Broadcaster and biological anthropologist Alice Roberts reveals the secret behind the UK's fascination with castles. Chris Howard, one of the creators of David Attenborough's Wild Isles, discusses the trials and tribulations of filming the elusive beaver. Scottish-Egyptian musicians The Ayoub Sisters perform their revival of an old Arabic folk song; live in the studio. Author and Broadcaster Elizabeth Day shares her Inheritance Tracks. Presenters: Nikki Bedi and Peter Curran Producer: Ben Mitche...
Apr 01, 2023•59 min
Nikki Bedi and Shaun Keaveny are joined by Spencer Matthews, who gained fame in the reality tv series Made In Chelsea. Now an entrepreneur and broadcaster, Spencer has made a documentary which shows him looking for his brother who went missing on Mount Everest over 20 years ago. Comedian Rachel Parris joins us, talking about the power of seeking advice and how it has influenced her life. Dilly Carter is a straight-talking organiser who can be seen on TV as a decluttering expert. After spending h...
Mar 18, 2023•1 hr 24 min
Nikki Bedi and Shaun Keaveny are joined by Prue Leith, GBBO judge, restaurateur, novelist and now with a one woman show. Sarah Raven on her journey from inauspicious school career to training as a doctor to purveyor of plants and writer - her latest book is A Year Full of Veg. Jenny Radcliffe has made a successful living from breaking into people’s homes and businesses, testing out security systems. She joins us to explain how she got into it. and Michelle Elman on showing her scars after years ...
Mar 11, 2023•1 hr 24 min
Lang Lang joins Nikki Bedi and Danny Wallace. The internationally renowned pianist has sold millions of albums and performed around the world. He started playing the piano age three and to follow his dreams his family made significant sacrifices. Lang Lang talks about his path to success, and why he wants to encourage others to perform. You can watch Lang Lang on The Piano, Channel 4 and his Disney Book album is out now. Until recently, Zainab Alema was working as a neonatal nurse. However, in 2...
Mar 11, 2023•1 hr 22 min
Jojo Moyes joins Nikki Bedi and Richard Coles. The bestselling author has sold over 50 million novels and Me Before You was adapted into a film starring Sam Claflin and Emilia Clarke. Jojo talks about the inspirational for her new book Someone Else's Shoes, rebooting her life, and her unusual painting collection. Henry Naylor is an award-winning playwright but before that he wrote comedy satire for Spitting Image and Smith and Jones. His latest show Afghanistan is Not Funny looks back at a trip ...
Feb 25, 2023•1 hr 25 min
Nikki Bedi and Richard Coles are joined in the studio by broadcaster Johnny Vaughan. Best known for his presenting stints on The Big Breakfast and radio shows on pretty much every network, Johnny now has a new podcast called Alien Kidnap Club in which he interviews people who believe they have encountered alien life. Actress Felicity Montagu stars in new series Beyond Paradise, which spins off from Death in Paradise. Known for her wide range of acting roles, especially playing Alan Partridge's l...
Feb 18, 2023•1 hr 25 min
Nikki Bedi and Richard Coles are joined by writer, podcaster and ghost-botherer Danny Robins, behind the hit podcast The Battersea Poltergeist and smash West End play 2.22 A Ghost Story. TV presenter and inclusive travel expert Sophie Morgan is best known for presenting the London 2012, Rio 2016, and Tokyo 2020 Paralympics. She talks about her life-changing injury, her recovery and the new series of Living Wild in which she embarks on an epic road trip across the UK. Psychologist Dr Julie Smith ...
Feb 11, 2023•1 hr 24 min
Nikki Bedi and Richard Coles are joined by Michael Rosen: Bear Hunt writer, broadcaster, covid survivor, national treasure… he tells us about his life lessons. Susanna Thornton tells us about her lifelong association with cycling and freedom – which led to a mammoth cycle from Hong Kong to London and many much smaller, wild bikepacking trips in the UK, which she documents online. She joins us. Actor Nikki Amuka Bird joins us to talk about her route into acting and her latest role. Nature writer ...
Feb 04, 2023•1 hr 25 min
Haydn Gwynne joins Nikki Bedi and Richard Coles. The actor talks about her latest role in The Great British Bake Off Musical. Since deciding to pursue acting in her mid-twenties, Gwynne has had a varied career on stage and screen, including playing Camilla in The Windsors. Award winning composer Peter Raeburn’s work has ranged from films such as Sexy Beast to adverts including Guinness Surfer. Peter’s forthcoming album Recovery is based on his personal experiences after having life-saving brain-...
Feb 02, 2023•1 hr 24 min
Nikki Bedi and Richard Coles are joined by Miles Jupp, comedian, writer and actor who pops up in everything from the Vestry in Rev, the press room in The Thick of It, a Greek Island in The Durrells and recently, the desert in SAS Rogue Heroes. He's also written novels, radio series and presented the News Quiz. Cariad Lloyd is a comedian who lost her father at a young age and has since dealt with her grief through her podcast, Griefcast. She talks openly and honestly about grief and its effects w...
