Podcast Episodes

Tom Allen on Kenneth Williams

Comedian and presenter Tom Allen first discovered Kenneth Williams as a young boy, watching the Carry On films and listening to Round the Horne with …

5 years, 8 months ago

Ernie Bevin, forgotten political giant

Ernie Bevin led an extraordinary life. Born in Somerset in 1881, his father is unknown and his mother died when he was eight. He left his job as a fa…

5 years, 9 months ago

Jessie Ware on Donna Summer

Jessie Ware is a singer, songwriter and podcaster. Her latest, critically acclaimed, album, What's Your Pleasure?, draws inspiration from soul, funk,…

5 years, 9 months ago

Peter Frankopan on Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

Bearded, profoundly deaf and somewhat eccentric, Tsiolkovsky's theoretical work means he is, for many, the "father of space travel". He died in 1935…

5 years, 9 months ago

Frida Kahlo nominated by author Jessie Burton

“We’re talking here about a woman who was Mexican, dark skinned, disabled and queer, who produced art and didn’t allow her disabilities to define her…

5 years, 9 months ago

Mussolini

September 1943, and German troops have just landed in gliders to rescue Benito Mussolini from the mountain resort where he was being held. “I knew my…

5 years, 9 months ago

Dolly Alderton on Doris Day

Dolly Alderton's love of Doris Day began when she watched Calamity Jane as a young child.

And for Dolly, the incandescent film star was as much of a …

6 years ago

Sybille Bedford, author of Jigsaw and A Legacy

Sara Wheeler first read Sybille Bedford in her early twenties, and discovered a dazzling writer. The book she read was called A Visit to Don Otavio. …

6 years ago

Billy Bremner of Leeds United

Anand Menon, director of the UK in a Changing Europe, chooses the life of infamous Leeds United Captain, Billy Bremner.

Billy Bremner played for Leeds…

6 years ago

Sally Phillips on Hollywood star Myrna Loy

When actress Sally Phillips first saw Myrna Loy, she burst into tears.

It was in a film called The Best Years of Our Lives, about three veterans retu…

6 years ago