Richard Coles and Shaun Keaveny are joined by Charles Spencer. Charles has a few hats – as Earl Spencer he is the custodian of Althorp house in Northamptonshire; he is the brother of Diana, Princess of Wales; he is the Queen’s godson; but also he is a respected author of history books – his latest tells the events of almost 900 years ago involving a dramatic shipwreck which changed the course of history – the story is, as he describes it, a mash up of Titanic and Game of Thrones with a bit of Sl...
Sep 12, 2020•1 hr 25 min
Richard Coles and Angela Scanlon are joined by TV presenter Richard Osman who has written his first detective novel set in a retirement village. Ian Ridley is a sports writer who has written about the healing power of sport and the solace he found in county cricket following the death of his wife, pioneering sports journalist Vikki Orvice. Bestselling writer Caitlin Moran discusses the unexpected difficulties of middle age life in her new book More Than A Woman. Plus your thank yous and an inter...
Sep 05, 2020•1 hr 25 min
Richard Coles and Angela Scanlon are joined by Nicola Benedetti. The violinist started the year winning her first Grammy and during lockdown she’s been inspiring thousands of people virtually, as well as indulging her passion for cooking. Actor Mark Williams reflects on his extraordinary career, as The Fast Show celebrates over 25 years since its first broadcast. Lucy Chapman's CV includes pop-punk musician, cabaret performer, librarian and now trainee barrister. She talks about her path to law ...
Aug 29, 2020•1 hr 25 min
Richard Coles and Michelle Ackerley are joined by writer Joanne Harris; broadcaster Peter Snow; wildlife journalist and wasp expert Ben Aldiss and chef Joshna Maharaj. Born in Barnsley, writer Joanne Harris MBE was a teacher for 15 years during which time three of her novels were published including Chocolat in 1999 which was made into an Oscar-nominated film starring Juliet Binoche. Since then, she has written 15 more novels, two novellas, two collections of short stories, a Dr Who novella, gue...
Aug 22, 2020•1 hr 25 min
Richard Coles and Michelle Ackerley are joined by Bob Harris. He has been whispering on our airwaves for 50 years: starting at Radio 1 and going to TV’s Whistle Test, Radio Luxembourg, Radio 2, BBC 6 Music, numerous local radio stations, back to Radios 1, 2 and 6 Music… all the time touring with musicians, interviewing them and listening to them – his passion for introducing music to the masses earning him numerous awards, and an OBE. We'll also speak to Alice Dearing. She is one of the most suc...
Aug 15, 2020•1 hr 25 min
Jackie Kay is the national poet of Scotland and has taken her Makar duties seriously. She has written a weekly poem during lockdown, brought art into people’s homes with the broadcast Makar to Makar and written about the Black Lives Matter protests. She joins Richard Coles and Bridgitte Tetteh to discuss the timely reissue of her play The Lamplighter which follows five characters who are sold into the British slave trade. Emily Kolltveit was the lead singer of a goth metal band for nearly a deca...
Aug 08, 2020•1 hr 25 min
Richard Coles and Bridgitte Tetteh are joined by Danielle de Niese who became the youngest ever winner of the Australian TV programme Young Talent Time at the age of 9. Her family relocated to Los Angeles, where Danielle made her professional operatic debut at the age of 15 with the Los Angeles Opera. She made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera at 19 and now performs around the world. She will host the TV coverage of the Proms 2020 later this summer. Loyd Grossman claims he hasn’t had a career,...
Aug 01, 2020•1 hr 25 min
Richard Coles and Nikki Bedi are joined by TV presenter Richard Hammond, who has driven all kinds of vehicles all over the world. He discusses his passion for cars and motorbikes and how he dealt with life-changing injuries following a 300 mph crash in a jet-powered dragster. Kat Harbourne is one of the presenters of the Naked Podcast. She explains why she interviews people in the nude and whether it leads to a more revealing interview. Paul Wood is an expert in urban trees. His passion has led ...
Jul 25, 2020•1 hr 25 min
Richard Coles and Nikki Bedi are joined by Graeme Garden - one third of the Goodies along with Bill Oddie and the late Tim Brooke-Taylor. In the classic BBC television show the trio played agents for hire and would do "anything, anywhere, anytime". Astride their trusty ‘Trandem’ – a three-seater bicycle – they tackled a giant kitten, parodied westerns with a Cornish version called “Bunfight at the OK Tea Rooms” and were chased by a giant Dougal from Magic Roundabout. Graeme also created I'm Sorr...
Jul 18, 2020•1 hr 24 min
Richard Coles and Viv Groskop are joined by aesthetician and skin expert Caroline Hirons. She went from counter girl to being dubbed the most powerful woman in the beauty industry, her blog has clocked up over a hundred thousand views and her book has just become the second ever on beauty to go to number one in the charts. And furniture restorer Jay Blades, known for TV's The Repair Shop on why he cares so much about old things and the stories behind them. Annie Atkins is a graphic designer who ...
