military history, absurd British humour, listener messages and made-up legends, this episode of Bloomin’ Legends is for you.
Got a story that can top this week’s madness?
📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin’ Legends is a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Sun, 07 Jun 2026 - 11min - 87 - Napoleon Wasn’t Short, Wasn’t French… So What ELSE Was A Lie?! - Napoleon Bonaparte: Part 1
British parents told their children the bogeyman would get them. That bogeyman was a real person, and he conquered most of Europe before crowning himself Emperor.
Welcome back to Bloomin' Legends! The podcast where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods uncover the wildest, boldest, and most unbelievable true stories from history.
In this episode, part one of a massive two-parter, we take on Napoleon Bonaparte, the Corsican outsider who went from bullied schoolboy to the most feared man in Europe. He wasn't actually French, he wasn't actually short, and British parents literally used him as the bogeyman to scare their children. From an artillery genius at 16, to crossing the Alps and crowning himself Emperor while the Pope just stood there watching, this is the story of how one man forced every royal house in Europe to gang up just to try and stop him.
What You'll Hear in This Episode:
🇫🇷 The Corsican Outsider – How a swarthy kid with an Italian accent became France's greatest military mind
💣 The Siege of Toulon – Horse shot, leg slashed, and he still fought for 10 hours straight
⛰️ Crossing the Alps– 10,500 feet, six days, no stopping, and the most overblown painting in history
👑 The Self-Crowning– Why he invited the Pope to his coronation, then told him he wasn't needed
⚔️ Austerlitz – The genius trap that confirmed him as Europe's most formidable commander
If you love history, military legends, the French Revolution and unbelievable true stories, this episode of Bloomin' Legends is for you.
Got a legend you want us to cover?
📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legends is a Global production Produced by Ben Fairclough
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Wed, 03 Jun 2026 - 41min - 86 - The Extra Legendary Bit: Why Did Police Keep Stopping This Car?
A graffiti-covered car the police couldn’t stop pulling over, a BMX jump that absolutely should not have counted, and more listener stories that prove boredom is the mother of terrible ideas.
The Extra Legendary Bit is where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods dive into your messages and uncover the gloriously unhinged tales sent in by the Bloomin’ Legends nation.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
🚓 The car police couldn’t ignore – one listener remembers a mate’s patched-up Hillman Hunter, covered in graffiti and apparently irresistible to the police in suburban Sidcup🚲 The youth club BMX jump – a teenage bet, a homemade ramp, a disastrous landing and a fierce debate over whether it still counted📮 More listener legends – including the sort of unforgettable moments that become family folklore for lifeIf you love funny true stories, listener tales, car chaos, police stories, BMX disasters and comedy podcasts, this episode of Bloomin’ Legends is for you.
Got a story that can top this week’s madness?
📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin’ Legends is a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Sun, 31 May 2026 - 13min - 85 - The Real Story Behind the Spartan 300: Leonidas I
He led the most famous last stand in ancient history, faced the full force of Persia, and became the ultimate symbol of Spartan courage.
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods take on Leonidas I, the King of Sparta who stood at Thermopylae with his 300 warriors and helped create one of the most enduring legends in military history.
What you’ll hear in this episode:
🛡️ The Spartan way of life – what it really meant to live in Sparta, and why their entire society was built for war⚔️ Leonidas and the Persian threat – how the mighty Persian Empire under Xerxes came crashing towards Greece🏛️ The real story of the 300 – what actually happened at Thermopylae, and why the battle became history’s most famous last stand🔥 Myth versus reality – from Hollywood nonsense to the brutal truth, Johnny and Gav separate the legend from the factsIf you love history podcasts, ancient Greece, Spartan history, military legends and unbelievable true stories, this episode of Bloomin’ Legends is for you.
Got a legend you want us to cover?
📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin’ Legends is a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Wed, 27 May 2026 - 48min - 84 - The Extra Legendary Bit: Don’t Mess With the Pharaohs
A mysterious ritual inside the Great Pyramid, a possible curse from the pharaohs, and a wartime grandad who kept riding straight through sniper fire — this week’s Extra Legendary Bit is gloriously unhinged.
The Extra Legendary Bit is where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods leave the history books behind and dive into your listener stories, family legends, and the kind of messages that make the inbox feel deeply unsafe.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
🐪 The Giza curse story – one listener shares the unsettling tale of a solo trip to Egypt, a secret ritual inside the King’s Chamber, and the suspicion that he may have been cursed ever since
🪖 Grandpa Reg’s desert run – a remarkable World War Two story about a dispatch rider racing through sniper fire in the North African desert
🎬 A wartime film pitch – the lads hear from a listener with a family escape-and-evasion story so good he thinks it should be turned into a proper screen adventure
If you love funny true stories, Egyptian mysteries, pyramid conspiracies, World War 2 stories, listener legends and comedy podcasts, this episode of Bloomin’ Legends is for you.
Got a story that can top this week’s madness?
📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin’ Legends is a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Sun, 24 May 2026 - 22min - 83 - Virginia Hall: The Heroic WW2 Spy With a Wooden Leg
She had a wooden leg, the Gestapo were hunting her, and she still became one of the most effective spies of the Second World War.
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods take on Virginia Hall - the American spy known to the Nazis as “The Limping Lady”. Rejected by the US Foreign Service, recruited by British intelligence, and later working with the Americans, Hall built resistance networks, helped Allied airmen escape, outwitted the Gestapo, and even crossed the Pyrenees on a prosthetic leg.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
🕵️ The spy they couldn’t catch – how Virginia Hall became one of the most feared Allied agents in occupied France🦿 The wooden leg that never stopped her – from a life-changing shooting accident to crossing mountains under pursuit🇫🇷 Resistance, sabotage and survival – how she organized networks, moved agents, and kept the war effort alive behind enemy lines🎖️ The making of a legend – why Virginia Hall became the only civilian woman to receive the Distinguished Service CrossIf you love history, World War 2 stories, espionage, resistance fighters and unbelievable true stories, this episode of Bloomin’ Legends is for you.
Got a legend you want us to cover?
📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin’ Legends is a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Wed, 20 May 2026 - 37min - 82 - The Extra Legendary Bit: British Spy Names Gone Too Far
From Agent Buttered Crumpet to a skier taking a Vodafone call down a black run, this week’s Extra Legendary Bit is full of your finest British nonsense.
The Extra Legendary Bit is where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods dive into your messages, your family legends, and the gloriously ridiculous stories that deserve a place in the Bloomin’ Legends hall of fame.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
🕵️ The Great British spy name special – Johnny and Gav go through your wonderfully ridiculous British code names, including some genuine works of genius🪚 The kitchen table woodworking disaster – one listener nominates his dad for a piece of DIY so chaotic it ends with a sports jacket and a chair getting sawn through⛷️ The ski slope phone call – a man takes a Vodafone customer service call all the way down a black run, crashes spectacularly, and somehow still finishes the conversation👕 A George Best T-shirt sighting – a quick but excellent addition from Belfast that very much earns its placeIf you love funny true stories, very British humour, comedy, awkward disasters and ridiculous real-life moments, this episode of Bloomin’ Legends is for you.
Got a story that can top this week’s madness?
📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin’ Legends is a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Sun, 17 May 2026 - 16min - 81 - The British Officer Who ATTACKED A TANK With An Umbrella?! - Digby Tatham-Warter
He wore a bowler hat, carried an umbrella into battle, and somehow used it to stop a tank.
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods take on Major Digby Tatham-Warter - the wildly eccentric British officer who became one of the most unforgettable heroes of the Second World War. From Arnhem to Operation Pegasus, his story is full of courage, chaos and levels of Britishness that should be impossible.
What you’ll hear in this episode:
☂️ The officer with the umbrella – why Digby Tatham-Warter carried a brolly into war, and how it became one of the strangest practical decisions in military history🪖 Arnhem and Operation Market Garden – how he led his men through some of the fiercest fighting of the war🚓 The tank incident – the extraordinary moment Digby charged a German tank and used his umbrella in a way nobody could have predicted🚲 Escape, disguise and resistance – how he escaped capture, posed as a Dutch civilian, and helped organise the rescue of stranded Allied soldiers behind enemy linesIf you love World War 2 stories, British war heroes, military legends and unbelievable true stories, this episode of Bloomin’ Legends is for you.
Got a legend you want us to cover?
📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin’ Legends is a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Wed, 13 May 2026 - 41min - 80 - The Extra Legendary Bit: Surviving an Amsterdam Stag Do
A three-day stag do in Amsterdam, a man in a chicken suit at a wedding, and a date ruined by heroic shoes full of cow muck. This week’s Extra Legendary Bit is chaos from start to finish.
The Extra Legendary Bit is the bonus episode of Bloomin’ Legends, where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods dive into your listener messages and uncover the funniest, weirdest and most gloriously unhinged stories sent in by the Bloomin’ Legends nation.
What you’ll hear in this episode:
🍻 Surviving a stag do in Amsterdam – one listener shares the story of a three-day bachelor party in the Dutch capital, featuring a rough second day, dubious activities, and an unforgettable twist involving a very tall American🐔 The chicken suit wedding reception – a listener nominates his brother for turning up to a wedding dressed like Big Bird and somehow making the evening even stranger from there🐑 The disastrous sheep rescue date – one woman tells the story of her boyfriend’s attempt to impress her by rescuing a sheep from a bull, only for the whole thing to end in cow muck, borrowed pub shoes and true romanceIf you love comedy, funny true stories, stag do stories, Amsterdam chaos, wedding disasters, awkward dating stories and listener legends, this bonus episode of Bloomin’ Legends is for you.
Got a story that can top this week’s madness?
📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin’ Legends is a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Sun, 10 May 2026 - 12min - 79 - Ragnar Lothbrok: Did the Greatest Viking Ever Really Exist?
He may not have existed, but Ragnar Lothbrok still managed to become one of the most feared names in Viking legend.
