Libby Purves is joined by former boxer Sugar Ray Leonard; singer and songwriter Gilbert O'Sullivan; actor and dancer Adam Cooper and scenographer Pamela Howard. Gilbert O'Sullivan is a three time Ivor Novello-winning singer and songwriter responsible for the hits 'Alone Again (Naturally)' and the UK No.1s 'Clair' and 'Get Down'. This year he is celebrating 45 years in the music industry by releasing his greatest hits album, 'A Singer and His Songs - The Very Best Of Gilbert O'Sullivan' and embar...
Mar 14, 2012•42 min
Libby Purves is joined by singer David Essex; fashion designer Ozwald Boateng; conservationist Dame Daphne Sheldrick and actor and artist James Burke-Dunsmore. Ozwald Boateng is a British menswear designer who received his first suit at the age of five. A new documentary, 'A Man's Story', charts his career from the opening of his own store on London's Savile Row, to becoming creative director of French fashion house Givenchy. Away from the catwalk, the film reveals the toll the business has take...
Mar 07, 2012•42 min
Libby Purves meets actor Pauline Quirke who is probably best known for the BBC comedy series 'Birds of a Feather' playing loveable loud-mouth Sharon Theodopolopodous. Her first acting role was in Dixon of Dock Green and most recently she appeared in 'Emmerdale'. She has also set up the Pauline Quirke Academy, teaching acting to young people. Her book, 'Where Have I Gone?' is published by Bantam Press. Shelley Bridgman is a psychotherapist and stand-up comedian who recently won the first ever Sil...
Feb 29, 2012•8 min
Libby Purves is joined by Hans Klok, Adrian Jackson, Sabrina Jean, Mary M Talbot and Dave Kelly. Illusionist Hans Klok, reputedly 'the fastest magician in the world', has been performing magic since he was ten years old. He recently played shows at Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas, where Pamela Anderson was his glamorous assistant. He brings his homage to Harry Houdini, The Houdini Experience, to London. The show combines daredevil stunts, illusions and tricks. The Houdini Experience is at the Sadler'...
Feb 22, 2012•42 min
Libby Purves is joined by actor Sir Antony Sher and jazz saxophonist Barbara Thompson. She also meets Professor Sean Street an historian, writer, presenter and poet. His new book 'The Poetry of Radio - The Colour of Sound' explores the relationship between poetry and radio, and examines the concept of 'poetic making' in sound. Jazz saxophonist and composer Barbara Thompson and her husband the drummer Jon Hiseman feature in a BBC Four documentary 'Playing Against Time', part of BBC Four's Jazz we...
Feb 15, 2012•42 min
Libby Purves is joined by actor Katherine Kelly; Dr Steve Peters, psychiatrist with the British Cycling Team; former US army chief Rhonda Cornum; and BBC presenter Clare Balding. Katherine Kelly played brassy barmaid Becky McDonald in ITV's Coronation Street for five years. She is now in The National Theatre's production of She Stoops to Conquer, a comedy offering a celebration of chaos, courtship and the dysfunctional family. Dr Steve Peters is a consultant psychiatrist who has worked in the cl...
Feb 08, 2012•42 min
Libby Purves is joined by Lord Kenneth Baker; charity worker Rudi Richardson; playwright Ishy Din and columnist and author Michele Hanson. Lord Kenneth Baker, former Home Secretary and a former Chairman of the Conservative Party, is a cartoon enthusiast. He talks about an exhibition at London's Cartoon Museum - HER MAJ: 60 Years of Unofficial Portraits of the Queen - which celebrates the Queen's reign through cartoons by some of our greatest caricaturists including Ralph Steadman and Steve Bell....
Feb 01, 2012•42 min
Libby Purves is joined by Graham Short, Peter Tatchell, Gary Mulgrew and Vincent Simone and Flavia Cacace. Graham Short is known as "the world's smallest engraver" for his miniature masterpieces. He has spent almost fifty years honing his craft, going to physical and mental extremes to produce the highest quality engravings. His latest work, The Word of God, is the first chapter of the Qur'an engraved on the head of a pin, which follows on from his first pin on which he engraved the Lord's Praye...
Jan 25, 2012•42 min
This week Libby Purves is joined by Antony Woodward, Sandy Gall, Nick Coleman and Rosie Wilby. Antony Woodward is a writer and amateur microlight pilot. Fifteen years ago he took part in the Round Britain Rally, a three day competition flying in flimsy machines around the UK. He crashed and almost killed himself. Having stopped flying for years, Antony attempts to enter the rally again - and face his fears for a BBC Two documentary, Wonderland: The Real Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines. ...
Jan 18, 2012•42 min
This week Libby Purves is joined by Tasmin Little, John Akomfrah, Andrew Higgins and Sir Stephen Waley-Cohen. Tasmin Little is the acclaimed violinist who features in a BBC Four documentary celebrating Vaughan Williams's 'The Lark Ascending', which is a piece dear to her heart. The documentary tells the intriguing story behind the nation's most popular piece of classical music as voted for by more than 25,000 radio listeners last year. John Akomfrah is an award-winning film director and one of t...
