PODCASTS/AUDIOBOOKS

How Was it for You? Various platforms, review by Yvette Huddleston

In this new weekly podcast, comedy power couple Rachel Parris and Marcus Brigstocke offer listeners an insight of what life is like for two comedians who are married to each other. They candidly share their domestic ups and downs, always with an eye for the laughs, of course. Each week they tackle a different issue relating to the everyday – such as their thoughts on tinned fish, house plants, budget haircuts and going to the tip – to give the listener a kind of ‘essential guide’ to living well (tongues firmly in cheeks here). In the opening episode they discuss the pros and cons of taking long train journeys with a group of friends and rate a recent rail trip from London to Leeds.

Oh My Dog! Various platforms, review by Yvette Huddleston

Comedians Seann Walsh and Jack Dee host this quirky series in which they wax lyrical about their beloved dogs – Dee’s streetwise long-haired chihuahua Dolly and Walsh’s lively cockapoo Mildred-Barrett. Each week they invite an equally dog-obsessed celebrity from comedy, television or film to share their thoughts on their relationship with the special canine in their lives. It is, of course, an opportunity for the guests – and indeed the hosts – to show a different side to themselves. Highlights of this second series include a visit to Crufts where they observe the competition and to chat to presenter Clare Balding and Julian Clary talking about the joy that his dogs Gigi and Albie, a rescue and a staffie cross, have brought to his life.

The Shell Seekers BBC Sounds, review by Yvette Huddleston

A new dramatisation of Rosamunde Pilcher’s bestselling novel, published in 1987 and still one of the highest selling English family sagas of the past four decades. Set in London, Cornwall, Gloucestershire and Ibiza and moving back and forth between two time periods – 1939 and 1985 – it tells the story of artist’s daughter Penelope Keeling who after a heart attack looks back over her long, rich and varied life. Her prized possession is a painting by her father, The Shell Seekers, which is now worth a lot of money. Penelope’s three adult children all have different opinions on what she should do with the painting. As she recalls her unconventional life with all its passions, tragedies and secrets, she tries to come to a decision.

Thanks a Lot, Milton Jones! BBC Sounds, review by Yvette Huddleston

Another wacky series from the king of the silly one-liner, comedian Milton Jones. He is joined by comic actors Josie Lawrence, Tom Goodman-Hill, Dan Tetsell and James Akka for a surreal sitcom full of gentle laughs and odd situations. In the opening episode we find Jones attempting to get into the lucrative area of true-crime podcasting but soon discovers that it is not as easy as it seems. Then he spots an opportunity when the son of his landlady Pauline (Lawrence) ends up in jail for shoplifting and Jones goes for a visit. It turns out all the inmates are making their own podcasts and there is a reason why there has been a rise in the theft of eggboxes…