Sheffield DocFest has launched its podcast programme for 2026.
Running between 6-15 June, DocFest “champions the breadth of the documentary artform” and its podcast programme contains live podcasts launches and exclusive recordings.
DocFest will launch the new series of BBC Radio 4’s award-winning environment crime podcast Buried, Buried: Dead Rabbit with Chris Packham.
The latest instalment in the podcast strand, Dead Rabbit “uncovers leads that seem too strange to be true, as Packham embarks on a race to expose the truth with investigative journalists Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor”.
“On a cold morning in February, someone leaves dozens of dead rabbits, hares and even a decapitated deer outside a New Forest primary school,” the synopsis said.
“A month later, it happens again – this time outside a village shop. But why? From late-night stake‑outs to chases down country lanes, events become ever more sinister, driven by the same unanswered question: why the dead animals – and what do they mean?”
Dead Rabbit is the third series of Buried. The first series won Gold at the British Podcast Awards, while the most recent series, The Last Witness, featured Michael Sheen and received a Grand Award at the New York Radio Festivals and Podcast of the Year at the European DIG Investigative Journalism Awards.
The Whickers Podcast Pitch 2025 winner Redemption Man, a six-part audio documentary about the mysterious man who has been seen carrying a large white cross throughout West London for almost 35 years, will share behind-the-scenes insight into the winning journey in Podcast Live: The Road to Redemption Man.
Meanwhile, Audible Original Series Launch with Charlie Webster is an exclusive live launch and listen with Sheffield’s own award-winning journalist (Scamanda, Unicorn Girl) for the live launch of her new podcast.
Webster is an award-winning broadcaster, journalist, writer/producer, and documentarian.
There will also be a live Visionaries podcast recording Visionaries Live: Alice Aedy in Conversation with Amy Goodman, exploring the role of storytelling in times of change. Hosted by Alice Aedy, Visionaries is a podcast and community for storytelling “changing the way we see the world”.
Podcast Live: BBC Radio 4’s Dear Gilbert, Dear Gordon will mark the first ever live version of BBC Radio 4’s Illuminated – Radio 4’s home for “creative and surprising one-off documentaries that shed light on hidden worlds”, while Podcast Live: Rewriting the Narrative is a chance to listen to an innovative new podcast that asks the question: What if you could rewrite the story of your own life?
DocFest celebrates a special birthday in Podcast Live: 10 Years of Radio Atlas, English-language home for subtitled audio from around the world.
The screening of subtitled audio docs from the 1970s to 2025 will be introduced and curated by Radio Atlas’ founder Eleanor McDowall. For the last decade, Radio Atlas unearthed great documentaries and works of sound art from the 1970s onwards.
Sheffield’s own Cinema for the Ears will host a unique outdoor sonic adventure in Podcast Live: Cinema for the Ears.
The first venue ever at DocFest without a screen, Sheffield Amphitheatre will host Nadia Mehdi and Rowan Rheingans from Cinema for the Ears as they curate a listening journey around the theme of ‘home’. Audiences can grab their wireless headphones, look out over the city and listen.
And for Industry at DocFest, there will be Goalhanger Greenroom Session: How Ideas Become Podcast, a behind-the-scenes look at how podcast ideas are developed and commissioned – from the team behind Goalhanger’s shows.
Nicole Logan and India Dunkley take audiences inside how Goalhanger develops its own shows in a practical, behind-the-scenes look at what actually happens from idea to commission.
More information is available on the Sheffield DocFest website.
