Libby Purves meets philanthropist Dame Stephanie Shirley; opera singer Bryan Hymel; former soldier and poet Theo Knell and street entertainer Tom Balmont. Tom Balmont is a professional street entertainer at London's Covent Garden Piazza where he can be seen unicycling, sword-swallowing and fire-juggling. He is also a member of the Lion Rampant Medieval Display Society, specialising in juggling and sword jumping. Dame Stephanie Shirley is a technology entrepreneur turned philanthropist. At the ag...
Nov 07, 2012•42 min
Libby Purves is joined by Gina Campbell, daughter of speed record breaker Donald; journalist and writer Roger Clarke; Rod Davis of the Quarrymen and playwright Jonathan Lewis. Roger Clarke is a journalist, film critic and the author of 'A Natural History of Ghosts: 500 Years of Hunting for Proof.' He grew up in a supposedly haunted house on the Isle of Wight and become obsessed with ghosts as a child. His book explores the history and class structure of a very British fascination with the supern...
Oct 31, 2012•42 min
Libby Purves meets former actor Fiona Fullerton; Jemima Dury, daughter of Ian; solar physicist Dr Helen Mason and dog whisperer, Cesar Millan. Dr Helen Mason is a solar physicist at the University of Cambridge. She appears in a BBC Four programme 'Seven Ages of Starlight' which tells the epic tale of the stars through seven ages. The film starts with their births in the clouds of dust and gas that lurk in deep space to their various ends as enigmatic white dwarfs, explosive supernovae and myster...
Oct 24, 2012•42 min
Libby Purves meets Michael Palin; surfer Easkey Britton; author and forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs and singer and songwriter Barb Jungr. Easkey Britton is an Irish surfer who recently surfed in Iran - a country not known for its surfing culture. Her surfing has taken her around the world - she was the first Irish person to surf the frightening Teahupoo waves in Tahiti and the first woman to ride the giant wave Aileens at the Cliffs of Moher in County Clare. Her trip to Iran is the subject ...
Oct 17, 2012•42 min
Libby Purves meets cartoonist Steven Appleby; folk singer and Mercury Prize nominee Sam Lee; broadcasters Des Lynam and Christopher Matthew and spider expert Jan Beccaloni. Jan Beccaloni is the curator of arachnida and myriapoda at the Natural History Museum in London. The class arachnida includes a diverse group of arthropods: spiders, scorpions, ticks, mites, harvestmen, and their cousins. Jan is the conservation officer for the British Arachnological Society. Folk musician Sam Lee has been no...
Oct 10, 2012•42 min
Libby Purves meets golfer Sam Torrance; actor Jane Asher; editor of the Oldie Richard Ingrams and novelist Bernard Cornwell. Golfer and commentator Sam Torrance is the winner of 21 European Tour titles. He was also a member of the European Ryder Cup team eight times and sunk the winning put in 1985 for the first European win in 28 years. He captained the team to victory in 2002. His book, 'Out of Bounds - Legendary tales from the 19th Hole' is published by Simon & Schuster. Richard Ingrams i...
Oct 03, 2012•42 min
Andy Torbet spent ten years in the British forces as a paratrooper, diver and bomb disposal officer before turning his hand to television. He co-presents the BBC Two series Operation Iceberg in which a team of adventurers and scientists travel to the Arctic to chart the life cycle of icebergs. The former Prime Minister, Sir John Major, uses his own unconventional family past to tell the story of British music hall in his book, 'My Old Man: a personal history of Music Hall'. His father Tom Major ...
Sep 26, 2012•42 min
Hardeep Singh Kohli meets Dr Pamela Stephenson, wildlife film-maker Alan Root, creator of Biba, Barbara Hulanicki and soprano Nadine Mortimer-Smith. Soprano Nadine Mortimer-Smith is an opera singer and founder of Opera in Colour. She had a promising and secure career in the City but five years ago gave it all up to pursue her passion for opera. In 2009 she won 'Most Promising Voice' at the Voice of Black Opera competition. She will be performing in Naked Opera at the Forge in London. Alan Root O...
Sep 19, 2012•42 min
Hardeep Singh Kohli meets social historian Dr Pamela Cox, Pam Ayres, John Taylor of Duran Duran and comedian Sean Hughes. Social historian Dr Pamela Cox presents a new three part series, Servants - The True Story of Life Below Stairs, which uncovers the reality of servants' lives from the Victorian era through to the Second World War. Pam herself is the great-granddaughter of servants. Servants - The True Story of Life Below Stairs will be broadcast on BBC Two. Pam Ayres is a writer and broadcas...
Sep 12, 2012•42 min
Polar explorer Felicity Aston is the first woman to ski across Antarctica alone. The 1744km, 59-day journey was completed in January 2012. She will be speaking about this journey for the Transglobe Expedition Trust event Here, There & Everywhere at the Royal Geographical Society on September 10th. Musician and activist Billy Bragg celebrates the centenary of singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie with a four date tour in September. Bragg curated this tribute to Guthrie's legacy and will perform son...
