What makes a scandal a scandal? Why do some stories bring down governments while others become national obsessions for a week and then disappear? And, in an age of online pile-ons, public apologies and “cancel culture”, what can yesterday’s scandals tell us about the way we react to outrage today?
Public Apology, a new weekly podcast from comedian Milo Edwards, comedian and content creator Sophie Garrad, and journalist/podcaster Ed Campbell, sets out to answer those questions - with jokes, curiosity and a healthy suspicion of anyone claiming to be outraged.
Launching Wednesday 16 September, Public Apology takes a wry look at scandals across British politics, history, pop culture and the stranger corners of the national conversation.
Each episode goes back to the people, events and public reactions at the heart of a scandal: what actually happened, why it mattered at the time, how the media covered it, how the public responded, and what looks different with the benefit of hindsight.
And the scope is deliberately unpredictable.
One week, Public Apology might revisit the Profumo Affair, the sex-and-politics scandal that helped bring down a British government. The next, it might investigate the bizarre case of a woman putting a cat in a wheelie bin in Coventry.
Because Public Apology is interested in the whole spectrum of scandal - from events that genuinely changed Britain to stories that briefly consumed the nation for reasons that are considerably harder to explain.
“Scandals are supposed to tell us something about the people involved. We’re more interested in what they tell us about everyone else.”
Milo Edwards is a stand-up comedian, writer and podcaster from Essex. He has created five critically acclaimed Edinburgh Fringe solo shows and toured internationally, including at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. His comedy specials Pindos, Voicemail and Sentimental have attracted hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube.
Milo created and hosts the podcasts Trashfuture and Glue Factory, is a regular contributor to Frank Skinner’s Frank Off The Radio and has appeared on BBC Radio 4’s The Naked Week. His writing credits include Mock The Week, Late Night Mash and The News Quiz.
Sophie Garrad is a stand-up comedian, writer and content creator known for combining high-status humour with delusional silliness. Described by Attitude as “the rising it-girl of the comedy circuit”, Sophie has built a huge online following through viral comedy sketches which have amassed more than 130 million views across Instagram and TikTok.
She is a finalist of both So You Think You’re Funny? and the Funny Women Awards.
Ed Campbell is a Scottish journalist based in London and the creator of England Weekend Television, an independent YouTube channel producing lo-fi documentaries about fringe British politics and subculture.
Previously Special Correspondent at PoliticsJOE, Ed has written for Dispatch, The Guardian and New Statesman, and has appeared on LBC, Newsnight and BBC Radio 4.
Together, the three bring deliberately different perspectives to the same question: when Britain decides something is scandalous, what happens next?
The first two episodes of Public Apology will be released together on Wednesday 16 September, followed by a new episode every Wednesday.
