'This review got me a job rejection but I really enjoyed writing it so I'm posting it here?'

Catchy title right?! I figured there was no point beating around the bush and disguising this as a purpose-written blog post. For one of many publishing job applications I was asked to write about a podcast I love and why it is special to me. I got a rejection email pretty hastily after applying which was gutting, but after reading it over I realised that it didn't make me any less proud of what I'd written. I'd created a piece of writing that genuinely summed up why I love the Off Menu podcast with James Acaster and Ed Gamble, as cliched an answer as that is. Instead of wallowing in self-pity and angrily deleting the work I'd done, I figured I would share it on here. Technically, this is the epitome of an unqualified opinion. I know absolutely nothing about food or podcasts, other than that I love eating and listening to them.

Also a quick *cringe* disclaimer - in a normal review I would not tend to use the terminology of 'special to me', that was just the wording required for the application. Granted I could rewrite and adapt this to avoid any cringe I could put readers through, but having already got a rejection in the face of this piece, the last thing I want to do is edit and go over it again - apologies in advance.

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Podcasts are something that, since the March lockdown and the increased amount of time I spend either on a walk or behind a sewing machine, have swiftly become a substantial part of my life. The Off Menu podcast with James Acaster, one of the funniest men to bless this earth, and Ed Gamble has to be my absolute favourite and leaves me laughing out loud every time I listen. It essentially consists of these two funny-guys interrogating various celebrities on what their dream meal would be.

What makes this podcast special for me is the way it takes such a simple and relatable topic, food, and manages to make it completely magical and impeccably hilarious. Interviewing celebrities who can often seem so inaccessible to the general public, but asking them questions like ‘popadoms or bread???’, that we can all consider, brings these famous people down to earth and makes you realise that they often have the exact same responses as we do. Yet, while unearthing this organic and somewhat un-fantastic side of celebrity, it draws out a great fantasy and magic behind food and meals. In a ‘dream restaurant’, there are no rules regarding how many courses or sides you can have, or what order you have these courses in. For a fussy eater like me who is constantly embarrassed in restaurants timidly asking for a certain dish but with “no mushrooms please, and can the sauce be on the side? Oh and can the bacon be super crispy if that is okay?”, this dream restaurant lets me live a reality where asking these questions is no embarrassment at all.

Actor Joe Thomas’s episode is without a doubt the funniest and most special podcast I have ever blessed my ears with, leaving me truly crying with laughter while walking around Bushy Park during the summer. There are too many hilarious details to go into but a podcast which lets Joe Thomas tell a story about trying to cook a whole lamb in a hole in the ground with a motley crew of friends and neighbours cannot be described as anything but truly special. Ultimately, the funny factor is what really makes this podcast special for me. No matter who the guest is, how long the episode is, this podcast leaves me laughing my head off in public, gaining me all sorts of looks in the street. For a podcast to leave me in tears but with no qualms about people judging me or looking at me weirdly, it must be a truly sensational and special podcast.

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So yes, this review (and probably my lack of publishing experience and other disqualifying factors) got me a job rejection, but it is still a review I am happy with, proud of and stand by. I am still yet to find something as funny as Joe Thomas's lamb in a hole fiasco, and truly believe it will remain one of the funniest things I've ever heard for a very, very long time.

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