Why are movie trailers more beloved and enduring than other forms of advertising? How has the medium changed, to keep the video-game generation engaged? And what tricks do editors use to keep us watching, and returning to the flicks, week in week out? In this episode, editor Gareth Davies sits down with Olly to review some classic examples of the genre, and provides a masterclass in how to market a movie - from the choice of soundtrack, to navigating plot spoilers, and defining the right pace. Y...
Mar 20, 2018•54 min•Season 7Ep. 4
Ex-soldier Craig Jones escaped a brutal father and found solace in the natural world. Now a distinguished wildlife photographer and conservationist, the aftermath of his traumatic childhood and military training informs his approach. In this candid interview with Olly, he explains how his kinship with wild creatures has helped him survive, thrive and start afresh. Elsewhere, in this week's Zeitgeist, Ollie Peart uncovers the secret world of 'millenialingo', explains why Basil Fawlty might feel a...
Mar 13, 2018•1 hr 9 min•Season 7Ep. 3
On a bad day, what are you like to work for? When was the last time you felt professionally vulnerable? You’ve probably never been asked these questions in a job interview - but they’re bread-and-butter to executive headhunter Kathleen Saxton. In this conversation with Olly, she reveals the tricks she uses to ‘see through the professional mask’ to catch the eye of high-flying CEOs, ponders the future of workplace culture in an always-connected environment, and explains why employing a borderline...
Mar 06, 2018•1 hr•Season 7Ep. 2
In his 20s, yet running a $50billion book, Kweku Adoboli had worked his way up the trading floor at the very point the market crashed. His actions wiped £2.7bn from the UBS share price, prompted the resignation of their chief executive - and got him a seven-year jail sentence for fraud. In this remarkable interview with Olly, he reveals a corporate culture of ‘wilful blindness’, explains how he fell foul of the UK’s hostile environment policy for migrants - and re-lives the moment he realised th...
Feb 27, 2018•1 hr 14 min•Season 7Ep. 1
Are you doing 'Dry January'? Experimenting with gluten-free snacks? Or stocking up on 'superfoods'? If so, Anthony Warner warns, you are, in fact, building up a damaging relationship with food, and should probably stop it, now... In this insightful interview with Olly, he takes on the bad science of the 'clean eating' movement, explains the reality of 'anti-oxidant' blueberries, and will make you think twice before you ever cook in coconut oil again. Elsewhere in our season finale, Ollie Peart -...
Jan 02, 2018•55 min•Season 6Ep. 10
Tom Price and Stuart Goldsmith once again join Olly to compare notes on the perils of parenthood. Their sons are now coming up to two years old - but does that mean toddler tantrums ('the terrible twos') are about to become a way of life? And what does THAT mean for Christmas Day? In a typically frank and funny conversation, our trio of Dads tackle 'benign neglect', 'career lag', 'over-parenting', and the cult of Supernanny... Meanwhile, in this week's Zeitgeist, Ollie Peart considers social med...
Dec 20, 2017•1 hr 5 min•Season 6Ep. 9
Wind speeds, planning restrictions, financial crisis... a lot can go wrong when designing a super-tall building. Yet, each year, more skyscrapers are springing up around us. Architect Fred Pilbrow, of Pilbrow and Partners, has designed a number of them, including London's third-tallest building, the Heron Tower. In this insightful interview with Olly, he explains how technology is solving problems of vertical transportation (that's 'lifts' to you and me), how Winter gardens offer an alternative ...
Dec 12, 2017•55 min•Season 6Ep. 8
Best mates with Eminem, signed by Sony, and on the verge of international superstardom, Californian rap group Silibil 'n' Brains were the music industry's Next Big Thing. There was just one problem: they'd never been to California. They were from Dundee. In this extraordinary interview with Olly, Gavin Bain - who, as Brains Mcloud, was one half of the hip hop duo - recalls how a heady mix of humiliation, desperation and sheer chutzpah lead him to fool the entire music industry - and brought him ...
Dec 05, 2017•1 hr 21 min•Season 6Ep. 7
Andrew Ramroop OBE made his first pair of trousers whilst he was still in school shorts. At 17, he headed away from his home nation of Trinidad, gravitating towards London’s world-famous Savile Row. In this interview with Olly, he recalls how the racism he faced as a young tailor fuelled his career progression, and how he went on to create suits for Tony Curtis, Samuel L Jackson and Princess Diana. He also explains how, from a possible choice of 12,000 different fabric combinations, he could mak...
Nov 28, 2017•56 min•Season 6Ep. 6
Diving up to 700ft with no oxygen tank may seem like an extreme sport, but instructor Emma Farrell says freediving is more like a meditative state. Coaching Olly to hold his breath like an underwater explorer, she explains why she's never more relaxed than when she's 'one breath away from potential death'. Meanwhile, Ollie Peart - fresh from testing out 'Carrotea' on an unsuspecting culinary professional - considers the benefits of crowdfunded wearable air conditioning in this week's Zeitgeist; ...
