Whilst it’s only a few episodes in, the show has been sitting near the top of the podcast charts. This might in part be the genre, but it may also be that listeners are intrigued by the actual main subject the show – Sherlock Holmes, a private investigator with an interesting persona.

We spoke to John and Sherlock about podcasting, what they’ve learned from creating the show, as well as some of the more controversial aspects of making a true crime podcast…

What was the first podcast you ever listened to?

SHERLOCK: You answer.

WATSON: Ohh good question. Erm, I’ll always check in with my football pods when I can. But probably my first listen, was maybe We Have Ways of Making You Talk? Al Murray, James Holland chatting all things World War 2. Yeah, good stuff. There’s a reason why I reached out to Goalhanger to help me with this thing. Sherlock, what about you?

SHERLOCK: Is this necessary?

WATSON: Never heard of that one, who’s on it?

SHERLOCK: I mean this. Right now.

WATSON: Oh. And yes it’s necessary – we’re promoting the show mate.

Why did you decide to start podcasting in the first place?

SHERLOCK: The Doctor began to document my cases without my permission.

WATSON: I like true crime- I found a guy (Sherlock) that was immersed in that world, so I thought, you know, better record this thing. Tell the world about Mr. Holmes here and yeah, off we went starting with the adventure of The Illustrious Client, and now we’ve got all sorts of cases coming our way.

Podcasting around true crimes has faced controversy in the past. We’ve seen people convicted from podcasting evidence, but also criticism that it can get in the way of the justice system. What are your thoughts on this?

WATSON: It can definitely get in the way. I take my microphone with me on every case and, you know, we’re often on the move and that thing can really get in the way. Clunks around all over the place and a lot of the time people think I’m a weird bloke recording them talking. Yeah.

SHERLOCK: I think they meant podcasting in general obstructing active investigations. Not your cheap microphone being ‘clunky’

WATSON: Oh. Ok. Right- I’ll, let me think of an answer for that one.

How have Scotland Yard taken to you podcasting your work?

WATSON: They said stop that immediately. Then we got a letter didn’t we. And then an officer came round. And then they just forgot about it and we’ve carried on anyway. Very similar thing happened to me once with a parking fine. So, yeah, just stick to your guns. Ride it out.

SHERLOCK: Good lord.

Have you been surprised by the success of the show?

WATSON: It has blown me away. We’ve been at number 3 in the charts a week or so after release. We’re getting more downloads than we expected. Even Gary Lineker listens. Loves it. I think, he might just be checking in on his property to be honest. But yeah, can’t believe it. Rubbing shoulders with the cream of British podcasting. Quite something. What do you think mate?

SHERLOCK: People listening to this show are eavesdropping on my life. End of discussion.

What’s the biggest thing you’ve learnt from making your podcast so far?

WATSON: That there is an audience for everything! You don’t need to be a couple of celebrities chatting about stuff. You can get out into the world, bring drama and entertainment to the ears of your listeners. It’s amazing. So much scope. And you, Sherlock?

SHERLOCK: I said end of discussion.

SHERLOCK & CO is a weekly fiction podcast written by Joel Emery, directed by Adam Jarrell of Holy Smokes Audio and produced by Goalhanger Podcasts. Starring Paul Waggott as Dr. John Watson and Harry Attwell as Sherlock Holmes. Producers Neil Fearn and Jon Gill. Executive Producer Tony Pastor. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other popular podcast apps >>

The post EXCLUSIVE: Interview with Sherlock and Watson from Sherlock & Co appeared first on POD BIBLE.

I came up with the idea for the podcast after noticing how many of the audience members from my live shows wanted to come up to me afterwards and get into really compelling conversations about Amy Winehouse. They were full of memories, stirred up by the show’s time travel back to 2006, by the music I play and by this feeling that they had some unfinished business if not with the singer herself because they didn’t know her, but then with their idea of her. Talking about Amy was a way of reassessing the problematic 2000s, of understanding that we were young in a very different time to now.

I decided to ask fans from the worlds of music, journalism and comedy to talk to me about their three favourite Amy Winehouse songs, where they were at in life when they first heard her, the memories her songs soundtrack, her cultural importance… and all of those subjects naturally lead into explaining a feeling we shared: that we miss Amy Winehouse.

The first guest is journalist Emma Garland, who wrote the introduction to the book Amy Winehouse: Beyond Black. Emma was asked to do this by the book’s author, Naomi Parry, who had been Amy’s stylist and one of her closest friends. The book came out in summer 2021, to mark the 10th anniversary of Amy’s death, and it was accompanied by a beautiful exhibition about Amy’s life and style at the Design Museum.

I wanted to feature Amy Winehouse’s music in the podcast to make it a more immersive experience, rather than potentially pushing the listener away from our audio and off to stream the music elsewhere. This meant having to make some compromises. As an indie podcast maker, I can’t afford music royalties or a PRS licence of my own. So I decided to launch the series as a Music + Talk show on Spotify and Anchor. This means that I can search for any of Amy Winehouse’s songs hosted on Spotify and then drop them into the podcast episode. Listeners with free Spotify will hear a 30-second clip, and listeners with Spotify Premium have the option to hear the whole song if they want, otherwise they can easily scroll onwards.

The podcast format I’m working with is like a scaled-down Desert Island Discs, in that my guests only talk about three songs by Amy Winehouse that mean something to them. That format determined how I interviewed my guests, always keeping at the back of my mind the fact that I’d need to move them onto the next song.

The back end of the Music + Talk show determined how I’d edit. It works by letting you drop in songs into your audio, but of course I would have to introduce each song. I had to start thinking of my episode as halfway between a pre-recorded radio show and the podcasts I have been used to making (Freelance Pod, Black Mirror Cracked). I would also have to divide the interview up into segments, to allow space to drop the songs into the episode at the right place. The songs can’t be dropped into an uploaded MP3, only around it. As someone who will happily let interviews meander into interesting places and move sections about in the edit, I found myself aiming for much more linear interviews this time, to save myself from having to deal with too many moving parts in the edit.

Lastly, the main compromise is that the podcast will only be available on the Spotify app. For some potential listeners, that will be a dealbreaker; for others, it will be a mild annoyance for them not to be able to use their favourite app. We Miss Amy Winehouse won’t slot into their podcast queue, but maybe I don’t want it to – maybe it’s better that it stands out.

Making my Edinburgh show, I Miss Amy Winehouse, has been a mostly solitary undertaking, so producing the podcast has been a wonderful reminder that there is an audience for this out there, and even if I don’t get to meet them all at the Fringe, at least I’ve found another way to reach them.

The post We Miss Amy Winehouse: Making a companion podcast to my Edinburgh Fringe comedy appeared first on POD BIBLE.