Impressionist and actor Alistair McGowan joins Aasmah Mir and Suzy Klein to talk sporting passions, finding your roots and the joys of Noel Coward. Also joining us is Katy U'ren, a PE teacher from Glasgow. She discusses what it was like to teach children in Bangladesh how to swim as part of UNICEF's SwimSafe campaign, and what she's doing back home to transform the lives of the children she teaches. Listener Emma got in touch with Saturday Live after tracking down her birth mother on Facebook. S...
Sep 06, 2014•1 hr 25 min
Richard Coles and Aasmah Mir are joined by the columnist Katharine Whitehorn, the writer Nina Stibbe, and Nikki King, Honorary Chairman of Isuzu Truck UK, who shares her stories of doing business in Japan. Louise Johncox describes how her baker father inspired her love of the sound of a whisk. Nigel Brazier on four generations of his family business and traditional Black Country recipes. Stephen Evans explains why he learned to ride a bike at the age of 49 and a quarter and the singer Natalie Co...
Aug 30, 2014•1 hr 25 min
Richard Coles and Aasmah Mir are joined by Radio 1 DJ Gemma Cairney, former engineer Sam King from Jamaica, who served with the RAF during the Second World War. Now 88 years-old he talks to Saturday Live about his life, legacy and the Notting Hill Carnival. Annabel Tellis Tunley emigrated with her family to Australia in 2004 and is running a project where she calls a Facebook friend, old or new every day. Some of them she hasn't spoken to for up to 40 years. Cellist and recovering alcoholic Rach...
Aug 23, 2014•1 hr 25 min
Aasmah Mir and Richard Coles are joined by the award-winning singer and composer Laura Mvula, poet Josephine Dickinson who has just regained her hearing after being deaf since she was six, and 'Educating Yorkshire' English teacher Matthew Burton. Plus Carl-Magnus Helgegren who took his two sons, aged ten and eleven, to visit a war zone after they asked to play the computer game 'Call of Duty', Clive and Jane Green who set out on a short sailing trip in 1998 and returned 51,000 nautical miles and...
Aug 16, 2014•1 hr 25 min
Richard Coles and Aasmah Mir are joined by the writer and comedian Katy Brand, author Harry Bucknall who followed all 1,411 miles of the Via Francigena Pilgrims walk from the City of London through England, France, Switzerland and Italy to Rome, and actor Daniel Laurie who's become the first student with Downs Syndrome to be accepted to the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama Theatre School Summer Course. Author and former news correspondent Gerald Seymour recalls his meeting with Maurice B...
Aug 09, 2014•1 hr 25 min
Richard Coles and Suzy Klein are joined by the actress and writer Maureen Lipman, artist John Dolan who was saved from homelessness by his dog George, and Alison Trim who received a memorable musical 50th birthday present. John McCarthy meets Level 42's Mark King and his mother Bridget on the Isle of Wight, twins Billy and Bob Seago explain how passing and failing the 11 plus affected their relationship, Allan and Margot Wells reflect on working together and their long association with the Commo...
Aug 02, 2014•1 hr 25 min
Aasmah Mir and Richard Coles with a programme from Glasgow to celebrate the Commonwealth Games. They are joined by record-breaking long-distance Scottish cyclist, adventurer, broadcaster and Queens Baton bearer Mark Beaumont. Sir Professor Geoff Palmer came to Britain from Jamaica aged 14. Described as educationally sub-normal is he now an expert in cereals and Professor Emeritus of brewing at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. He was the first black Professor in Scotland and is a prominent anti...
Jul 26, 2014•1 hr 25 min
Richard Coles and Aasmah Mir are joined by Lord Sugar's longstanding Apprentice advisor Nick Hewer, PhD student Hannah Earnshaw who's on the shortlist for a one-way ticket to Mars, and Lois Pryce who rode her motorcycle three thousand miles around Iran on her own. British Empire Medal winner Annie Chapman describes how she's raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for cancer research astride her tractor, lawn bowls player Andrew Newell explains why he wants to get Team Jamaica to the next Commonw...
