06-04-2025
Poet Laureate revives axed BBC Radio 4 show as podcast
Simon Armitage is reviving his shed-based Radio 4 show on a rival platform after the BBC refused to commission another series.
The Poet Laureate Has Gone To His Shed podcast ran for three successful series, with Armitage interviewing famous guests in his garden in West Yorkshire.
The King was among the show's fans, even inviting Armitage to his Welsh farmhouse to record a special edition. Other guests included JK Rowling, Johnny Marr and Sir Ian McKellen.
Speaking at the Oxford Literary Festival, the Poet Laureate revealed the programme will return later this year.
Asked if it would be back on the BBC, Armitage said: 'Confusingly and frustratingly, no. Except I had a meeting with somebody yesterday who wants to start the programme again on a different broadcaster. So there will be another series.'
The show is likely to return as a podcast, rather than on a commercial radio station, he said, adding that he remained baffled by the BBC's decision to abandon it.
'We made three series for Radio 4 and they were, I think, spectacularly successful. It was incredibly satisfying to hear people say through lockdown that they really liked the programme.
'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.'
The BBC has not given a reason for the cancellation but said last year that it sometimes had to make 'difficult decisions' about its schedule.
As part of the programme, Armitage and his guest would drink a glass of sherry from the butt, which the Poet Laureate receives as reward for his duties. Over the 10-year tenure, it works out at 720 bottles.
At the festival, which is sponsored by The Telegraph, Armitage said it was impossible to get through so much sherry. 'They send 70 or so bottles a year and they have been piling up in the garage. I give most of it away for people to auction it or raffle it.'
His most recent poetry collection, Blossomise, is a hymn to spring blossom. But Armitage has also turned his attention to more prosaic subjects.
As 'writer-in-residence in my house' during lockdown, he wrote about his immediate surroundings. 'I wrote three poems about Velux windows because they were right there next to my head,' he said.
'In fact, Velux got to hear about this and asked me to come on the Velux podcast. I had nothing else to do so I did. I spoke brilliantly about double glazing.'
