Our latest season of Reading Between The Lines has come to a close. Digital Editor Jacqueline is talking about the process from start to finish, and some of the highlights of the season.
Way back in June I started the learning process of putting together our podcast and tried my hand at hosting.
Then it was time to put a plan together for the entire of season 3. Including going in to the archive to find stories, schedule recording sessions, get people on board, record and edit. The whole process started in July and the last episode came out on Monday. It’s been a huge part of my job!
If you haven’t been keeping up with this season, let me give you a little taste.
The episodes
The season kicks off with “Changing Heart”, one of the top rated stories of the season! In other stories, the team continue to struggle with the “immediate marriage” trope and poorly written women. But other stories, like “Love’s Ambassador” make a refreshing change.
The podcast takes a “true crime” turn in “A Motor Knight Errant” in a particularly riotous episode. In “A Cinema Star”, Barry gets on the wrong side of the women on the team. And finally gets his way to have “The Cup Final and the Trouser Tree” included in the podcast.
My highlights of the season were our descent into madness in “The Healing Touch” as Barry described ‘toast water’ to us. I had to cut a lot of laughter out of the episode as it would have been too long! And David’s mad conspiracy theory proposed first in “Love’s Ambassador” and brought to a close in “St. Valentine’s Violets” about The People’s Friend Editor gave the season a lovely complete arc.
What to expect
We continued our amazing partnership and sponsorship with The Oddfellows throughout the whole season, bringing lots of member stories about the benefits of joining The Oddfellows. And we brought lots of amazing stories back from the archives of the “Friend” through the 20s – 40s.
Each episode is roughly an hour long, half of which is a reading of an archive story from the “Friend”, the other half a panel discussion about the story and how the magazine has changed over time. It’s fascinating to see how attitudes, trends, and relationships have changed over time but how some things have stayed so much the same. How The People’s Friend champions new writers, how the reader is at the heart of everything we do, themes of family values and wholesomeness.
Listening to the podcast would also be a great resource for anyone who is trying to submit their own work to The People’s Friend. You get a taste every episode of what we like and what wouldn’t work for the “Friend” today.
Listen to every episode, including previous seasons, for free on your podcast app. You can also catch up with the stories by reading them on the website.
Tell us your thoughts!
If you have any opinions, suggestions or questions about Reading Between The Lines, feel free to get in touch! You can email peoplesfriend@dcthomson.co.uk with anything you have to say – we’d love to hear which episodes you enjoyed.
Jacqueline Munro I am the Digital Content Editor at "The People's Friend", looking after our website, social media channels and podcast.