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods take on Ragnar Lothbrok — the semi-mythical Norse warrior said to have fought dragons, fathered some of the most terrifying Viking sons in history, and helped inspire the great Viking invasions of Britain.
What you’ll hear in this episode:
🛡️ The legend of Ragnar – how one of the most famous Viking figures became a hero of Norse saga and medieval storytelling🐉 Dragons, hairy trousers and heroic chaos – the bizarre early tales that helped turn Ragnar into myth⚔️ Ragnar and the Viking raids – the story of his campaigns against England and France, and the brutal reputation that followed🐍 Death in the snake pit – the legendary ending that helped cement his place in Viking history foreverIf you love history podcasts, Viking history, Norse mythology, medieval legends and unbelievable true-ish stories, this episode of Bloomin’ Legends is for you.
Got a legend you want us to cover?
📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin’ Legends is a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Wed, 06 May 2026 - 41min - 78 - The Extra Legendary Bit: His Grandad gave him a live grenade??
A grandad, live grenade and a rabbit problem… and that’s only the start of this week’s listener chaos.
The Extra Legendary Bit is the bonus episode of Bloomin’ Legends, where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods dive into your messages, your unbelievable true stories, and the kind of family legends that really should have stayed in the group chat.
What you’ll hear in this episode:
💣 The grandad with the live grenade – one listener shares an extraordinary family story involving a wartime souvenir and a very unusual solution to a rabbit problem💩 The nursery incident – a brutally funny tale of childhood injustice, school rules, and a moment one listener definitely never forgot🤧 The house party horror – an attempted romantic moment goes very badly wrong in one of the most painfully awkward listener stories yet🏖️ Holiday legends and unforgettable characters – Johnny and Gav celebrate the weird, wild and wonderfully unhinged people you only ever seem to meet on holidayIf you love funny true stories, embarrassing moments, family legends and unbelievable real-life stories, this bonus episode of Bloomin’ Legends is for you.
Got a story that can top this week’s madness?
📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin’ Legends is a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Sun, 03 May 2026 - 15min - 77 - Attila The Hun - What do we actually know?
He called himself a king, Rome called him a nightmare, and history remembers him as Attila the Hun.
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods take on Attila the Hun, the brutal fifth-century warlord who threatened the Roman Empire, tore through Europe, and earned his chilling nickname: the Scourge of God.
What you’ll hear in this episode:
🐎 The rise of Attila the Hun– how a warrior from the Hun ruling family became one of the most feared leaders in ancient history
🏛️Attila vs the Roman Empire – his invasions, ruthless diplomacy, and the devastation he left behind
💍 The wedding that started a war – the strange royal scandal that helped spark Attila’s march into Gaul and Italy
🪦Death, burial and legend – from his mysterious final night to the secret grave that fuelled his myth for centuries
If you love history podcasts, ancient warfare, and unbelievable true stories, this episode of Bloomin’ Legends is for you.
Got a legend you want us to cover?
📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin’ Legends is a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
New Episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!
Wed, 29 Apr 2026 - 48min - 76 - The Extra Legendary Bit: The Pub Puma & more great escapes!
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends!
The Extra Legendary Bit is the bonus episode where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods leave the history books behind and dive into the gloriously unhinged stories sent in by you, the listeners.
In this week’s bonus episode, the lads hear about a five-year-old’s devastatingly unsuccessful attempt to run away from home, a larger-than-life Kiwi who wrestles a python out of a car engine and somehow carries on drinking, and the completely baffling tale of an Edinburgh pub that once kept a puma in the lounge bar.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
The Great Escape That Wasn’t – One listener recalls trying to run away from home aged five, only for his parents to respond with almost unbearable calm.Python in the Philippines – A six-foot snake in a car engine leads to one of the toughest listener stories yet, involving a hessian sack, a bitten hand and a heroic lack of fuss.The Pub Puma – Yes, really: a Scottish pub once kept a puma on the premises, because apparently that used to be considered a reasonable idea.Got a story that can top this week’s madness?
📩 Send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or just brilliantly bonkers.
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Sun, 26 Apr 2026 - 14min - 75 - George Best: The Superstar Beyond the Pitch
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods uncover the wildest stories in history, and meet the extraordinary people who lived faster, louder and larger than anyone else.
In this episode, the lads take on George Best, the dazzling Manchester United winger who became one of football’s first true superstars. A Ballon d’Or winner by 22, Best had the talent of a genius, the fame of a rock star, and a life that burned every bit as brightly as it unravelled.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
🌍From Belfast to Ballon d’Or– How a skinny kid from Northern Ireland became one of the most electrifying footballers the game has ever seen ⚡️
🎸 The Fifth Beatle– Why George Best became far more than just a footballer, turning into a full-blown cultural icon 🌟
🥅 Brilliance and Bedlam– The outrageous stories, unforgettable quotes and chaos that followed him on and off the pitch
⚠️The Darker Side of the Legend– Johnny and Gav explore the tragedy, self-destruction and sadness behind one of football’s greatest ever talents ⚽️
Got a legend you want us to cover?
📩 Send it to bloominlegends@global.com
📲 Follow us on YouTube, TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Wed, 22 Apr 2026 - 44min - 74 - The Extra Legendary Bit: Bulldogs vs Wedding Cakes & the Magaluf buzz cut
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends!
The Extra Legendary Bit is the bonus episode where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods leave the history books behind and dive into the gloriously unhinged stories sent in by you, the listeners.
In this week’s bonus episode, Johnny relives the traumatic moment his bulldog ate an entire wedding cake, the lads try to work out what on earth earned one man a standing ovation at a hotel breakfast buffet, and there’s a pub quiz collapse so confident and so wrong it deserves a trophy of its own.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
The Dog Ate the Wedding Cake – Johnny tells the extraordinary story of his bulldog Harvey demolishing an entire fruit wedding cake and somehow surviving to regret it.The Breakfast Buffet Ovation – One listener shares the mystery of a man who woke up after 2-for-1 martinis and was applauded by an entire hotel the next morning.Toronto, Probably – A pub quiz know-it-all backs himself magnificently, gets Canada’s capital completely wrong, and responds in the only sensible way: with a homemade T-shirt.Got a story that can top this week’s madness?
📩 Send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or just brilliantly bonkers.
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
📺 Watch now on Youtube!
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough.
Sun, 19 Apr 2026 - 15min - 73 - The WW2 Spy Decorated by Both Sides - Juan Pujol Garcia (GARBO)
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods uncover the wildest stories in history, and meet the extraordinary people who somehow got away with it.
In this episode, the lads tell the astonishing story of Juan Pujol Garcia, the Spanish double agent better known as Garbo, who fooled the Nazis so completely that he was awarded medals by both Germany and Britain during the Second World War.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
The Ultimate Double Agent – How one man convinced the Nazis he was their trusted spy, while secretly working for the British.A Fake Spy Network – Juan didn’t just tell one lie, he built an entire web of invented agents, complete with personalities, routines and excuses.The D-Day Deception – The crucial role Garbo played in helping convince Hitler that the Allied invasion would come at Calais, not Normandy.Medals From Both Sides – The unbelievable twist that saw him honoured by the very people he was deceiving.Got a legend you want us to cover?
📩 Send it to bloominlegends@global.com
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📺 Watch the full episode on Youtube
Listen on Global Player, download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Wed, 15 Apr 2026 - 47min - 72 - The Extra Legendary Bit: Hearses, Half Marathons and Benidorm Terror
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends!
The Extra Legendary Bit is the bonus episode where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods leave the history books behind and dive into the gloriously unhinged stories sent in by you, the listeners.
In this week’s bonus episode, the lads hear about a deeply alarming encounter with a stripper in Benidorm wielding a baseball bat, a funeral hearse disastrously parked outside a wedding venue, and a woman who somehow won a half marathon after coming out of a toilet the wrong way.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
Benidorm Bat Trouble – One listener comes face to face with a stripper in Benidorm… who is holding a baseball bat. Holiday memories don’t get much more terrifying than that.The Wedding Hearse Horror – A man accidentally parks a funeral hearse outside a wedding venue, creating exactly the wrong sort of first impression.The Toilet Detour Champion – One woman takes a wrong turn coming out of a toilet during a half marathon… and somehow ends up winning the whole thing.Got a story that can top this week’s madness?
📩 Send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or just brilliantly bonkers.
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough.
Thu, 09 Apr 2026 - 13min - 71 - Albert Einstein: The biggest brain in the world?
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods uncover the wildest stories in history, and meet the extraordinary people who changed the world forever.
In this episode, the lads take on perhaps the most famous genius of them all: Albert Einstein, the theoretical physicist who transformed our understanding of time, space, gravity and reality itself.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
From School Struggles to Scientific Stardom – Einstein didn’t fit the mould at school, struggled to find work, and began his career in a patent office before changing physics forever.The Miracle Year – Johnny and Gav dive into the astonishing run of ideas that made 1905 one of the most important years in scientific history.Relativity, Explained Properly – Including Einstein’s brilliantly simple way of describing relativity: one hot stove, one pretty girl, and a theory that changed the world.The Man Behind the Genius – From his eccentric habits and global fame to the bizarre story of what happened to his brain after he died.Got a legend you want us to cover?
📩 Send it to bloominlegends@global.com
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 06 Apr 2026 - 41min - 70 - The Extra Legendary Bit: Runaways, Red Faces and the Family Computer
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends!
The Extra Legendary Bit is the bonus episode where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods leave the history books behind and rummage through the listener inbox for stories that are brave, bizarre and occasionally far too revealing.
In this week’s bonus episode, the lads put out a call for your tales of running away from home, and also hear one unforgettable story involving a teenager, the family computer, and the worst possible person walking in at the worst possible moment.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
Runaway Legends Wanted – Johnny and Gav ask listeners to send in their stories of running away from home, whether heroic, hopeless or over before teatime.Caught Red-Handed – One listener shares the painfully compromising tale of a teenager discovered with his trousers round his ankles in front of the family computer… by his female cousin.Listener Legends – Yet more proof that your real-life stories are every bit as chaotic as anything the lads could dream up.Got a story that can top this week’s madness?
