From an animal loving Billericay boy to international supermodel turned designer - David Gandy has been the face of some of the worlds biggest brands. The Scottish actor Sam Heughan is internationally famous for playing Highland warrior Jamie Fraser in Outlander but is also an award-winning businessman and bestselling author. And the Queen of Harps, Catrin Finch, not only a classical harp virtuoso, she’s also a collaborator who exemplifies musical freedom and knows a thing or two about music’s h...
Dec 09, 2023•59 min
Author Katherine Rundell, winner of Waterstones’ Book of the Year 2023 for her fantastical and mythical ‘Impossible Creatures’, had a childhood filled with travel; from Kent, to Zimbabwe and Belgium - to an adult life filled with playfulness. Steve Greenwood, one of the directors of Planet Earth III, has spent his life tracking-down impossible creatures and even discovered a new species of rat. Trekking through jungles, racing through deserts, being chase by Rhinos, the natural history producer ...
Dec 02, 2023•58 min
Dan Snow, history conduit, broadcaster, podcaster and bestselling author grew up with two posters on his bedroom wall...one was of Kylie Minogue - the other was of the Duke of Wellington defeating Napoleon at Waterloo. Corporal Rob Bugden is a former RAF parachute instructor whose career ended in an aerial collision which left him with life changing injuries. He now teaches the importance of resilience. Psychiatrist, psychotherapist and gardener Marchelle Farrell has moved from the beaches and e...
Nov 25, 2023•59 min
Italian chef, restaurateur, writer and buongustaio Aldo Zilli, learned to cook at his mother’s knee and started dreaming of his own Italian restaurants in 1970’s Soho, under the watchful eyes of the mafia, and at a time when you could only buy olive oil in a chemist. Levy Rozman – the international chess master with millions of subscribers - who’s moving the game into the digital age after retiring from the game for the sake of his mental health. Historian Phillipa Langley, not content with find...
Nov 18, 2023•1 hr 1 min
Professor Hannah Fry, whose job involves demystifying data and exploring how science and tech will shape our futures, personally though, she’s realised that ‘Life isn’t a problem to be solved, it’s an experience to be had’. From body-building online star to social media sceptic. Oenone Forbat tell us how her life as a digital celebrity isn’t quite as glamorous as the filters might have us believe And the legendary hair stylist Sam McKnight, reveals how a boy form a small Scottish mining town wen...
Nov 11, 2023•1 hr
Ross Kemp who, after leaving EastEnders, found his métier making BAFTA award winning documentaries and writing bestselling books…and he’s just written a memoir... From Grant Mitchell to Cary Grant - Hollywood’s ultimate leading man - his daughter and producer of new ITV series Archie, Jennifer Grant, joins us. Hari Budha Magar is a Gurkha veteran who lost both legs in Afghanistan and earlier this year made mountaineering history as the first double above the knee amputee to summit Everest. Plus....
Nov 04, 2023•1 hr
If you’re feeling adventurous this weekend, we have just the guest to inspire you. The world’s greatest living explorer, Sir Ranulph Fiennes joins us – but who inspires him? Multi-award-winning author of The Other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory is here to cast a light on the unsung women of history. The Man....The Voice....The Ostrich-farmer. Opera-singer Russell Watson has ditched his bow-tie to tell us why he’s now just as happy in his overalls. Plus...we have the Inheritance Tracks of rock an...
Oct 28, 2023•59 min
Dr Adam Rutherford is a geneticist, a broadcaster and science populariser and his latest book, aimed at young people, examines evolution, what race really is, and what makes us human. Broadcaster and author Kate Humble will be sharing the inspiration behind her new book which sees her on a quest to define what makes a house a home. And Peeps Nicol - who after being diagnosed with MS and then being widowed - wanted to find a new hobby. Peeps recently became a powerlifter and now at 71 years of ag...
Oct 25, 2023•59 min
Rory Bremner stand-up chameleon, actor and impressionist, who’s currently on tour as Chris Tarrant in the play Quiz, about the Millionaire cougher-case. He also reveals the shared passion for comedy he and his dad had, especially with the late Mike Yarwood, and how he is embracing his newly diagnosed ADHD. The Gardeners World presenter Sue Kent, whose career has taken her from sports masseuse at the 2012 Olympics to award-winning garden designer, has lived with the physical consequences of the d...
Oct 21, 2023•59 min
She wanders, rambles, saunters and strolls…and has made a career out of walking in the great outdoors…broadcaster and writer Julia Bradbury’s new book Walk Yourself Happy discusses the power of nature in the light of her cancer battle. Fresh from the depths of the ocean this years Wildlife Photographer of the Year Laurent Ballesta, who dives to incredible places to bring us images never-before-seen, describes the lengths he went to to capture the winning image. Comedian and novelist Mark Watson ...
