Libby Purves meets circus performers Alain and Antoine Carabinier; former police officer James Bannon; pianist James Rhodes and fashion designer Zandra Rhodes. Father and son Alain and Antoine Carabinier are members of Cirque Alfonse, a Canadian company which was formed in Quebec. They are performing at London's Southbank Centre in their show, Timber!, which is inspired by the remote forests where the family is based. Highlights of the show include axe juggling and stunts with lumberjack saws al...
Jul 17, 2013•42 min
Libby Purves meets singer Natalie Cole; actor Joan Shepard; columnist Liz Jones and comedian Tom Wrigglesworth. Natalie Cole is the multi Grammy award-winning singer/songwriter and daughter of Nat King Cole. Her new album, Natalie Cole en Español, is recorded entirely in Spanish and features duets with her father and siblings. The album is a tribute to her late father, who recorded three albums in Spanish, and her own love of the region's music and culture. Natalie Cole en Español is released on...
Jul 10, 2013•42 min
Libby Purves meets James Bowen who befriended Bob the cat; author Mary Sheepshanks; surgeon Dr Gino Strada and Ty Jeffries, also known as cabaret star Miss Hope Springs. James Bowen is a street musician and former heroin addict who found Bob the cat in 2007. Bob was badly injured and James nursed him back to health. The pair have been inseparable ever since and Bob helped James recover from drug addiction. The World According to Bob is published by Hodder & Stoughton. Mary Sheepshanks is a p...
Jul 03, 2013•42 min
Libby Purves meets pig farmer Tracy Mackness, former state defender turned art dealer Rhonda Long Sharp, writer Elisa Seagrave and artist George Butler. Tracy Mackness worked on her dad's stall in Romford market but fell in with the wrong crowd, fraternising with gangsters and the Essex criminal underworld. She was eventually convicted of conspiracy to supply cannabis and was sentenced to ten years in prison. She worked on the prison farm, and now runs her own business breeding pigs and selling ...
Jun 26, 2013•42 min
Libby Purves meets film-maker Claire Belhassine, photojournalist Paul Conroy, entrepreneur Douglas Villiers and composer Errollyn Wallen. Claire Belhassine is a British/Tunisian filmmaker whose documentary film, Papa Hedi tells the story of her grandfather Hedi Jouini, whom she discovered was the Frank Sinatra of the Arab world. When he died in 1990 he was considered to be one of the significant Arabic composers of the 20th century. Papa Hedi is being shown as part of the 2013 London Shubbak Fes...
Jun 19, 2013•43 min
Mariella Frostrup meets Ruby Wax; mathematician Marcus du Sautoy; writer Wendy Law-Yone and Ian Martin of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. Marcus du Sautoy is the Charles Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford. He presents a new series on BBC4, Precision: The Measure of All Things, which explores the history of numerical exactness in our world and how precision has come to rule our lives. Precision: The Measure of All T...
Jun 12, 2013•42 min
Libby Purves meets musician and broadcaster Cerys Matthews; Eve Branson, mother of Sir Richard; Margaret and Barry Mizen and actor and writer Emma Decent. Cerys Matthews is a musician, broadcaster and author. Her book, Hook, Line and Singer, is a compilation of family songs with their history and tips on how they should be sung. Hook, Line and Singer is published by Particular Books. She is also appearing at the MBNA Chester Music Festival and is taking part in the 6 Music Prom at the Royal Albe...
Jun 05, 2013•42 min
Libby Purves meets Jimmy Connors; Damian Barr; Jonathan Miller and Natalie Coleman. During a colourful and successful career tennis player Jimmy Connors won eight Grand Slam titles including Wimbledon twice, the US Open and the Australian Open. Taught to play by his mother, he was known for his brattish and vulgar behaviour and for his rivalries with the likes of McEnroe, Borg and Lendl. His autobiography The Outsider is published by Bantam Press. Damian Barr is a writer and journalist. His memo...
May 29, 2013•42 min
Libby Purves meets actor and comedian Hugh Dennis; David Watson, a chorister at the Queen's Coronation; campaigner Carol Highton and author Liz Trenow. Former journalist Liz Trenow comes from a family of silk weavers. Her first novel, The Last Telegram, is set in a silk mill during World War II and draws on her own 300-year-old family history. The Last Telegram is published by Harper Collins. Hugh Dennis is an actor and comedian. He is best known for BBC Radio 4's The Now Show, satirical panel s...
May 22, 2013•42 min
Libby Purves meets cook and entrepreneur Levi Roots; Edwin Apps, actor and writer; Lydia Corbett, artist and former muse of Picasso and Don Ward, co-founder of the Comedy Store. Levi Roots is a cook, entrepreneur and musician. Born in Jamaica, he developed his signature sauce from his kitchen in Brixton, south London, selling it out of a bag on his back. He came to fame on the TV series Dragons' Den when he won backing for his Reggae Reggae Sauce brand. His new book, Grill It With Levi - 101 Reg...