📩 Send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or just brilliantly bonkers.
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough.
Thu, 02 Apr 2026 - 14min - 69 - Lord Byron: Scandal, Poetry and a Pet Bear
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends!
This week, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods take on one of the wildest lives in literary history: Lord Byron.
Poet. Aristocrat. Scandal magnet. International heartbreaker. From a chaotic childhood and a pet bear at Cambridge to sexual scandal, literary superstardom and his final heroic turn in the Greek War of Independence, Byron’s life was every bit as outrageous as his legend suggests.
Johnny and Gav trace the rise of the original rock star poet through duels, drama, debt, debauchery and genius… and ask whether Byron was simply a brilliant writer with a taste for excess, or one of the most gloriously unhinged figures Britain ever produced.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
🐻 The Bear at Cambridge – Why Byron responded to university rules by getting himself a pet bear
🔥 Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know – Affairs, scandal and the celebrity chaos that made him infamous
📚 Poetry and Stardom – How Byron became the literary superstar of his age almost overnight
🧛 Ghost Stories by the Lake – The drunken weekend that helped give the world Frankenstein and Dracula
⚔️ Death in Greece – How Byron’s final act turned him from scandalous poet into national hero
Bloomin’ Legend or Not?
Was Lord Byron a self-destructive aristocrat with a gift for causing chaos…
or the ultimate romantic icon, a poet, showman and freedom-fighting legend all rolled into one?
Johnny and Gav deliver the verdict.
🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin’ Legends YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got a legendary story we should cover?
Email us at bloominlegends@global.com
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate & review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends.
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 30 Mar 2026 - 54min - 68 - The Extra Legendary Bit: Aussie Dom, The flying zip wire & Motorcycle baby names
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends!
The Extra Legendary Bit is the bonus episode where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods step away from the history books and dive headfirst into the wildest stories sent in by you, the listeners.
In this bonus episode, the lads uncover yet more proof that the Bloomin’ Legends audience may be living far more dangerously than anyone on the main feed.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
Portsmouth Boat Race Bedlam – A group of blokes bribe a boat captain to take them out into rough seas for a better view of a boat race. An appalling idea, and naturally, a brilliant story.The Zip Wire Incident – One listener shares the tale of a zip wire installation that ended very badly indeed.Named After a Motorbike – We hear from a listener whose name comes from a vintage motorcycle, because apparently even birth certificates can be legendary.Got a story that can top this week’s madness?
📩 Send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or just brilliantly bonkers.
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Thu, 26 Mar 2026 - 11min - 67 - Alexander the Great: Part 2 - Power, Paranoia & The Price of Greatness
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends!
This week, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods return to the ancient world for Part 2 of the astonishing story of Alexander the Great.
If Part 1 was the rise, Part 2 is the full-blown legend: Persia falls, Babylon opens its gates, elephants thunder onto the battlefield, and Alexander pushes all the way to India in a bid to conquer everything the known world can throw at him.
Johnny and Gav follow the young king as brilliance turns to obsession, victory shades into paranoia, and the cost of greatness starts to catch up with the man who seemed unstoppable.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
🐘 War Elephants & World Conquest – Alexander takes on Persia’s vast empire and keeps pushing east
🔥 The Fall of Persia – Babylon, Susa and Persepolis as the old superpower collapses
⚔️ Blood, Betrayal & Empire – Rivals crushed, cities renamed and old allies turning into threats
👑 Power and Paranoia – As Alexander grows more god-like, the darker side of greatness emerges
🗺️ To India and Beyond – How far he got, what it cost, and why even his own men finally said enough
Bloomin’ Legend or Not?
Was Alexander the Great the ultimate world conqueror…
or a once-in-history force of will whose genius came with a ruinous price?
Johnny and Gav head into the heart of empire and deliver the verdict.
🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin’ Legends YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got a legendary story we should cover?
Email us at bloominlegends@global.com
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate & review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends.
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 23 Mar 2026 - 46min - 66 - The Extra Legendary Bit: Fiery Trousers, bunking school & the hand written letter!
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods uncover the wildest stories in history… and occasionally discover that the listener inbox is a deeply unsafe place.
In this bonus episode, the lads dive into your stories, and things unravel almost immediately.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
The Trousers-on-Fire Hero – One listener tells the unbelievable tale of a kid whose mate accidentally set his trousers on fire… then somehow got an award for it. The catch? Neither of them can ever properly talk about it, because they were both skiving off school.A Letter from Evesham – Bloomin’ Legends receives its first ever handwritten letter, sent in by an adoring fan from Evesham. A landmark moment for the podcast, and for postmen everywhere.Listener Legends – More proof that your stories are every bit as chaotic, absurd and gloriously unhinged as we hoped.Got a story that can top this week’s madness?
📩 Send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or just brilliantly bonkers.
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Thu, 19 Mar 2026 - 13min - 65 - Alexander the Great: Part 1 - The Start of Something Massive
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends!
This week, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods head back to the ancient world to take on one of history’s biggest names: Alexander the Great.
In Part 1, Alexander goes from prince of Macedon to the young ruler terrifying the known world. Taming a wild horse, studying under Aristotle, taking the throne at just 20, and launching a brutal, brilliant campaign against Persia.
Johnny and Gav trace the rise of the boy king through myth, murder and battlefield genius, and ask whether Alexander was simply a military prodigy… or a man so outrageously successful his own age could only explain him as divine.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
🐎 The Horse Tamer – The legend of Bucephalus and the boy who could master anything
👑 King at 20 – Assassination, succession and Alexander’s bloody grip on power
⚔️ War with Persia – How the young Macedonian took the fight to history’s superpower
🏛️ From Greece to Egypt – Revolts crushed, empires shaken and Alexandria founded
🗺️ The Making of a Myth – Gods, omens and the first steps of a world conqueror
Bloomin’ Legend or Not?
Was Alexander the Great a once-in-history military genius…
or the ultimate ancient PR masterpiece, with just enough brilliance to make the myth stick?
Johnny and Gav saddle up and deliver the verdict.
🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin’ Legends YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got a legendary story we should cover?
Email us at bloominlegends@global.com
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate & review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends.
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 16 Mar 2026 - 43min - 64 - The Extra Legendary Bit: The Great Maldives Lock-In & East London's Bonnie & Clyde
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods uncover the wildest stories in history… and occasionally discover that the listener inbox is a deeply unsafe place.
In this bonus episode, the lads dive into your stories, and things escalate almost immediately.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
- Maldives, But Make It Permanent – A dream trip turns into an accidental over-a-month stay when Covid shuts the world down.The East End’s Bonnie & Clyde – One listener’s grandparents, legendary for always being up to something (and never in a normal way).Listener Legends – More proof that real life remains far more unhinged than anything we could script.
Got a story that can top this week’s madness?
📩 Send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or just brilliantly bonkers.
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
This is a Global Original Podcast, produced by Ben Fairclough.
Thu, 12 Mar 2026 - 13min - 63 - The Gestapos most wanted Woman? Nancy Wake’s Story
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends!
This week, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods mark the show’s one-year anniversary by diving into one of WWII’s most extraordinary true stories: Nancy Wake, the French Resistance agent the Gestapo nicknamed “The White Mouse”.
Born in New Zealand and forged by what she witnessed in pre-war Europe, Nancy went from journalist to undercover operator, running escape lines, evading capture, and later training with the SOE before parachuting back into occupied France to help sabotage Nazi operations in the run-up to D-Day.
Johnny and Gav follow Nancy’s jaw-dropping path through espionage, courage and chaos, and ask how one person could do so much… and still stay one step ahead.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
🐭 The White Mouse – How Nancy became the Gestapo’s most wanted woman in France
🪂 Back Into Hell – SOE training and parachuting into occupied territory
🚲 The 500km Ride – The mission-saving cycle journey to restore comms
💣 Frenzy of Disruption – Sabotage, ambushes, rail lines and bridges ahead of D-Day
🏅 Medals & Legacy – The most decorated servicewoman of WWII?
Bloomin’ Legend or Not?
Was Nancy Wake the ultimate Resistance icon… or the kind of once-in-a-generation force of nature history can barely contain? Johnny and Gav raise a glass and deliver the verdict.
🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin’ Legends YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got a legendary story we should cover?
Email us at bloominlegends@global.com
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate & review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends.
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 09 Mar 2026 - 45min - 62 - The Extra Legendary Bit: The Snotty Saviour & Bader's G Force Legs
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods uncover the wildest stories in history… and occasionally realise the listener inbox should come with a risk assessment.
In this episode, the lads jump between heroics, sheer chaos, and one of the most effective firefighting techniques ever attempted.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
💦 The Spitfire Brigade – A group of kids try to put out a fire by spitting on it. Yes, really.
✈️ Douglas Bader – How losing both his legs didn’t end a flying career… and may have made him an even better pilot.
🐷 The Butcher Stag Do – A night out that went all-in on the dress code: entirely butchers.
Got a story that can top this week’s madness?
Send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or just brilliantly bonkers.
Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Thu, 05 Mar 2026 - 10min - 61 - Billy the Kid - Murder, burning building and prison escapes
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends!
This week, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods head into the dust, gun smoke and tall tales of the American frontier to take on one of the Wild West’s most mythologised outlaws, Billy the Kid.
Billy became the teenage gunslinger at the heart of the Lincoln County War, a scrappy, chaotic conflict that turned New Mexico into a battlefield of rival gangs, dodgy lawmen and very twitchy trigger fingers.
Johnny and Gav separate fact from frontier fiction, and ask whether Billy the Kid was a cold-blooded killer… a product of a lawless land… or just history’s most successful teenage PR campaign.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
🔫 The Guns of the Kid – Colts, Winchesters & Wild West firepower
🏛️ The Great Escape – How Billy broke out before his hanging
🌵 The Lincoln County War – How chaos forged a legend
🌙 The Final Shootout – What really happened the night Pat Garrett fired
📜 Myth vs Reality – How the story grew bigger than the boy
Bloomin’ Legend or Not?
Was Billy the Kid a fearless outlaw icon…
or a teenager caught in a violent time who became famous for dying young?
Johnny and Gav draw their pistols and deliver the verdict.
🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin’ Legends YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got a legendary story we should cover?
Email us at bloominlegends@global.com
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate & review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends.
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 02 Mar 2026 - 48min - 60 - The Extra Legendary Bit: Barehand Boar Killer & Rasputin's Look-A-Like
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods uncover the wildest stories in history… and occasionally discover that the listener inbox is a deeply unsafe place.
In this bonus episode, the lads dive into your stories, and things escalate almost immediately.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
🐗 The Wild Boar Showdown – A confrontation solved with questionable tactics
👀 Rasputin Energy – Does Gav possess unsettling stare powers?
📬 Listener Legends – Proof that modern life might actually be more chaotic than history
Got a story that can top this week’s madness?
📩 Send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or just brilliantly bonkers.
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Thu, 26 Feb 2026 - 11min - 59 - The man who conned Al Capone: Titanic Thompson
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends!
This week, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods dive into the outrageous, slippery and utterly fearless life of Titanic Thompson, the man who made a career out of betting on the impossible… and somehow winning.
This episode is all about the hustles.
From golf-course cons to proposition bets that defied logic, Titanic turned everyday situations into high-stakes theatre. He’d bet you he could throw a peanut over a hotel. He’d bet you he could drive a golf ball onto a green you couldn’t see. He’d bet you on what time a train would arrive… after he’d quietly made sure it was delayed.
And then there’s the big one. The time he allegedly outsmarted Al Capone.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
🎲 Proposition Bet Madness – The outrageous wagers that made his name
🏌️ Golf Course Cons – How he turned sport into a science of swindling
💰 Hustling the Mob – Taking money off dangerous men
🕵️ The Capone Story – Did he really outplay America’s most feared gangster?
🎭 Reinventing Yourself – From small-town kid to gambling folklore
Bloomin’ Legend or Not?
Titanic Thompson made fortunes, lost fortunes, dodged bullets and blurred the line between genius and grifter.
But does outsmarting gangsters and living by your wits make you a Bloomin’ Legend…
or just history’s smoothest conman?
🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin’ Legends YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got a legendary story we should cover?
Email us at bloominlegends@global.com
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate & review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends.
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 23 Feb 2026 - 38min - 58 - The Extra Legendary Bit: The Drunk Egg Disaster & The Best Job in the War?
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods uncover the wildest stories in history… and occasionally prove that modern life is just as ridiculous.
In this bonus episode, the lads open up the listener inbox, and things unravel quickly.
We hear the cautionary tale of a sleep-deprived (and slightly worse-for-wear) dad who confidently microwaved an egg… instead of his baby’s milk. There’s a restaurant interior decision so baffling it involves a full motorbike being repurposed as a barrier. And somewhere along the way, Johnny and Gav spark a lively debate about what might actually have been the best job to have during wartime, with anti-aircraft gunner unexpectedly topping the list.
It’s chaotic. It’s oddly educational. It’s the kind of episode where you’re never quite sure how you got there, but you’re glad you did.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
🥚 The Microwaved Egg Incident – A parenting moment that will never be forgotten
🏍️ Motorbike Interior Design – When restaurant décor goes rogue
💥 Best Job in the War? – Johnny & Gav’s surprisingly confident take
📬 Listener Legends – Proof that everyday life is full of Bloomin’ potential
Got a story that can top this week’s madness?
📩 Send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or just brilliantly bonkers.
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Thu, 19 Feb 2026 - 13min - 56 - Henry VIII: The Trump of Tudor England?
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends!And not just any episode… this is our50th episode special🎉
To mark the milestone, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods tackle a man with enough drama, ego and chaos to fuel fifty podcasts on his own, Henry VIII.
This episode dives into Henry’s life through the stories of his six wives, Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr, and how his obsession with legacy, power and producing a male heir reshaped England forever.
From the divorce that split from Rome and created the Church of England, to beheadings, betrayals and spectacular Tudor meltdowns, this is history’s most explosive midlife crisis, played out on a national stage.
And because it’s Bloomin’ Legends, Johnny and Gav can’t resist drawing a few modern parallels. Big personality. Bigger ego. Loyalty demanded. Enemies discarded. Rules rewritten. The comparisons get lively…
Was Henry a political mastermind who transformed Britain?
Or just a king with absolute power and absolutely no impulse control?
For our 50th episode, it felt right to cover a ruler who didn’t just make headlines, he became the headline.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
👑 Six Marriages, Six Power Plays – The women who shaped (and suffered under) Henry
⚖️ Breaking from Rome – The divorce that changed a nation
🐎 Falling off the horse – How one jousting tournament changed the face of england.
📺 Modern Comparisons – When history starts to feel very current
🎉 Episode 50 Reflections – How we got here… and why Henry was the perfect choice
Bloomin’ Legend or Not?
For our 50th outing, Johnny and Gav ask the big question:
Was Henry VIII a true Bloomin’ Legend, or the most powerful chaos merchant in British history?
🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin’ Legends YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got a legendary story we should cover?
Email us at bloominlegends@global.com
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate & review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends.
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 16 Feb 2026 - 45min - 55 - The Extra Legendary Bit: Flooded Nightclubs, a hungover car crash & sinking boats!
Welcome to Bloomin’ Legends: The Extra Legendary Bit! Johnny and Gav dive into the latest batch of listener messages, and as always, things take a sharp turn into chaos.
This week’s inbox delivers tales of nightclubs going underwater, the brutal misfortune of being hit by a car while painfully hungover, and the extreme lengths one listener went to by sinking their own boat just to get rid of it.
Expect big laughs, disbelief, and plenty of “why on earth would you do that?” moments, as the boys react to your stories and decide whether they deserve a place in the Bloomin’ Legends hall of fame.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
🌊 Flooded Nightclubs – When a night out takes a very wet turn
🚗 Hungover Horror – The worst possible timing for an already rough morning
🚤 Boat Disposal, Extreme Edition – Why one listener chose sabotage over selling
📨 Listener Mayhem – Proof that Bloomin’ Legends aren’t just from history books
Join the Conversation!
📩 Got a story you think can beat these?
Send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or not!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
🎥 Watch full episodes on the Bloomin’ Legends YouTube channel!
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate & review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends.
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Thu, 12 Feb 2026 - 14min - 54 - Douglas Bader - The RAF double amputee who was denied the Victoria Cross
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods uncover the wildest, boldest, and most unbelievable true stories from history.
In this episode, Johnny and Gav tell the extraordinary story of Douglas Bader,the RAF fighter pilot who lost both legs in a flying accident, only to come back stronger, deadlier, and more determined than ever.
Written off by the military and told he’d never fly again, Bader ignored doctors, bureaucracy, and common sense. Teaching himself to walk on prosthetic legs, he fought his way back into the cockpit and became one of Britain’s most feared Battle of Britain aces. His aggression in the air was legendary, his confidence unshakeable, and his refusal to accept limits made him impossible to ignore.
Shot down over occupied France, Bader’s war took another astonishing turn. He attempted escape after escape from German POW camps, infuriating his captors so much that they eventually locked him away in Colditz, the prison reserved for the most troublesome Allied officers.
This is a story of defiance, stubbornness, bravery, and a man who simply would not accept the word “no”.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
✈️ The Flying Accident – The crash that cost Bader both his legs
🦿 Defying the Doctors – Learning to walk, then fly, again
🔥 Battle of Britain Ace – One of the RAF’s most aggressive pilots
💥 Shot Down – Capture, captivity, and relentless escape attempts
🏰 Colditz Castle – When even the Germans had had enough of him
Bloomin’ Legend or Not?
At the end of the episode, Johnny and Gav ask the obvious question:
Was Douglas Bader a true Bloomin’ Legend, or just the most stubborn man in military history?
🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin’ Legends YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got a legendary story we should cover?
Email us at bloominlegends@global.com
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate & review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends.
Listen to all episodes on Global Player — download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 09 Feb 2026 - 46min - 53 - The Extra Legendary Bit: A drunk wedding soldier, British Motor Bikes & Jackie Stewart!
Welcome to Bloomin’ Legends: The Extra Legendary Bit!Johnny and Gav dive into the latest batch of listener messages, and as always, things take a sharp turn into chaos.
This week’s inbox includes a soldier who turned a wedding into a battlefield while drunk, the wonderfully bizarre world of British motorbike names, and a brush with racing royalty in the form of Sir Jackie Stewart.
Expect laughter, disbelief, questionable opinions, and the kind of tangents only Johnny and Gav can manage, all fuelled by the brilliant, bonkers stories sent in by the Bloomin’ Legends community.
Join the Conversation!
📩 Got a story you need Johnny & Gav to hear?
Send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or not!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate & review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends.
🎥 Watch full episodes now on the Bloomin’ Legends YouTube channel!
Listen to all episodes on Global Player — download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Thu, 05 Feb 2026 - 14min - 52 - Genghis Khan Part 2: The Biggest Empire the World Has Ever Seen
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods uncover the wildest, boldest, and most unbelievable true stories from history.
This is Part Two of the Genghis Khan saga, and this is where everything goes completely off the scale.
Temüjin is now officially Genghis Khan, ruler of a united Mongol nation. What follows is one of the most astonishing power grabs in human history. Through ruthless intelligence, brutal innovation, and terrifying military brilliance, Genghis doesn’t just conquer land, he reinvents how empires work.
From tearing apart ancient clan loyalties to creating a brand-new army system, encouraging religious freedom, turning poetry into battlefield communication, and learning siege warfare on the fly, Genghis Khan builds an empire that stretches from Beijing to the edge of Europe, all on horseback.
