The Poet Laureate Has Gone to His Shed is a British podcast and BBC Radio 4 programme in which the Poet Laureate Simon Armitage speaks to an invited guest, usually in his writing-shed of his Yorkshire home. The first series of twelve hour-long broadcasts began in March 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic, the second series of nine began in July 2021, [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] and the third series began in February 2023. [6] The programme broadcast on 27 May 2020 was recorded while Armitage was self-isolating during the COVID-19 pandemic, and was the last of the first series. [7]
The broadcasts were recorded in Armitage's writing shed in the garden of his home in West Yorkshire. The contents of the shed include "a harmonium, a pizza oven, a daybed, books on birdspotting, a decent spread of music cassettes, and an impressive collection of sherry", [8] and he has described it as "close to nature without camping on the lawn, it's half inside and half outside". [9] Armitage and his guest have a wide-ranging conversation, often touching on his ongoing translation of the medieval poem The Owl and the Nightingale , and the guest answers a series of quick-fire questions such as "night or day, north or south, Woman's Hour or In Our Time ?" before being offered a glass of sherry. [10] [11]
In series 3, broadcast in 2023, the podcast available on BBC Sounds was up to 60 mins long but only a shortened version of 30 mins was broadcast on Radio 4.
On 2024 Radio 4 announced that it would not re-commission the series, a decision that Armitage described as "utterly bewildering". [12] Speaking at the Oxford Literary Festival in April 2025, Armitage announced that the show would be revived with a different broadcaster, probably as a podcast. [13] He reiterated his dissatisfaction with the BBC's decision not to make another series:
And, for reasons that I don’t understand and I bellyache about, they didn't commission another series. I really don’t understand it. It's very cheap to make. And it's regional – you can't get much more regional than me sitting in the garden. It was just me and a lawnmower. [13]
Series | Episode number | First broadcast | Guest | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | 4 March 2020 | Guy Garvey, singer, music presenter, birdwatcher | [14] [15] |
2 | 11 March 2020 | Kae Tempest, author | [16] [17] | |
3 | 18 March 2020 | Testament, rapper and beatboxing champion [10] | [18] | |
4 | 25 March 2020 | Maxine Peake, actor | [19] | |
5 | 1 April 2020 | Antony Gormley, sculptor | [20] | |
6 | 8 April 2020 | Lily Cole, model and entrepreneur | [21] | |
7 | 15 April 2020 | Sam Lee, singer | [22] | |
8 | 22 April 2020 | Melanie Plimmer, judge | [23] | |
9 | 6 May 2020 | Jackie Kay, poet | [24] | |
10 | 13 May 2020 | Laura Ashe, historian | [25] [11] | |
11 | 20 May 2020 | Chris Packham | [26] [27] | |
12 | 27 May 2020 | No guest | Recorded in self-isolation [7] | |
2 | 13 | 3 July 2021 | Johnny Marr, guitarist and member of The Smiths | [28] [29] |
14 | 10 July 2021 | Amanda Owen, shepherdess | [30] [31] | |
15 | 17 July 2021 | Imtiaz Dharker, poet | [32] | |
16 | 24 July 2021 | J. K. Rowling, writer | [33] | |
17 | 31 July 2021 | Jo Whiley, radio and television presenter | [34] | |
18 | 7 August 2021 | Gillian Burke, television presenter | Recorded in Gyllyngdune Gardens in Falmouth. [35] | |
19 | 14 August 2021 | John Tiffany, theatre director | [36] | |
20 | 21 August 2021 | Sabrina Verjee, vet and ultrarunner | [37] | |
21 | 28 August 2021 | Prince Charles, Prince of Wales | Recorded in the Prince's "shed", a barn at Llwynywermod in Wales. [38] [39] [40] | |
3 | 22 | 5 February 2023 | Ian McKellen, actor | [6] [41] |
23 | 12 February 2023 | Lucy Beaumont, comedian | [42] | |
24 | 19 February 2023 | Simon Dobson, composer and conductor | [43] | |
25 | 26 February 2023 | Pam Ayres, poet | [44] | |
26 | 5 March 2023 | Loyle Carner, musician | Recorded in Carner's studio in Hackney, London. [45] | |
27 | 12 March 2023 | Olive Senior, poet | ||
28 | 19 March 2023 | Glyn Maxwell, musician | [47] | |
29 | 26 March 2023 | Julie Hesmondhalgh | [48] |