Saturday Live

A multi tempo show for you today… In ‘allegro’, maverick music programmer, curator, and Head of Classical Music at the Southbank Centre Toks Dada is on a mission to change the face of classical music. We’ll give ‘andante’ to Joseph Cavalli-Price, a pianist and hugely accomplished tenor who embodies the profound power that music can have playing for patients in hospices. Could ‘plucking’ treasures...

The author Joanne Harris, who describes herself as ‘test-driver of experimental dream machines who sometimes writes a bit’, grew up living above her grandparents sweetshop and celebrates the 25th anniversary of Chocolat this year. The multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter Jack Garratt shot to fame in 2016 and became one of the UK’s brightest new music stars, toured the world, before taking a st...

Rob Rinder…barrister, broadcaster, occasional orchestra conductor, lover of Amazing Hotels, currently on our TVs travelling through Italy with Rylan - and now bestselling author with his latest novel The Suspect. Beer sommelier and one of the best brewers in the UK, Jaega Wise reveals how she went from pop star to hop star to judging at this years BBC Food and Farming Awards. And Martin Sixsmith,...

Writer Sebastian Faulks, recently described as ‘a state of the species novelist’, famous for his historical stories, he’s now taking us into the future exploring what it means to be human in new book The Seventh Son. The cautious traveller Sarah Brooks, reveals how her life was changed after a vodka fuelled evening in a dining car on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Punch-lines on the touchline...comed...

The Journalist and presenter Ashley John-Baptiste, who’s written a very moving memoir about growing up in care. The Lahore born poet Imtiaz Dharker will be appearing on the programme. We’ll be talking about what’s made her identify as a Scottish, Pakistani, Calvinist, Muslim who’s been adopted by India and Wales. Plus, landscape and garden designer Miria Harris who has used her own experience of a...

Fashion designer, entrepreneur and Great British Sewing Bee judge Patrick Grant has put his money where his seams are with his company Community Clothing and new book 'Less' urging us to stop buying so much rubbish and appreciate fewer, better things. We’re taking cheesy to another level with Razan Alsous who came to the UK as a refugee from Syria having lost almost everything. She has since settl...

We’re kicking off the festival season in style, and in the sun, with three very different books… but who’s authors have more in common than you may think. This week’s events haven’t stopped Mishal Husain making her way to us this weekend – for what will surely be the only down time she’ll have over the next 6 weeks. Mishal’s new memoir charts her families experiences through partition and the even...

The bestselling, prolific screenwriter and author of the Hawthorne series Anthony Horowitz… whose creative achievements may be further admired and perhaps understood when he reveals what he’s overcome with the relationship with his father. Possessed with a similar drive, Capt. Preet Chandi is with us, now the fastest woman to cross Antarctica she shares the passion that drives her to keep breaking...

Mary Beard unearths some of the fascinating little-known stories that helped build the Roman Empire in her new series of Being Roman, and reveals how a cake is responsible for making her Britain’s best-known classicist. From the senate and the people of Rome to the Sherlock Holmes of Tudor England – star of the new Shardlake series, Arthur Hughes joins us. Born with a rare condition affecting his...

The Titan of Tartan Noir, crime writer Val McDermid, who grew up playing in the ruins of Macduff's castle, shines a new light on Lady Macbeth in her new book, and tells us show she became addicted to video games. Nicola Nuttall has written a beautiful memoir about helping her daughter Laura make the most of her final days living with brain cancer…Laura had an extraordinary bucket list to complete...

Birmingham’s unofficial global ambassador, Steven Knight, who did as much for flat caps as he did for Brum by creating Peaky Blinders and he’s now taking us back to the West Midlands of the 1980’s with his latest TV series This Town. Catherine Coldstream had a bohemian upbringing in London, lived in Paris and fell in love with "unsuitable propositions in dark polo necks" and then, spent twelve yea...

Racing driver Nic Hamilton is the first disabled athlete to compete in the British Touring Car Championship. Born with cerebral palsy and told he would always need to use a wheelchair, he certainly embodies his self-given title of ‘limit defier’ and shares how he proved everyone wrong in his new book 'Now That I Have Your Attention'. Victoria McCloud, the recently retired first trans woman judge i...

