From Simon Armitage’s The Poet Laureate Has Gone To His Shed to Lockdown Parenting Hell and Miriam And Youssef, this week’s top podcasts
The Poet Laureate Has Gone To His Shed
Simon Armitage, the nation’s bard, is spending lockdown holed up in a shed in the Pennines and working on a translation of a medieval poem. On this soothing podcast, he interviews notable people – including sculptor Antony Gormley and actor Maxine Peake – about their lives and views.
Simon Armitage (above), the nation’s bard, is spending lockdown holed up in a shed in the Pennines and working on a translation of a medieval poem
Lockdown Parenting Hell
Comedians Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe insist they love their children and their wives. All the same they are finding parenting during the lockdown a bit, ahem, challenging.
In this weekly podcast, the friends interview comedians who are also having an exhausting time raising their kids during the pandemic. Start with the episode with Katherine Ryan, who is funny about attempting to bond with her teenage daughter by honing her TikTok game.
Homeschool History
Greg Jenner’s wonderful history podcast You’re Dead to Me has taken a hiatus during the lockdown. But the team behind the show are now making a great podcast for children.
Episodes are bitesized and romp through a particularly juicy period or figure in history, from Mary Queen of Scots to the Restoration. The podcast is energetic, genuinely educational and packed full of fascinating facts.
Miriam And Youssef
If you’re a bit woolly on how the state of Israel came into being, this new ten-part BBC drama will sort you out. Playwright Steve Waters breathes life into this turbulent period of history by telling the story of the Jewish state through the eyes of two characters: a Jewish girl, Miriam, and a young Arab called Youssef.
You won’t even notice you’re learning.