What do three washed-up ex-cops cum crime writers do to procrastinate? In truth, whatever they can, but I’ve recently found a fresh outlet for my non-writing energies; I’ve become a podcaster.
Introducing Prose and Cons, a new crime and books podcast
Yes, you read that right. A couple of weeks ago, together with my good friends John Sutherland (a former Metropolitan Chief Superintendent, now a best-selling fiction and non-fiction author) and Gary (GD) Wright, (an ex-Kent PC whose brilliant books make him a rising crime fiction star) I launched a brand-new podcast called “Prose and Cons“. Despite its nifty title, it’s the subtitle that does the heavy lifting in that we promise to talk “Crime, Books and Nonsense.”
Over the years I’ve been a guest on countless podcasts with some brilliant interviewers, covering crime writing, advising and my previous policing career from all sorts of angles. Each has been a fascinating experience and the production quality is always superb.
How the podcast idea was born over a birthday curry
In March, John, Gary and I met in central London to celebrate John’s birthday over lunch. I like John, but not enough to shell out on a present so I brought a different kind of gift; a madcap idea. I probably blurted it out rather than pitched it as deftly as I had rehearsed in my head, but over that curry I convinced them that a foray into the podcasting world might be fun. How hard could it be? Much more so than we could ever have imagined, but I had the guys hooked so there was no escape.
Our guests: crime writers with criminal justice backgrounds
Firstly, we had to come up with a format; something that spoke to our USP of crime writers who had broad, varied and fascinating policing backgrounds, but light-hearted too. Even though there were three of us jousting for airtime, to keep it fresh, we decided we needed to invite guests. Not just any guests but writers who also had criminal justice or police careers. To gauge interest, we threw out some emails and messages among our friends who fitted this profile. When we were inundated with positive replies, we realised that we actually had to do this. We have a number of victims/guests lined up for our first series including Harriet Tyce (of “The Traitors” fame), Neil Lancaster, T.M. Payne and Imran Mahmood. At the time of drafting this I’m preparing for our first guest, Crime Writers’ Association Chair and criminal defence solicitor, Nadine Matheson so I’ll leave you to listen to judge how we are as wannabe interviewers.
A podcast format built around the policing day
Early feedback from our first guestless episode (due to my lack of organisation) is really positive. We’ve adopted a cheeky tone and a format which reflects the policing day. The podcast opens with the “Parade” where we get ourselves settled and talk about what we’ve been up to. Then it’s the “Intelligence Briefing” where we chat about crime books, shows or films that have grabbed us one way or another. Then we “Deploy.” This is the crime writing theme of the episode such as characters, twists, dialogue or the use of nicknames (a personal favourite of mine) and how authentically or otherwise they can be portrayed. The “Suspect Interview” is actually the guest slot but our nomenclature needed to remain on-brand. Finally, we wrap up with the “Debrief.”
The challenges of launching a podcast (and the early signs of success)
A few of the challenges that I, as the oldest of the trio, encountered was not only buying the right kit (who knew how many types of microphone there were?) but also choosing the right platform, how to edit (we’re not rich enough to shell out on a producer yet, so forgive us) and, crucially, how to release our nonsense into the wild. Luckily, we all have different skills and given that both John and I were Chief Superintendents and Gary was a PC, we’ve delegated the tricky stuff to him.
This is very early days for us but we’re nothing if not keen to learn. Discovering our first episode has already racked up over two hundred listeners (and rising) and that people seem to like it assures us that we’re not a totally lost cause. So, we will soldier on in our self-effacing, mickey-taking way while hopefully providing some unique insights into crime, policing and how they collide. At least until we or our subscribers get bored.
I originally wrote this for my weekly column in The Argus, published on Monday, 8 June 2026.
