Best podcasts of the week: Sheridan Smith's dangerous Margate crime novel | Podcasts

TIts autumn marks 10 years since we launched the Guardian long read edition. Looking back now, it's hard to remember how counterintuitive the idea seemed at the time – by this point, more and more people were wondering whether readers still wanted something longer than a few hundred words or even 140 characters was. Creating a dedicated space within the Guardian for multiple pieces of 5,000 (or more) words per week – which would take many months or even years to produce – seemed a quixotic project. Luckily, our readers disagreed and embraced our deeply researched stories on everything from the “cruel, paranoid, failing” Home Office and the fight against the Islamic State to the strange world of competitive plowing and the rise of hygge.

Just a few months after launching Long Read, our audio team had the brilliant idea to launch the Audio Long Read podcast. The idea was simple: hire a great voice actor to read the articles. That was it. It turned out that the listeners liked it. (A few years ago I briefly met Ed Miliband, who told me he enjoyed listening to the podcast while swimming laps in the pool.)

Since then we have produced well over 1,000 audio longreads. If you did nothing else for twelve hours a day, it would take you about two months to listen to them all. While I fully support this use of your time, we've selected just five of our favorites below.

We also have a series of 10th anniversary content in the Audio Longread feed, which began earlier this week with a panel discussion between editors about the column's past, present and future. And over the next 10 weeks, we'll be highlighting a favorite long read for each year the podcast runs, with a new introduction from the author.

David Wolf
Editor, Guardian long read

Pick of the week

The Margate Murders
Audible, all episodes available now
Sheridan Smith and Joanne Froggatt lead the cast of this dangerous, untrue crime drama. Once a decade a serial killer strikes, and as a forensic psychologist, a detective and a local newspaper journalist discuss the case, it becomes clear that not all reports are reliable. It's a scripted story, but thanks to the actors' skillful performances and refreshingly understated realism, it sounds like a convincing true crime film. Hannah Verdier

Single ladies near you
Widespread, weekly episodes
Prepare for infectious hysteria: Comedians Harriet Kemsley and Amy Gledhill grapple with being single in their 30s in this raucous gigglefest. Is true love lurking on rodeo nights? How do you find a partner who will please your picky two-year-old daughter? Does true love wash someone's pants covered in skid marks? Everything is revealed. Alexi Duggins

World of Secrets: Al Fayed, predator at Harrods
BBC Sounds, all episodes available now
The narrative of this Mohamed Al Fayed expose series may be a bit stilted, but the astonishing statements from the victims pack a real punch in the gut. Listening to the staff who have been grabbed by the crotch, raped or forced to have their ovaries checked by the GP is horrific – and a testament to the courage of those who spoke out. ADVERTISEMENT

From now on
Widespread, weekly episodes
Presenter Lisa Phillips is a former model who was abused by Jeffrey Epstein on his private island at the age of 21. Here she shares her story and uses it to help other survivors of abuse. Part confessional, part interviews with guests – including former cult members – it morphs from courageous soul-searching into a deeply insightful psychological guide. ADVERTISEMENT

Really delicious pub quiz
Widespread, weekly episodes
Every week, award-winning chef Tom Kerridge and his broadcaster friend Chris Stark invite you to a pub quiz at Kerridge's gastro bar The Butcher's Tap and Grill in Chelsea. You'll have a celebrity guest answering questions and also chatting with foodies. The first few episodes begin with Jamie Redknapp and Pixie Lott. Holly Richardson

There's a podcast for that

This week, Charlie Lindlar selects five of the best Guardian audio long readsfrom Archie Bland's essay on the rise and fall of “joking” to Michael Aylwin's devastating retelling of his wife's battle with Alzheimer's

The age of jokes
This take on a long read by Archie Bland from 2017 takes us back to the heyday of LadBible and Dapper Laughs. There we examine an era of cheeky, cruelty-based comedy and ask: What on Earth was it about? Archie meets a group of “party pilgrims” who took a night boat from Ayia Napa to Syria, takes a walk through the history of the men's magazine and questions the height of this bizarre culture: Richard Keys and Andy Gray's departure from Sky because of sexism comments that, In the immortal words of “Keysy”, they were “just kidding”. “Is it time to get off the joke bus?” the piece asks. Yes, of course – but this beautiful piece is worth one last ride.

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How Alzheimer's destroyed my dazzling, creative wife in her 40s
In August this year, Guardian journalist Michael Aylwin wrote a stunning read about his wife Vanessa and her battle with Alzheimer's. Aylwin anticipates the first signs of Vanessa's dementia, her strength as the disease consumed her, and remembers how their relationship changed as it took hold. It's a difficult but necessary read that brings to light the truth about illness, the toll it takes on a marriage, and the damage that occurs when its effects are not openly discussed. Michael's description of his “stunning and creative” wife and her “brutal and irreversible” decline is only more moving in his own words.

My Four Miscarriages: Why Is Pregnancy Loss So Mysterious?
This long read from 2020 is about perhaps the most private of all pressures: fertility. After experiencing four consecutive miscarriages, journalist Jennie Agg decided to examine the language we use to describe pregnancy loss, the state of miscarriage care and whether anything could have been done to prevent what happened to her , to change. Agg writes with elegance – “to be pregnant again after previous miscarriages is to live at the intersection of two alternative lives” – and Emma Powell matches her with a captivating interpretation of her profound words. Additionally, Agg delved even deeper into the urgent need for better miscarriage care in this 2021 episode of Today in Focus.

How the sandwich consumed Britain
It may be hard to believe, but there was a time before Pret a Manger, Greggs and Tesco food options. Lunch used to look so different – ​​so how did sandwich monoculture come about? Going back to the roots of the packaged sandwich in the 1980s, author Sam Knight ponders how Marks & Spencer's egg and cress triangles grew into an £8bn industry in which “sandwich People” anticipate and often dictate what you eat for lunch. Knight reads his story in this episode with the same wonder and whimsy with which he wrote the source material.

Cotton capital: the backlash – how slavery research came under criticism
As part of the Guardian's 2023 series examining the newspaper's founders and their historical links to slavery, Samira Shackle looked at a series of similar studies carried out at universities and other public institutions – and the fierce backlash that followed followed that. Shackle meets the courageous historian Nicolas Bell-Romero and joins him on his quest to understand Cambridge's troubled past – not only how the country benefited from slavery, but also, in Shackle's words, “its scholarship reinforced race-based thinking.” , confirmed or challenged”. . Important reporting made even more compelling in audio form. To stay up to date with the rest of the Cotton Capital Project, visit the project homepage or sign up for our 15-week newsletter series.

Why not try…

• Dive deep into unusual hobbies, from Warhammer to wild turkey conservation, in Niche to Meet You.

• Learn how a five-year-old boy from Cuba started a “mini Cold War” in Chess Piece: The Elián González Story.

• “The Deserter,” a new “audio feature” from The New York Times, features Sarah A. Topol's epic account of a Russian military officer on the run, with commentary by Liev Schreiber.

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