PODCASTS — LISTEN AT YOUR LEISURE

Je T’Aime: The legendary love story of Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0002lw8

This is for all those who found the love story between the iconoclastic, world-weary French songwriter Serge Gainsbourg, and the British aristocratic ingenue, Jane Birkin, to be a thing of unlikely beauty.

Essentially, this is an audio book, a five-part reading of Veronique Mortaigne’s bestselling book, read by Jane Slavin (episode one is available until March 20). The pair met in 1968 when Birkin arrived in Paris from London. She was, by then, a promising actress with a whiff of scandal about her — she had appeared nude in Antonioni’s classic film Blow-Up — and had already been married once, aged 17, to James Bond composer John Barry.

She and Gainsbourg — already at that time a cultural force — met on the set of Pierre Grimblat’s film Slogan and less than a year later recorded their infamous version of Je T’aime, a song Serge had originally recorded with his previous lover Brigitte Bardot. The record was banned in several countries, but launched Birkin as an icon in France. She became Gainsbourg’s muse, and mother of his two children, in a love story that seemed to embody the 1960s, and mesmerised most of Paris.

Spark Joy Podcast

www.sparkjoypodcast.com

In case you haven’t, yet, had enough of the Marie Kondo method of transforming your physical environment and sparking joy in your life by decluttering, this one’s for you.

Hosted by ‘certified KonMari consultants’ Kristyn Ivey and Karin Socci, the podcast mixes practical tips with inspirational stories and the kind of soothing approach to life that suggests happiness is just an ordered sock drawer away.