Welcome to this week's Recommendation Engine from Podcast Rex, rounding up the week in podcast reviews. Get this in an email each week by signing up to be a supporter of Podcast Rex from £3.99.
Apple Podcasts New & Noteworthy:
- The Price of Paradise
- Deep Cover: The Nameless Man
- The Apple & the Tree
- The Curious History of Your Home
- The Self Love Revolution
Spotify New & 🔥
- Harry Hill’s Are We There Yet?
- Cold Tapes
- We Just Got Here
- The Tooney and Russo Show
- Lucy and Sam’s Perfect Brains
James Marriott in the Times
- How Was It For You? - “Shuddup, shuddup, shuddup, you think. But they won’t shut up. Their episodes are more than an hour long. And you are The Times’s podcast reviewer. You cannot press pause. You cannot unplug your headphones. If you do not keep listening to this podcast you will be fired. A single tear rolls down your cheek.”
Fiona Sturges in the FT
- Green Wing: Resuscitated - “Does the series lose some of that surrealness in audio? Inevitably, yes. Green Wing was known for its stylistic tics — frames randomly slowed and sped up — and physical gags, elements that can only work in a visual medium. Nonetheless the writing still zings."
Miranda Sawyer in the Observer
- The Bachelor of Buckingham Palace - “The layers of ‘reality’ are unpeeled. Did the women really believe that Hicks was Prince Harry? Did the audience think they believed it? What does it take to create the ‘reality’ of reality shows? ‘What does the term “reality show” even mean?’ wonders Bryan at one point.”
- The Price of Paradise - “Levine is one of the best hosts out there, and her humorous delivery and script tweaks are a highlight.”
- Beef and Dairy Network - “It’s a surreal, deadpan and genuinely hilarious satirical show; an entire mad-but-sane universe built around a podcast about all things beef and dairy.”
Patricia Nicol & Clair Woodward in the Sunday Times
- Sherlock & Co. - “Each episode rattles along with plenty of jeopardy, in-jokes, affectionate interplay and enough loyalty to the original material to satisfy Sherlockians.”
- Womanica - “I’m a big fan of a show that’s ten minutes or so.”
- 101 Part Time Jobs - “In a world where it is increasingly difficult for musicians to make a living from their art alone, Giles Bidder hosts a series where they talk about work and the jobs they have had to do to support themselves.”
- FC Bullard - “Jimmy Bullard and John Fendley, formerly of Sky Sports’ Soccer AM, are setting up their own football team.”
- The Belgrano Diary - “The diary contradicts much of the government information on the sinking.”
The Guardian’s Hear Here column recommends
- The Competition - “It’s a harsh, competitive tale that Oliaee tells so well..”
- The Letter: The Ripple Effect - “A sensitively handled true-crime podcast.”
- Halfway - “A tech company is making big money from recreating the personalities of dead loved ones, but when a woman uses it to bring back her brother, problems emerge.”
- Long Shadow: In Guns We Trust - “Twenty-five years after the Columbine High School shootings, Garrett Graff opens a rational discussion about the right to bear arms in the US.”
- The Bachelor of Buckingham Palace - “Scott Bryan speaks to former contestants and finds out just how easily they were duped into taking part in something so absurd.”
Highlights from the Radio Times
- Serial 4 - “Such a singular account of hopelessness.”
- Halfway - “A mightily impressive audio drama debut from Idris and Sabrina Elba.”
- Amazing Sport Stories: Chasing Mountains - “Leeanne Coyle’s sound design makes us feel that we’re really up there with her.”
Heat’s Top of the Pods
Scott Bryan in Great British Podcasts
- If I Speak - “It is one of those podcasts where it doesn’t feel like they’re in a podcast studio. It is like overhearing a conversation between two close mates.”
- Life Changing - “Asks guests about the moments that have forever changed their life.”
- The Price of Paradise - “Bizarrely, the whole thing was filmed for a Channel 4 show, so you’re able to hear everything unravel.”
- Life with Nat - “Within the first few minutes of one episode she talks about the frustration of being cut off by other cars whilst stuck in traffic on the A414. And yet, it is entertaining, because it is Natalie Cassidy.”
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