New Times,
New Thinking.

The best of culture in 2022

Rachel Cunliffe and the New Statesman culture team discuss this year’s TV, film, music and books.

A special Boxing Day episode hosted by Rachel Cunliffe, looking back at the best (and worst) of the year in culture. She is joined by Tom Gatti, the New Statesman’s executive editor for culture, Kate Mossman, senior writer, and Rachel Cooke, our regular TV critic, to talk about their picks across TV, music, books and film.

In music, they discuss the high-art cabaret of Christine and the Queens’ Redcar and Kate’s nerve-wracking interview with Nick Cave about his deepening faith and grieving for two sons.

In film, the stand-out was The Quiet Girl, based on Claire Keegan’s story of early-1980s rural Ireland which left Rachel Cooke and Tom weeping.

In TV, they move from the indulgent theatre of the Harry and Meghan documentary to the exquisite observations made in the BBC series Marriage, and explain why people can’t stop the watching the second season of The White Lotus.

And in books, highlights include the nasty but brilliant novel Vladimir by Julia May Jonas and Katherine Rundell’s The Golden Mole, while the unanimous lowlight is Matt Hancock’s retrospectively constructed and entirely delusional Pandemic Diaries.

How to listen to the New Statesman Podcast

1. In your browser

You can use the player above to listen in your browser right now. The subscriber edition of the New Statesman Podcast is published here every Monday and Thursday. Why not bookmark this page? You can come back for new episodes twice a week.

2. In a podcast app

The public feed of the New Statesman Podcast is available on all major podcast apps including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Acast, Google Podcasts, and more. It publishes a day later than this subscriber edition. Search “New Statesman Podcast” in your favourite podcast app.

Give a gift subscription to the New Statesman this Christmas from just £49

3. On your smart speaker

If you have an Amazon Echo, Google Home or Apple HomePod smart speaker, ask it to “play the latest episode of the New Statesman Podcast“. This will play the latest episode in the public feed. The same command also works with virtual assistants on mobile devices.

[See also: Rishi Sunak could face more NHS strikes next year]

Content from our partners
How to solve the teaching crisis
Pitching in to support grassroots football
Putting citizen experience at the heart of AI-driven public services