Sep 11, 2012•42 min
Libby Purves is joined by Clarence Adoo, a member of the British Paraorchestra, Simon Gough, to talk about his relationship with his great uncle, the poet Robert Graves, sports writer Duncan Hamilton and poet/rapper Kate Tempest. Musician Clarence Adoo is a founding member of the British Paraorchestra. Set up by the conductor Charles Hazlewood, the orchestra is made up of disabled musicians playing a range of instruments from the harp to the sitar. Clarence was a top trumpeter with the Northern ...
Aug 29, 2012•42 min
Libby Purves meets Stella Rimington, former head of MI5; food writer Claudia Roden; biologist Dr Alan Rabinowitz and Kate Bond of experimental theatre group You Me Bum Bum Train. Kate Bond co-founded You Me Bum Bum Train in 2004. A performance journey for one audience member - or passenger - at a time, You Me Bum Bum Train has been variously called live art, interactive comedy and experimental theatre. Passengers participate in a variety of situations from hosting their own chat show to running ...
Jul 25, 2012•42 min
A long-distance motorcycle rider who has ridden solo around the world, Lois Pryce is a co-founder of the Adventure Travel Film Festival. Her first trip was from Alaska to Buenos Aires and since then she has travelled across Africa from Tunis to Cape Town and has just returned from Brazil where she led an all women team of motorcyclists. She also plays banjo in a bluegrass band called 'The Jolenes' who are performing at the festival. 'The Adventure Travel Film Festival' runs from August 17th-20th...
Jul 18, 2012•42 min
Libby Purves is joined by minibus millionaire Dave Fishwick who has set up his own bank, parfumeur Jean-Claude Ellena, Linda Hope, daughter of Bob and former money launderer, Ken Rijock. Dave Fishwick is a self-made minibus millionaire from Burnley who has set up his own bank. Frustrated with the reluctance of High Street banks to lend, he set up Burnley Savings and Loans which offers help to local businesses struggling to get finance. He can be seen on Channel 4 in 'Bank of Dave' from this week...
Jul 11, 2012•42 min
Libby Purves is joined by Olympian Fatima Whitbread, composer Mark-Anthony Turnage, Dr Chris Bird of Medecins Sans Frontieres and former Wall Street trader turned academic, Frank Partnoy. Composer Mark-Anthony Turnage has teamed up with the charity 'Music in Prisons' to create a piece of music with inmates from HMP Lowdham Grange. The 12 minute composition 'Beyond This' will be featured as part of the Southbank Centre's New Music 20x12 programme - a weekend dedicated to music composition in the ...
Jul 04, 2012•42 min
Libby Purves meets artist Derek Boshier; writer/curator Rachel Lichtenstein; film maker Rebecca Thomas and garden designer Matthew Childs who survived the 7/7 London bombings. Derek Boshier was one of the leading pop artists of the 1960s. A contemporary of David Hockney and Peter Blake, he featured in Ken Russell's 1962 film Pop Goes the Easel. An exhibition of his graphic work including his set designs for David Bowie and album cover artwork for The Clash, is at the Pallant House Gallery, Chich...
Jun 27, 2012•42 min
Libby Purves is joined by sixties singer Frank Ifield, former director of communications to Tony Blair, Alastair Campbell, Tommy Robert, of the fashion label Mr Freedom and magician Romany. Australian singer and yodeller Frank Ifield achieved four No. 1 hits between 1962 and 1963 including I Remember You. A then unknown band called the Beatles supported him on tour. Now a promoter, Ifield is back in the UK to celebrate fifty years since his hits with rock star Nicki Gillis. Alastair Campbell was...
Jun 20, 2012•42 min
Libby Purves is joined by seahorse expert Amanda Vincent, Carmen Bugan, who grew up under the Ceausescu regime in Romania, theatre director Lucien Bourjeily and crime writer Lynda La Plante. Dr Amanda Vincent is a marine biologist and one of the world's leading experts on seahorses. She is currently based at Cambridge University's Department of Geography and runs Project Seahorse which is developing conservation schemes to protect the declining seahorse population around the world. Carmen Bugan ...
Jun 13, 2012•42 min
Simon Jordan made his fortune in the mobile phone industry and in 2000, at the age of 32, he bought Crystal Palace Football Club. Ten years later the club was in administration and Jordan had lost everything. As well as recounting his own rise and fall in football, the book lifts the lid on how the national game works from the vast sums of money paid to footballers to the top-level activities at the heart of the sport. 'Be Careful What You Wish For' is published by Yellow Jersey Press. Robin Mil...
Jun 06, 2012•42 min
Libby Purves meets actor Jack Lowden; Bobby Teale, a former associate of The Kray twins; Bernard Lynch, an openly gay Roman Catholic priest and sculptor Sophie Dickens. Actor Jack Lowden plays athlete and devout Scottish Christian Eric Liddell in the new stage production of the film 'Chariots of Fire' directed by Edward Hall. The play tells the stories of Liddell and Harold Abrahams who both won gold medals at the 1924 Olympics in Paris. 'Chariots of Fire' is at the Hampstead Theatre in London. ...