Jul 11, 2020•1 hr 23 min
Richard Coles and Viv Groskop talk to England football legend John Barnes who earned 79 caps over 12 years. His talent was spotted as a teenager and he began his career at Watford, going on to have huge success at Liverpool in the 1980s and 90s. He has been a coach, a football manager and even scored a number 1 single with his contribution to football song World In Motion, and now works as a commentator and pundit. DJ, raconteur, author, producer, broadcaster and Fun Lovin’ Criminal, Huey Morgan...
Jul 04, 2020•1 hr 23 min
Nikki Bedi and the Reverend Richard Coles are joined by Ellie Simmonds. Ellie Simmonds was the face of the 2008 Bejing Paralympics, winning two gold medals in the pool at the age of only thirteen. She followed that up with further gold medals at London 2012 and Rio 2016 and was preparing for the Tokyo Olympics until the games were postponed. Sand sculptor Jamie Wardley transforms tonnes of sand into objects of transient beauty and reveals how his art has enriched his life in an extraordinary way...
Jun 27, 2020•1 hr 23 min
Nemone Metaxas and the Reverend Richard Coles are joined by Simon Le Bon. As lead singer of Duran Duran: a band that has sold over 100 million records, had 18 American hit singles and 21 UK Top 20 tunes, he continues to perform to sold-out audiences around the world. He married a supermodel, had a family and explored his passion for yachts - his life the epitome of glamour. Now a proud grandfather, Simon Le Bon will be live in the studio. We also have Ruqsana Begum, who is a Muay Thai world cham...
Jun 20, 2020•1 hr 23 min
Dawn French has been one of Britain’s best-loved comedians since the mid-1980’s when her double act with Jennifer Saunders became a prime time television hit. She became even more famous as the star of The Vicar of Dibley and has gone on to write books, tour solo and write, produce and perform in television comedy and drama. William Sitwell is a restaurant critic and food writer whose appearances on MasterChef and controversial comments about veganism have propelled him into the spotlight. His n...
Jun 13, 2020•1 hr 23 min
Richard Coles and Kate Silverton are joined by Gabby Logan who has covered most of the major sporting events in football, rugby and athletics and been a trailblazer for women in sport. Her own sporting credentials are impeccable : she’s the daughter of professional footballer and manager Terry Yorath, married to rugby international Kenny Logan and was also an international competitor in rhythmic gymnastics. Carl Austin-Behan left a promising career in the RAF in the late 90s after his military s...
Jun 06, 2020•1 hr 23 min
This week Richard Coles and Kate Silverton are joined by Ricky Wilson, the lead singer of Kaiser Chiefs. The band’s hits include I Predict A Riot and Ruby and last year they released their seventh album, Duck. Ricky was a judge on The Voice and now presents the Pop Detectives podcast with Tony Blackburn. Jack Monroe was an unemployed single parent living in poverty when she started a blog called A Girl Called Jack which described cooking nutritious meals for her family on a tiny budget. She is n...
May 30, 2020•1 hr 23 min
Richard Coles and Shaun Keaveny are joined by Kirstie Allsopp - she has been in our living rooms, stepping into other people’s living rooms, and generally exploring their houses, for 20 years via TV's Location, Location, Location. She’s also embraced the nation’s obsession with crafts with programmes such as Kirstie's Homemade Home, Kirstie's Homemade Christmas, and most recently Keep Crafting and Carry on. She joins us. We also have Paul O’Grady, first known to us as Lily Savage, comedian from ...
May 23, 2020•1 hr 22 min
Richard Coles and Shaun Keaveny are joined by Kathy Burke who became a household name in the 1990’s for her comedy roles in Harry Enfield and Chums, Absolutely Fabulous and Gimme Gimme Gimme. She won best actress at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 for her performance in Nil By Mouth and is now a theatre director and writer. Dan Jones is an author of bestselling books on English history including The Plantagenets, The Wars of the Roses, and now the 20th Century. His historical sweep is broad, as...
May 16, 2020•1 hr 22 min
Richard Coles and Suzy Klein are joined by Sarah Millican, one of the most successful women working in comedy in the UK, Sarah Dodd, a medic in the NHS who in her freetime has completed over 1675 escape rooms and who now competes in an international team of escape room enthusiasts and writer Helen Moat discusses her bicycle journey from Rotterdam to Istanbul and the healing benefits of slow travel. Plus actor Joe Tracini who has become a hit on social media after creating hilarious dance videos ...
May 09, 2020•1 hr 24 min
Richard Coles and Suzy Klein are joined by writer Marian Keyes, who has just published her 14th novel and has over 30 million of her books sold to date in 36 languages. Also with us is Tori Amos, the Grammy nominated singer-songwriter who has made 15 studio albums, sold 15 million records and also branched off into the worlds of classical music and musical theatre. John Partridge is known for his contribution to EastEnders and Celebrity MasterChef - which he won - he'll be talking about how cook...