Nov 21, 2017•55 min•Season 6Ep. 5
Gavin Hay was a high-flying TV exec with a string of hits under his belt when he and his partner sold their production company for millions of pounds. Still only 42, he could have taken up golf, or skydiving. Instead, Gavin tried his hand at becoming a porn star... In this exclusive interview with Olly, he explains how he became 'Trojan Rock', the 'Daddy' who starred in such titles as Roid Rage, Hot And Sweaty: Men At Work, and Hairy Boyz 13. Elsewhere, in this week's Zeitgeist, Ollie Peart has ...
Nov 14, 2017•1 hr•Season 6Ep. 4
The pollsters failed to predict Brexit, Trump and Theresa May's lost majority. But, in political circles, faith remains in one particular research technique: the focus group... Edelman's James Morris was an advisor at the Number 10 strategy unit under Tony Blair, and has advised international businesses including Virgin Media and Starbucks on reputation management. In this insightful interview with Olly, he reveals how U-shaped rooms, open questions and gender dynamics all affect 'what we think ...
Nov 07, 2017•56 min•Season 6Ep. 3
Tricky customers, fixed smiles and terrible turbulence: it's all in a day's work for a flight attendant. But how to keep your cool at 30,000 feet? How to cope with unpredictable emergencies? And how to let off steam afterwards? Daisy White is a woman who knows. Now a YA author, she spent 12 years working for airlines including Monarch and Caledonian. In this interview with Olly, she lifts the lid on drunken passengers, mile high club wannabes - and 'overweight' trolley dollies... You can find ou...
Oct 31, 2017•57 min•Season 6Ep. 2
Tumbling overboard following a fit of food poisoning, Brett Archibald survived 28 hours alone in the Indian Ocean. In this extraordinary interview with Olly, he re-lives his onslaught of hallucinations, his encounter with a shark, and how he contemplated certain death... You can read more about Brett's amazing story at BrettArchibald.com, and in his book, Alone, which is out now. Elsewhere in our season premiere, Ollie Peart returns with The Zeitgeist, and ponders the trend for 'marathon banditi...
Oct 24, 2017•1 hr 11 min•Season 6Ep. 1
From the desert to the jungle, Belinda Kirk has lead expeditions through some of the world’s most inhospitable places. She’s been kidnapped, suffered extremes of heat and cold, and nearly drowned - yet believes such adventures help keep her sane in a modern world that can seem increasingly sedentary and predictable. In this inspiring interview with Olly, Belinda explains the difference between ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ stress; defines ‘type 1’ versus ‘type 2’ fun; and recommends some micro-adventures ...
Aug 08, 2017•58 min•Season 5Ep. 10
Would you be an MP, at a time when public trust in politicians has fallen to the lowest level in living memory? Could you dedicate yourself to your constituents, yet also make time for your family, fighting fires on social media and keeping the media on-side? Wes Streeting, Labour MP for Ilford North since 2015, entered the fray in time to experience the Brexit vote, the murder of his colleague Jo Cox, and the Palace of Westminster coming under terrorist attack. In this candid interview with Oll...
Aug 01, 2017•51 min•Season 5Ep. 9
Using the same techniques as criminal hackers, ethical ‘white hat’ hackers help governments and companies test their own security. FC (hacker name: ‘Freakyclown’) has been a white-hat hacker ever since being approached by some ‘men in suits’, having found himself in a spot of legal bother. He’s since been employed to rob dozens of high street banks - all with the consent of the owners. In this honest and fast-moving interview with Olly, he recalls how he stepped away from a childhood defined by ...
Jul 25, 2017•59 min•Season 5Ep. 8
Being a TV warm-up is one of the hardest jobs in showbiz. How can you capture the interest and affection of an audience who don’t know who you are, have spent hours sitting around, and may simply want to go home? Andy Collins is a man who knows. Often cited as the best in the business, he’s honed his skills over decades, warming-up audiences for shows as diverse as Strictly Come Dancing, Big Brother, Celebrity Juice and The Alan Titchmarsh Show. In this candid and riotously funny interview with ...
Jul 18, 2017•43 min•Season 5Ep. 7
Life as a landlord means trusting strangers to live in your house. Try as you might, you can't know everything about them. Sometimes, you just have to rely on an instinct that your tenants are good people. Until, that is, you get a knock on the door from the Police... That's what happened to listener Ian from Dublin. In this interview with Olly, he re-lives the moment he became involved in an armed Police sting - and began to regret renting out his property. Also this week, Ollie and Olly head o...
Jul 11, 2017•48 min•Season 5Ep. 6
Does the mind of a murderer look any different to yours? Can brain-scanning technology help explain criminal activity? And if could - should that evidence be admitted into court? Dr Lisa Claydon, Senior Lecturer in Law at the Open University, has spent decades considering these questions. In this fascinating interview with Olly, recorded at Cheltenham Science Festival, she explains the issues around neuroscience in the courtroom, from the problems of malingering and false memory syndrome to the ...