Oct 14, 2023•57 min
The England rugby star Danny Cipriani, who became just as famous off the pitch as on it, is regularly described as one of the most talented rugby players of his generation. He shares an insight in to his life on and off the pitch. Podcaster Paige Lewin talks about her aim of creating a better world for afro and curly hair communities. Dr Allison Angell is the UK’s first person to have four organ transplants and who is now a GP. And finally actor Alan Fletcher – who most famously played the role ...
Sep 30, 2023•1 hr 1 min
Colin Jackson has spent his life hurdling one thing or another, be it breaking world records, or down barriers, the Olympian turned broadcaster continues to inspire the next generation of athletes. He’s written for The Kumars at No. 42, and Goodness Gracious Me, now Suk Pannu reveals how his 'Asian aunties' inspired his new book 'Mrs Sidhu: Dead and Scone' and why cosy culinary crime may be the next big thing. She's traversed the famous Lands’ End to John O' Groats route, climbed Kilimanjaro, an...
Sep 23, 2023•59 min
He’s started but nowhere near finished, the master mind of BBC News presenter, Italian road-tripper and writer Clive Myrie. Having just released his memoir 'Everything is Everything', Clive reveals the paper round that inspired him to become a journalist and what it takes to find the humanity to report from the frontlines of a warzone. From Port Talbot to Glyndebourne, Adele Thomas is and opera director famed for her dynamic, intensely physical productions. But once told she would never fit into...
Sep 16, 2023•59 min
The sparkling, South African, ‘Strictly’ star-dancer Johannes Radebe, one half of the history-making same sex male couple to dance on the show, reveals a life of bullying and how his Auntie is responsible for his carrer in new memoir 'Jojo: Finally Home'. Louise Boyce, best known by her social-media handle “Mama Still Got It”, has vlogged her journey from model...to mum...to influencer...to bestselling author. She’s describes why she returned to an industry that told her having children would en...
Sep 09, 2023•59 min
From the day he was found in a Harrods bag as a baby on the steps of Guy's Hospital in London, author Andy McNab has carpe'd the diem out of life. As a member of the SAS he was at the centre of covert operations for nine years on five continents. Now he’s one of the world’s best-selling authors. An astonishing achievement given he had the reading age of an eleven-year-old when he joined the army and read his first book by his seventeenth birthday. Ten years ago, Briony May Williams became so unw...
Sep 02, 2023•59 min
Radio 4's Saturday morning show brings you extraordinary stories and remarkable people.
Aug 26, 2023•1 hr
Angela Barnes was brought up on comedy. She and her dad Derek would go to stand-up shows together and when they listened to comedians on the radio he would say “Why don’t you have a go at that?, Angela. Why don’t you give comedy a try?”. For a long time, she felt she couldn’t. But when Derek died suddenly at the age of 60 Angela remembered his words and today she appears on the very shows she used to listen to with her dad. The National Poet of Wales, Hanan Issa, has that wonderful advantage of ...
Aug 19, 2023•58 min
Suzi Quatro grew up in Detroit in a very musical family. It was, at the age of six, after seeing Elvis perform on television that made Suzi decide music was to be her life. She’s also an actor, poet, has a new album called 'Face to Face' with KT Tunstall, is on tour...and she once broke Alice Cooper’s nose. Shortly after they got married, the best-selling author Amy McCulloch and her new husband headed to South America for a six-month backpacking adventure. Then, one night, Amy heard that a cabi...
Aug 12, 2023•59 min
Jon Culshaw's big break came when convincing the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, in a prank phone call that HE was the then Conservative leader William Hague - an infamous moment in his life for which he was called an imposter. Since then, he’s built up a repertoire of 350 celebrity voices, starred in 23 series of Dead Ringers and joins us live from the Edinburgh Festival where he’s starring in his new show, Imposter Syndrome. Tommy Jessop is an actor, a campaigner and has just had his first bo...
Aug 05, 2023•59 min
Peggy Seeger is often described as the godmother of folk. She was married to Ewan McColl who led the British Folk Revival in the late 50s and 60’s and wrote The First Time Ever I Saw your Face, for her. Peggy’s been singing since the age of two; has played guitar, banjo, piano, electroharp, the concertina and Appalachian dulcimer. All of this is not surprising given she’s a member of the North American musical Seeger family. Many songwriters have penned the lyrics – Love Changes Everything and i...