This episode covers the destruction of northern China, the fall of Beijing, the rerouting of the Silk Road, the annihilation of entire empires in Central Asia, and the moment Genghis Khan becomes the ruler of the largest contiguous land empire the world has ever known.
It ends with his mysterious death, a secret burial, and a legacy so vast that millions of people alive today are believed to be descended from him.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
⚔️ Becoming Genghis Khan – The moment Temüjin becomes “Universal Ruler”
🔥 Rewriting Warfare – New armies, new rules, and zero tolerance for rebellion
🏯 The Fall of Beijing – Siege tactics, propaganda, and total destruction
🛣️ The Silk Road Hijack – How trade made the Mongols unimaginably rich
🌍 Empire Without Limits – From China to the Middle East in a single lifetime
☠️ The Mysterious Death – Horse accident, murder… or something stranger?
Bloomin’ Legend or Not?
At the end of the episode, the boys ask the obvious question:
Is Genghis Khan the ultimate Bloomin’ Legend, or the most terrifying human being who ever lived?
🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin’ Legends YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got your own legendary story — epic, absurd or just downright bonkers?
Email us at bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or not!
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate & review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends.
Listen to all episodes on Global Player — download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 02 Feb 2026 - 37min - 51 - Genghis Khan Part 1: Rodents, Revenge & the Birth of an Empire
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods uncover the wildest, boldest, and most unbelievable true stories from history.
In this 2 part series , the boys rewind the clock to the very beginning of the Genghis Khan story,before the empire, before the terror, before the world changed forever. Born as Temüjin, he was abandoned by his tribe, hunted by rivals, enslaved, and forced to fight simply to survive on the brutal Mongolian steppe.
This is the story of betrayal, brotherhood, and blood feuds of Temüjin’s rise from a powerless outcast to a feared and respected war leader. It all builds toward his looming confrontation with his former blood brother Jamukha, a clash that will decide the future of the Mongol tribes… and the fate of history itself.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
🔥 Abandoned as a Child – How Temüjin was left to die on the steppe
⚔️ Slavery & Survival – The years that forged a ruthless leader
🤝 Brotherhood and Betrayal – Temüjin and Jamukha’s deadly rivalry
🐎 The Birth of a Warlord – How loyalty, merit, and violence built his power
Bloomin’ Legend or Not?
At the end of the episode, we ask: Was Temüjin already a Bloomin’ Legend, or was the legend still waiting to be born?
🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin’ Legends YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got your own legendary story, epic, absurd or just plain bonkers?
Send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or not!
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate & review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends!
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 26 Jan 2026 - 43min - 50 - What Happened to Rasputin’s Children? Maria & Varvara Rasputin
Welcome back toBloomin’ Legends! The podcast where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods uncover the wildest, boldest, and most unbelievable true stories from history.
In this episode, the boys follow the astonishing lives of Maria and Varvara Rasputin, the daughters of the most notorious mystic in history. When their father, Grigori Rasputin, was murdered, their world collapsed overnight. Once surrounded by royalty and privilege, the sisters were suddenly hunted, exiled, and forced to survive in a world that hated their name.
While Varvara disappeared into a quiet life far from the spotlight, Maria embraced chaos, becoming a dancer, memoirist, and even a lion tamer in an American circus. From Imperial Russia to revolutionary terror, European exile, and the bright lights of the United States, their lives were every bit as extraordinary as their father’s legend.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
👨👧 Growing Up Rasputin – Life inside Russia’s most infamous household
🔥 After the Murder – How the sisters survived the collapse of Imperial Russia
🎪 From Royalty to Circus – Maria Rasputin’s unbelievable reinvention
🌍 Two Sisters, Two Fates – Why their lives took radically different paths
Bloomin’ Legend or Not?
At the end of the episode, we ask: Were Rasputin’s daughters Bloomin’ Legends in their own right, or simply survivors of history’s strangest legacy?
🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin’ Legends YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got your own legendary story, epic, absurd or just plain bonkers?
Send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or not!
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate & review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends!
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 19 Jan 2026 - 47min - 49 - Sir Francis Drake: Pirate, Hero, or the Queen’s Favourite Thief?
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods uncover the wildest, boldest, and most unbelievable true stories from history.
In this episode, the boys set sail with Sir Francis Drake, England’s most famous sea dog. To the English, he was a national hero, a knight of the realm, and the man who helped defeat the Spanish Armada. To the Spanish, he was nothing more than a pirate, a ruthless raider who stole their gold and burned their ports.
From becoming the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe, to leading daring naval attacks and playing bowls as the Armada approached, Drake lived a life balanced between bravery, brutality, and outrageous luck.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
🏴☠️ From Nobody to Sea Dog – How Drake rose from humble beginnings
🌍 Around the World – The voyage that made him a global legend
🔥 Terror of the Spanish Empire – Raids, riches, and revenge
🎳 The Armada Moment – Why Drake supposedly finished his game before battle
Bloomin’ Legend or Not?
At the end of the episode, we ask: Was Sir Francis Drake a true Bloomin’ Legend, or history’s most successful state-sponsored pirate?
🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin’ Legends YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got your own legendary story, epic, absurd or just plain bonkers?
Send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or not!
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate & review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends!
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 12 Jan 2026 - 49min - 48 - Julius Caesar: The Man Who Broke the Roman Republic
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends for 2026! The podcast where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods uncover the wildest, boldest, and most unbelievable true stories from history.
In this episode, the boys march straight into ancient Rome to tackle Julius Caesar,general, politician, dictator… and the man whose ambition reshaped the ancient world. From conquering Gaul and crossing the Rubicon to ruling Rome and meeting a bloody end on the Senate floor, Caesar’s life was packed with power plays, betrayals, and world-changing decisions.
Loved by the people, feared by the elite, and murdered by his closest allies, Caesar didn’t just rise to the top, he tore the system apart on the way there.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
⚔️ The Making of a Conqueror – How Caesar became Rome’s greatest general
🌍 Gaul, Glory & Gold – The campaigns that made him unstoppable
🚶 Crossing the Rubicon – The moment that guaranteed civil war
🗡️ Et Tu, Brute? – The assassination that ended a republic
Bloomin’ Legend or Not?
At the end of the episode, we decide: Was Julius Caesar a true Bloomin’ Legend — or history’s most dangerous ego?
🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin’ Legends YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got your own legendary story, epic, absurd or just plain bonkers?
Send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or not!
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate & review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends!
Listen to all episodes on Global Player,download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 05 Jan 2026 - 46min - 47 - Bloomin’ Legend of the Year 2025: Your Champion!
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods uncover the wildest, boldest, and most unbelievable true stories from history.
In this special New Year episode, Johnny and Gav finally reveal the winner of the first ever Bloomin’ Legend of the Year 2025. After a year packed with warrior queens, mad adventurers, fearless fighters and outrageous eccentrics, it all comes down to one final decision.
The boys revisit the standout legends, relive the most ridiculous moments, and do what they do best, passionately disagree, before crowning the ultimate Bloomin’ Legend from your votes! Expect, big laughs, questionable logic, and a decision that might just split opinion.
This is history’s hall of fame… Bloomin’ Legends style.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
🏆 Legend of the Year Explained – How the very first Bloomin’ Legend of the Year works
🔥 The Shortlist – Revisiting the biggest, boldest characters of 2025
🗣️ Johnny vs Gav – Strong opinions, wild tangents and plenty of chaos
👑 The Big Reveal – One legend crowned above all others
🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin’ Legends YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got your own legendary story, epic, absurd or just plain bonkers?
Send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or not!
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate & review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends!
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
This is a Global Original Podcast, produced by Ben Fairclough.
Mon, 29 Dec 2025 - 47min - 45 - The Football Match that stopped the War on Christmas, 1914
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods uncover the wildest, boldest, and most unbelievable true stories from history.
In this episode, the boys head to the frozen trenches of World War One, where, against all odds, British and German soldiers did the unthinkable. On Christmas Day, 1914, enemies laid down their weapons, climbed out of the mud, exchanged gifts, sang carols… and in some places, played football in No Man’s Land.
It was a brief, beautiful moment of humanity in the middle of industrial-scale slaughter, a reminder that even in the darkest conditions, people can still choose compassion, laughter, and fair play.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
🎄 The Night the Guns Fell Silent – How the truce began along the Western Front
⚽ Football in No Man’s Land – What really happened during the famous matches
🤝 Enemies as Humans – The shared songs, gifts and stories
💔 The Aftermath – Why the truce was never officially allowed again
Bloomin’ Legend or Not?
At the end of the episode, we ask: Was the Christmas Truce itself the greatest Bloomin’ Legend of them all?
🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin’ Legends YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got your own legendary story — epic, absurd or just plain bonkers?
Send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or not!
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate & review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends!
Listen to all episodes on Global Player — download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 22 Dec 2025 - 41min - 44 - The Cowboy Who Survived 14 Bullets & A Kidnapping: Nat Love
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods dig into the wildest, boldest, and most unbelievable true stories from history!
In this episode, the boys saddle up and ride into the dusty heart of the American frontier to meet Nat Love, the legendary Black cowboy whose adventures made him famous across the Wild West. Born into slavery, Nat reinvented himself as a fearless wrangler, crack shot, rodeo champion and all-round frontier hero. His incredible life inspired the dime-novel character “Deadwood Dick”, but the real Nat Love was even more remarkable.
From shootouts and horse chases to kidnapping, cattle drives and death-defying escapes, Nat’s autobiography reads like every great western movie rolled into one, except he actually lived it.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
🐎 From Slave to Cowboy – How Nat escaped the South and carved out a life of freedom
🔫 The Deadwood Competitions – The rodeo victories that made him a frontier superstar
💥 Shootouts & Close Shaves – The near-death encounters that fuelled his legend
📚 Fact vs Fiction – How Nat Love became the inspiration for Deadwood Dick
🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin’ Legends YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got your own legendary story, epic, absurd, or just plain bonkers?
Send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or not!
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate & review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends!
