The Poet Laureate Has Gone to His Shed

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]

Episodes

Episodes

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	[46]
	28	19 March 2023	Glyn Maxwell, musician	[47]
	29	26 March 2023	Julie Hesmondhalgh	[48]