Runtime: Approximately 2:00–2:15 at natural pace. Should not exceed 3:30.

Mystery cities: The clues are designed to be tantalising but not immediately identifiable. Listeners familiar with the cities may guess. Everyone else gets curiosity. The clues currently hint at 6 cities, but this does not commit the series to those cities or that order.

Quick-fire line: “A city split in two by a volcano. A city older than its own country. A city that burned to the ground and used the ashes as foundations.” These are rapid, one-breath images. They should feel like a montage. If any individual clue is too obscure or too obvious, swap it. The pattern (short / short / short / slow concluding line) is what matters.

Music: Record voice dry. Time to music in post. The voice should never feel rushed to fit the music.

Final line: “We’ve got a lot of ground to cover” is a deliberate double meaning. Deliver lightly. If it feels too cute in the room, cut it and end on the CTA.

Tone: This should feel like the first two minutes of an episode, not a sales pitch. The listener should feel they are already inside CITIES.

A 12th century murder turned a small English cathedral city into one of medieval Europe's first tourist destinations. Nine hundred years later, Canterbury is still living with the consequences. In this episode, we pull apart a city caught between its ancient identity as England's ecclesiastical capital, a student population that now outnumbers permanent residents in term time, and a development battle over what the city becomes next. Along the way: why Kent is now making world-class wine, the 45-minute train ride to Whitstable that every visitor misses, and what happens when a city's greatest asset is also the thing holding it back.

The Murder That Built a Tourism Industry How four knights, a cathedral, and a political miscalculation in 1170 created the pilgrimage economy that shaped Canterbury for centuries.

The Student Question Canterbury's universities have transformed the city's demographics, economics, and culture. Not everyone thinks that's a good thing.

Development vs. Heritage The tension between preserving what makes Canterbury worth visiting and building the city its residents actually need to live in.

The Hidden Engine The economic story underneath the heritage branding that most visitors never see.

Street Level What Canterbury actually feels like on the ground, beyond the cathedral walls.

Cities is a podcast that pulls cities apart to find the decisions, accidents, and arguments that made them what they are. One city at a time.

Hosted by Gary Bills