Listen to all episodes on Global Player — download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 15 Dec 2025 - 46min - 43 - Paddy Mayne - The SAS Rogue Hero Who Terrified the Desert
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods bring you the most unbelievable, outrageous and downright heroic true stories from history!
In this episode, the boys dive into the explosive life of Lieutenant Colonel Blair “Paddy” Mayne, the hard-drinking, fist-swinging, ice-cold Irishman who became one of the founding legends of the SAS. A former rugby star turned wartime wrecking ball, Mayne carried out some of the most daring raids of World War II, destroying aircraft, blowing up enemy bases, and leading missions deep behind enemy lines.
Fierce, unpredictable, and unbelievably brave, Paddy Mayne is still considered one of the greatest special forces soldiers of all time, a man whose courage bordered on myth.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
💥 The Birth of a Beast – From rugby international to unstoppable commando
🚙 Desert Raids of Chaos – The SAS missions that rewrote the rules of warfare
🔥 Lone Wolf Heroics – The legendary acts that earned him four DSOs
⚔️ The Controversial Legacy – Why Mayne remains both a hero and a mystery
🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin’ Legends YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got your own legendary story, epic, absurd or just plain bonkers?
Send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or not!
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate & review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends!
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 08 Dec 2025 - 46min - 42 - Harry Houdini: Escapes, Aviation & The Vanishing Elephant
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods unpick the wildest, boldest, and most unbelievable true stories from history!
In this episode, the boys dive headfirst into the extraordinary life of Harry Houdini, the Hungarian-born showman who became the world’s greatest escape artist. From breaking out of handcuffs, jail cells, milk cans and moving vehicles, Houdini turned danger into spectacle and built a career on doing the impossible.
But beyond the fame, the applause and the death-defying stunts, Houdini was also a crusader, spending his later years exposing fake mediums, fighting spiritualist scams, and taking on anyone who tried to deceive the public.
It’s the unbelievable story of the magician who refused to be trapped by anything, chains, locks, or even death itself.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
🔐 The Birth of Houdini – How a penniless immigrant became a global superstar
🗝️ The Legendary Escapes – Milk cans, straitjackets, underwater challenges and near-disasters
✈️ His Flying Hobby – Houdini’s mission to become a pilot
💥 A Mysterious Death – The bizarre final days that fuelled a century of conspiracy theories
🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin’ Legends YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got your own legendary story, epic, absurd or just plain bonkers?
Send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or not!
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate & review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends!
Listen to all episodes on Global Player - download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 01 Dec 2025 - 48min - 41 - Bonus Episode: Vote for the Bloomin Legend of the Year!
It’s a big moment here on Bloomin Legends,and you’re officially part of it.
As 2025 comes to a close, Johnny & Gav gearing up to crown our very firstBloomin' Legend of the Year, and we need you to help decide who takes the title.
Vote on our TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends or right here - https://linktr.ee/bloominlegends
From fearless warriors to unhinged mystics, rebellious pirates to unbelievable survivalists, this year has been packed with some truly unforgettable figures:
BoudicaRasputinBartholomew RobertsReg Spiers (yes… the man who posted himself to Australia)Hugh GlassVlad the ImpalerArthur PriestThey've laid out their legendary tales and moments in every episode, now it’s time to choose the one legend who stands above the rest.
Head to our socials and hit the link in our bio to cast your vote. You only get one, so choose wisely!
Vote on our TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends or right here - https://linktr.ee/bloominlegends
We’ll reveal the winner and officially crown the Bloomin Legend of the Year 2025 on December 29th. Don’t miss it!
Join the Conversation!
Send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or not!
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate & review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends!
Listen to all episodes on Global Player — download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Thu, 27 Nov 2025 - 04min - 40 - The French Robin Hood Who Made His Victims Dance: Gaspard De Besse
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods dig up the wildest, boldest, and most unbelievable true stories from history!
In this episode, the boys head to 18th-century Provence to meet Gaspard de Besse, the charming highwayman who became France’s very own Robin Hood. Born into poverty but blessed with charisma, speed, and a ridiculous streak of luck, Gaspard robbed stagecoaches, humiliated corrupt officials, and won over everyday people who saw him as a hero rather than a criminal.
Whether he was escaping impossible traps, distributing stolen wealth, or running rings around entire garrisons of soldiers, Gaspard’s short life burned bright, and his legend only grew after his dramatic final capture.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
🏹 The Rise of a Rogue – How a poor kid from Besse became Provence’s most infamous outlaw
💰 Robbery With Style – Why Gaspard’s charm made him more loved than feared
🐎 Daring Escapes – The incredible ways he slipped through the fingers of the law
⚖️ A Folk Hero Is Born – How his execution only cemented his status as a French Robin Hood
🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin’ Legends YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got your own legendary story, epic, absurd, or just plain bonkers?
Send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or not!
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate & review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends!
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 24 Nov 2025 - 48min - 39 - China's answer to Tutankhamun: Fu Hao
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods uncover the wildest, boldest, and most unbelievable true stories from history.
In this episode, we dive into the astonishing life of Fu Hao, the Shang Dynasty warrior queen, high priestess, military commander, and one-woman wrecking crew who became ancient China’s answer to Tutankhamun.
Her tomb, untouched for over 3,000 years, revealed treasures, weaponry, and secrets that rewrote everything we thought we knew about early Chinese civilisation. But long before archaeologists uncovered her legend, Fu Hao was out there leading armies, smashing enemies, and becoming one of the most powerful figures in Bronze Age Asia.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
⚔️ China’s Ultimate Warrior Queen – A royal consort who became a battlefield legend
🐅 Slayer of the Tu-Fang Tribe – How Fu Hao crushed one of the Shang’s fiercest enemies
🔮 High Priestess Power – Why she was trusted to speak to the gods
💎 The Tomb of Treasures – The discovery that made her China’s “Tutankhamun”
🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin’ Legends YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got your own legendary story, epic, absurd, or just plain bonkers?
Send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or not!
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate & review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends!
Listen to all episodes on Global Player — download from your app store or head to www.globalplayer.com.
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 17 Nov 2025 - 47min - 38 - "He kidnapped a nazi general, wore his clothes & walked across Europe", Patrick Leigh Fermor
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods uncover the wildest, boldest, and most unbelievable true stories from history.
In this episode, we dive into the extraordinary life of Patrick Leigh Fermor,the poet, adventurer, and World War II hero who lived like a character straight out of an epic novel. At just 18, he walked across Europe, surviving on charm and sheer nerve. Later, he joined British special forces, and in one of the most daring operations of the war,kidnapped a German general right under the Nazis’ noses.
From monasteries to mountaintops, and war zones to wine cellars, Fermor lived life as both a warrior and a writer, a man who proved adventure isn’t just something you read about.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
🥾 The Walk of a Lifetime – How an 18-year-old crossed an entire continent on foot
🕵️♂️ The Crete Kidnapping – The audacious plot that humiliated the Nazis
✍️ The Soldier Poet – The adventurer who turned his life into literature
⚔️ A Life of Legends – Why even Ian Fleming admired his style
🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin’ Legends YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got your own legendary story? Whether it’s epic, absurd, or just plain bonkers, send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or not!
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends!
Listen now to all episodes on Global Player.
Download Global Player from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 10 Nov 2025 - 45min - 37 - Max Woosnam: England Football Captain, Wimbledon Champion, Olympic Gold Medalist and War Hero
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods uncover the wildest, most unbelievable, and downright legendary true stories from history.
In this episode, we dive into the unbelievable life of Max Woosnam, the man who might just be the greatest British sportsman of all time. A gentleman athlete who captained Manchester City, won Olympic gold, lifted the Davis Cup, scored a century at Lord’s, and even beat Charlie Chaplin at table tennis (using a butter knife).
Woosnam was the definition of a Bloomin’ Legend, a man who did it all, and somehow made it look easy.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
⚽ Footballing Glory – From captaining Man City to facing off against England’s elite
🎾 A Racket and a Revolution – Olympic tennis champion and Wimbledon Doubles hero
🎬 The Chaplin Challenge – When Hollywood’s biggest star met his match
🏅 The Forgotten Legend – Why one of Britain’s greatest athletes vanished from fame
🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin’ Legends YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got your own legendary story? Whether it’s epic, absurd, or just plain bonkers, send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or not!
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends
Listen now to all episodes on Global Player.
Download Global Player from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 03 Nov 2025 - 46min - 36 - From Titanic to Britannic: The Man Who Wouldn’t Sink - Arthur John Priest
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods dig up the unbelievable, outrageous, and downright legendary stories from history.
In this episode, we meet Arthur John Priest, the luckiest (or unluckiest) man to ever work at sea. A humble stoker from Southampton, Priest somehow survived five shipwrecks, including the Titanic, Britannic, and a series of other naval disasters that should’ve finished him off for good. Yet every time, he crawled out of the wreckage alive, earning him the nickname “The Unsinkable Stoker.”
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
🚢 The Titanic Survivor – How Priest lived through the world’s most famous maritime disaster
💥 Explosion, Fire & Flood – The unbelievable run of ships he survived afterwards
💀 “Born Lucky” or “Cursed”? – The crew who refused to sail with him again
🔥 A Working-Class Legend – The man who just kept going, no matter what the sea threw at him
🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin’ Legends YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got your own legendary story? Whether it’s epic, absurd, or just plain bonkers — send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or not!
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends!
Listen now to all episodes on Global Player.
Download Global Player from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
For advertising opportunities on this podcast email: dax@global.com
Mon, 27 Oct 2025 - 48min - 35 - Sir Ernest Shackleton: The Expedition That Should’ve Killed Them All
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where we uncover the wildest, most legendary, and unbelievable true stories from history!