Jan 11, 2012•42 min
This week Libby Purves is joined by guests Winnie and Frank Tovey, Simon Russell Beale, Noo Saro-Wiwa and Anne Wallace. Winnie and Frank Tovey spent sixteen years in the fifties and sixties in India where Frank was a medical missionary. They were active in providing clinics to cure leprosy, surgery and physiotherapy to restore function and treat deformity and have written about their experiences in the book 'Cor Blimey! Where 'ave you come from?, published by Little Knoll Press. Simon Russell-Be...
Dec 28, 2011•42 min
This week Libby Purves is joined by Alistair Sutcliffe, Martha Fiennes, Celia Imrie and Amanda Vickery. Alistair Sutcliffe is a GP who became the first man to summit the highest mountain on each of the seven continents at the first attempt. He subsequently suffered a near fatal brain haemorrhage, and he describes his recovery as the most difficult climb of all in his book 'The Hardest Climb', published by Blue Moose. Martha Fiennes is a filmmaker, whose films include Onegin and Chromophobia. She...
Dec 21, 2011•42 min
This week Libby Purves is joined by Susie McKenna, Peter Bougourd, Professor John Wallwork and Matthew Herbert. Susie McKenna is Creative Director of the Hackney Empire. A professional actor by training, she grew up in the world of variety, travelling all over the country with her performer parents, and first took to the stage when she was three. She has written and directed this year's Hackney Empire pantomime, 'Cinderella'. Peter Bougourd was second Cox of the St Peter Port lifeboat, Guernsey....
Dec 14, 2011•42 min
This week Libby Purves is joined by Runa Khan Marre, Charles Hazlewood, Matthew Bourne and Gebisa Ejeta. Runa Khan Marre is preserving the unique cultural heritage of Bangladeshi boat-building through her living museum on the riverbank near Dhaka. She is one of six global innovators who is in London to receive a Rolex Award for Enterprise. The Rolex Awards for Enterprise will take place at the Royal Geographical Society. Charles Hazlewood is an award-winning conductor who works regularly with gr...
Dec 07, 2011•42 min
This week Libby Purves is joined by Jeremy Wade, Jacqui Thompson, Chris Mullin and Professor Roger Kneebone. Jeremy Wade is a former science teacher turned extreme fisherman. He presents the award-winning TV series 'River Monsters' in which he travels to remote rivers in the Congo, Amazon rainforest and the mountains of India tracking down large, weird and little-known fish. His book 'River Monsters' is published by Swordfish. Jacqui Thompson's husband Gary, a reservist with the RAF Regiment, wa...
Nov 30, 2011•42 min
This week Libby Purves is joined by Warwick Davis, Sheena Byrom, Sir Willard White and Sierra James. Warwick Davis is the actor who made his movie debut aged eleven as Wicket the Ewok in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi and played Professor Flitwick in the Harry Potter films. He is currently starring in the new BBC observational comedy 'Life's Too Short ', written by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, which follows Warwick's day-to-day frustrations of being short. Sheena Byrom has spent the last t...
Nov 23, 2011•42 min
This week Libby Purves is joined by Gareth Malone, Stella Duffy, Reginald D Hunter and Jessica Douglas-Home. Choirmaster Gareth Malone returns with the fourth series of the RTS and BAFTA award-winning series. This time he goes to Devon, to Chivenor barracks, to work with the forces community from the time the battalion is deployed to their homecoming. His task is to work for six months with the wives - and try to give them a voice and to unite them - and the base - through the power of song. The...
Nov 16, 2011•42 min
This week Libby Purves is joined by Arlene Phillips, Max Zachs, Antonio Carluccio and Simon Clothier. Ukulele player Simon Clothier worked in construction on sites including the iconic Wembley Stadium and Olympic 2012 until his musical talent was recognized by his fellow workers. Construction has now been put on hold as he goes on tour with his band in the new year and has a new album out, 'Songs from a Small Guitar', and a single 'Over and Done', which is in aid of the Children's Society. Max Z...
Nov 09, 2011•40 min
This week Libby Purves is joined by Ceri Levy, Rita Tushingham, Gillian Lynne and Gisli Örn Gardarsson. Ceri Levy is a film-maker, birdwatcher and co-curator of a new exhibition, 'Ghosts of Gone Birds' which features eighty artists, including Sir Peter Blake, Ralph Steadman and Margaret Atwood, each of whom has depicted an extinct or endangered species of bird. Ghosts of Gone Birds is at the Rochelle School, London E2. Rita Tushingham's breakthrough movie 'Taste of Honey' is celebrating its 50th...
Nov 02, 2011•42 min
This week Libby Purves is joined by Richard Rycroft, Sir Terry Wogan, Matt Croucher and Sona Jobarteh. After a long career in the police force, Richard Rycroft became an actor and also a stand-up comedian. He says that the two roles of policeman and actor are quite similar, but his only frustration as an actor is that no one will cast him as a policeman - he's just not convincing in that role apparently! He is appearing as the CEO in the improvisational show, 'The Office Party' which is running ...