May 15, 2013•42 min
Libby Purves meets engineer and performer Professor Brendan Walker; former Home Secretary Alan Johnson MP; blues musician Johnny Mars and actor and campaigner Amanda Waring. Professor Brendan Walker is an aeronautical engineer and TV presenter. He is known as the Renaissance Showman for his technology-inspired performances and has been dubbed 'the world's only thrill engineer.' In his new four-part series for Channel 4 he examines recent aviation incidents and near misses to discover what they t...
May 08, 2013•42 min
Libby Purves meets actor Brian Cox; adventurer Jason Lewis; artist Adela Jusic and singer June Tabor. Actor Brian Cox has performed in the West End, on Broadway, at the National Theatre and the Royal Court. He is currently playing Jack in Conor McPherson's The Weir at the Donmar Warehouse. Brian joined Dundee Rep as a young man and since then has carved out a successful theatre and Hollywood career - his films include Manhunter, The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy and Coriolanus. The Weir ...
May 01, 2013•42 min
Libby Purves meets shoe designer Marc Hare; filmmaker Leslie Woodhead; choreographer Kate Prince and Howard Raymond, son of Paul - the King of Soho. Shoe designer Marc Hare is known for his stylish handcrafted shoes. His creations are worn by some of the world's most fashionable men including Robert Downey Jr, Javier Bardem and Tinie Tempah. He opened his first shop in London last year and is taking part in The Secret Meaning of Shoes,a talk examining how and why shoes have become such a fetishi...
Apr 24, 2013•42 min
Libby Purves meets sailor Matt Rutherford; Matthew Du Aime, son of writer William Wharton; Charlie and Louise Mortimer who have published their father's letters written to them over the course of 25 years and cartoonist Bill Stott. Matt Rutherford is a sailor whose life as a troubled adolescent was turned around by the sport. In 2011 he set off on a solo navigation of the Americas in his boat 'Saint Brendan' which he completed in 309 days. During this epic journey of more than 25,000 miles he fa...
Apr 17, 2013•42 min
Libby Purves meets nature writer Richard Mabey; Gladys Hudgell and Eva Rodwell who worked at the Tate & Lyle sugar factory in East London; software programmer turned author Ellen Ullman; and artist Pedro Reyes. Richard Mabey is a nature writer. He is the author of some thirty books including Food for Free, Weeds and Nature Cure which was shortlisted for the Whitbread prize. In his new book, Turned Out Nice Again, he weaves together science, art and memory to illuminate our pre-occupation wit...
Mar 27, 2013•39 min
Libby Purves meets amateur scientist Ruth Brooks; interior designer Nicky Haslam; tax adviser Kieran Holmes and composer and producer Nitin Sawhney. Ruth Brooks is a former teacher turned amateur scientist. In 2010 she won Radio 4's So You Want to be a Scientist competition with her quest to discover whether snails have a homing instinct. Her book A Slow Passion: Snails, My Garden and Me tells of her scientific journey. A Slow Passion - Snails, My Garden and Me is published by Bloomsbury. Nicky ...
Mar 20, 2013•42 min
Libby Purves meets Dr Kevin Fong; Lin Jammet, son of artist Dame Elisabeth Frink; actor Leslie Jordan; and chef Wolfgang Puck. Dr Kevin Fong is a consultant anaesthetist at University College Hospital, London. His career has included working with NASA on the effect of zero gravity on the human body and being part of an emergency response team in a hospital trauma unit. In his book Extremes - Life, Death and the Limits of the Human Body, he draws on these experiences to explore how the body respo...
Mar 13, 2013•42 min
Libby Purves meets escapologist Jonathan Goodwin; artist Simone Sandelson; jazz singer Curtis Stigers and gardener Christine Walkden. Jonathan Goodwin is an escapologist whose feats are inspired by vaudeville showmen and escape artists such as Harry Houdini and Charles Blondin, the high-wire walker. In his new TV series, 'The Incredible Mr Goodwin', Jonathan attempts a series of stunts from beating a bear trap to climbing one of London's tallest buildings - unaided. The Incredible Mr Goodwin is ...
Mar 06, 2013•42 min
Libby Purves meets Will Moult, a Romanian orphan who was adopted by a British couple after the fall of the Ceausescu regime; actor Diana Quick; theatre director Cal McCrystal and sculptor Nic Fiddian-Green. Will Moult was adopted by a British couple in 1990 after the fall of the Ceausescu regime in Romania. More than 20 years later he returns to the country in search of his birth mother for an ITV1 documentary, From Romania with Love. Actor Diana Quick is appearing in Richard Greenberg's The Ame...
Feb 27, 2013•42 min
Libby Purves meets poet and playwright Owen Sheers; Stephen Grady, a former member of the French Resistance; musical star Michael Ball and brewer Ffion Jones. Owen Sheers is a poet, author and playwright. In 2012 he spent a year as artist-in-residence for the Welsh Rugby Union. His book, Calon - A Journey to the Heart of Welsh Rugby, uses his unprecedented access to players and coaching staff to discover what drives a Welsh rugby player. Calon - A Journey to the Heart of Welsh Rugby is published...