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods brave the freezing extremes of Antarctica with one of the greatest adventurers of all time, Sir Ernest Shackleton. When his ship, Endurance, was crushed by ice and his crew stranded in the most hostile place on Earth, Shackleton’s incredible leadership turned certain death into one of the most astonishing survival stories ever told.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
❄️ Shipwrecked in the Ice – How the Endurance was trapped and destroyed by the Antarctic
💪 Unbreakable Leadership – The grit and loyalty that held his men together
🚣 The Impossible Voyage – Shackleton’s 800-mile lifeboat journey through deadly seas
🏔️ Legend of the Ice – How Shackleton became a symbol of courage and endurance against all odds
Bloomin’ Legend or Not?
At the end of the episode, we decide: Was Shackleton a true Bloomin’ Legend… or just mad enough to try the impossible?
🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin’ Legends YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got your own legendary story? Whether epic, absurd, or just plain bonkers, send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or not!
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends!
Listen now to all episodes on Global Player.
Download Global Player from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 20 Oct 2025 - 48min - 34 - Mad Jack Mytton: The Wild Aristocrat Who Drank, Gambled, and Rode Bears at Dinner
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where we uncover the wildest, most legendary, and unbelievable true stories from history!
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods gallop headlong into the chaotic life of “Mad Jack” Mytton,the 19th-century aristocrat whose outrageous stunts, reckless spending, and wild eccentricities made him infamous. From hunting in his nightshirt to setting himself on fire to cure hiccups, Mytton lived fast, spent freely, and left behind one of the strangest reputations in British history.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
🐎 Lord of Lunacy – The bizarre pranks and wild lifestyle of Mad Jack
🍷 Booze, Bets & Bankruptcy – How drinking and gambling fuelled his downfall
🔥 The Hiccup Cure from Hell – One of the most ridiculous stunts ever attempted
⚰️ The Price of Madness – How his antics finally caught up with him
Bloomin’ Legend or Not?
At the end of the episode, we decide: Was Mad Jack Mytton a true Bloomin’ Legend? Or just Britain’s daftest aristocrat?
🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin’ Legends YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got your own legendary story? Whether epic, absurd, or just plain bonkers, send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or not!
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends!
Listen now to all episodes on Global Player.
Download Global Player from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 13 Oct 2025 - 46min - 33 - Vlad the Impaler: The Bloodthirsty Prince Who Inspired Dracula
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where we uncover the wildest, most legendary, and unbelievable true stories from history!
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods enter the dark and brutal world of Vlad the Impaler,the 15th-century Wallachian ruler who defended his land from the Ottomans with shocking cruelty. From forests of impaled enemies to his enduring legacy as the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Vlad’s story is part nightmare, part national heroism.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
🩸 Prince of Pain – How Vlad earned his blood-soaked reputation
⚔️ War Against the Ottomans – The ruthless tactics that terrified invaders
🌲 The Forest of the Impaled – His most infamous act of psychological warfare
🦇 From Man to Myth – How Vlad became Dracula, the ultimate monster of legend
Bloomin’ Legend or Not?
At the end of the episode, we decide: Was Vlad a true Bloomin’ Legend? Or just history’s most sadistic ruler?
🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin’ Legends YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got your own legendary story? Whether epic, absurd, or just plain bonkers, send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or not!
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends!
Listen now to all episodes on Global Player.
Download Global Player from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 06 Oct 2025 - 50min - 32 - Mad Jack Churchill: The British Soldier Who Charged Into WWII with a Longbow and a Sword
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where we uncover the wildest, most legendary, and unbelievable true stories from history!
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods go full tilt into the unbelievable wartime adventures of “Mad” Jack Churchill,the British officer who stormed World War II battlefields armed with a longbow, broadsword, and bagpipes. From leading commandos with medieval weapons to escaping Nazi captivity (twice), his story is one of the most eccentric and fearless in military history.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
🏹 The Original Action Hero – How Jack’s love of medieval weapons made him famous on the battlefield
⚔️ Swords, Bagpipes & Bravery – The wild raids that cemented his legendary status
🚀 Daring Escapes – How he slipped Nazi hands not once, but twice
🔥 Life After the War – Why Mad Jack never quite stopped being Mad Jack
Bloomin’ Legend or Not?
At the end of the episode, we decide: Was Mad Jack Churchill a true Bloomin’ Legend? Or just Britain’s most eccentric soldier?
🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin’ Legends YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got your own legendary story? Whether epic, absurd, or just plain bonkers,send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or not!
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends!
Listen now to all episodes on Global Player.
Download Global Player from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 29 Sep 2025 - 47min - 31 - Cleopatra: The Last Pharaoh Who Seduced Empires and Defied Rome
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where we uncover the wildest, most legendary, and unbelievable true stories from history!
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods sail down the Nile into the dazzling, dangerous world of Cleopatra VII,the last queen of Egypt. Brilliant, multilingual and ruthlessly strategic, she ruled a crumbling kingdom, charmed Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, and played a high-stakes game with the Roman Empire that would shape history forever.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
👑 The Making of a Pharaoh – How Cleopatra fought her siblings, Rome, and tradition to seize Egypt’s throne
💋 Lovers and Power – The truth behind her alliances with Caesar and Antony
⚔️ War with Rome – How her gamble for Egypt’s independence triggered its downfall
🐍 The Myth and the Mystery – From asp bites to Hollywood, how Cleopatra’s legend still endures
Bloomin’ Legend or Not?
At the end of the episode, we decide: Was Cleopatra a true Bloomin’ Legend? Or just the most famous femme fatale in history?
🎥 Watch the full episode on the Bloomin Legends YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got your own legendary story? Whether epic, absurd, or just plain bonkers, send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or not!
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends!
Listen now to all episodes on Global Player.
Download Global Player from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 22 Sep 2025 - 49min - 30 - Timothy Dexter: The Eccentric Millionaire Who Outsmarted Everyone by Accident
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where we uncover the wildest, most legendary, and unbelievable true stories from history!
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods dive into the bizarre, hilarious and sometimes brilliant life of Timothy Dexter -the self-styled “Lord” from Massachusetts who somehow became rich through a series of “bad” business ideas that all paid off. From selling coal where no one needed it to writing one of history’s strangest books without punctuation, Dexter turned being underestimated into an art form.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
💸 From Pauper to Millionaire – How a barely educated tanner’s apprentice became America’s most accidental tycoon
🚢 The Bad Ideas That Worked – Why his coal, whalebone, and warming pan schemes made him a fortune
📚 The World’s Weirdest Book – The punctuation-free masterpiece he forced everyone to read
🏰 Living Like a Lord – The statues, the “death” party, and his reputation as America’s original oddball
Bloomin’ Legend or Not?
At the end of the episode, we decide: Was Timothy Dexter a true Bloomin’ Legend? Or just history’s luckiest (and weirdest) businessman?
🎥 Watch the full episode on the Bloomin Legends YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got your own legendary story? Whether epic, absurd, or just plain bonkers, send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or not!
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends!
Listen now to all episodes on Global Player.
Download Global Player from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 15 Sep 2025 - 43min - 29 - Bartholomew Roberts: The World's Most Successful Pirate
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where we uncover the wildest, most legendary, and unbelievable true stories from history!
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods set sail with Bartholomew Roberts,better known as Black Bart,the most successful pirate of the Golden Age. With over 400 ships captured, he outdid even the infamous Blackbeard, rewrote the pirate code, and dressed like a gentleman while striking terror across the Atlantic.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
🏴☠️ From Reluctant Sailor to Ruthless Pirate – How Bart stumbled into piracy and never looked back
⚓ The Pirate King of the Atlantic – His unbelievable streak of raids and captures
📜 The Pirate Code – The rules that kept his crew loyal (and terrified)
💀 The Final Battle – How Black Bart met his fate and became a legend of the seas
Bloomin’ Legend or Not?
At the end of the episode, we decide: Was Bartholomew Roberts a true Bloomin’ Legend? Or just history’s flashiest outlaw?
🎥 Watch the full episode on the Bloomin Legends YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got your own legendary story? Whether epic, absurd, or just plain bonkers, send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or not!
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends!
Listen now to all episodes on Global Player.
Download Global Player from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 08 Sep 2025 - 43min - 28 - Marie Dorion: The Mother of the Frontier
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where we uncover the wildest, most legendary, and unbelievable true stories from history!
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods trek into the brutal frontier life of Marie Dorion,the fearless Indigenous woman who joined an expedition across the American wilderness, battled freezing winters, endured devastating loss, and still came out a survivor.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
🌲 Life on the Edge – What it meant to be a woman and mother on a deadly frontier journey
❄️ Surviving the Wilderness – How Marie fought starvation, freezing cold, and wild terrain
⚔️ Caught in the Crossfire – The violence and danger that stalked her expedition
🔥 A Legacy of Resilience – Why her story still inspires today as one of the Wild West’s toughest survivors
Bloomin’ Legend or Not?
At the end of the episode, we decide: Was Marie Dorion a true Bloomin’ Legend? Or just a forgotten name in America’s frontier history?
🎥 Watch the full episode on the Bloomin Legends YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got your own legendary story? Whether epic, absurd, or just plain bonkers, send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or not!
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends!
Listen now to all episodes on Global Player.
Download Global Player from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 01 Sep 2025 - 44min - 27 - Legs Diamond: The Gangster Who Couldn’t Be Killed
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where we uncover the wildest, most legendary, and unbelievable true stories from history!
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods dive into the bullet-riddled life of Legs Diamond,the Prohibition-era gangster who survived so many assassination attempts that he became known as the man who couldn’t be killed. From bootlegging and bank jobs to his tangled love life and explosive feuds, this is a gangster story for the ages.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
💰 From Street Punk to Crime Boss – How Legs climbed the underworld ladder in New York
🔫 The Nine Lives of Legs – The wildest shootouts and miraculous escapes you’ve ever heard
🍸 Prohibition Power Plays – Booze, speakeasies, and betrayal in the Roaring Twenties
⚰️ The Final Hit – How his luck finally ran out… or did it?
Bloomin’ Legend or Not?
At the end of the episode, we decide: Was Legs Diamond a true Bloomin’ Legend? Or just the slipperiest crook in American history?
