Podcast Corner: A trip inside Happy Valley and The Last Of Us
Sarah Lancashire in BBC series Happy Valley.
Shrine Podcasts says that if it's a TV whodunnit (preferably with a strong female lead), then Hannah, Rebecca, and Brendan will be dissecting it. To kick off the year, they’ve been investigating the final season of Happy Valley episode by episode.
They concluded with a “telefoam call” with the cast, offering a behind the scenes look at Happy Valley. Charlie Murphy (Ann Gallagher), Karl Davies (Daniel Cawood), Amit Shah (Faisal Barty), and Derek Riddell (Richard Cawood) talk about their roles in the hit BBC show, how they got their parts, and if they knew how it was all going to end. If you’ve had withdrawal symptoms since the end of Happy Valley, this is a nice return to the Calder Valley.
If you’ve been enjoying the other big TV event of 2023 to date, then you might have already heard about The Last of Us Podcast, an official accompaniment to HBO’s critically acclaimed adaptation of the video game. It’s hosted by Troy Baker, who played Joel in the video game, alongside showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, the latter of whom created the game and helps compare and contrast what changed in The Last of Us transferring media.
The Economist’s foray into podcasts has led to largely rewarding listens so far - The Prince: Searching for Xi Jinping was a surprisingly engaging eight-part listen at a time when China seems at a turning point under his leadership. Its release in the second half of 2022 coincided with another multipart series on Xi, under the pulling-no-punches title of How to Become a Dictator, from the Telegraph.
To mark the one-year anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the Economist has released Next Year in Moscow. A seven-part series about the “ruinous war”, it talks to Russian exiles who fled when the invasion began. “Their flight echoed one made a century ago when many Russians fled violence of the Bolshevic revolution and civil war,” says host Arkady Ostrovsky, who wants to find out what happened to those exiles and explore their stories.
Where's Home Really? is a new series hosted by British-Nigerian writer, broadcaster, and restaurant critic Jimi Famurewa, available from Thursday, March 2. A guest judge on BBC’s Masterchef and one of the lead judges on Channel 4's The Great Cookbook Challenge with Jamie Oliver, Famurewa explores the relationship between food, culture, and heritage. Guests include Big Zuu, Andi Oliver, and Asma Khan, among others, who will talk about a person, phrase, place, and plate that best represents what home means to them.
