Libby Purves meets cellists Julian and Jiaxin Lloyd Webber; comedian Milton Jones; writer and director Gurinder Chadha and diplomat and poet, Dr Kevin Isaac. Gurinder Chadha OBE is a Kenyan-born writer and director who is best known for her film, Bend it Like Beckham. The comedy tells the story of a young Asian woman's ambition to play football while accommodating the demands of family and tradition. Alongside composer Howard Goodall, Gurinder has transformed the screenplay into a new West End m...
Dec 31, 2014•41 min
Libby Purves meets singer Barbara Dickson; actor Mike McShane; medic Dr Sarah Coombes and storyteller Giles Abbott. Dr Sarah Coombes is a consultant with the Ambulance Service of New South Wales (ASNSW). She appears in a new series of Helicopter Heroes Down Under which follows British medics and pilots working in Australia. She is in charge of recruiting new doctors for ASNSW as well as attending emergency calls - covering around 7 million people in a 300-400 km radius. Helicopter Heroes Down Un...
Dec 24, 2014•41 min
Libby Purves meets Barry and Bob Cryer; violin maker Florian Leonhard; adventurer Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent and choirmaster Andrew Gant. Father and son Barry and Bob Cryer have co-written a new show, Mrs Hudson's Christmas Corker. Set in the kitchen of 221b Baker Street, the Christmas special reveals what really happens below stairs at the home of Sherlock Holmes. Veteran comedy writer and performer, Barry is a regular on Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. Bob is a writer and actor who has app...
Dec 17, 2014•42 min
Libby Purves meets poet and broadcaster Ian McMillan; actors Linda Marlowe and Victoria Tennant and musician Mike Vass. Ian McMillan is a poet and broadcaster. He is poet-in-residence for The Academy of Urbanism and Barnsley FC and presents The Verb on BBC Radio 3. He has been commissioned to write a new poem based on the Christmas Truce International Tournament for young footballers to honour the football games that took place on the Western Front in 1914. His poem The Game: Christmas Day 1914 ...
Dec 10, 2014•42 min
Libby Purves meets musician Keith Ball; wildlife expert Lucy Cooke; writers David and Ben Crystal and Angie Marchese, director of archives at Graceland. Angie Marchese is the director of archives at Graceland, the former home of Elvis Presley. She is curating a new exhibition in London which showcases over 300 artefacts from the Presley family's archives, some of which have never been exhibited outside of Graceland in Memphis. Objects on display include Elvis's American Eagle jumpsuit; the red 1...
Dec 03, 2014•42 min
Libby Purves meets concert pianist Janina Fialkowska; tailor Edward Sexton; Dolores Payas who translated books written by the travel writer Patrick Leigh Fermor and voice coach Gary Catona. Edward Sexton has been designing and making suits for over 40 years. In 1969 he and Tommy Nutter opened Nutters, the first new establishment on Savile Row for 120 years. Nutters' suits for men and women appealed to the celebrities of the day including the Beatles, Mick and Bianca Jagger, Twiggy and Elton John...
Nov 26, 2014•41 min
Libby Purves meets surrealist painter Patrick Hughes, Pam Dix of Disaster Action, artist and performer Scottee and Dr Bryn Dentinger, mycologist at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Patrick Hughes is a surrealist painter renowned for his optical illusion technique, reverspective, where the parts of a picture which seem farthest away are actually physically the nearest. He is to receive an honorary degree, from the University of London's School of Advanced Study, in recognition of his outstanding c...
Nov 19, 2014•42 min
Libby Purves meets ceramicist Roger Law; sopranos Sophie and Mary Bevan; actor and director Sondra Lee and cruise ship guide Douglas Ward. Sopranos and sisters, Sophie and Mary Bevan, come from a family steeped in musical tradition. Sophie is currently playing Ilia in Mozart's Idomeneo at the Royal Opera House and Mary is performing Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro with the English National Opera at the Coliseum. Roger Law is the satirist and ceramicist who co-created Spitting Image, the televi...
Nov 12, 2014•42 min
Libby Purves meets artist Arabella Dorman; presenter and parish priest the Reverend Richard Coles; former baker Ted the Bread Davies and director Joan Littlewood's former assistant, Peter Rankin. Arabella Dorman is a war artist and portrait painter. Her exhibition, Before the Dawn, features work reflecting her time in Afghanistan over the last five years. The exhibition shows the reality of life for Afghan families and British soldiers at a time of transition with the withdrawal of British and U...
Nov 05, 2014•42 min
Libby Purves meets artist Grayson Perry; musician Thomas Lauderdale; former gang member Tracey Miller and magician Drummond Money-Coutts. Drummond Money-Coutts is a magician and illusionist. He presents a new series, Beyond Magic with DMC, in which he travels the world demonstrating his skills with card tricks, stunts and occasional cheating. Each episode recreates a historic trick or stunt. Beyond Magic with DMC is on National Geographic Channel. Grayson Perry is an artist who won the Turner Pr...
Oct 30, 2014•42 min
Libby Purves meets motor cycle racer Guy Martin; former NHS consultant Dr David Drew; writer Sofka Zinovieff and theatre director Mark Bell. Guy Martin is a lorry mechanic, motorcycle racer and presenter. In his new series Speed on Channel 4 he attempts to set new speed records by using the very best of British engineering talent. Among his record attempts he rides a motorbike in the Pike's Peak International Hill Climb in Colorado, racing to an altitude of over 4000m. He also has a go at settin...
Oct 22, 2014•42 min
Libby Purves meets gem hunter Guy Clutterbuck; artist Andrew Logan; campaigner Diana Nammi and counter-tenor David James. Guy Clutterbuck is a gem hunter and dealer whose expeditions have led him to countries including Zambia, Mozambique, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka where he buys rough and cut gemstones. During these trips he sources rare gems such as emeralds, rubies, sapphires and aquamarines from local mines. He has donated a 60 carat Mozambican aquamarine - worth £40,000 - to a raffle by Fine ...
Oct 15, 2014•42 min
Libby Purves meets actor Ray Winstone; adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes; singer and songwriter Martha D Lewis and animal behaviourist Dr John Bradshaw. Dr John Bradshaw is an animal behaviourist and the founder and director of the Anthrozoology Institute at the University of Bristol. Anthrozoology is the study of interactions between humans and animals. He is one of the presenters of the BBC Two series Cat Watch which uses GPS tracking technology and cat-cams to follow a range of felines from city...
Oct 08, 2014•42 min
Libby Purves meets hula hoop virtuoso Marawa Ibrahim; biographer Selina Hastings; horse whisperer Gary Witheford and early music specialist, Dr David Skinner. Marawa Ibrahim, otherwise known as Marawa the Amazing, is a virtuoso of the hula hoop. She has performed and taught hula hooping all over the world from Nepal to New York. She now runs workshops in London and coaches her hula troupe, the Majorettes. She will appear in the 2015 Guinness Book of records in the category for 'the longest time ...
Oct 01, 2014•41 min
Libby Purves meets trumpeter Alison Balsom; Louise Cordingly, daugther of a POW chaplain in Singapore; comedian Paul Merton and cartogragher Jethro Lennox. Alison Balsom is a solo trumpeter. Three-time Classical Brit award winner and Gramophone Artist of the Year, her big break came when she was a concerto finalist in the BBC Young Musician competition in 1998. Last year she appeared at the Globe Theatre, in Gabriel, showcasing the valveless trumpet and featuring the works of Purcell. She is emb...
Sep 24, 2014•42 min
Libby Purves meets bee expert Professor Adam Hart; writer Maria Venegas; writer and former model Sandra Howard and artistic director of the National Youth Theatre, Paul Roseby. Adam Hart is professor of science communication at the University of Gloucestershire. He is the resident bee expert for BBC Two's series Hive Alive which explores the secret world of the honey bee. Using cutting edge technology including thermal, infra-red and endoscope cameras and time lapse photography, the series revea...
Jul 09, 2014•42 min
Libby Purves meets Emma O'Reilly, the woman who blew the whistle on Lance Armstrong; artist Joshua Sofaer; writer and performer Danny Braverman and dragonfly expert Ruary Mackenzie Dodds. Artist Joshua Sofaer is the man behind The Rubbish Collection, an exhibition at the Science Museum. Part of the museum's Climate Changing programme - a series of events and exhibitions that support its Atmosphere gallery - the exhibition takes a month's worth of the museum's rubbish and looks at the value and v...
Jul 02, 2014•42 min
Mariella Frostrup is joined by former personal assistant to Nelson Mandela, Zelda la Grange; comedian John Moloney and country-blues musician Rattlesnake. Zelda la Grange grew up in South Africa as a white Afrikaner who supported the rules of segregation. Yet just a few years after the end of apartheid she became Nelson Mandela's trusted assistant for the next 19 years. In her book, Good Morning, Mr Mandela, she tells the story of how a young woman had her life, beliefs and prejudices transforme...
Jun 25, 2014•42 min
Libby Purves meets audio describer Roz Chalmers; Merlin Holland, grandson of Oscar Wilde; writer and yoga teacher David Charles Manners and David Waterman of the Endellion String Quartet. Roz Chalmers is an audio describer. She provides live or recorded and captioned performances for blind or partially sighted and deaf audiences. She also leads backstage touch tours which allow audiences to meet actors and touch costumes and props. She has worked on a range of productions including the Old Vic's...
Jun 18, 2014•42 min
Libby Purves meets Rear Admiral David Pulvertaft, an expert on ships figureheads; designer and inventor Tom Karen; writer David Stuart MacLean and actor Rebecca Front. Rear Admiral David Pulvertaft first developed an interest in warship figureheads during his naval service and since retiring has spent nearly 20 years researching the subject. A new exhibition at Tate Britain, British Folk Art, features examples of brightly coloured ships' figureheads including the striking HMS Calcutta. Figurehea...
