PODCASTS THE BEST AUDIO SHOWS TO LISTEN TO THIS WEEK

FRENCH AND SAUNDERS: TITTING ABOUT Dawn and Jennifer’s idle, funny chit-chat

It was only a matter of time before Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders launched their own podcast. This six-part series – only on Audible – is as enjoyable as you’d expect. The two old friends chew the fat on whatever subjects occur to them, from Idris Elba to road rage and Dawn’s enthusiasm for kissing. It’s idle chit-chat of the best kind.

A BIT OF A STRETCH Find out what jail is really like

In 2016, documentary-maker Chris Atkins was sentenced to five years in jail for tax fraud. He served half that, including a stretch in Wandsworth, one of the e most notorious prisons in Britain. This fascinating new podcast lifts the lid on what jail is really like, featuring interviews with other lags, who recall what it feels like to enter a prison wing for the first time.

THE FAULT LINE When Dubya and Tony went to war

In the wake of 9/11, an unlikely bromance formed between George W. Bush and Tony Blair ( (left). This podcast, hosted by Da David Dimbleby, charts the 18 mont months after the terrorist attack that led the two leaders’ countries into war. Dimbleby has authority, and the guests are excellent, including an intelligence officer who warned that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction.

PHOEBE READS A MYSTERY Books from Brontë to Christie

When is a podcast not a podcast? Possibly when it’s an audiobook. Several times a week, honey-voiced American crime journalist Phoebe Judge reads a chapter from a book she loves. She’s just finished trawling through Jane Eyre, but it’s best to start with her decidedly shorter rendition of Agatha Christie’s first published novel, The Mysterious Affair At Styles.