Fascinated with Gearóid Farrelly

In this episode Gearoid meets ventriloquist Nina Conti the morning after her sold-out show for the Galway Comedy Carnival. She is mid-way through her largest tour to date. She chats about her start in ventriloquism, her puppet Monk and why she never wants to be an actress. Nina is a prolific comedian and documentary maker. She received a BAFTA nomination for her film “Her Master’s Voice” in which...

As part of Stock, Aiken and Waterman, Mike Stock is the most successful writer producer in British chart history. His music was the soundtrack to the late 80s and early 90s he wrote some of the most enduring floor-fillers, revived the flagging careers of legends like Donna Summer and Cliff Richard, created stars from the boys and girls next door and turned an actress into one of the worlds biggest...

Tony award winner Frances Ruffelle is a singer, actress, mother, francophile and cabaret chanteuse. She originated the iconic role of Eponine in the first production of “Les Miserables” and took it from the West-End to Broadway and won a Tony award in the process. Last Year I met her smack bang in the middle of London’s West-End. She had just finished a run in a new musical and the very first run...

Carnie Wilson is a singer that went into the family business. She and her sister Wendy and their childhood friend Chynna Phillips make up the group Wilson Phillips. In the early ninties they achieved massive success with a string of hits following the footsteps of their famous parents. They disbanded and remained apart for almost a decade. I chat to Carnie about growing up as Brian Wilson’s daught...

Since 1995 Pauline McLynn is seldom mentioned without a reference to tea. I offered her tea and then accidentally gave her coffee. Pauline tells us about her time in Trinity College, her first performance and her secret Eurovision fetish. Our chat takes us from a parochial house on Craggy Island to Clatterford with Jennifer Saunders and she even reveals a stage role she has her eye on. Pauline is...

When David W. Ross was a frustrated closeted member of a boy-band he never dreamed that almost 20 years later his movie, about equal rights for gay marriages, would be in cinemas at one of the most important points in the struggle for marriage equality in the US. He talks about how photographing proposition 8 rallies led him to turn what was originally a gay marriage-themed comedy, into a heartfel...

Who doesn’t love to win? Whether it’s a GAA final or an argument with your partner we all love to come out top dog. In this episode I talk to singer Niamh Kavanagh about representing Ireland and winning the Eurovision song contest in 1993, a time when, as she says “Ireland were just starting to become winners in the world”. Twenty years later, people still approach her to talk about their memories...

We all have our teen-idols and in this episode I come face to face with mine… sort of. In my younger school-days I was mad about Gayle & Gillian Blakeney from Australian soap opera “Neighbours”. There was a time you couldn’t open a magazine or turn on a TV show without seeing them. Afterwards they moved to LA and their careers took an unlikely twist which saw them building companies and brands. To...

For this episode Irish comedian and author Maeve Higgins and I go back to the 80s and discuss the legacy of my favourite TV show “Cagney and Lacey”. The show is widely recognised as the show that changed the role of women in television. The was largely due to the work of my guest Barney Rosenzweig the man who created and produced the show, saved it from cancellation twice and steered it to it’s ri...

Cooks and bakers are big stars, tweeting a photo is part of dinner and cookbooks are bedtime reading. It’s safe to say food is the new rock ’n’ roll. In this episode I head to Ballymaloe Cookery School for a chat with the lovely Rachel Allen about the rise of the foodie. Also we discover the dark side of Donal Skehan as he tells us about his journey from pop music to the kitchen. Learn more about...

Radio producer Riyadh Khalaf attempts to take charge of this episode about jobs in which Eleanor Tiernan talks about the day she tried to return to life as a civil engineer after a five year career-break to pursue standup comedy. Mariama Goodman from the girlband the Honeyz talks about how she believes “if you don’t like your job, you don’t like your life”. She surprised her friends and family by...