Blast from the past
This week’s podcasts include a nostalgia trip with famous faces along for the ride
CELEBRITY CATCH UP
IF LOCKDOWN has plunged you into a midlife crisis then this podcast could be just the nostalgia trip you’re craving.
As the title suggests, presenter Genevieve Hassan chats to a range of household names – but the interviews focus on something significant from the guest’s past.
Each episode opens with a short blast of the theme tune from the programme or film they’re talking about, immediately causing a few wistful tingles.
Among guests so far, she’s caught up with Chesney Hawkes about The One and Only and gossiped about Grange Hill with Zammo (Lee MacDonald). Alan Ruck talks about Ferris Bueller and Succession, while teen-actor-turned Hollywood director Dexter Fletcher gives his opinion on how Press Gang could be remade for the 2020s. Where to start: Children of the 90s will love Tony Robinson’s memories of writing and filming kids comedy Maid Marion and her Merry Men, which reveals how his daughter inspired the idea for the show. Where to find it: All the usual podcast apps.
WE STEP OUTSIDE AND START TO DANCE
INSPIRED by an outbreak of apparently infectious dancing in 1500s Strasbourg, this audio experience actually asks listeners to dance along while it plays. Writer Alison Carr’s modernday telling reveals the thoughts of a number of characters who find their bodies uncontrollably moving in time to silent music. Time shifts strangely for them and us as, weeks on and despite agonising muscle pain, they are still dancing in the street.
It is both joyful and strange, while also sparking nostalgia for a time when we could share the experience of mixing with a group of people in public without mentally measuring out two-metre gaps.
Where to start: It’s a one-off episode that lasts about 30 minutes – you are best listening to it all in one go.
Where to find it: On most podcast apps. There’s also a BSL-interpreted and captioned film available at westarttodance.com
AS THE SEASON TURNS
Nature writer Lia Leendertz’s new podcast is an audio almanac, taking us through each month in detail, starting with January.
In this first episode, she shares her own optimistic view of the month, as the days are already growing longer, and tells us what to look out for in nature. Her script is quite poetic, sharing the meanings of the different names for January from around the British Isles and descriptions of the brambles clinging to bare hedgerows. that, coupled with a soundtrack that includes birdsong, makes this an evocative listen that reminds us there is more to life than homeschooling and Zoom calls.
Where to start: An episode will be released each month – start with the most recent. Where to find it: Most of the podcast apps.