In a clear statement of intent, a recording of Maitlis’s headline-making MacTaggart Lecture, in which she decried the BBC’s version of “impartiality”, was published under the title before the launch proper.

In other words, this time it’s partial. Some were sceptical about the appetite listeners would have for the opinions of these erstwhile public service ­journalists but The News Agents has taken up permanent residence around the top of the charts, alongside that other opinionated podcast, Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart’s The Rest Is Politics.

Although the two share a similar casual, chummy tone, the The News Agents’ focus is more on news agenda-setting than political reflection. Every weekday, they pick a domestic or global headline – the UK migrant crisis, Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover, the Qatar World Cup – to explain and analyse, consulting experts where needed.

The Qatar episode featured one of their biggest guests yet, Gary Lineker, who discussed his and the BBC’s upcoming coverage of the tournament. Maitlis and Sopel are experienced interrogators, and it’s a credit to their probing that Lineker spoke out about the importance of covering human and workers’ rights issues in Qatar to prevent the “sportswashing” of the host country.

Meanwhile, these battle-scarred news folk are revelling in their newfound independence. A recent episode on the Just Stop Oil movement began with Maitlis and Sopel going head-to-head for a full 10 minutes over the efficacy of extreme protest.

Which is to say that they are the stars of the show. Whether you adopt it as your daily newscast will depend on whether you prefer their company – or at least value their opinions – over all the alternatives, including the deeper and better-produced documentaries of The Guardian’s Today in Focus or The New York Times’s The Daily. I know I don’t.