From The Joe Wicks Podcast to Homo Sapiens and The Pargetter Triptych: This week’s top podcasts

The Joe Wicks Podcast

The lockdown has made a king of Joe Wicks, the fitness instructor who has been teaching us how to stay healthy. Now, inevitably, he has a perky BBC podcast. 

It’s actually rather enjoyable. Each week Wicks talks to people he admires about how they stay motivated. Start with the episode with Gordon Ramsay, who explains why he asks people who work for him if they have a gym membership.

The Pargetter Triptych

Nine years ago, Nigel Pargetter caused a sensation by falling off the roof in The Archers. Now a mischievous three-part podcast has resurrected his ghost. Pargetter revisits the roof from which he fell – or was pushed. 

‘There are a lot of ways out of Borsetshire,’ Pargetter notes drily. But, all these years later, ‘Does anyone believe that ridiculous story about the roof?’ It’s clever, funny and rather better than the actual Archers right now.

Homo Sapiens

This long-running podcast has launched a fourth season with a rejigged host line-up: now it’s got Alan Cumming and Christopher Sweeney at the helm. Each week the chaps interview gay icons and allies over tea and biscuits. 

This long-running podcast has launched a fourth season with a rejigged host line-up: now it’s got Alan Cumming (above) and Christopher Sweeney at the helm

Start with the episode with Stephen Fry, who recalls forcing himself to go clubbing in the 1980s and feeling ‘as far from cute as it is possible to be’. All he wanted to do was chat, not dance.

The Town That Didn’t Stare

‘Every good podcast has a protagonist, someone to love or to hate,’ observes Nick Hilton. His podcast is not centred around a character but a place: East Grinstead in West Sussex. 

Ever since the Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard bought a house there in the 1950s it’s been home to a startling array of occultist belief systems.