Jul 29, 2023•1 hr 1 min
Carrie and David Grant are best known as the expert vocal coaches from Fame Academy to Carrie and David's Pop Shop. But, they’re new book 'A Very Modern Family' charts their parenting experiences in the hope that it will help other families in similar circumstances. The scientist and presenter Professor Turi King, whose genealogy, forensics and archaeological finds helped her identify Richard III during his car park exhumation. Bringing the funny to proceedings stand-up comedian Nabil Abdulrashi...
Jul 25, 2023•1 hr 1 min
Countryfile, Woman’s Hour, and dazzling audiences on the Strictly Dancefloor – Anita Rani is a hugely popular and award-winning presenter whose Indian ancestry means a lot to her - and it was her experience on Who Do You Think You Are? that planted the seed for her debut novel “Baby Does a Runner". Max Dickins is a stand-up comedian and author who has performed thousands of gigs and 3 hour solo shows at the Edinburgh Fringe. His latest book ‘Billy No Mates’ is a memoir which touches on some real...
Jul 15, 2023•59 min
Dawn O’Porter reigned supreme in the area of TV that wanted the presenter ‘immersed’ in the subject; exploring the dangerous size-zero aesthetic, attitudes to nudity, mail order brides, geisha traditions and most personally perhaps, breast cancer, the disease to which she lost her mother. But since 2006 she’s refocused her attention to the written word having penned eight books, with two more on the way, her latest is Cat Lady. Believe it or not the new football season is just three weeks away. ...
Jul 08, 2023•59 min
Today we welcome the writer, broadcaster and journalist Jimi Famurewa. Martin Roberts, the broadcaster, property expert and host of BBC Television series Homes Under the Hammer. And the founder of the Tuneless Choir, Nadine Cooper. Plus, we’ll hear the Inheritance Tracks from 'kitchen disco queen' and singer, Sophie Ellis-Bextor. Presenters: Nikki Bedi and Jason Mohammad. Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies
Jul 01, 2023•1 hr 1 min
Today we welcome singer-songwriter, television presenter and sound healing practitioner, Charlotte Church. Reverend Eve Pitts, one of the first Black Caribbean Vicars in the Church of England and a campaigner for racial justice. Former police officer turned best-selling author Clare Mackintosh. And we’ll hear the Inheritance Tracks from actor, comedian and writer, Guz Khan. Presenters: Nikki Bedi and Jason Mohammad. Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies
Jun 24, 2023•59 min
Today we say 'kia ora' to Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, opera legend and Patron of the BBC Cardiff Singer of The World - which is in it's 40th anniversary year. With a story of ‘hidden roots’, singer Joe Jaquest Oteng reveals the huge family secrets he unearthed after the death of his father, which took his search to Ghana. And we’ll hear the Inheritance Tracks of the wonderful actor Tanya Moodie. Presenters: Nikki Bedi and Huw Stephens Producer: Ben Mitchell
Jun 17, 2023•57 min
The actor, memoirist and ‘woman relishing Old Rage’ Dame Sheila Hancock looks back on her storied career having worked at the top of the game for seven decades. The multi-hyphenate Vogue Williams, model, podcaster, media star, business woman and mother of three describes what the podcast world has done for her. Engineering presenter Fran Scott, famous for her fiery TV demonstrations, reveals the secrets of how to build an F1 car. And we’ll hear the Inheritance Tracks of actor, rapper and writer ...
Jun 10, 2023•59 min
Eoin Colfer, the international bestselling Artemis Fowl author reveals why he’s tackling climate change via a graphic novel and how you write subjects like this for children. Taking on the challenge of the great outdoors in a very personal way, is hairdresser Alan Bateson who's about to run 1,047 miles in 22 days...we’ll find out why! Tackling each other’s very different views, on the 75th anniversary of Windrush, we have squabbling couple Jennifer Beckford and Professor Robert Beckford. And we’...
Jun 03, 2023•58 min
Live from the Hay Festival Nikki and Huw are joined by the model, presenter and writer Lisa Snowdon whose book 'Just Getting Started' urges women, especially those who’re menopausing, to seize their power. Author, travel writer, broadcaster and local boy Horatio Clare has been asking ‘Does Psychiatry Work’ in his latest radio series and as someone who understands psychosis personally, he may have some good insights. More empowering guidance is at hand in the shape of the irrepressible TikTok sta...
May 27, 2023•57 min
We’re all standing to attention, as the paragon of discipline, former SAS member Billy Billingham and chief instructor on Channel 4’s SAS: Who Dares Wins talks about how he's gone from a life of crime to towing the line. Louise Minchin is a broadcaster who spent twenty years on the BBC Breakfast sofa, but did you know she is passionate about endurance sports? Her latest book "Fearless" sees her taking on physical challenges with inspirational women. And completing the Circle of Life are the leon...
May 20, 2023•59 min