Jul 19, 2014•1 hr 25 min
Aasmah Mir and Richard Coles are in the studio with Britain's best-selling author, children's writer Julia Donaldson, who created the character of the Gruffalo. Also, Matt Lewis, who as a young marine biologist was shipwrecked in the Antarctic seas and has written about the experience in "Last Man Off", busker Catrina Davies, who travelled 11,000 miles with her cello, and the captain of the Cheshire cricket team attempting to save face after the humiliation of being bowled out for three in a lea...
Jul 12, 2014•1 hr 25 min
Suzy Klein and Richard Coles with American singer-songwriter Ben Folds, Wayne Ingram who as soldier in Bosnia met and helped Stefan Savic, who was born with a facial cleft, the family who've lived in the same house for five generations, 12 year old Liverpool schoolgirl Millie Courtney who's topping the charts in Nashville, and black hat Wimbledon steward David Spearing. JP Devlin delivers a Tour de France Crowdscape from the Yorkshire Dales and last year's winner Chris Froome shares his Inherita...
Jul 05, 2014•1 hr 22 min
Tony Parsons joins Richard Coles and Suzy Klein. Tony talks about his new crime novel, The Murder Bag, and about his first foray into the genre of crime writing. He also talks about boxing, his Father and the importance of his family. Ian Boughton is the Grandson of Rutland Boughton, originator of the very first 'Glastonbury Festivals' and the composer of 'The Immortal Hour'. The festivals, which ran from 1914 to 1926, inspired Michael Eavis to start his own Glastonbury Festival and Ian talks ab...
Jun 28, 2014•1 hr 25 min
Richard Coles and Suzy Klein are joined by Bridget Jones creator Helen Fielding, seventh Python Carol Cleveland, and Stuart J Cole who was abandoned as a baby, sent to Jamaica to live with family he had never met, and who turned his life around during a spell in prison. We go to Glyndebourne to meet Caroline and Andrew Thomson and Sandra and Ian Pusey who found real-life love at the opera, radiator salesman Phil Neville tells us what it's like to be a victim of mistaken identity and has a go at ...
Jun 21, 2014•1 hr 25 min
Richard Coles and Aasmah Mir with Britain's poster girl for transgender acceptance Paris Lees, tsunami orphans Rob and Paul Forkan whose flip-flop company funds a foundation to help other survivors of the 2004 tsunami, teenage champion Jenni Herd who won an apology from The Times after she challenged negative stereotypes of young people in the paper, and garage owner Errol McKellar who's saved 24 lives by offering his customers a discount if they'll take a test for prostate cancer. With less tha...
Jun 14, 2014•1 hr 25 min
Rev Richard Coles and Suzy Klein with the chairman of The National Trust, Sir Simon Jenkins, talking about the National Trust and his new book 'England's 100 Best Views', Francesco Da Mosto sharing his views of Venice and elsewhere, Tony Bennett, the 'VisitBritain' and 'Countryside is Great' Take a View Landscape Photographer of the year 2013 on the perfect landscape photograph, Ang Zangbhu, a supporter of the Himalayan Trust UK and a former sherpa in the foothills of Everest who now flies jets ...
Jun 07, 2014•1 hr 25 min
Richard Coles and Aasmah Mir with broadcaster Jeremy Paxman, homeless athlete Joel Hodgson, wingsuiter Geraldine Fasnacht and 14 year old record-breaking fisherman Will Sudders. JP Devlin visits the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire and Arianna Huffington shares her Inheritance Tracks. Jeremy Paxman's book Great Britain's Great War is available now. Joel Hodgson sold The Big Issue before he started working for Freshfields and training for the Commonwealth Games with Inspired by Sports...
