Eric Idle: “Cheer up. You’re gonna die”

When Charlie Higson was 18, his mother died, his father moved to Hawaii and he decided to become someone else entirely. He dyed his hair, renamed himself Switch and threw himself into the punk scene in Norwich, where a chance friendship with Paul Whitehouse would eventually help ...  Show more

This episode includes discussion of sensitive topics, including addiction and alcoholism, that some listeners may find distressing. Please take care while listening, and feel free to pause or step away if you need to.John Robins has spent much of his life making people laugh. But ...  Show more

Poet Fiona Sampson, conductor Alice Farnham, and broadcaster Tom Service join Ian McMillan to explore the maths, metaphors and musical terms that make up the language of conducting. Plus comedy writer Jack Bernhardt takes a sideways look at Hollywood's take on the tortured genius ...  Show more

This week, we drop in on a conversation between Mary Beard and two former TLS editors; and Anne Enright joins us to talk about turning poet in her new novel.'Emperor of Rome: Ruling the ancient Roman world', by Mary Beard'Big Caesars and little Caesars: How they rise and how they ...  Show more

Award winning comedian and actor Omid Djalili joins us to talk about his route to fame, taking part in Splash, quiz show catchphrases, performing in Persian for the first time recently and getting back on stage after lockdown.

In 1974, aged 17, Debbie Gayle travelled to ...

Code Switch's Kumari Devarajan found an unlikely demographic doppelganger in D'Lo, a comedian and playwright whose one-person show about growing up as a queer child of immigrants in the U.S. is reopening on a bigger theater stage. But when you share so much in common with a stran ...  Show more