🎥 Watch the full episode on the Bloomin Legends YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got your own legendary story? Whether epic, absurd, or just plain bonkers, send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or not!
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends!
Listen now to all episodes on Global Player.
Download Global Player from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 25 Aug 2025 - 34min - 26 - Spartacus: The Gladiator Who Took on Rome and Led the Biggest Slave Revolt in History
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where we uncover the wildest, most legendary, and unbelievable true stories from history!
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods unleash the blood-and-sand saga of Spartacus,the enslaved Thracian who fought his way out of the gladiator arena, built an army of tens of thousands of rebels, and sent shockwaves through the Roman Empire.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
⚔️ From Slave to Soldier – How Spartacus went from captured Thracian to feared gladiator
🏹 The Great Escape – The daring breakout from the gladiator school at Capua with Kitchen tools
🔥 Rome in Panic – How Spartacus outwitted entire Roman legions again and again
⚰️ The Final Stand – The brutal end that turned him into an eternal symbol of resistance
Bloomin’ Legend or Not?
At the end of the episode, we decide: Was Spartacus a true Bloomin’ Legend? Or just the luckiest gladiator in history?
🎥 Watch the full episode on Radio X’s YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got your own legendary story? Whether epic, absurd, or just plain bonkers, send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or not!
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends!
Listen now to all episodes on Global Player.
Download Global Player from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 18 Aug 2025 - 44min - 25 - Charles Upham: The Schoolteacher with Two Victoria Crosses and Escaped the Nazis
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where we uncover the wildest, most legendary, and unbelievable true stories from history!
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods dive into the jaw-dropping life of Charles Upham,the quiet New Zealand schoolteacher who became the only combat soldier to win the Victoria Cross twice. He took on tanks, leapt walls with a broken arm, and escaped German POW camps like it was a hobby.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
🎖️ Double VC Madness – Why Upham’s bravery was so outrageous, they thought it was a typo
💥 One-Man Wrecking Machine – Grenades, ambushes, and battlefield miracles
🪖 Prison Breaks Galore – How he gave the Nazis hell in captivity
🇳🇿 The Most Reluctant Hero – Why he hated fame but became a national legend
Bloomin’ Legend or Not?
At the end of the episode, we decide: Was Charles Upham a true Bloomin’ Legend? Or just a war machine with manners?
🎥 Watch the full episode on the Bloomin Legends YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got your own legendary story? Whether epic, absurd, or just plain bonkers, send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or not!
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends!
Listen now to all episodes on Global Player.
Download Global Player from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 11 Aug 2025 - 41min - 24 - Leonardo da Vinci: The Renaissance Genius
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where we uncover the wildest, most legendary, and unbelievable true stories from history!
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods explore the wildly inventive, mind-blowingly brilliant, and just a bit bizarre life of Leonardo da Vinci,the illegitimate son of a notary who went on to define the Renaissance. He painted the world’s most famous smile, dissected corpses for fun, and sketched helicopters 500 years before they existed.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
🎨 Beyond the Mona Lisa – Why da Vinci’s notebooks were more explosive than his paintings
🧠 The Original Multi-Hyphenate – Artist, engineer, scientist, anatomist, dreamer, and occasional procrastinator
🚁 Future Tech in the 1400s – Flying machines, robots, and war inventions way ahead of their time
🕵️♂️ Secret Symbols & Smirks – What’s really going on in his most famous works?
Bloomin’ Legend or Not?
At the end of the episode, we decide: Was Leonardo da Vinci a true Bloomin’ Legend? Or just an eccentric with a sketchbook and a good PR team?
🎥 Watch the full episode on the Bloomin Legends YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got your own legendary story? Whether epic, absurd, or just plain bonkers, send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or not!
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends!
Listen now to all episodes on Global Player.
Download Global Player from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 04 Aug 2025 - 44min - 23 - Lambert Simnel: The 10-Year-Old Con Artist Who Nearly Stole the English Throne
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where we uncover the wildest, most legendary, and unbelievable true stories from history!
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods unravel the absurd tale of Lambert Simnel,a pint-sized pretender who was plucked from obscurity and paraded across Europe as a royal heir. Backed by foreign armies and Yorkist plotters, this kitchen boy turned fake prince came this close to becoming King of England.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
👑 A Kid with a Crown – How a 10-year-old was coached to impersonate royalty
⚔️ Rebellion and Royal Deception – The full bonkers story of the Battle of Stoke Field
🫅 Henry VII’s Shock Response – Why the real king didn’t execute this tiny traitor
🥧 From Throne to Kitchen – How Simnel went from fake monarch to royal banquet servant
Bloomin’ Legend or Not?
At the end of the episode, we decide: Was Lambert Simnel a true Bloomin’ Legend? Or just a puppet in history’s weirdest royal scam?
🎥 Watch the full episode on Radio X’s YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got your own legendary story? Whether epic, absurd, or just plain bonkers, send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or not!
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends!
Listen now to all episodes on Global Player.
Download Global Player from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 28 Jul 2025 - 46min - 22 - Charlemagne: The Father of Europe and the Pope’s Chosen Emperor
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where we uncover the wildest, most legendary, and unbelievable true stories from history!
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods dive into the jaw-dropping life of Charlemagne,the warrior king who went from Frankish prince to Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. With a sword in one hand and scripture in the other, he conquered kingdoms, united Europe, and somehow still found time for a LOT of kids.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
⚔️ The Warrior King – How Charlemagne built a continental empire through faith, fire, and force
📜 The Emperor’s Glow-Up – Why the Pope crowned him on Christmas Day and what it really meant
🏰 Politics, Power & Papal Drama – The wild clashes between church and state that shaped Europe for centuries
🧬 A Seriously Legendary Legacy – How he fathered over 18 children and may be your ancestor too (seriously)
Bloomin’ Legend or Not?
At the end of the episode, we decide: Was Charlemagne a true Bloomin’ Legend? Or just a medieval strongman with a good PR team?
🎥 Watch the full episode on Radio X’s YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got your own legendary story? Whether epic, absurd, or just plain bonkers, send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or not!
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends!
Listen now to all episodes on Global Player.
Download Global Player from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 21 Jul 2025 - 44min - 21 - Zheng Yi Sao: The Pirate Queen Who Ruled the South China Sea
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where we uncover the wildest, most legendary, and unbelievable true stories from history!
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods set sail into the astonishing life of Zheng Yi Sao,the Cantonese sex worker turned pirate empress who built the most powerful naval empire in history. She didn’t just loot ships, she ran an entire ocean like a mob boss.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
🏴☠️ From Brothel to Battleship – How she went from working the docks to commanding them
⚓ The Code of the Queen – The ruthless pirate laws she enforced that even the toughest men feared
💥 Naval Battles & Imperial Beatdowns – How she outmanoeuvred the Chinese Navy, Portuguese, AND British
🧾 The Sweetest Surrender Deal in History – Why she retired with full honours, a government job, and zero consequences
Bloomin’ Legend or Not?
At the end of the episode, we decide: Was Zheng Yi Sao a true Bloomin’ Legend? Or just a cutthroat crime boss with good PR?
🎥 Watch the full episode on Radio X’s YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got your own legendary story? Whether epic, absurd, or just plain bonkers—send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or not!
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends!
Listen now to all episodes on Global Player.
Download Global Player from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 14 Jul 2025 - 49min - 20 - Geronimo: The Fearless Apache Warrior Who Fought an Empire and Became a Legend
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where we uncover the wildest, most legendary, and unbelievable true stories from history!
Which you can now WATCH in full, on the Radio X Youtube Channel!
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods track the incredible life of Geronimo—the Apache leader whose name became a global battle cry. From daring escapes to brutal battles against Mexico and the United States, Geronimo became a symbol of defiance, survival, and rebellion.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
🪓 Apache Avenger – How Geronimo turned personal tragedy into a lifelong war for freedom
🏹 The Master of Escape – His impossible getaways that made him the most wanted man in America
💥 The US Army’s Worst Nightmare – Why thousands of soldiers couldn’t catch one man in the desert
🎖️ From Warrior to World Star – How Geronimo went from resistance leader to sideshow celebrity in his final years
Bloomin’ Legend or Not?
At the end of the episode, we decide: Was Geronimo a true Bloomin’ Legend? Or just the last outlaw of a dying world?
🎥 Watch the full episode on Radio X's YouTube channel!
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got your own legendary story? Whether epic, absurd, or just plain bonkers—send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or not!
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends!
Listen now to all episodes on Global Player.
Download Global Player from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 07 Jul 2025 - 51min - 19 - Ivan the Terrible: The Bloodthirsty Tsar Who Ruled with Fear, Fury & Flying Monks
Welcome back to Bloomin’ Legends! The podcast where we uncover the wildest, most legendary, and unbelievable true stories from history!
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods take us into the dark and deranged reign of Ivan the Terrible. The first Tsar of Russia whose violent outbursts, bizarre behaviour, and brutal purges made him one of history’s scariest rulers... and possibly its weirdest.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
👑 Russia’s First Tsar – How Ivan crowned himself and rewrote the Russian playbook
💀 The Bloody Oprichniki – His terrifying private death squad who spread fear across the land
⚔️ Paranoia, Rage & Tragedy – Why Ivan saw enemies everywhere… even in his own family
🚀 The Monk He Launched Into Space (Sort Of) – The strange, possibly true story of Ivan’s most bizarre execution
Bloomin’ Legend or Not?
At the end of the episode, we decide: Was Ivan the Terrible a true Bloomin’ Legend? Or just Russia’s most dangerous madman?
Join the Conversation!
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
📩 Got your own legendary story? Whether epic, absurd, or just plain bonkers! Send it to bloominlegends@global.com and we’ll decide if it’s Bloomin’ Legendary or not!
👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review to help more people discover Bloomin’ Legends!
Listen now to all episodes on Global Player.
Download Global Player from your app store or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legendsis a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
Mon, 30 Jun 2025 - 48min
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