May 31, 2014•1 hr 25 min
Richard Coles and Suzy Klein with adventurer Ed Stafford whose latest book 'Naked and Marooned' charts 60 days completely alone with nothing but a camera. Ed discusses his world travels and the profound psychological impact enforced, albeit self imposed, solitude, had on him. Lady Catherine Meyer lost both of her sons when her former husband abducted them and took them to Germany against the ruling of a British court. Years of legal battles ensued but Catherine couldn't get the boys back. Years ...
May 24, 2014•1 hr 25 min
Suzy Klein and Aasmah Mir with singer song-writer Lulu. Also Iain Stewart, a charity worker from Scotland who is recording an album with Rwandan musician Jean-Paul Samputu on the theme of forgiveness and reconciliation. Plus, foster couple Mick and Angela, who despite being in their 70s, now only take in babies. Ronan Keating shares his Inheritance Tracks. Singer-songwriter and 60s icon Lulu talks about 50 years in the music business, a career in acting and her new life as a gran. Lulu has an an...
May 18, 2014•1 hr 25 min
Richard Coles and Aasmah Mir with actor Tyger Drew-Honey, the world's leading maze designer Adrian Fisher, dad and daughter cheerleading team Darren and Amy Peacock, Ann Hunt and Elizabeth Hamel who are the world's longest separated twins, and Sofi, Melanie, Amanda and August von Trapp, great-grandchildren of the Captain in The Sound Of Music. To mark its 20th birthday there's a Crowdscape from the Channel Tunnel, and Coleen Nolan shares her Inheritance Tracks. JP Devlin has tales of embarrassin...
May 10, 2014•1 hr 25 min
Richard Coles in London and Suzy Klein in Bristol from the Bristol Food Connections Festival with food writer Jay Rayner, The Inheritance Tracks of Julian Lloyd Webber, Nick Hunt following in the footsteps of Patrick Leigh Fermor on his 2,500 mile walk from Rotterdam to Istanbul, JP Devlin meeting urban gull expert Peter Rock on a Bristol rooftop, poetry from Elvis McGonagall, Vicky Harrison who is knitting Bristol in miniature and Romy Gill, chef and restaurant owner on the immeasurable joys of...
May 03, 2014•1 hr 25 min
Rev Richard Coles and Andrea Catherwood with maths writer Alex Bellos, English-speaker Caroline Sarll who decided to bring her children up to be bilingual, Charlie Corr whose childhood dream came true when he met Pele, Frank McCauley from lowly Salford City FC who've caught the eye of Manchester United's famous 'Class of '92', Ken Jones who was caught in an avalanche, and Simon Duncan and Mark Atkinson whose band's name earned them a Banksy. Plus the Inheritance Tracks of writer and broadcaster ...
Apr 26, 2014•1 hr 25 min
Anita Anand and Andrea Catherwood are joined by British designer Bruce Oldfield OBE, best known for his couture and bridalwear designs. Tom Mackenzie recalls his experiences as the last child to be admitted to the Foundling Hospital, a charity run on strict Victorian values that brought up children born outside marriage. Lynne Moore is an war artist who was embedded with the British Forces in Helmund, Hannah Rochell writes the En Brogue blog describing the joys of wearing brogues. Plus JP Devlin...
Apr 19, 2014•1 hr 25 min
Richard Coles and Aasmah Mir are joined by TV presenter and novelist Fern Britton. Tom Hart Dyke recalls his traumatic kidnap experience in the jungles of Colombia and how it led to the creation of a world garden, Gary Enstone relishes his job as a conservator of Kipling's old home and Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent explains why she rode the Ho Chi Minh Trail alone on a pink motorbike. Jimmy Osmond chooses his inheritance tracks, JP meets an Abba super-fan and a bunch of city lawyers get down and dirt...
