May is just around the corner, and it’s a hectic one. Local Elections across the country take place next Thursday, two days before the King’s Coronation in London. Then three days after that the Eurovision Song Contest kicks off in Liverpool, followed by the BAFTA Television Awards the day after! 😓
There’s a number of podcasts covering the Coronation. ITV News has launched The Royal Rota, brought to you by their Royal Editor Chris Ship, whilst The Daily Mirror has Pod Save The King by Ann Gripper and their Royal Editor Russell Myers. Meanwhile The Royal Parks Coronation Podcast will look at the role the Royal Parks have had in the Coronations of the past and what preparations are underway for the upcoming one.
For an insight into why Coronations happen in the first place, listen out for History Hit’s Gone Mediaeval podcast, which did a special episode on that very topic. And Tony Robinson’s Cunningcast had a look at surreal Coronation traditions, such as why the King uses a sceptre and orb for the ceremony.
In a preview episode of the new Pod Save the UK podcast, which launches properly next week, the Pod Save America team talk to PSUK’s Nish Kumar and Coco Khan and give their own views on the Royal Family.
And if you’re interested in podcasts covering Eurovision, we’ll be featuring a host of them in next week’s newsletter, so look out in your inbox. And another quick reminder to say that we have launched our own Instagram page. Make sure you follow us on @GreatBritPods for the latest podcast recommendations.
NOTABLE NAMES ON PODCASTS THIS WEEK
If you have listened to a great guest on a podcast, let us know by filling in this form and it might get featured in an upcoming newsletter [note to podcasters: make sure your episode is already out before telling us about the guest!]
- Broadcaster Rick Edwards and the writer and actor Emer Kenny are both on Dish! With Nick Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett this week.
- Róisín Murphy is on Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster.
- Ramy Youssef is on Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware.
- ITV Breakfast weather presenter Laura Tobin is on The Capsule #inconversation this week talking about her career and climate change.
- Dr Zoe Williams is on Pack Your Bags with Russell Kane this week. The doctor (and former Gladiator!) talks about how travel can be beneficial for our mental and physical health.
- And The Travel Diaries are celebrating their 100th episode this week, so the tables are turned and host Holly Rubenstein talks about her own favourite journeys.
Here are our podcast picks for the week ahead
If you want your podcast featured, or you have an excellent recommendation, all you need to do is fill in this simple form. It might get featured in this newsletter!
Who Robs A Banksy? – In 2004, a 10 foot bronze sculpture by the world famous street artist Banksy was stolen on the streets of London. It was an art heist in broad daylight. Passers-by assumed that the artwork being lifted into a truck were people in white boiler suits employed by the local council, or by people connected to the artist himself. But it wasn’t. Weirder still, the sculpture ended up in someone’s back garden.
“The fact that someone would kidnap a Banksy statue is pretty absurd already,” says the host and journalist Jake Warren. “But the story of why it happened and the following two decade debacle, is even wilder.”
The podcast also tries to get a comment from Banksy on all of this, which as you can imagine, isn’t really that easy.
Filthy Ritual – Podcasts about scams and scam artists are all the rage and this new story fronted by Hannah Macguire and Suruthi Bala, the hosts of the British Podcast Award winning series RedHanded, is a compelling one.
It’s about Juliette D’Souza, a woman who lived in Hampstead and claimed to be a spiritual healer. She manipulated her victims into handing over large quantities, in the belief that her links to the spiritual world would solve all her problems, and then would threaten them if they did not follow her precise instructions. She gained more than £1 million in the process, whilst wreaking havoc on her victim’s lives.
Tim’s Listening Party – It’s a podcast where Tim Burgess from The Charlatans celebrates a groundbreaking and era defining album along with the musician or band who made it happen.
It is a bit like Desert Island Discs, in the way that the show contains excerpts of each track and it gives the guest the opportunity to reflect. And just like the podcast version of Desert Island Discs, the music itself has been shortened due to rights reasons. Recent guests include Skunk Anansie’s Skin and The Bangles’ Susanna Hoffs.
Past Present Future – Our final podcast recommendation looks at the history of ideas that have shaped our lives. Each week Talking Politics host David Runciman interviews a guest who knows a lot about a political or philosophical concept, or an idea that has shaped our culture or philosophy. The first episode is with the novelist Ian McEwan on the impact of Italo Calvino’s The Watcher.
Thank you as always for reading (and listening).
We’ll be back next Sunday with another podcast newsletter.