The broadcaster, marathon runner, and proud parent to her life saving stoma Audrey, Adele Roberts reveals how she overcame cancer wrote a book and danced on ice. Writer and comedian Ben Elton whose new stand-up tour highlights his trademark incisive social commentary by exploring authentic stupidity. David Duke went from sleeping rough and living in hostels to playing football in the Homeless Worl...

The irrepressible Tom Shakespeare shares how the boy nicknamed 'The Blob' at school went on to become a bioethicist, disability rights advocate, and now a debut novelist. Kate Silverton has swapped the newsroom for the therapists couch having retrained as a child counsellor. She has also become a bestselling author and her latest book maintains that there's still no such thing as being naughty. Di...

One of Yorkshire’s finest, the actor famous for Fat Friends, Coronation Street and Emmerdale, Gaynor Faye. She’s making her directorial debut with the stage adaptation of The Syndicate, written by her mother; the late, great Kay Mellor. Tommy Blaize is the voice of Strictly. He’s been singing on the show since the very first episode. But today he reveals the family DNA secret that unlocked the sto...

Rear Admiral Jude Terry, the first woman to hold flag rank in The Royal Navy, keeps us ship shape and shares how a rebellious teenager became the highest ranking female member of the Navy. Ready to send us to the sin bin Sara Cox, not that one, reveals how she "walked through stinging nettles" to become the world's first professional female rugby union referee and inspire a whole generation of off...

Entertainer, actor, comedian, author and very clever man, Julian Clary joins us, he makes disdain and innuendo hilarious and he’s back onstage playing Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar. When Christopher Samuel picked up a biro and drew a picture of himself, it changed his life. He’ll tell us how he’s now using art to challenge the perceptions of disability. And having both served time, the award-win...

Radio 4's Saturday morning show brings you extraordinary stories and remarkable people.

Jennie Gow, the journalist and BBC motor racing presenter who is navigating her post-stroke life and plans to be back on air for the Formula 1 this season. Sarah Marsh, the deaf author who has written a debut novel about a deaf woman finding her identity in a hearing world. And sailor Ken Fowler who circumnavigated every island in England and Wales, solo, in a 4m dinghy called Yoda. And don't miss...

Chris Anderson, an entrepreneur with a unique background as the son of missionaries and now the head of the TED organization, advocates for the power of Infectious Generosity as the ultimate idea worth spreading. Jane Cholmeley, once a feminist bookseller and now an author, shares her journey of running Europe's largest women's bookstore amidst challenges of homophobia and misogyny. Daisy Goodwin,...

Today - our guests inhabit very different worlds... One exists in kindness, James Timpson, the businessman and philanthropist - whose new book The Happy Index - puts happiness at the top of his business plans. Marianna Spring on the other hand, spends much of her life in a world filled with nastiness and trolls, and asks Why Do You Hate Me? in her new podcast. And Callum Scott Howells inhabits and...

National sweetheart, and very silly boy, Joe Lycett adds some pizazz to proceedings...as he talks art, Queen's Heath and his special brand of public service vigilantism as he sets his sights on the water companies. The writer, producer and creator behind landmark TV series; Queer as Folk, It’s A Sin, Years and Doctor Who, Russell T Davies, looks back on a ground-breaking career. So much has happen...

Bringing his trademark droll humour and a bit of poetry to proceedings…the actor and comedian Tim Key discusses his new collection and reveals the story behind one of the most remarkable acts kindness he received from a stranger. He loves dogs, he loves sport and he’s one of the best in the world at commentating on both…we welcome the voice of a thousand sports Andrew Cotter. Bringing us emotional...

Tom Odell, the Ivor Novello Award winning musician discusses his new album 'Black Friday' and reveals why freshly baked cakes helped with his piano lessons. Zoë Colville, aka The Chief Shepherdess, went from the madness of hairdressing in a trendy Soho salon in London, to the ‘relative’ tranquillity of tending sheep on a farm in Kent. Boxer Nathan Heaney describes his journey from fighting with gr...

Extending our knowledge of Imperial frontiers - journalist, author and Empire educator Sathnam Sanghera’s reveals why tea is the best medium to discuss the British Empire. Crossing the final frontier with Libby Jackson - she boldly explores where none of us are likely to as The Head of Space Exploration at the UK Space Agency. And the record-breaking Darren Edwards keeps crossing endurance frontie...