May 30, 2012•42 min
Libby Purves is joined by actor and comedian Omid Djalili, former girl gang member, Chyna, travel journalist and writer Brian Jackman and folk musician Tim Edey. Omid Djalili is an award-winning British-Iranian actor and comedian. He is currently starring in Joe Orton's play 'What the Butler Saw'. Omid has appeared in films including The Mummy, Gladiator, and The Infidel and on stage played the role of Fagin in Oliver! What the Butler Saw is at London's Vaudeville Theatre. Writing under the pseu...
May 23, 2012•42 min
Libby Purves is joined by journalist Angela Rippon, photographer & filmmaker Jim Lee, musician Vusi Mahlasela, and Marian Partington, whose sister was a victim of Frederick and Rosemary West. Journalist Angela Rippon features in the Channel 5 series, 'War Hero in My Family', where celebrities trace the stories of their relatives contributions during times of war. Angela didn't meet her father John until she was three years old, because he'd spent World War Two serving with the Royal Marines....
May 16, 2012•42 min
Joining Libby Purves will be bat expert Dr Rodrigo Medellin, filmmaker Hannah Rothschild, playwright Michael Ashton and former diplomat Sir Roger Carrick. Dr Rodrigo Medellin is a scientist and bat expert. He will become the first recipient of the Whitley Fund for Nature's Gold Award for outstanding achievement in nature conservation in recognition of his efforts to de-demonise vampire bats. He has also successfully re-established Mexico's lesser long-nosed bats which are about to be taken off o...
May 09, 2012•42 min
Libby Purves is joined by food writer Ruth Joseph, musical theatre star Maria Friedman, documentary maker Michael Cockerell and grandson of Agatha Christie, Mathew Prichard. Ruth Joseph is a cook and food writer. Food has always been intrinsic to Jewish life and to her own - from the age of eleven Ruth cared for her late mother who had anorexia as a direct result of her experiences during the Holocaust. Ruth's new cook book, co-written by Simon Round, 'Warm Bagels & Apple Strudel' combines t...
May 02, 2012•42 min
Libby Purves is joined by Olympian James Cracknell, actor and children's author Susannah Corbett, lawyer Nick Freeman aka Mr Loophole and chef Gennaro Contaldo. James Cracknell is the two time Olympic gold medallist and six time World Champion rower. Now turned adventurer, he can be seen in the new series The World's Toughest Expeditions in which he takes on some of the most arduous expeditions in history. These endeavours range from tracing the steps of Colonel Fawcett's infamous 1925 expeditio...
Apr 25, 2012•42 min
Libby Purves is joined by former Speedway star Barry Briggs, actors Roberta Taylor and Peter Guinness, author Dacre Stoker, and bridge designer Richard La Trobe-Batemen. Dacre Stoker is the great grand-nephew of Bram Stoker, author of Dracula. A long-lost journal written by the young Bram Stoker was recently discovered in the attic of his great grandson. The notebook reveals some of Bram's private thoughts and his developing style before he wrote Dracula. Assisted by a team of Dracula scholars a...
Apr 18, 2012•42 min
Libby Purves meets Dick Robinson, the Royal Shakespeare Company's new artistic director Greg Doran; broadcaster Sir Trevor McDonald and Lord and Lady Fitzalan Howard. Dick Robinson is the great nephew of Sister Edith Appleton who was a nurse in France during the First World War. Sister Edith recorded her experiences in her diaries - contrasting the horrors of her job with her love of the natural world. The diaries provide a record of the terrible effects of gas attacks and shell shock as well as...
Apr 11, 2012•41 min
Libby Purves is joined by artists Gavin Turk and Deborah Curtis; Falklands veteran Tony Banks; writer Donald McRae and composer and arranger Barbara Moore. Barbara Moore is a composer, arranger and singer and former member of the Sixties backing group, the Ladybirds. Barbara, who turned eighty this year, is credited with re-orchestrating Alan Freeman's 'Pick of the Pops' theme tune as well working with many artists from Elton John to Dudley Moore, Sandy Shaw and Adam Faith. Tony Banks served wit...
Apr 04, 2012•42 min
Libby Purves is joined by financial expert Alvin Hall; Greek-Cypriot singer-writer Alkinoos Ioannidis; foreign correspondent Alex Crawford and the owner of Dartmoor Zoological Park, Benjamin Mee. Alvin Hall is a financial educator and author. He presented the BBC series Your Money or Your Life, in which he offered practical, financial and psychological advice to people to help them take control of and fix their finances. His latest book The Stock Market Explained - Your Guide to Successful Inves...
Mar 28, 2012•42 min
Libby Purves is joined by Timothy and Shane Spall; theatre director Barrie Rutter; biologist Juliane Koepcke, who survived a plane crash in the Peruvian jungle when she was 17, and musician and writer Grant Gordon. After spending a summer on the Thames, Shane and actor husband Timothy Spall headed out to sea on their Dutch barge Matilda, with only a road atlas and a vast amount of ignorance. A decade before Timothy had been diagnosed with acute leukaemia and was given days to live. Shocked at ho...
Mar 21, 2012•42 min
