Award winning Tameside podcast takes to the sky

An award-winning podcast hosted by residents in Tameside has taken to the sky as the first in-flight children’s podcast for Virgin Atlantic.

The Armchair Adventures podcast was launched at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020 by local not-for-profit theatre company, Made By Mortals.

They have since appeared in the top 20 of Apple’s charts for children’s podcasts as well as triumphing as winners at the Digital City Awards in March this year, achieving bronze at the British Podcast Awards in July, winning at the MPA Inspiration Awards last October and recently being named as finalists at the Make a Difference Awards.

Paul Hine, Chief Executive Officer of Made by Mortals, said: ‘Armchair Adventures is a fun, interactive podcast for children, aged 6-10 years old, made by older people here in Tameside.

‘The whole story centres around this teenager (Connie) who’s family run a travel agents in Ashton and during the pandemic it’s going bust due to no one taking any holidays. So she teams up with her customers, all of whom are over 60s from Tameside, to come up with this idea of an alternative version of a holiday – a journey of the imagination. All the children who listen in are able to go on this imaginative, playful, fun, sing- and move- along journey every episode.

‘Virgin Atlantic saw the story of how our podcast came about during the pandemic, when we were using podcasting to bring people together during such a difficult time. They saw the story, connecting younger and older generations, and they loved it so they approached us and asked if we would be their podcast of choice.

‘So now, our lovely participants voices are up 30,000 feet in the air, flying over Sri Lanka and a whole number of places – being listened to be children all across the world! And it’s all made & produced right here in Tameside.’

Made By Mortals, the voices and producers behind the podcast, are a social enterprise, using participatory arts in order to bring people together. Their main focus is creating a community of creative citizens to help and support one another, primarily using the arts to improve their health & wellbeing and make a difference to the world we all live in.

Reminiscing back to the devastating impact COVID-19 had on people’s lives all around the world and the way in which it changed the fabrics of society, Paul highlighted just how excluded people were from their communities as they were forced to distance themselves.

Prior to the pandemic, Made By Mortals were putting together musical theatre to present within schools. However when the virus hit, this was no longer possible so the group turned to podcasting.

Paul said, ‘We supported the older people we worked with to use zoom as our platform of choice in order to deliver the workshops. Some people without wifi rang up on their home phones from a free phone number that we set up – so they were even able to take part if they didn’t have wifi. We brought people together to create the wonderful Armchair Adventures using creativity, fun and friendship.

‘We’re just recently started going back into schools and both the older people & the children love it. And it’s great now that we have the podcast series to hang it off too.

‘Armchair Adventures has become much more than just a podcast series, it’s now activity packs and our workshops in schools & libraries. It’s a community; older people and children get to share their imaginations together and have fun, enjoying each others’ company and improving one another’s health & wellbeing using the arts.’

And if you’re ready to dive back into the incredible world of your imagination with Armchair Adventures, the third series has just launched after over 50,000 listens since it all began! There will be two episodes released each month, running up until the end of June, with plenty of brilliant episodes in the pipeline – including Christmas excitement and a special featuring a veteran of the armed forces.

You can listen for free on any podcasting application, including but not limited to Spotify, Apple and Castbox. Tune in to venture on the adventure of a lifetime!