This note arrived from Robert MacFarlane last week:

Chaps, did you ever hear this completely brilliant podcast? http://hackneypodcast.co.uk/2009/09/edition-14-water/

Heard it, and thought of you, etc.

It rang a bell, in fact I’m sure we have mentioned it on here before, so I asked Robin what he knew, and this is what he said:

Essential listening, basically. For the last few years, Francesca Panetta’s Sony Award winning Hackney Podcast has weaved a continuous, almost dreamlike narrative about this strange, fluxing north east London borough. Each episode takes a central idea and heads off tangentially via E8’s nightbuses, secret restaurants, coffee shops and waste markets. Francesca’s background in radio production means that each show sounds more like a Touch recording than your average radio documentary. Collectively, these broadcasts serve as a fitting tribute to one of the most unique and confounding areas of the capital.

All 19 Hackney Podcasts are available for free via iTunes – check hackneypodcast.co.uk/ for more information. There’s also a brilliant Guardian podcast made by Francesca that went online last weekend where she walks a path along the Thames near Greenwich with Iain Sinclair.