Oct 26, 2011•42 min
This week Libby Purves is joined by Gloria Elliott, Des Bishop, Michael Morpurgo and Stanley Jackson. Gloria Elliott is the Chief Executive of the Noise Abatement Society. Her father, John Connell founded the society in 1959 when he realised that there was no authority to turn to about noise complaints, that noise was in his words, ' the forgotten pollutant'. The Noise Abatement Society are collaborating with 'Sounding Brighton' for Brighton & Hove White Night where a series of sonic artwork...
Oct 19, 2011•42 min
This week Libby Purves is joined by David M.Wilson, Fred Baier, Buddy Greco and Kathryn Tickell. Dr David M Wilson is a polar historian and a great-nephew of Dr Edward Wilson, the Chief of the Scientific Staff, who died with Captain Scott in Antarctica. His book, 'The Lost Photographs of Captain Scott' features photographs from that ill-fated expedition that have never been seen before. There will also be an exhibition - 'The Heart of the Great Alone', marking the centenary of Scott's expedition...
Oct 12, 2011•42 min
This week Libby Purves is joined by Peter Brookes, Alexandra Fuller, Albie Sachs and Niamh Cusack. Peter Brookes is the political cartoonist for The Times newspaper and the current British Cartoonist of the Year. His book, 'Hard Times' is his latest collection of outrageous sketches of contemporary and political life. 'Hard Times' is published by Biteback Publishing. Alexandra Fuller is a writer. Her new book 'Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness' is an exploration of her family; at its...
Oct 05, 2011•42 min
Angie Beasley is the Director of Miss England. A former beauty queen, she won over twenty-five titles including Miss Cleethorpes, before going on to work for Miss World impressario, Eric Morley. Her memoir, Frog Princess, is published by Penguin Fiction. For the past forty years, Neil Powell has worked with dogs - in mountain search and rescue, drowned victim recovery, collapsed structure searching, and drug detection. Together they have participated in countless rescues and saved many lives thr...
Sep 28, 2011•41 min
This week Libby Purves is joined by Dan Brodsky-Chenfeld, Imran Khan, Freer Spreckley and Virginia Ironside. Dan Brodsky-Chenfeld is a seven times World Champion in the sport of skydiving. He did this despite surviving a plane crash that killed sixteen of the twenty-two people on board, including a close friend and teammate, which left him seriously injured. He now runs Skydive Perris in Southern California, one of the largest skydiving centres in the world. His book 'Above All Else' is publishe...
Sep 21, 2011•42 min
This week Libby Purves is joined by Carol Mellin, Steve Walker, Lucy Bailey and Molly Birnbaum. Carol Mellin is a sheep farmer and sheep dog trainer. She is competing in the 4th International Sheep Dog Society World Trials, taking place on the Lowther Estate, near Penrith in Cumbria. A total of 240 dogs and their handlers from twenty-three competing nations will take part. It will be shown on More4 this week. Steve Walker is Programme Director of the Ley Community in Oxfordshire, a successful dr...
Sep 14, 2011•42 min
This week Libby Purves is joined by Laura Whitfield, Alastair Hignell, Matteo Pistono and Nigel Havers. Laura Whitfield was a child swimming champion before becoming an actor. She is appearing in the Channel 4 observational documentary series, 'Seven Dwarves', which follows the lives of seven dwarf actors as they live together and perform in a production of Snow White. Alastair Hignell CBE was a gifted sportsman who played rugby for England and county cricket for Gloucestershire. Forced to retir...
Sep 07, 2011•42 min
This week Anita Anand is joined by Jane Wernick, Douglas Edwards, Prof Gordon Turnbull and Anne Hunter. Jane Wernick is a structural engineer whose work has included the London Eye, the Treetop Walkway at Kew Gardens and the Young Vic Theatre. She is currently involved in 'Living Architecture', a not-for-profit organisation which designs and builds houses of outstanding architectural merit around Britain that can be rented for holidays, retreats or musical rehearsals. Douglas Edwards became Goog...
Jul 20, 2011•42 min
This week Anita Anand is joined by David Westhead, Thapelo Motsumi, Kamin Mohammadi, Pauline Black and Paul Magid. David Westhead is an actor and filmmaker who organised a photographic course for disadvantaged teenagers from Johannesburg townships. Thapelo Motsumi was one of the young people who attended the course and is now working as a professional photographer. An exhibition of their photographs, 'Wembley to Soweto', is at the Oxo Gallery in London. Kamin Mohammadi is a journalist who fled t...
Jul 13, 2011•42 min
This week Libby Purves is joined by Rev. Nicholas Holtam, Rye Barcott, William Rees-Mogg and Sue Tilley. Rev. Nicholas Holtam has been vicar of St Martin in the Fields for the last sixteen years. He will be ordained as Bishop of Salisbury on 22nd July. In a new book, 'The Art of Worship', he reflects on the pictures in the National Gallery that have inspired him during his time at St Martins. 'The Art of Worship' is published by Yale University Press. As an American college student on his way in...
Jul 06, 2011•42 min
