How drunk do they really get on Drunk History? "I drank a whole bottle of gin - I can't remember any of it," says Matt Richardson

If you’ve come across Comedy Central’s Drunk History you’ll know that it pretty much does what it says on the tin: comedians get drunk and attempt to talk viewers through a historical event, while famous (sober) faces act it out. But just how drunk do they really get? Is it real? Or is this just pretend drunkenness, with a bit of deliberate slurring, some stumbling about…? Well, no, not if comedian Matt Richardson is anything to go by.

“I was, without question, the drunkest I’ve ever been,” Richardson confessed to RadioTimes.com about his session. “I was absolutely hammered.”

“I don’t remember the record.”

There was no gentlemanly sipping going on here. Richardson drank the “better part of a bottle of gin” in around five hours, while attempting to discuss the events leading up to the start of the Second World War.

“I can’t really drink gin and tonics any more, they make me feel sick,” he admitted. “You know when you’ve drunk so much of it you ruin it for yourself for ever? I used to love a gin and tonic – I can’t drink gin anymore.”

The new Virgin Radio drivetime DJ didn’t make himself sick, a decision he regretted when he woke up still drunk at midnight after a post-show nap. And during filming he managed to panic his mum.

“I remember calling my mum in the toilets at one point. She rang me back because I was so hammered she was worried. I could barely talk.

“There’s a really funny bit where they get me to say the phrase ‘and then in 1939 Germany invaded Poland’ and there’s about twenty attempts from me to be able to get the words out.” Indeed, we've got the clip below.

But it seems that struggling to speak was the least of his worries – there are some words he should have kept in.

“I think I dropped the c-bomb when it came to talking about Hitler. When I told my mum that was she was mortified. But, within context mum, there’s no-one better that I could have said it about. I think the one person that I can actually use the c-word about on telly is Hitler mum, let’s be honest.”

So how will it go watching it back? “I’m going to be watching through my fingers…”

See Drunk History tonight at 10:00pm on Comedy Central, which also sees Olivia Colman star in a drunk tale told by Josie Long.