Stephen Fry is a podcasting pioneer who made his first,Stephen Frys Podgrams, back in 2008 half a decade before the format went mainstream, said Patricia Nicol in The Sunday Times. His latest is a fascinating and lavishly upholstered 12-part history series,Stephen Frys Edwardian Secrets.

Like its 2018 predecessor,Stephen Frys Victorian Secrets, the new series ranges widely, with great confidence and wit. It kicks off with Edward VII (Dirty Bertie) and his gargantuan appetites (culinary and sexual), then loosens its stays to explore such subjects as the history of flight, eugenics, the suffragists, detective fiction, black Edwardians, sexual attitudes, psychoanalysis and the rise of the tabloid press.

Theres plenty of delicious tittle-tattle as well as solid nuggets of knowledge. And Fry is on top form in non-pompous mode and clearly enjoying himself as he steers this opulent ocean liner of a series with suavity and skill.

Finding Q, a superb new podcast about the online conspiracy theory QAnon, is one of the most gripping shows Ive listened to in ages, said James Marriott in The Times.

The core tenet of the cult-like movement that the US government, and the world, are secretly run by a cabal of cannibalistic Satan-worshipping paedophiles led by Hillary Clinton is obviously deranged. Yet the great triumph of this podcast is that it carefully documents all aspects of a movement that is both sinister and banal, laughable and bloody terrifying.

Presenter Nicky Woolf talks to both true believers and people whose lives have been ruined by the cult, as well as those involved in its inception on the 8chan chat site. It makes for a fantastic series that opens up lavish panoramas of modern politics, the recesses of the internet and human psychology.

The best true crime shows from the US podcast network Wondery are like a fireside ghost story, or an old film noir with gravelly voice-over, said Miranda Sawyer in The Observer. The secret to their success is simple: a brilliant tale-teller spins a thrilling yarn.

The latest in the genre is their fab new series,The Grand Scheme: Snatching Sinatra, about the 1963 kidnapping of Frank Sinatras son, Frank Jr.

The narrator is John Stamos, an American actor who has a personal connection to the case, and he tells the tale with lan and delight. Various California types, famous and not, wander through the story, giving it all anL.A. Confidentialfeel.

But the biggest pull is that the show is based around the memories of the actual kidnapper, Barry Keenan, who proves a gift of an interviewee.Plus, the story is so bananas that it had me properly laughing on a couple of occasions. And no one gets hurt.

Are German voters turning away from Angela Merkel and the centre-right? Whats really causing an NHS test tube shortage? And why is China banning games on school nights?Olly Mannand The Week delve behind the headlines and debate what really matters from the past seven days.

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Podcasts: Edwardiana, conspiracies and a kidnapping - The Week UK