Apr 12, 2014•1 hr 25 min
Richard Coles and Aasmah Mir are joined by agony aunt Irma Kurtz. 10 year old blogger Harry Hamer talks about missing his grandparents when they moved abroad, Jean Singfield describes why a set of rosary beads are the Thing About Her, Newsnight presenter Kirsty Wark reveals her secret love of tapestry, author Stephen Armstrong celebrates Ibiza, comedian Jack Whitehall shares his Inheritance Tracks, and veteran servicemen Darren 'Swifty' Swift discusses his reinvention as an actor, and listeners ...
Apr 05, 2014•1 hr 25 min
Richard Coles and Suzy Klein with comedian Paul Whitehouse, Lady Churchill's secretary Heather White-Smith, polar explorer Ben Saunders, pargetting plasterer Martin Ward and Francis Urquhart's Inheritance Tracks. Plus JP Devlin in the BBC Radio Theatre with audience members from The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy. Producer: Dixi Stewart.
Mar 29, 2014•1 hr 8 min
John McCarthy and Suzy Klein meet veteran photographer Don McCullin to talk about wars zones, life in Somerset and how being born and raised in Finsbury Park shaped his life. John Wildey is a seventy seven year old grandfather who took over the controls to land a plane when the pilot took ill. Felicity Warner is a soul midwife who helps people have a peaceful death. There are tales of homelessness from the streets of London, Claudia Winkleman shares her Inheritance Tracks and we hear how the hel...
Mar 22, 2014•1 hr 25 min
Richard Coles and Suzy Klein are joined by tv presenter Kate Humble, Mark Boyle who lived without money for 3 years, and Philip Geddes who brought a stuffed penguin from Antarctica to Hampshire. Pop Idol judge Nicki Chapman shares her love of dressage, John McCarthy takes a dip in the baths of Budapest and Desmond Morris shares his Inheritance Tracks. Produced by Lizz Pearson.
Mar 15, 2014•1 hr 25 min
Richard Coles and Anita Anand with writer Lynne Truss, poet Luke Wright, actress Tina Malone who had two children 32 years apart, Guy Anderson whose paraglider crashed in the desert, Jill Goldston who is possibly Britain's most prolific film and TV extra, and Bill Smith who raised Donald Campbell's Bluebird from the depths of Coniston on this day 13 years ago. Harry Stone describes the sounds of golf, opera singer Danielle de Niese shares her Inheritance Tracks and JP Devlin interviews a dog cal...
Mar 08, 2014•1 hr 25 min
Richard Coles and Anita Anand meet former Spice Girl, Mel C who talks about two decades in the spotlight, on being a Mum to five-year-old Scarlet and how she's finally learned to chill out. JP Devlin talks to TV presenter and naturalist Chris Packham about collecting chairs, aviator Tracey Curtis Taylor on her historic flight from Capetown to Goodwood in an open topped plane, performer Patti Boulaye shares her Inheritance Tracks, Zhenia Klochko talks about the family she left behind in the Ukrai...
Mar 01, 2014•1 hr 25 min
Richard Coles and Andrea Catherwood meet chef and cookery writer Yotam Ottolenghi who talks about his life and work, JP Devlin meets a quilting group, travel writer Rory MacLean celebrates the volatile and extraordinary city of Berlin, the step sister of Anne Frank, Eva Schloss, shares her Inheritance Tracks, Alison Maguire talks about the loss of her young daughter to the rare and devastating disorder Mitochondrial Disease, Anne Olivier Bell, a 'Monuments Woman', talks about her work in 1945 tr...
Feb 22, 2014•1 hr 25 min
Suzy Klein and Richard Coles with comedian, actor and musician Ade Edmondson, professional basketball player Alex Owumi who found himself playing for Colonel Gaddafi, Caroline Brealey who's just been named the world's number one matchmaker, Samuel Johnson who's living his childhood dream as a Lego designer, and Bob Davenport who found some old tapes of him singing alongside folk legend Pete Seeger. JP Devlin hits the slopes at the snow centre in Hemel Hempstead, we visit a hospice in Berkhamstea...
Feb 15, 2014•1 hr 25 min