Jan 21, 2023•1 hr 25 min
Vicky Pattison joins Nikki Bedi and Richard Coles. The podcaster and author was Crowned Queen of the Jungle in 2015. Gaining fame initially through the reality TV show Geordie Shore, Vicky reflects on the ups and downs of her life in the public eye and shares her experiences in her latest book The Secret to Happy. George Linnane is a caver who was rescued by 300 volunteers after 54 hours underground. One of those volunteers was Maxine Bateman. They discuss what happened and how George is recover...
Jan 18, 2023•1 hr 24 min
Philippa Perry joins Nikki Bedi and Richard Coles. The psychotherapist, writer, agony aunt and broadcaster is married to the artist Grayson Perry. Her works include The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read (And Your Children Will Be Glad That You Did). Peter Lantos tells the story of how he survived the Holocaust as a small child in Bergen-Belsen. He offers an extraordinary perspective of not just living through terrible events, but on making sense of them as well. Sean Gandini is a renowned jugg...
Jan 18, 2023•1 hr 24 min
Nikki Bedi and Adil Ray are joined by Julia Donaldson CBE, the children's writer who has written over 200 books, not least The Gruffulo, Stick Man, The Highway Rat and Room on the Broom to name a few. She is also a composer and ex children’s laureate and her repertoire includes books for school use to help children learning to read. From running an Argos store and working as a stand up comedian, to being a parish priest in Burnley, Fr Alex Frost has become a campaigner against poverty and depriv...
Dec 31, 2022•1 hr 25 min
Matt Goss joins Nikki Bedi and Peter Curran. The singer-songwriter and actor will perform Santa Baby and talk about his life, career and what it means to be living back in the UK after over a decade in America. Matt first shot to international stardom as one half of 1980s band Bros but has carved out a successful solo career, his latest single is The Beautiful Unknown. He's touring next year with The Matt Goss Experience which starts in Croydon on the 27th February and finishes on the 16th April...
Dec 24, 2022•1 hr 20 min
Nikki Bedi and Richard Coles are joined by comedian, writer, presenter and disability rights campaigner Sally Phillips whose career covers some of the most successful British comedies of all time, including I'm Alan Partridge and Miranda, as well as Hollywood movies like Bridget Jones. Her new series My Life At Christmas features interviews with big name stars to find out what Christmas means to them. Nadiyka Gerbish joins live from Ukraine to talk about how her country celebrates Christmas, esp...
Dec 17, 2022•1 hr 25 min
Pattie Boyd joins Nikki Bedi and Danny Wallace. The model, muse and photographer talks about her life, the influence of her early years and how she dealt with many years in the public eye, where relationships with George Harrison and Eric Clapton inspired songs such as Harrison's Something and Clapton’s Layla and Wonderful Tonight. When listener Andrew Lock heard our science lesson call in it prompted him to get in touch and tell us about his surprising career as an inventor on a TV show in the ...
Dec 10, 2022•1 hr 23 min
Nikki Bedi and Richard Coles are joined by the BAFTA-winning writer, Jack Thorne. Jack's written a string of hits for stage and screen including Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the BBC's adaptation of His Dark Materials, the TV drama This is England and the Enola Holmes films. Cellist Jacqueline Thomas is a member of the renowned Brodsky Quartet, which she co-founded with her brother at the age of 10. As the group celebrates its 50th anniversary, Jacqueline recalls collaborations with famous ...
Dec 03, 2022•1 hr 25 min
Nikki Bedi and Richard Coles are joined by the actress and presenter Emily Atack. She shot to fame in coming of age comedy The Inbetweeners when she was just 17. TV and theatre roles came her way, as well as stints on reality shows such as Dancing on Ice and I’m a Celebrity. She has since done three series of her eponymous one woman show for ITV. Donna Freed is a writer and translator who is one half of the UK's longest running all-female podcast, Radio Gorgeous. Donna was adopted, and found out...
Nov 26, 2022•1 hr 24 min
Michael Morpurgo joins Nikki Bedi and Richard Coles. The author has written over 150 books but is perhaps best known as the creator of War Horse, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary. The former Children’s Laureate is also the co-founder, with his wife Clare, of the charity Farms for City Children. Anne-Marie Dias Borges tells the story of how she was born into destitution, but was taken in by the inventor the hair claw clip. Nikita Gill is the UK’s biggest online poet. Always writing as a ...
Nov 19, 2022•1 hr 24 min
Nikki Bedi and Richard Coles are joined by Martin Kemp on life before, during and after Spandau Ballet and keeping the 80s music scene alive. We also have: Listener Jenny Sheppard whose family secret has dominated her life. Printmaker Angela Harding on recreating nature on paper, starting her business late and what's it's like to have her work adorning tea towels and calendars. Comedian Shazia Mirza on comedy, Birmingham and Bollywood. Actor Hugh Bonneville chooses his Inheritance Tracks: Look w...
