A really good listen - The Rest is Entertainment
I do love starting a new year with a new recommendation. Especially when it’s one that is as comprehensively absorbing, revealing, informative, and, yes, entertaining as The Rest is Entertainment.
TRIE joins a stable of hugely successful podcasts made by Goalhanger Productions, which is part-owned by Gary Linekar, including The Rest is Politics, the UK’s biggest podcast, and The Rest is History, the most popular history podcast in Europe. On the strength of the eight episodes of The Rest is Entertainment that have been released so far, it certainly has the necessary ingredients to join its successful sister productions at the top of the podcast charts.
Any podcast that promises to ‘pull back the curtain on television, movies, journalism and more’ (the more being music, theatre, publishing, celebrity and the entertainment industry in general) is going to rely on the knowledge, insight and enthusiasm of its hosts and TRIE has undoubtedly hit the jackpot with presenters Richard Osman and Marina Hyde.
Richard is already well-known for his long career as a television game show host, panellist, presenter, producer and comedian. And more recently for his world-wide bestselling Thursday Murder Club series of books. Marina Hyde is a journalist and long-standing Guardian columnist where she writes about current affairs, celebrity and sport. He is smart, avuncular, funny and self-deprecating. She is astute, shrewd, passionate and quick-witted. Together they are simply superb.
Richard Osman and Marina Hyde recording an episode of The Rest is Entertainment
Not only do the pair share the same deep-rooted fascination and enthusiasm for their subject, but their different industry backgrounds combine to give listeners the kind of inside insight that ensures you come away from every episode understanding more about the entertainment industry, why it matters, the way it works behind closed doors, and the people who inhabit and make the cogs turn in the business that is show.
The conversation and discussion between Richard and Marina manages to be well-informed and intelligent without ever being pretentious, and they have a way of making even the the stories you think you don’t have any interest in (why Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez agreed to do the excruciating interview and photoshoot in American Vogue?) into something compelling and memorable.
So if you ever wondered why on earth Nigel Farage got paid over £1 million to take part in I’m a Celebrity, and whether ITV got its money’s worth, as well as how the whole business of booking celebrities for shows works, or wanted to understand how the media culture led to the phone hacking scandal, why some apparently successful TV shows get cancelled, whilst others run for years, what the two presenters make of the new Squid Game game-show (the most expensive ever produced), or simply what their book, theatre, film , music and TV recommendations are for 2024, this is the podcast for you.
It’s very definitely the podcast of 2024 so far for me.
You can find The Rest is Entertainment wherever you get your podcasts
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