Ruislip & Eastcote & Northwood Gazette
A varied cast
LAURA DAVIS has some weird and wonderful characters she wants you to meet, including a social distancing food critic, a haunted cafe worker and a pair of mismatched news presenters
TEXTING WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
WHEN BBC News anchor Ros Atkins realises he is texting a stranger almost more than his wife, he decides to start recording their conversations.
The stranger is none other than US sports and news commentator Keith Olbermann, who Ros got chatting to on Twitter but, until this podcast, hadn’t met in real life.
Their discussions are fascinating, not least in the way they highlight the difference between news broadcasting in America and the UK, but also because they turn into an exploration of platonic male friendship.
Interjected are in-bed dissections of the two men’s conversations with Ros’ initially bemused wife Sara, who acts almost as a therapist helping her husband understand and accept some of Keith’s more challenging personality traits.
Where to start: Episode one, in which Keith starts questioning why he’s staying up late to text with one of America’s most notorious broadcasters.
Where to find it: On the BBC Sounds app or the podcast app of your choice. Also online at https://bbc.in/38wGgNo
THE FOUNTAIN ROAD FILES
EVEN with lockdown gradually easing, Richard MacLean Smith’s new fiction podcast makes strange listening.
Before pressing play, you are aware thanks to the series notes that the main character, Ben Williams, will have died in mysterious circumstances by the end of it. Ben is a likeable 27-year-old who loses his job in a cafe due to the onset of the pandemic and is living alone in a London flat, where weird things slowly start happening.
It’s basically a traditional ghost story with all the suspense and jumps you would expect from that enjoyable age old format. But what makes it really spooky is the bizarre world Ben is living in – silent streets, clapping with strangers once a week, supermarket shelves bare of toilet roll, a frightening, mysterious virus.
A world we couldn’t have expected ourselves experiencing six months ago.
Where to start: Right at the beginning.
Where to find it: On all podcast apps. Details at thefountainroadfiles.com