In the first of our election campaign Monday bonus episodes, Amol and Nick look ahead to the head-to-head television debate between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer.

What can the two leaders learn from previous election debates? How do they deploy the perfect zinger? And how will they judge their performance a success?

And they answer a listener question on how much influence the media will play this election.

Episodes of The Today Podcast during the election campaign will land on Mondays and Thursdays. Subscribe on BBC Sounds to get Amol and Nick's take on the biggest stories of the week, with insights from behind the scenes at the UK's most influential radio news programme. If you would like a question answering, get in touch by sending us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 4346 or email us [email protected]

The Today Podcast is hosted by Amol Rajan and Nick Robinson, both presenters of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the UK’s most influential radio news programme. Amol was the BBC’s media editor for six years and is the former editor of the Independent, he’s also the current presenter of University Challenge. Nick has presented the Today programme since 2015, he was the BBC’s political editor for ten years before that and also previously worked as ITV’s political editor.

The senior producer is Tom Smithard, the editor is Louisa Lewis. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths. Technical production from Chris Murphy and digital production from Joe Wilkinson.