Picks of the week
Free Shakespeare on the Radio (from 13 Jul)
With venues across the globe still shuttered, New York’s public radio station WNYC and arts organisation The Public Theater have teamed up to bring their annual open-air Shakespeare performance to the airwaves. Broadcast from Monday to Thursday this week and also released as a podcast, their production of Richard II is led by Moonlight’s André Holland in the title role, and features a cast predominately made up of people of colour. And with its themes of societal chaos and woeful leadership, its message is sure to cut through some 400 years on. Hannah J Davies
The Sandman (from 15 Jul)
Neil Gaiman has overseen this lavish Audible adaptation of his epic comic books, which features an all-star voice cast. James McAvoy is Lord Morpheus, who descends into hell to confront Lucifer (Michael Sheen), with Riz Ahmed, Miriam Margolyes and Taron Egerton also in the ensemble. The opening episode sees a cocktail waitress being rescued by The Sandman. Her attacker, like many others, is soon brought down by sleeping sickness as the twisting story with many threads unfolds over 20 episodes. Hannah Verdier
Guardian pick: Innermost
In our new series about strangers and their secret lives, callers tell Leah Green what’s going on behind closed doors. This week, Nat and Emma show how changing your mind about something can lead you into a totally different life. And, as they tell Leah, you might feel all the better for it.
Producer pick: Heavyweight
Chosen by Nicola Kelly
Heavyweight turns from reconciliation-matchmaker show to lockdown-soother in the latest series of special check-ins. Presenter Jonathan Goldstein and his two producers – and occasionally his son Ogie, who has featured since he was a baby – reflect on the trials and tribulations of a life lived temporarily indoors. Toilet roll shaming at the supermarket, fights in pharmacy queues, shaky tricycle practice: it’s all there in bitesize chunks.
Highlights include Stevie, one of the producers, deliberating with her grandma about whether to go on a socially-distanced blind date (it happens, but she doesn’t sound all that enthused); a weirdly calm woman in the early stages of labour having contractions as she’s interviewed; and a zookeeper on how the animals were held captive.
My favourite bit of the podcast is usually the opening section, when the presenter calls his friend Jackie, who cuts him down to size in the way only an old friend can. The check-ins would massively benefit from her wit and dryness.
Gimlet’s podcasts always boast high production values and Heavyweight is no exception, but the rawness and intimacy of the check-ins makes them by far the most accessible of the episodes so far.
Talking points
If you’ve caught Hamilton fever courtesy of Disney+, why not tune into a re-released episode of Twenty Thousand Hertz to hear how the show’s soundscape drives the Broadway smash hit.
Why not try: Gurls Talk | The Art of Rave with Becky Hill | Why Mums Don’t Jump
