BBC Sounds Audio Lab

Overview

Audio Lab is an ‘accelerator’ programme designed to amplify early career podcasters and audio creatives - across the UK. Successful applicants are embedded in BBC and independent production teams which support and lead them to produce a distinctive podcast series. BBC Sounds offers participants a unique ‘large platform’ showcase – promoting craft and skills development; creating a new brand of relevant content and supporting the BBC’s Value For All strategy and Across the UK initiative.

Audio Lab 2026

After 5 successful and award-winning years, Audio Lab is refreshing it’s offer in the first half of 2026 so applications for production partners are currently closed. Further information about any new programme will be shared here and on the Audio Lab website in due course.

Audio Lab podcasts and Creators have received critical acclaim and gone on to win won some of the industry’s most coveted awards including, Gold British Podcast Award 2025 for Hugh Sheehan’s Criminally Queer: The Bolton 7 and Gold Rising Star for Mia Thornton. Plus, Gold British Podcast Award 2024 for Taqwa Sadiq’s Sacred Money; Gold Audio Production Award 2024 for Talia Randall’s Blossom Trees & Burnt-out Cars and Gold Audio & Radio Industry Awards in 2023 for Tommy Dixon’s Colouring in Britain.

A number of Audio Lab alumni have gone on to win sought after production roles with BBC Audio, Goalhanger, Reduced Listening and Aunt Nell production companies.

Audio Lab 2025 Suppliers

The 2025 suppliers are:

BBC Audio Scotland and Northern Ireland in Glasgow and Belfast is a centre of excellence for arts and specialist music, the home of books and readings for BBC Audio and delivering weekly editions of Front Row to Radio 4. For Radio 3 they produce live classical music, weekly editions of Jazz Record Requests and a weekly playlist show for Radio 3 Unwind. For Radio 1 they delivery daily shows to R1 Dance and R1 Anthems. In the factual space, they create award-winning multi-part narrative podcasts like The Gatekeepers, In Dark Corners and the Missing Madonna.

Persephonica in Sheffield specialises in podcasts that revolve around their listeners. They are hosted by the very best talent and are always informal yet highly informed. Persephonica’s roots are in news and current affairs, with debut production, The News Agents, becoming the most successful daily podcast in the UK in less than six months. They went on to launch Miss Me?, winning Gold in the Entertainment category at the British Podcast Awards 2024. Their mission is to become essential listening – creating a sense of place with reactive and relatable shows.

BBC Audio North in Salford and is the single biggest supplier of BBC radio programmes and podcasts made outside of London. They create a rich mix of content spanning multiple genres including religion, consumer, investigations, documentaries, entertainment and arts. They tell stories that matter to audiences in the North of England and beyond and pride themselves on making those stories sound beautiful and engaging – be it through sound design, format or treatment.

Reduced Listening in London believe in producing stand-out audio that platforms progressive ideas and produces radical entertainment. They seek to make audio that inspires and moves listeners - opening windows to new worlds. They specialise in investigative narrative podcast series/documentaries, audio drama and conversational podcasts. While no subject matter is off limits they often focus on factual, arts, music, history, social issues, human rights, digital world/future thinking and solutions journalism.

Audio Lab 2024 Creators and Podcasts

Jay Behrouzi-Sneade

Melting Pot

Jay Behrouzi-Sneade is a Filipino-Iranian journalist from Liverpool hailing from a long line of passionate cooks! Replicating global cuisine at home was a big part of her upbringing as a part of her a multi-heritage expat family in the United Arab Emirates.

Jay discovers culinary delights and science in her podcast Melting Pot alongside Big Manny.

They talk Maillard Reactions, osmosis, and emulsions. Across the series Jay visits the kitchens of actresses, hockey players, private chefs and bakers to find out how the act of cooking by migrants reminds them of home and reflects their experiences.

Mia Thornton

Instrumental: Black British Trailblazers

Mia Thornton is a creative producer currently based in Liverpool. Mia is driven by a passion for storytelling and a commitment to amplifying Black voices. She has worked on a wide range of creative projects for both global brands and community-based initiatives, showcasing her talent and versatility.

Mia in her podcast Instrumental celebrates Black artists who have played a pivotal role in the advancement of British music.

We hear about the trailblazers who revolutionised classical music, the DJs who propelled rave culture, the punk icons who challenged norms, and the folk musician who resurrected Black in British folk song.

Meg Elliot

Heart & Stone

Meg Elliot is a writer, zine-maker, and mountain biker from Shropshire. She is fascinated by story, folklore, and the way memory lives in landscapes. Meg co-creates a zine exploring nature through art and writing and is one half of The InBetween Collective, an international creative group sharing stories of culture, resistance and celebration. She has also worked on heritage projects across the UK investigating the social impact of environmental projects.

Meg’s podcast Heart & Stone is about understanding what folk means to communities across the UK today; asking who decides what stories to remember and if a stone circle needs to be ancient to have meaning?

Hugh Sheehan

Criminally Queer: The Bolton 7

Hugh Sheehan is an audio producer and musician/composer originally from Birmingham. Much of his work explores questions around gender and sexuality, desire and shame, assimilation, and radicalism. In 2020 he was commissioned as a New Creative by BBC Arts and Arts Council England to make Lost Time - an audio short contemplating LGBTQ+ people’s experiences in getting to live life on their own terms.

Hugh in his podcast Criminally Queer: The Bolton Seven, looks back at one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in recent British LGBTQ+ history, and examines how this scarcely-known legal case played a significant role in the fight for gay rights.