BBC Sounds is launching a raft of exciting podcasts featuring a starry line-up of brilliant new presenting talent, growing the BBC’s fantastic on-demand offering for listeners.

Heidi Dawson, Controller for BBC Radio 5 Live says: “We’re thrilled to announce this exciting range of new commissions on BBC Sounds with a star studded line up of talent. These fantastic new voices will welcome listeners with funny, fresh and insightful perspectives. These new titles will provide even more choice for our new audiences and we can’t wait for you to discover your new favourite podcast.”

Friends from birth, Lily Allen and Miquita Oliver are launching their first podcast on BBC Sounds, Miss Me?. The two lifelong friends will get together twice a week for transatlantic catch-ups, picking apart the complex world around them, going deep on pop culture, politics, music, family, love, life and death.

Expect opinionated and sharp conversation from two women who are not just commentating on popular culture, but shaped it through the noughties, and retain as much relevance today with their scathingly funny and fiercely smart takes. After growing up together, they now find themselves in different places, both literally and metaphorically: Lily as a married mum of two, navigating life in New York and plotting a new path in acting and Miquita, as a single woman living in London with her career taking off again in new, unexpected ways.

Miss Me? is real talk with real friends. Lily and Miquita will be discussing the big topics of the week and sharing their recommendations with a new community of listeners – what they’re watching, wearing, listening to and eating. They will also throw the show open to the audience and invite questions on themes from intimacy to interiors.

Lily Allen says: “I think listeners will enjoy our dialogue because they will be able to tell from the way that we talk to each other, that we are such close friends. I hope people will recognise their own friendships in the conversations they’ll hear on Miss Me?, and that it brings them a sense of nostalgia, familiarity, and trust. The truth just sounds different; the way you talk to your proper, old friends, is different to how you speak to anyone else in your life.”

Miquita Oliver says: “Lily and I have been friends since she was born 38 years ago – I am one year older. Our mothers have been best friends our whole lives. We grew up together and have experienced all of our life alongside each other. Miss Me? is the embodiment of that friendship; having a cry, making each other laugh and everything in between… A moment to check in with the friend you love, to find out where life finds you both each week.”

Off The Telly launches on 28 February, a weekly podcast hosted by a fabulous new double act – Natalie Cassidy and Joanna Page. They’ll bring warmth, laughs and insider knowledge to this fun telly-loving podcast.

Expect both Natalie and Joanna to let loose on what they, and everyone else, are really watching in Off The Telly; a look at the new, the well-loved and the best avoided. Self-confessed TV addicts, with their experience of acting in two of the biggest shows on our screens, EastEnders and Gavin and Stacey, Natalie and Joanna know everyone and are the perfect companions to your viewing habits. Find out what they love, hate, and can’t live without, in this funny, honest and down to earth podcast available on BBC Sounds now.

In the first episode, Natalie and Joanna get to grips with the return of Gladiators, share their hot takes on the latest series of The Apprentice, and argue over what’s right and what’s not in Netflix’s adaptation of the popular novel, One Day, and then there’s Gavin and Stacey to discuss too.

Natalie Cassidy says: “I’m so excited for me and Jo to sit down each week and have a natter about all things telly! From what we are watching, to what YOU are watching and all our favourites from the past, this podcast will be the perfect place to find out what’s on and bring back fond memories of telly.”

Joanna Page says: “It is such a pleasure talking TV with Natalie, who is herself, a TV legend! We record each week, with a cup of tea in hand and share a good old gossip over our favourite shows and those unmissable top telly moments, whilst having a laugh.”

Following the success of How to Be a Man, Rylan is back with a new podcast, How To Be In The Spotlight (w/t), coming to BBC Sounds this summer. Rylan sets out to explore what it means to be famous in a series of one-on-one interviews with a host of well-known faces who reveal what it’s really like living life in the public eye.

All his guests have been at the centre of a headline grabbing moment that has changed their lives forever; whether they have been thrust into fame from being involved in one of the most watched TV shows, or at the centre of a scandal, Rylan will delve into how they ended up being a name newspapers love, get granular on their route to becoming a household name and the psychological impact that came from being in the spotlight. As a household name involved in the biggest showbiz moments and with an eventful rise to his own career in media and entertainment, Rylan is the perfect host to reflect on How to Be in the Spotlight.

Rylan says: “Growing up, I always thought I wanted to be famous. But with the positives come the negatives and as someone that’s experienced these first hand, it made me really want to do this podcast. I look forward to sitting down with some of the most interesting names in the industry and hear first-hand how they have dealt with life in the spotlight, and the big media moments that changed their lives forever.”

Last year on BBC Sounds, Helena Bonham Carter shone a light on extraordinary stories from World War Two for the hugely popular History’s Secret Heroes, and now actress Nicola Coughlan (Derry Girls, Bridgerton, and the upcoming Big Mood) narrates a fascinating new spin off podcast, History’s Youngest Heroes. With jaw dropping tales of heroism, deception, and acts of bravery and resistance, Nicola will share some of the most awe-inspiring stories of the youngest heroes in history. From Nelson Mandela to Audrey Hepburn, listeners will be gripped by Nicola’s superb storytelling for this hotly anticipated new podcast.

Avril Lavigne struck a chord with her rebellious teen angst in the early aughts, and she still performs to sold-out crowds to this day. But what if the Avril we’ve been following all these years is not the same Avril we fell in love with? What if — as a curious theory claims — Avril was replaced by a look-alike at the height of her fame?

In Who Replaced Avril Lavigne? which launches with episode 0 today (28 February), comedian Joanne McNally searches far and wide, from Avril’s hometown to the underbelly of the internet, to find out if the rumours are true. Along the way, she immerses herself in a mind-bending world of fake celebrity deaths, doppelgangers, conspiracy theories, and downright absurdity.

Commissioning credits

Miss Me? with Lily Allen and Miquita Oliver is a Persephonica production for BBC Sounds. It was commissioned by Dylan Haskins, Commissioning Editor – Podcasts, BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds

Off The Telly with Natalie Cassidy and Joanna Page is made by BBC Studios for BBC Sounds and commissioned by Rhian Roberts, Commissioner for Podcasts, Formats & Digital for Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

How to be in the Spotlight (w/t) is A Mindhouse production for BBC Sounds. It was commissioned by Rhian Roberts, Commissioner for Podcasts, Formats & Digital for Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

History’s Youngest Heroes is a BBC Studios production for BBC Sounds. It was commissioned by Rhian Roberts, Commissioner for Podcasts, Formats & Digital for Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

Who Replaced Avril Lavigne? is a co-production with CBC Podcasts and a What’s The Story production. It was commissioned by Louise Kattenhorn, Podcasts Commissioning Executive for BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds.