Ali Woods is a comedian, podcaster and content creator. He won Hackney Empire New Act of the Year 2020 and has appeared on BBC Radio 4, TalkRadio, TalkSport alongside hosting his own podcast ‘All I Do Is Fail’. His online comedy sketches under the tag @aliwoodsgigs have gained millions of views and likes, and featured on LadBible and Buzzfeed UK. Many of Ali’s followers found him after he supported Russell Kane on tour in 2022. Ali is a refreshing mix of the ‘every man’ and the ‘modern man’, who...
Jun 06, 2024•1 hr 1 min
Tom Baldwin is the former director of communications and strategy at the Labour Party and Keir Starmer’s official biographer. As a political journalist he was political editor of The Sunday Telegraph, assistant editor of The Times and The Times’ Washington bureau chief. In 2010, he was appointed as head of communications for the Labour Party and also worked as Senior Adviser to Ed Miliband. He ended this role after Labour's defeat in the 2015 general election. He later worked as director of comm...
Jun 02, 2024•50 min
Alex Kealy is a stand-up comedian who, in his first year of performing, reached the final of the prestigious So You Think You’re Funny competition. He has taken five hours of stand-up to the Edinburgh Fringe. Tickets for his 2024 Edinburgh show, The Fear, are available now. An in-demand joke writer, Alex has written for shows including Mock The Week, Late Night Mash, The News Quiz, and The Now Show, and his comedy has been listed in the top Jokes of the Edinburgh Fringe by The Guardian, The Tele...
May 30, 2024•48 min
Sonali Shah is a freelance broadcaster best known for being one of the faces of BBC Events and BBC Sport and before that, a long-serving presenter of Newsround. Currently a host of The National Lottery Live on Saturday nights, Radio 4’s Today programme sport bulletins and BBC One’s Escape to the Country, Sonali was part of the presentation teams for Delhi 2010, London 2012 and Glasgow 2014 and joined the BBC Crimewatch team in 2015. Sonly was part of the BBC’s team for the Queen's 90th birthday,...
May 26, 2024•50 min
Dr Helen Fry has authored and edited over 25 books covering the social history of the Second World War, including British Intelligence and the secret war, espionage and spies, and MI9 escape and evasion. She is the foremost authority on the 'secret listeners' who worked at special eavesdropping sites operated by British Intelligence during WWII. Her groundbreaking research and extensive media coverage have shed light on one of the greatest intelligence deceptions of the war: the bugging of Hit...
May 23, 2024•47 min
Rob Deering performs stand-up comedy with music, using a guitar, a loop pedal and his voice to create impressive rock and pop soundscapes. Along with being one of the most in-demand headliners on the UK circuit, he’s toured nationally and performed solo shows at the Edinburgh Fringe many times since starting out in the year 2000. His late-night, live-music comedy pop quiz Beat This is a festival institution. Rob has performed around the world and he’s appeared on any number of Radio and TV shows...
May 19, 2024•1 hr 3 min
Toby Hadoke is an actor, writer, podcaster and award winning comedian. He is the host of a weekly comedy night in Manchester at XS Malarkey Comedy Club and presents a monthly new material night at the 53Two theatre with comedians such as Sarah Millican, Justin Moorhouse, and Gary Delaney. Toby is a regular presenter of the 7th Dimension on BBC Radio 4 Extra and a walking encyclopaedia of Doctor Who, hence his podcast all about Doctor Who, Toby Hadoke’s Time Travels. His one-man show Moths Ate My...
May 16, 2024•58 min
Annette Badland is an English actress best known for her roles as Mae the Landlady in Ted Lasso, Charlotte in Bergerac, Margaret Blaine in Doctor Who, Mrs Glenna Fitzgibbons in Outlander, Babe Smith in EastEnders and as Dr Fleur Perkins in Midsomer Murders. She was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role in 1993 for her performance as Sadie in The Rise and Fall of Little Voice; a role she reprised in the 1998 film adaptation Little Voice. Other TV credits i...
May 12, 2024•50 min
Paul Hendy is a script-writer, novelist, director, producer and filmmaker. In his early career, he was a TV presenter hosting the BAFTA nominated Dear Mr Barker, Don’t Try This at Home with Davina McCall, The Disney Club and Wheel of Fortune. He was a regular reporter on ITV’s This Morning and hosted ‘Stash the Cash’. In 2017 Paul wrote, produced and directed a short film The Last Laugh which sees three legendary British comedians in a dressing room discussing the secret of comedy and what it me...
May 09, 2024•48 min
Comedian and actor Michelle Brasier is fast becoming a household name in Australia. She is a lead cast member of ‘We Interrupt This Broadcast’ on channel 7, she voices several characters in ‘ Koala Man’ , the new adult animated comedy series, alongside Hugh Jackman, Sarah Snook and Jemaine Clement on Disney+ and wrote episodes for and voiced characters in Yolo Crystal Fantasy on HBO MAX. She was also a main cast member of Shaun Micallef’s ‘ Mad As Hell’ on ABC. Michelle is a long-term collaborat...
May 05, 2024•48 min
Sam Lake is a stand-up comedian, writer and presenter who won Leicester Square Theatre New Comedian of the Year and Hastings Fringe Newcomer of the Year. Sam has recently starred in The Comedy Guide to Life ob Dave and The Joy of Missing Out with Tom Allen on All4. His writing has been featured on Mock The Week, Breaking The News on BBC Radio Scotland & Newsjack on BBC Radio 4. He’s also the host of the podcast “I’ve Had a Rosé, Let’s Talk About Feelings”, and regularly performs at the bigge...
May 02, 2024•55 min
After almost three decades as one of the UK’s favourite TV chefs, Ainsley Harriott has become something of a national institution. In 2020 he was delighted to be awarded an MBE for his services to broadcasting and the culinary arts. Best known for his twenty-one series’ of Ready, Steady, Cook, and with many solo primetime cooking series under his belt, he has become the master of fresh, fun, accessible cuisine. His latest series is Ainsley's National Trust Cook Off on ITV . Ainsley Harriott is g...
Apr 28, 2024•47 min
It's the 4 year anniversary of our first episode! So to celebrate we thought we'd go right back to where it all started and re-edit Stephen Fry! In the early days we were a bit less confident than we are now and therefore our editing was a bit more ruthless than it is now, so we thought we'd re-edit Stephen's episode with a more relaxed ear. This has resulted in a much more relaxed conversation and plenty of unheard stories, jokes and a few more umms and errs. We hope you enjoy it! Stephen Fry i...
Apr 25, 2024•1 hr 8 min
Georgina Hayden is a cook, food writer and stylist. She writes for publications such as The Telegraph, Delicious Magazine and Observer Food Monthly, and in 2021 she won the Fortnum & Mason Best Cookery Writer Award for her work in Waitrose Food magazine. She has appeared on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, and regularly appears on This Morning, Sunday Brunch Saturday Kitchen. Georgina worked for Jamie Oliver’s food team for 12 years where she did everything from styling, developing and writing recipe...
Apr 21, 2024•53 min
Carol Drinkwater is a British actress and best-selling author. Probably best known for playing Helen Herriot in the television adaptation of All Creatures Great and Small, which led to her receiving the Variety Club Television Personality of the Year award in 1985. She was a member of the National Theatre Company under the leadership of Laurence Olivier and won a Critics' Circle Best Screen Actress award for her role in the feature film Father. She’s also been in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Or...
Apr 18, 2024•49 min
Astrophysicist Professor Chris Lintott is the primary presenter of the BBC’s The Sky at Night, having previously been co-presenter with Patrick Moore until Moore's death in 2012. He co-authored Bang! – The Complete History of the Universe and The Cosmic Tourist with Patrick Moore and Queen guitarist and astrophysicist Brian May. He has recently been appointed the 39th Professor of Astronomy at Gresham College in London which was founded in 1597. At the same time Chris is Professor of Astrophysic...
Apr 14, 2024•47 min
Nick Newman is Ian Hislop’s writing partner and the award winning Sunday Times cartoonist. He has worked for Private Eye since 1981 and has been the cartoonist for The Sunday Times since 1989. He was The Cartoon Art Trust’s Cartoonist of the Year in 1997, 1998, 2005 and 2016 and he won the Sports Journalists’ Association’s Cartoonist of the Year award in 2005, 2007 and 2009. Nick’s scriptwriting career with Ian Hislop includes Spitting Image (from 1984-89), Dawn French’s Murder Most Horrid, The ...
Apr 11, 2024•52 min
Comedian Simon Brodkin is probably best known for his comedy character Lee Nelson and his pranks including giving Teressa May a P45 during her Prime Minister’s speech at the Tory Party Conference, showered Sepp Blatter with dollar bills, surrounded Donald Trump with swastika golf balls, and starred in Britain’s Greatest Hoaxer on Channel 4, which was nominated for ‘Best Documentary’ at the Monte Carlo TV Festival. Simon wrote and stared in in three series of BBC Three’s Lee Nelson’s Well Good Sh...
Apr 07, 2024•48 min
Ann Bryson is a very old friend of Mike's and was half of the comedy duo the Flaming Hamsters with a past guest of ours, Sara Crowe, and together they were the Philadelphia cheese advert girls for many years. She was also on television and on film in One Foot In The Grave, KYTV, City Lights, Only Fools and Horses, Inspector Morse, Hale and Pace, Doctor Who, The Steal, All About Me, Days Like These, Sometime Never, Space Vets and The Best of Rory Bremner. This episode was recorded over 4 years ag...
Apr 04, 2024•44 min
Maisie Adam is comedian who is fast becoming a household name who has appeared on Live At The Apollo, A League Of Their Own, Mock the Week, Have I Got News for You, QI, Roast Battle, 8 Out of 10 Cats and the Royal Variety Performance. Since winning the nationwide So You Think You’re Funny? competition in 2017, she has won Best New Act at the Chortle Awards and the Amused Moose National New Act gong, as well as being nominated Best Newcomer at the Edinburgh Fringe for her debut show ‘Vague’. She ...
Apr 01, 2024•45 min
Luke Kempner is currently staring in Les Misérables in the West End playing Monsieur Thenardier but Luke is also well known for being a comedian and impressionist at the top of his game. Last year saw Luke voice over 30 puppets in the West End production of Spitting Image: Idiots Assemble, including King Charles, Prince Harry, Harry Styles, Ed Sheeran, Jurgen Klopp and many more. His TV credits include Spitting Image, Steph’s Packed Lunch, The Last Leg, Love Island: Aftersun, The Stand Up Sketch...
Mar 29, 2024•51 min
Richard Talman is a Master Goldsmith and the resident goldsmith on The Repair Shop, the award winning show on BBC One. Richard’s jewellery business, RTFJ, was founded in 2010 and has customers from around the world. It was awarded the National Winner of The Wedding Industry Awards. Richard is a Freeman of Worshipful company of Goldsmiths, Freeman of city of London and was the ‘Youngest ever’ to receive the Fellowship of the institute of professional goldsmiths. Richard Talman’s has recently laun...
Mar 25, 2024•56 min
Liam Withnail is an award winning comedian. He co-hosts the popular podcast Enjoy an Album, which was nominated for Best Podcast at the Chortle Awards 2024. He is also a regular guest on BBC Radio Scotland’s Breaking the News and has also been heard on The Good, The Bad and The Unexpected, seen on Socially Distant with Susan Calman and has written on Scot Squad. His 2023 Edinburgh Fringe show ‘Chronic Boom’ was a sellout success and received widespread critical acclaim, racking up sixteen 4 and ...
Mar 22, 2024•40 min
Tom Shakespeare CBE is Professor of Disability Research at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and was the 2020 Swarthmore Lecturer. Tom has achondroplasia and uses a wheelchair. He is a social scientist and bioethicist who has worked particularly on disability and on genetics. His books include Disability Rights and Wrongs, Genetic Politics, and Disability – the Basics. Tom has presented programmes and documentaries on BBC Radio and has written for publications including The Guar...
Mar 18, 2024•58 min
Professor Sophie Scott is a neuroscientist and the Director of the Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience. Her research investigates the cognitive neuroscience of voices, speech and laughter, particularly speech perception, production, vocal emotions and human communication Sophie started her research career in Cambridge at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit She was awarded a Wellcome Trust Fellowship in 2001 and has been funded by them since. As of 2017 she holds...
Mar 15, 2024•1 hr 1 min
Jon Holmes is a comedian, writer, presenter, producer and broadcaster who has won two BAFTAs, nine Gold Sony Radio Awards and two British Comedy Awards. He’s presented major radio shows on BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2, BBC 6Music, Virgin Radio, XFM, Takradio, LBC and Radio X. On Radio 4, he co-created Dead Ringers, he wrote and appearing in The Now Show and The 99p Challenge where he first worked with Armando Iannucci. He also worked with Armando on Gash on Channel 4 and Time Trumpet on BBC2 and in ...
Mar 11, 2024•1 hr
Lewis MacLeod is a Scottish actor best known for voicing characters and his impressions. He was in Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace as the voice of Sebulba (the podracer who competes against young Anakin Skywalker), he is currently the voice of Postman Pat and he regularly appeared on BBC Radio 2's Steve Wright in the Afternoon voicing impressions of Jeremy Vine, Donald Trump and Paul McCartney. He does various impressions in Dead Ringers on BBC Radio 4 and Spitting Image. He also provi...
Mar 08, 2024•59 min
Jess Conrad has been ‘the vainest man in showbiz’ self styled since the 1950’s, having been a pop star, a film star, a star of the West End, a TV star and a cabaret star. Jess fell into film extra work, then acting work, being discovered by Jack Goode and having a number of hits in the early sixties, including one voted the sixth worst song of all time. He went on to play Jesus in Godspell and Joseph in Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dream Coat for many years, whilst also appearing in dozen...
Mar 04, 2024•1 hr 1 min
Comedian Huge Davies appears regularly on television, including his own Channel 4 sitcom ‘The Artists’ which he created, wrote and starred in. Other television appearances include 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown, Harry Hill’s Clubnite, Roast Battle, Jools Holland, Hypothetical, Jonathan Ross’ Comedy Club, Live at the Comedy Store, Comedians Giving Lectures and The Stand Up Sketch Show. Huge supported Phil Wang and Joe Lycett on their national tours and has been nominated for an Edinburgh Comedy ...
Mar 01, 2024•1 hr
Greg Jenner is a public historian and host and creator of the BBC podcast You’re Dead To Me, the chart-topping comedy with over 82 million downloads. He’s also the presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Past Forward: A Century of Sound, the BBC’s award-nominated children’s podcast Homeschool History and the Audible series A Somewhat Complete History of Sitting Down. He was the Historical Consultant to nine series of CBBC’s Emmy & multiple BAFTA award-winning TV comedy series Horrible Histories and a key...
Feb 26, 2024•1 hr 14 min
