Welcome to this Wednesday'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:
Spotify New & 🔥
Big new releases: The Rest is Entertainment
Hanging around: Death of a Codebreaker
It’s December, and that means lists of everyone’s favourite podcasts of the year are popping up all over the place. Recent entries include the Economist and the New Yorker. Our own will not be far behind.
Jo Ellison in the FT
- The Rest is Entertainment - “Instead of injecting highbrow subjects with bawdy lowbrow details, the presenters have brought their Oxbridge learning and erudition to the basest subjects in the cultural realm."
Fiona Sturges in the FT
- The Professor - “It’s a hell of a story, deftly told by host Simon Willis, who hangs out at [alleged art smuggler William] Veres’s flat and tags along with him on jaunts around Europe meeting various shadowy figures, among them art detectives, informants and retired police officers."
Miranda Sawyer in the Observer
- The Rest is Entertainment - “Both Hyde and Osman treat what is usually considered trivial with the utter seriousness it deserves, plus they don’t compete with each other, or try too hard to be chummy. In short, they’re great casting and the episode flew past.”
- History for You - “A very funny newish show that takes the mickey out of The Rest Is History, and all the other ‘posh chaps talking about the past’ podcasts.”
- Eight Years Hard Labour - “Close and raw.”
The Guardian’s Hear Here column recommends
- The Rest Is Entertainment - “Absolutely priceless.”
- The Second Victim - “Brave and beautiful.”
- My Fugitive Dad - “What do you do when your beloved dad tells you he’s not quite the small-town family man you think he is – but has been on the run from the police for 50 years?”
- Build a Prince: a Royal Christmas Love Story - “Podcasting’s attempt to hop on to the movie industry’s bandwagon of ropey festive fluff.”
- Walter’s War - “What starts as a dating horror story quickly evolves into one man’s tissue of lies.”
And in the Guardian’s Guide newsletter
- The Rest is Entertainment - “What this latest effort might lack in titling originality, it makes up for in pure star wattage”
Highlights from the Radio Times
- Unholy: Two Jews on the News - “Events have given their debate a fresh urgency.”
- Women are Mad - “Cathartic and engaging.”
- One Direction: a Fan Story - “Romps through seven years of global pop domination.”
- Drunk Women Solving Crime - “Bottles on the table and no one sticking to the point.”
- The World Turned Upside Down: The British Civil Wars 1638-1651 - “The detailed, concise overview will leave you knowing your Protestant from your Puritan.”
Heat’s Top of the Pods
Scott Bryan in Great British Podcasts
- The Rest is Entertainment - “The show is a hoot.”
- Heirs of Enslavement - “An interesting new series looking at enslavement and reparatory justice.”
- A History of the World in Spy Objects - “A lovely little history season.”
- Sidetracked with Annie and Nick - “Somehow, they’ve managed to make a podcast that has the energy of a live radio show.”
In PodPod’s Earworms column:
- Bobby Temps, Mental Podcast: Fad Camp - “Highlights the ridiculous nature of fad diets.”
- David Manero, Listen: Real Survival Stories - “One to listen to in headphones.”
- Andy Gaffney, Promenade: Heavyweight - “I don't think I'd be doing what I do now without Heavyweight.”
- Rob Lilley-Jones, Which?: Formula for Success - “They have some very entertaining stories.”
- Ellie Jay, Digital Frontier: Death of a Codebreaker - “Why has no one made a podcast about this before?”