Jul 04, 2017•53 min•Season 5Ep. 5
From Glastonbury to The End Of The Road, Summer festivals continue to colonise the countryside. But how do people pull together such enormous events year after year? In our 2017 Summer Festivals Special, Olly meets Pete Lawrence, co-founder of The Big Chill, which went from being a low-key ‘festival in a club’ for 150 people in Islington to an massive outdoor happening, taking over huge venues across Britain, with acts including Lily Allen, The Proclaimers, Basement Jaxx, and Leonard Cohen. How ...
Jun 27, 2017•46 min•Season 5Ep. 4
Pathology technician Carla Valentine always knew she wanted to work with corpses. In childhood, she conducted funerals for roadkill. These days, she is curator of the St Bart’s Museum of Pathology, and a passionate advocate for more discussion about what happens when the mortuary doors swing shut. In this interview with Olly, she reveals how to prepare for an autopsy, how to get a sense of how a person lived from examining their remains, and how to create that ‘look of gentle repose’ so importan...
Jun 20, 2017•54 min•Season 5Ep. 3
Paul Watson realised he would never play football for England - so attempted, instead, to be recruited by the worst international team in the world. His quest lead him to Pohnpei, Micronesia; and, although he never realised his dream of becoming an international soccer star, he ended up coaching them instead... What's it like training a team 9000 miles away from home, in a country with no football culture? What is the beautiful game's secret at bringing communities together? And how can one reco...
Jun 13, 2017•59 min•Season 5Ep. 2
There are more billionaires than ever. Rockstars. Oil tycoons. Internet entrepreneurs. And all of them - all of them - employ private staff. The age of Jeeves and Wooster may be over, but the demand for a dependable butler remains. Lawrence McKenna has been serving the super-rich for three decades, including stints in private suites in London's poshest hotels and the Royal Enclosure at Ascot. In this interview with Olly, he reveals how to remain invisible yet available; poised to deliver whateve...
Jun 06, 2017•54 min•Season 5Ep. 1
Is there still a place for the pen-and-paper posted letter? Alison Hitchcock thinks so: when she discovered her friend Brian Greenley had cancer, she decided to write him regular letters throughout his treatment - initially as an attempt to cheer him up, then as companionship through some of his darkest hours. In this interview with Olly, she recalls how writing over a hundred letters to Brian helped get them both through a difficult chapter, and deepened their friendship immeasurably. You can f...
Apr 18, 2017•50 min•Season 4Ep. 10
Dr Sarah Goode spent six years talking to, and writing about, self-defined paedophiles - grown men sexually attracted to children. She believes, if our society were more accepting of this ‘involuntary’ sexual predilection, then more children might be protected from abuse - if the men concerned were prevented from acting out their fantasies. In this compelling interview with Olly, Dr Goode outlines her contentious view and why she believes hysteria around predatory paedophilia ironically fails to...
Apr 11, 2017•1 hr 1 min•Season 4Ep. 9
From David Bowie to George Michael, celebrity deaths are becoming increasingly common, as the rock generation reaches retirement age. How does a paper of record go about documenting their lives? Simon Pearson is Obituaries Editor of The Times, and in this interview with Olly he explains how profiles of the great and the good are created - ready to be published the moment a notable name pops their clogs - and how lesser-known figures also find their way on to the paper’s illustrious pages. Elsewh...
Apr 04, 2017•46 min•Season 4Ep. 8
When he was just 14, Wayne Sharrocks realised he wanted to join the Army - within a year, he’d begun the process of signing up to serve his country. At 18, he had his regimental cap badge tattooed on to his chest. In this searingly honest interview with Olly, he describes how the Army broke him down and built him back up again; training him to follow orders without question and desensitising him to violence. In postings to Afghanistan he saw courage, commitment - and life-changing injuries. Brit...
Mar 28, 2017•58 min•Season 4Ep. 7
What’s it like when the person you’re closest to in the world is not the person that you think they are? ‘Elizabeth’ spent a year dating a man who provided only sketchy details about his life, but ingratiated himself into her friendship circle, her family and her home. In this interview with Olly, she reveals how it felt to discover he was living a double-life, and how it’s affected her trust ever since. Also this week, Ollie Peart considers whether the return of The Matrix heralds a new type of...
Mar 21, 2017•1 hr 3 min•Season 4Ep. 6
From Morrissey to Laurence Olivier, public figures through history have channelled shyness and stage-fright into their work. But is shyness a useful tool, or is uninhibited confidence a better way to navigate the modern world? Backstage at the Southbank Centre’s ‘Being A Man’ festival, social and cultural historian Joe Moran talks to Olly about the implicit difficulty of silence, the internal monologues that plague him in social situations, and how shy people can weaponise irony, distance and al...
Mar 14, 2017•45 min•Season 4Ep. 5