Jun 11, 2014•42 min
Libby Purves meets St Andrews golf caddie Oliver Horovitz; Lord John Browne of Madingley; artist and journalist Helen Kirwan-Taylor and singer and activist Angelique Kidjo. A golfer and caddie since the age of 12, Oliver Horovitz decided to spend his gap year at the University of St Andrews before going to Harvard. In his book, An Amerian Caddie in St Andrews, he tells how he joined the caddie training programme on the Old Course of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club at St Andrews. An American Cadd...
Jun 04, 2014•42 min
Libby Purves meets Sir Roy Strong; comic Marcus Brigstocke; horsewoman Venetia Williams and singer Polly Bolton at the Hay-on-Wye Festival. Venetia Williams is a horse trainer who specialises in National Hunt Racing. A keen and successful amateur jockey in her youth, Venetia achieved ten jump-racing wins between 1986 and 1988 during which time she also rode in the Grand National. In 1988 Venetia's race-riding career ended following a near-fatal fall in which she sustained a broken neck. Unable t...
May 28, 2014•42 min
Libby Purves meets British Museum curator Dr Daniel Antoine; translator and editor Brendan King; artist Hetain Patel and writer Sue Swingler. Dr Daniel Antoine is the curator of human remains at the British Museum. He is overseeing the museum's new interactive exhibition Ancient lives, new discoveries. The exhibition uses state-of-the-art technology to allow visitors to look inside mummy cases and examine what's underneath the wrappings. Visitors will encounter each mummy with accompanying large...
May 21, 2014•42 min
Libby Purves meets songwriter Tony Hatch; cabaret performer Le Gateau Chocolat; adventurer Bob Shepton and entrepreneur Barb Stegemann. Le Gateau Chocolat is a cabaret performer from Nigeria. His latest show, Black, is a portrait of his loves, fears and personal battle with depression. Le Gateau Chocolat has sung for the Queen as part of the Jubilee Flotilla and performed around the world with La Soirée and Le Clique. His solo show has been staged at the Sydney Opera House. Black is at the Soho ...
May 14, 2014•42 min
Libby Purves is joined by writer and journalist Bridget Keenan; singer and songwriter Gruff Rhys; dancer and choreographer Corey Baker and nature writer Richard Kerridge. Brigid Keenan gave up a career as a fashion journalist to become the wife of a diplomat, living in Nepal, Ethiopia, Syria, the Gambia and Azerbaijan. In her latest book, Packing Up, the couple are posted to Kazakhstan and they are facing their biggest adventure so far - the prospect of retirement. Packing Up - Further Adventure...
May 07, 2014•42 min
Libby Purves is joined by writer Abbie Ross; director Sir Richard Eyre; poet and and wild swimmer Andrew Fusek Peters and Peter Francis, warden of Gladstone's Library. In 1972 when Abbie Ross was two her cosmopolitan parents moved from London to rural Wales to lead an alternative lifestyle. In her book, Hippy Dinners, she recreates this childhood - in particular her parents' friendships with local hippies and their embarrassing taste for hummus, cheesecloth and yoga. Hippy Dinners - A memoir of ...
Apr 30, 2014•42 min
Libby Purves meets Baroness Jean Trumpington; Pauline Butcher Bird, former secretary to Frank Zappa; science writer David Adam and James Sawyer of the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA). James Sawyer is director of disaster management at the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA). He leads teams which respond to disasters around the world including the tsunami in Japan and the Haiti earthquake. In a BBC Two documentary, Vets in the Disaster Zone, James and his team tr...
Apr 23, 2014•42 min
Libby Purves meets former athlete Sir Roger Bannister; professor of cybernetics Kevin Warwick; actor Rachael Stirling and writer Diana Darke. Kevin Warwick is a professor of cybernetics and deputy vice-chancellor for research at the University of Coventry. Since 1998 he has been implanting computer chips into his body, some directly communicating with his nervous system. He was dubbed the world's first cyborg when he had a silicon chip implanted in his arm and is currently attempting to get ethi...
Apr 16, 2014•42 min
Libby Purves meets cabaret performer Eve Ferret, World War Two Hurricane pilot Eric Carter, director and playwright Ray Cooney and photographer Cambridge Jones. Eve Ferret is a cabaret performer. She first performed at the Blitz club in London in the late 70s and early 80s and appeared in the film Absolute Beginners with David Bowie. After a 30 year gap from performing, she is back with a new show Ferret Up the Arts at the Arts Theatre in London. Her first album (as yet unnamed) is also about to...
Apr 09, 2014•42 min
Libby Purves meets ventriloquist Steve Hewlett; mountaineer Jamie Andrew; singer and songwriter Ayo and former sheep farmer turned barrister Philip Walling. Steve Hewlett is a comedian and ventriloquist. A ventriloquist since the age of 12, his dummies include Arthur Lager; Simon Cowell and Sinitta and a lamb called Lamb Shank. In 2006 he became the new voice of Archie Andrews - at one time the nation's favourite dummy whose radio programme, Educating Archie, attracted 15m listeners in the 1950s...
Apr 02, 2014•42 min