Nov 12, 2022•1 hr 24 min
Luke Evans joins Nikki Bedi and Richard Coles. The Hobbit and Nine Perfect Strangers star left a happy family home in Wales age 16 to pursue his dreams. Luke's big break came after being seen in a London play and he combines acting with a lifelong passion for singing, as he releases his second album. Lucy Gray began collecting discarded shopping lists by accident, as a way to amuse her friends during lockdown. After amassing over 250 of them, they are being displayed in the Museum of Brands in L...
Nov 05, 2022•1 hr 25 min
Nikki Bedi and Richard Coles are joined by Radio 1 presenter Nick Grimshaw and Bez from Happy Mondays. They also have Dr Katriona O’Sullivan who grew up in poverty to parents who were addicted to heroin. Her journey has taken her from working as a dinner lady in the university canteen to becoming an academic. Rainbow Mbuangi plays blind football for England. Fresh from the blind football Euros, where England came third, he joins us to tell us how the game works.
Oct 29, 2022•1 hr 25 min
Michael Ball joins Nikki Bedi and Richard Coles. In a career spanning over 30 years the singer, actor and presenter has appeared in musicals from Les Miserables and Aspects of Love, to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Phantom of the Opera, winning Olivier Awards for his roles in Hairspray and Sweeney Todd. Michael's debut novel is a love letter to the theatre. As a boy, Hamed Amiri fled Herat with his parents and two brothers after the Taliban put out an execution order for his mother. Their journey ...
Oct 22, 2022•1 hr 25 min
Nikki Bedi and Richard Coles are joined by Adrian Chiles. He has graced our TV screens presenting and reporting on various issues over the last 20 years from business to sport, to chat and back to sport again. But recently he has been talking about alcohol moderation, a subject that has become a personal passion project. Dr Rahul Mandal is the research scientist who won Bake Off in 2018 despite not having ever made a cake until 2016. He joins us. Listener Dr Susie West was a junior doctor on the...
Oct 18, 2022•1 hr 25 min
Trevor Horn joins Nikki Bedi and Richard Coles. The multiple award-winning music producer shares stories from his decades in the music industry. First coming to prominence with The Buggles, Horn ran a label and influenced the iconic sound of artists including ABC, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Grace Jones and Seal. Raymond Blanc takes Anna Bailey around his orchard in Oxfordshire. Angela Hui talks about her experiences growing up in a Chinese takeaway in rural Wales, having duel identities and, aft...
Oct 08, 2022•1 hr 23 min
Craig David joins Julia Bradbury and Richard Coles. The singer-songwriter found fame age 18 with ‘Rewind’ and over the next 22 years dealt with the highs and lows of fame. Craig talks about his career, overcoming obstacles and rediscovering his good vibes. Kwesia aka City Girl in Nature grew up in Deptford, an inner city area of London. Growing up Kwesia dealt with violence and trauma but an opportunity to go to the Peruvian Amazon rainforest changed her life and she now works to share her love ...
Oct 03, 2022•1 hr 25 min
Melanie C joins Nikki Bedi and Richard Coles. The musician, actor and now memoirist talks about how the seeds for Sporty Spice were planted in her childhood, reveals what it was like to be part of the Spice Girls, and the personal struggles behind the success. Pastor Mick Fleming was once a dangerous, violent drug user and dealer but he transformed his life in his 40s and now provides comfort and support for those in need. Opera singer Rebecca Bottone is the daughter of two acclaimed opera singe...
Sep 24, 2022•1 hr 25 min
Dan Gillespie Sells joins Kiri Pritchard-McLean and Richard Coles. The lead singer with The Feeling, who also composed the music for Everybody's Talking About Jamie, met his fellow band members at the BRIT School aged 16 and they’ve been collaborating ever since. Their latest album is Loss Hope Love, containing the single On the Edge, and they are touring next month. Susan Cousins was abandoned as a baby in India. After being adopted she grew up predominantly in the UK but experienced difficulti...
Sep 20, 2022•1 hr 28 min
Richard Coles and Nikki Bedi host stories and tributes to the Queen.
Sep 10, 2022•1 hr 10 min
Nikki Bedi and Adil Ray are joined by scientist and best selling writer Carlo Rovelli to discuss life outside of black holes and quantum mechanics and why he’s been dubbed the world’s most inspirational physics teacher. At the age of 24, Georgina Hurst was severely injured in an car accident caused by her then boyfriend’s dangerous driving. She was given a less than one per cent chance of survival. Determined to defy the odds, today she is gearing up to celebrate 25 years since the accident with...
Sep 03, 2022•1 hr 26 min
