Spoken word series worth tuning in to

REAL LIFE

Sorted with the Dyers

EastEnders’ Danny Dyer and his Love Island daughter Dani discuss listeners’ life dilemmas and offer advice to resolve tricky situations. The problems they consider range from the listener who wants to stay with a partner who kissed a colleague, to another whose “friend with benefits” has settled down, and the pressures parents put on their children. In between, the pair chat about subjects such as whether Dani would let her son Santiago go on Love Island when he grows up. In the latest episode, Danny and Dani discuss baby names, and Dani reveals ones she nearly picked for her lad.

MUSIC The Detail

Singer-songwriters Katie Melua and Polly Scattergood speak to musicians, composers and other recording industry professionals about their songwriting secrets. In one episode, Travis frontman Fran Healy discusses different schools of thought about songwriting and explains the difference between songs designed to fit a brief based on what’s popular in the charts and those written from the heart. Fran also describes the creative process behind his hits, such as Why Does It Always Rain On Me?, and explains how he writes by “switching off his brain” and going into a trance-like state where the lyrics flow out.

POLITICS

John Bercow’s Absolute Power

Britain has one of the oldest systems of government in the world but, rather than being planned, it was cobbled together over centuries. John Bercow, former speaker of the House of Commons, has always been fascinated by who operates the levers of power – and here he discusses with The Guilty Feminist podcaster Deborah Frances-White where power really lies in parliament. Over the course of the first series, he reveals his opinion of Michael Gove as an “ineffably hopeless chief whip”, describes the “pitiful” end to one MP’s career, and speaks his mind about Boris Johnson.