{"id":673,"date":"2020-09-13T10:30:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-13T09:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greatbritishpodcasts.com\/?p=673"},"modified":"2020-09-10T20:51:57","modified_gmt":"2020-09-10T19:51:57","slug":"dame-judi-dench-munya-chawawa-richard-osman-and-new-drama-by-screenwriter-danny-brocklehurst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greatbritishpodcasts.com\/picks\/dame-judi-dench-munya-chawawa-richard-osman-and-new-drama-by-screenwriter-danny-brocklehurst\/","title":{"rendered":"Dame Judi Dench, Munya Chawawa, Richard Osman and new drama by screenwriter Danny Brocklehurst"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Fiona Sturges<\/strong>, a writer and columnist (and judge for the British Podcast Awards<\/strong><\/a>), posed an interesting question on Twitter earlier this week<\/a>: \u201cHow do you feel about narrative documentary series that are researched and assembled by producers and journalists, which are then narrated by a celebrity who has no connection to the subject? I am listening to one now and I feel <\/em>IRKED<\/em><\/strong>.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having celebrities present or narrate documentaries like this is certainly nothing new. It\u2019s been a successful television format for years, simply because it gets the punters in. Plus if the celebrity is genuinely curious about the subject, at the same time as the viewer at home, it really does give it a bit of an edge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was interesting though was that many of the responses to Fiona<\/a> about celebrity fronted podcasts were overwhelmingly negative: \u201cFor everyone who wouldn\u2019t listen unless \u2018A Famous\u2019 was presenting, you lose a listener who\u2019d be genuinely interested because they can smell the insincerity,\u201d<\/em> said one response. \u201cI want to hear from the people who know something about the thing!\u201d<\/em> came another. They\u2019ve got a point. Podcasting is special in that nearly<\/em> <\/strong>every topic has a podcast about it and an expert presenting it. Surely you just want to hear that expert?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My conclusion is that it isn\u2019t so clear cut. If anything, it\u2019s very much down to the celebrity themselves. If they go actively out of the way to dig deeper, great. But if it seems like everything they were going to say and do in the podcast was handed to them on a platter, we can tell. Trust me, we can always tell.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s some podcasts with decent guests in the last week:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n