May 02, 2020•1 hr 24 min
Richard Coles and Aasmah Mir are joined by Clare Balding who found success as a racing correspondent and since then has presented the Olympics 6 times as well as numerous other chat shows, documentaries and programmes about biking and walking. She has now added dogs to her list of interests and has launched her own “Dogcast”. The actor Daniel Mays has won widespread critical acclaim for roles in a diverse range of films, television and theatre productions, from Mike Leigh’s Palme d’Or nominated ...
Apr 25, 2020•1 hr 24 min
Richard Coles and Aasmah Mir are joined by Alexandra Shulman, former editor of Vogue, who produced the magazine for 25 years and has now published a book about her life at the top, the pressures she faced and her love of clothes. Comedian Joe Lycett explains why he legally changed his name to Hugo Boss and back again. Commercial pilot Kate Burrows shares her story of surviving a crash landing in the Irish Sea and how she went on to become a member of the Goldfish Club. Natural history TV directo...
Apr 18, 2020•1 hr 23 min
Richard Coles and Aasmah Mir are joined by Claudia Winkleman, one of our best known TV and radio presenters, known for her sharp wit and self deprecating humour not to say her thick black fringe, presenter of Strictly, Radio 2, podcast with Tanya Byron amongst many other things, she joins us on Saturday Live. We also have Comic actor/ writer Robert Webb, from Peep show, Back, Mitchell and Webb, Confetti, dancing Flashdance to win Let's Dance for Comic relief, memoirist and now with his first nov...
Apr 11, 2020•1 hr 23 min
Aasmah Mir and Richard Coles are joined by former professional footballer turned sports broadcaster Gary Lineker. During his playing career he played for Leicester, Everton, Barcelona, Tottenham and Japanese side Nagoya Grampus Eight and was famously never booked. He has presented the BBC flagship show Match of the Day since 1999 and now has a 5Live Match of the Day (MOTD) podcast with fellow pundits Ian Wright and Alan Shearer, who meet up in Gary's kitchen for weekly debates about football. Ro...
Apr 04, 2020•1 hr 24 min
Aasmah Mir and Richard Coles are joined by six time Olympic Champion, Sir Chris Hoy, who discusses the inspiration behind his career, retirement and writing children’s books. Ruth Linton is a grandmother from Manchester who became a stand up comedian after being treated for a brain tumour. Saturday Live listener and former high-flying police officer James Ellson reveals why he left the challenging streets of Moss Side to become a smallholder and writer of crime fiction and actor Mim Shaikh discu...
Mar 28, 2020•1 hr 23 min
Aasmah Mir and Richard Coles are joined on the line by Sir Bob Geldof, of The Boomtown Rats, who left Dun Laoghaire for London, became known for punchy hits and outspoken interviews, then creating Band Aid and Live Aid. We also have Kelda Wood, who, in her mid twenties suffered a life changing injury and she has just become the first para athlete to row solo across the Atlantic. Derrick Osaze is ‘the punching preacher’ – last year he became Ultimate Boxxer III middleweight champion and was ordai...
Mar 21, 2020•1 hr 23 min
Neil Morrissey became a household name in the 1990’s playing Tony in sitcom Men Behaving Badly. As the voice of Bob the Builder he had two number one singles in the UK Charts and now combines acting with running pubs. Alice Morrison is an adventurer who lives and (mostly!) explores in Morocco. She was previously a BBC news editor. She’s travelled extensively in the region, most recently completing a 78-day trek across the Saharan desert with three Berber companions and six camels, receiving help...
Mar 14, 2020•1 hr 25 min
Jo Whiley joins Aasmah Mir and the Rev Richard Coles. Jo presents on Radio 2 and from Glastonbury, as well as pursing her passion for gardening. A competitive swimmer in her youth, she is about to take on the triathlon for Sport Relief. Saturday Live listener Deborah Rowland, who trained as an archaeologist and an anthropologist, describes how she uncovered her own human heritage when she tracked down her birth parents. When Ryan Riley’s mum Krista was diagnosed with terminal small cell lung can...
Mar 07, 2020•1 hr 25 min
Aasmah Mir and Richard Coles are joined by Joanna Trollope CBE, who has 22 novels to her name. A keen observer of our life and times, she is also the fifth-generation niece of Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope, has chaired awards, judged literature prizes and updated Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. We also have Jason Watkins, the BAFTA winning actor who played Harold Wilson in The Crown, also starred in Nativity!, W1A, Line of Duty, Being Human and now McDonald & Dodds, two feature le...
Feb 29, 2020•1 hr 25 min
Actor, writer and director Zawe Ashton’s career began at the age of six and, having appeared on stage and in films ever since, it was the TV role of Vod in Fresh Meat that made her famous. She has since appeared in Hollywood films, had her play For All the Women Who Thought They were Mad performed in New York and London and has published Character Breakdown, an account of her life as a young actor. Amit Patel was a busy 33 year-old A&E doctor when he completely lost his sight over a 36-hour ...
Feb 22, 2020•1 hr 25 min
