Comfort Eating returns on Tuesday 3 November with Siobhán McSweeney as its new host, the Guardian announced on Thursday 22 October. The new series runs to ten weekly episodes, opens with the comedian and actor Asim Chaudhry, and has Nicola Coughlan, Caitlin Moran and Ed Balls lined up. For the first time, full episodes will also be on YouTube, alongside the audio feed.
McSweeney, known for Derry Girls and Amandaland and as the host of The Traitors Ireland and The Great Pottery Throw Down, takes over from the food critic Grace Dent, who announced in April that she was stepping down after ten series and almost five years. McSweeney had already sat on the other side of the table as a guest. Her own comfort food, the Guardian says, is cheese and onion Tayto crisps with Dairy Milk chocolate and a swig of Guinness.
The format stays the same: each week a guest lifts the lid on what they eat when nobody is watching, and the host follows the food back to the memories and relationships behind it. “Even though it is impossible to fit into the elegant shiny stiletto heels of the incomparable Grace Dent, I am so excited to be gifted with the very special hosting crown of Comfort Eating,” McSweeney said in the announcement. Phil Maynard, global head of podcasts at Guardian News & Media, said she brings “quick-witted humour, sense of fun, honesty and warmth” to the new series.
For existing subscribers nothing needs doing. The show keeps its feed, and the Apple Podcasts listing has already been renamed Comfort Eating with Siobhán McSweeney, with new cover art of the host in a crown of chips and jelly sweets. Our own page for the show still carries the old title, which we will update. The YouTube version is new: this is the first series with full episodes available to watch, and the Guardian says highlights and exclusive content will follow on social media.
It has been a good month for Guardian podcasts. At the British Podcast Awards on 1 October, The Birth Keepers won gold in the documentary category and Today in Focus took silver in the daily category, with its presenters jointly awarded silver for best host, the publisher said. Today in Focus is No. 40 in our Top 100 this week.
Comfort Eating comes back into a strong field. Off Menu is No. 12 and Dish No. 29 in our Top 100, and both are built on the same idea of famous people talking about what they eat. We think the McSweeney choice is a smart one: a host who is funny on her own account. Our food podcast chart has the rest of the category.
The first episode with Asim Chaudhry lands on Tuesday 3 November, then weekly for ten weeks.
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