Feb 20, 2013•42 min
Tenor Toby Spence has performed with the Royal Opera in Covent Garden; the Metropolitan Opera; the English National Opera and the Hamburg Opera. In 2012 he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, returning to singing later that year. He will appear at the Royal Opera House as the Earl of Essex in a new production of Benjamin Britten's 'Gloriana' in June. With his brother he is producing the Wardsbrook Concerts, a new song recital series, at Ticehurst in East Sussex later this year. Photographer Sonia...
Feb 13, 2013•42 min
Psychologist Dr Bertolt Meyer is the presenter of a Channel 4 documentary, How To Build A Bionic Man. In the programme Bertolt, who was born without a left hand, meets scientists who are developing advanced prosthetic arms and legs, as well as artificial eyes, hearts and lungs and even hybrids between computer chips and living brains. Bertolt has had a prosthetic hand since childhood and believes science is moving so fast that it's time to ask ethical questions about just how far this new techno...
Feb 06, 2013•42 min
In 2004 Rob Forkan and his three siblings lost their parents in the tsunami in Sri Lanka and narrowly escaped death themselves. Penniless, hungry and without documents it took the children a week to hitchhike 200km before they were able to return to Britain. Rob and his brother Paul have now set up a footwear business selling flip flops. A portion of their profits will go towards their 'Orphans for Orphans' initiative which supports a school in India. In 2014, the 10th anniversary of the tsunami...
Jan 30, 2013•42 min
Libby Purves looks back over the last decade with guests, writer and broadcaster Peter Snow, theatre director Sir Trevor Nunn, adventurer Debra Searle and paralympian Mike Brace. Peter Snow CBE is a writer and broadcaster. He has presented a number of documentaries with his son Dan including 'Battleplan: The Battle for Alamein' and 'Battlefield Britain'. His book 'When Britain Burned the White House', about the British destruction of US public buildings during the Anglo-American war of 1812, is ...
Dec 26, 2012•42 min
Maddy Prior MBE is one of the founding members of Steelye Span - the band credited with bringing folk music into the electronic age and making it commercially successful. Andy Watts is musical director of the Carnival Band which has been performing Christmas carols with Maddy every year for 25 years. Their repertoire features obscure and ancient versions of traditional carols and a different take on more familiar material. 'The Best of Maddy Prior and The Carnival Band - A Christmas Caper'' is r...
Dec 19, 2012•42 min
Libby Purves meets actor John Lithgow; climber Nick Bullock; Shelby Holmes, who comes from a family of fairground showmen, and David Green, grandson of composer Ignatz Waghalter. Shelby Holmes comes from five generations of fairground showmen and is now studying English at Trinity College, Oxford. Her childhood was filled with stories of her ancestors: her great-great-great-great-grandmother was Ellen Brown, niece of Mr Brown, the close friend of Queen Victoria who entertained the royal children...
Dec 12, 2012•42 min
Libby Purves meets silversmith Jocelyn Burton; biographer Michael Holroyd; Strictly Come Dancing judge Bruno Tonioli and memory champion Jonathan Hancock. Jocelyn Burton is an award-winning silversmith, known for her witty and often maverick pieces. She was the first woman to become a freeman of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths and to win the Prince Philip City & Guilds Medal for silversmithing. She is currently celebrating 40 years of her work in an exhibition, 'The Art of Silver,' at t...
Dec 05, 2012•42 min
Libby Purves meets musician Joe Brown; theatre producer Bill Kenwright; artist and taxidermist Katrina van Grouw and writer Liam Carson. Joe Brown MBE is one of the original rock 'n'roll stars to come out of the UK. Over the last five decades he has played guitar with Gene Vincent; Eddie Cochran and Johnny Cash and topped the charts with his band Joe Brown and the Bruvvers. His new album, 'The Ukulele Album', is a tribute to the instrument and includes his version of Pinball Wizard; Mr Blue Sky ...
Dec 03, 2012•42 min
Libby Purves meets former Lady-in-Waiting to the Queen, Lady Pamela Hicks; tattoo artist Ami James; costume designer Deborah Nadoolman Landis and chef Fergus Henderson. Ami James is a tattoo artist and star of the US reality TV series Miami Ink & NY Ink which follow Ami and his team in his tattoo shops. He has just opened his first London venture, Love Hate Social Club in Notting Hill with Huey Morgan of 'Fun Lovin' Criminals'. Lady Pamela Hicks is the daughter of Lord Louis Mountbatten and ...
Nov 21, 2012•42 min
Libby Purves meets Olympian Ian Thorpe; penguin expert Pablo Garcia Borboroglu; former ballet dancer Clair Symonds and musician Hyperpotamus. Pablo Garcia Borboroglu is an international penguin expert. He is the founder and president of the Global Penguin Society, an international science-based conservation coalition dedicated to the survival and protection of the world's penguin species. Ian Thorpe is a freestyle swimmer and one of Australia's greatest ever Olympians. At the age of 14 he became...
Nov 14, 2012•42 min
