The 10 most popular podcasts in the UK

Looking for some insight to the best podcasts of the moment? This article is updated regularly to help you find the shows to listen to!

The official British singles chart turned 70 last year, and while we’re all obviously delighted for that venerable institution to celebrate its Platinum Jubilee it should probably be looking over its shoulder. There’s another numerical ranking that might one day overtake it as the barometer of exactly what the nation is thinking about and feeling: the podcast charts.

There are a few different podcast charts around, and they all seem to have slightly different ideas of what’s popular and who’s going, as Smash Hits used to put it, down the dumper. For this article, we’re going by the Apple Podcasts chart, and this is just a snapshot of things as they stand this month. That said, there’s a fair few instant hits, which have clamped themselves to the upper reaches of the charts on launch and might be difficult to dislodge.

The Diary of a CEO

Part business heavyweight, part new age sage, all podcast behemoth, Dragons’ Den’s Steven Bartlett is Britain’s highest profile example of a very 2020s archetype: the CEO who’s almost as much a spiritual leader as someone who knows how to stick a business together. His podcast is all about finding that thing every business leader with their LinkedIn recommendations likes to talk about now, purpose, with the help of guests who’ve been down to the bottom as well as up at the top, much like him. Listen now >>

The Rest is Politics

One of the many unexpected narrative turns of British politics in the last few years is the rebirth of Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart as centrist dads with a runaway hit podcast reflecting on domestic and international politics twice a week. Originally pitched as a classic odd couple dynamic – Campbell the trenchant Labour scrapper, Stewart the old Etonian liberal Tory – the reason it works is actually that they realise they’re so similar, and happy to do what they call ‘disagreeing agreeably’. They’re both fuming with the government, for one thing, and both good at taking a global view on the news. Listen now >>

The Therapy Crouch

After sewing up the football podcast game, Peter Crouch of – let me check my notes here – The Peter Crouch Podcast has planted a long, surprisingly cultured foot into relationships podcasts. If you’re doing a relationship pod these days you’ve got to do it with your real life partner, and Abbey Clancy is ideal for it: funny, opinionated, and only too happy to take the mick out of her husband. Each time they dissect a difficulty your love life might throw up, from working out when to move in together to the perfect proposal. Listen now >>

Sh**ged Married Annoyed

Of course, The Therapy Crouch follows in the footsteps of the relationship pod that set the new agenda: Chris and Rosie Ramsey’s giant hit passed 100 million downloads more than a year ago, and doesn’t look like it’ll slow down any time soon. The format is loose and freewheeling, the better to let the Ramseys’ easy chat flow and bring forth the relatable laughs about the day to day irritations and agitations your nearest and dearest are so good at landing in your life. Listen now >>

The News Agents

BBC heavyweights Emily Maitlis, Jon Sopel and Lewis Goodall all left the corporation earlier this year to lead Global’s banner current affairs pod, and even this early on in proceedings it looks like the gamble’s paying off. Through the late Johnson collapse, the Tory leadership scramble, the Truss interregnum and the Sunak ultimatum, they’ve been around Westminster and the party conferences reporting with authority and confidence. Listen now >>

The Rest is History

The other big hit in the Goalhangers production house stable sees historians Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland (not that one) digging through corners of history both familiar and obscure, and also using it as a means to look at current affairs with a longer view than most other podcasts tend to take. The series of World Cup-themed specials, which dive deep into a slice of a competing nation’s history, have been particularly good. Listen now >>

Off Menu

You know your podcast is doing quite well when you collab with a menswear brand on a run of tie-in t-shirts. Ed Gamble and James Acaster’s food pod is that kind of big, and you can see its popularity in the rash of podcasts where guests think up a fantasy thing: festival line-up, film screenings, that sort of thing. But Off Menu still does it best, and draws on guests as varied as Stanley Tucci, Rina Sawayama, Ed Sheeran and Rylan – plus Rylan’s mum, who called in during their recording because she was worried he’d died. Listen now >>

ZOE Science and Nutrition

The breakout health and science podcast in the UK became what it is with a very simple idea: if you ask questions people are worried about, and have them answered by experts, listeners will flock to you. Each time presenter Jonathan Wolf takes one question – what’s the best natural sugar alternative? Is dairy good or bad for you? How do ultra-processed foods affect your body? – and sits down with a scientist or health professional to talk over the latest research. It’s reassuringly clerical and straightforward, but never hectoring. Listen now >>

Scamanda

Amanda Riley is dying of cancer. Everyone knows that. It’s heartbreaking, especially given that she’d just got her life exactly how she wanted it: the perfect husband, the perfect house, the perfect life. But as that none too subtle portmanteau title implies, all is not what it seems. Amanda’s friends and family believe her, though, and start to raise money for her treatments – more than $100,000. Over the seven years she kept up the charade, the lengths that she goes to to keep her ruse going become more and more extreme. Listen now >>

Brydon &

Aw, lovely, cuddly Rob Brydon. There are more than enough interview podcasts out there, but Brydon’s is more than just another rush job with a shoehorned plug for whatever the guest is promoting. His easy warmth and feel for a story make podcasting an obvious home for him, but interestingly, Brydon’s often at his best as an interviewer when his guest pushes back a little, and encourages him into comic running battles with a gently waspish edge. Steve Coogan’s recent appearance is a case in point. The third series of his chats has pushed him back up the charts. Listen now >>

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Ready for more recommendations? Make sure you check out our lists in the Recommendation section.

This article was originally published in December 2022 and last updated on 1st August 2023.