This week we're bringing you the very best of the podcast you might have missed this year.

Very few people in Westminster have had as many lunches as The Sunday Times chief political commentator Tim Shipman.

Tim sat down with Matt for three courses (and drinks) to explain how he gets the scoop over the soup.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Political Editors is half a century of politics told by the people who wrote the first draft of history for the Times.

Over the festive period we're re-releasing the entire series.

The final episode features The Times' current Political Editor Steven Swinford, who has been in the job for a turbulent three years, straddling three prime ministers and at least 42 ministerial resignations. He tells Matt about covering partygate, Tories squaring up to each other, a serene Liz Truss as her premiership exploded, and sacking the chancellor via tweet.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Political Editors is half a century of politics told by the people who wrote the first draft of history for the Times.

Over the festive period we're re-releasing the entire series.

In episode six, Francis Elliott, who became The Times' Political Editor in 2013 and covered an extraordinary period that saw the end of the coalition, the slow downfall of Theresa May, and how Boris Johnson tried to get first Brexit and then Covid done.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Political Editors is half a century of politics told by the people who wrote the first draft of history for the Times.

Over the festive period we're re-releasing the entire series.

After covering the US for the Times in the aftermath of 9/11 - and interviewing President Bush in the White House - Roland Watson returned to the "goldfish bowl" of Westminster, becoming the paper's political editor in time for the 2010 election. In the fifth episode, he tells Matt about Gordon Brown's prickly relationship with the press, making contacts in the coalition, and how David Cameron sowed the seeds of Brexit.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Political Editors is half a century of politics told by the people who wrote the first draft of history for the Times.

Over the festive period we're re-releasing the entire series.

The fourth episode features, Philip Webster, political editor of the Times for 18 years and a colossus of the Blair and Brown eras who survived nine editors at the paper. He tells Matt about writing the story that killed Tony Blair's dreams of joining the Euro, getting stuck on Margaret Thatcher's battle bus, and what happened when he was locked up in Africa with Neil Kinnock.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Political Editors is half a century of politics told by the people who wrote the first draft of history for the Times.

Over the festive period we're re-releasing the entire series.

In the third episode, Westminster veteran Sir Peter Riddell tells Matt about his time charting the dramatic end to the Thatcher era, underestimating John Major, Labour coming back from the wilderness, and how the job of covering politics has changed over the years.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Political Editors is half a century of politics told by the people who wrote the first draft of history for the Times.

Over the festive period we're re-releasing the entire series.

Julian Haviland became political editor of the Times in 1981, but his career in journalism began in the 1950s and covered every prime minister from Alec Douglas-Home to Margaret Thatcher. He tells Matt about his recollections of a smug Jim Callaghan, the decent but flawed Harold Wilson, and Thatcher having a stiff drink before her weekly audience with Queen Elizabeth.

He also reveals that the Queen was horrified by police conduct at the Battle of Orgreave during the miners' strike, a story he confirmed but was unable to run at the time.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Political Editors is half a century of politics told by the people who wrote the first draft of history for the Times.

Over the festive period we're re-releasing the entire series.

First up is Fred Emery, who became political editor in 1977 after a series of foreign postings including covering the Vietnam War and Watergate. He tells Matt about getting the scoop that President Nixon was about to resign, the fall of the Callaghan government and what it was like to interview Margaret Thatcher. 

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'Tis the season and Matt has a new pantomime. 

This is the story of Keirnocchio, a wooden MP who desperately wants to become a real boy politician. 

When you wish upon a Starmer your dreams come true, and even if it means changing your mind, your poll lead will grow faster than your nose. 

Plus: Some of our favourite Times columnists join a festive focus group and debate the best Christmas song, and tell us their Christmas day traditions.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.