How To Fail With Elizabeth Day

Dame Sheila Hancock is one of our most esteemed actresses: her 1966 Broadway debut in Entertaining Mr Sloane earned her a Tony nomination and on TV, she has appeared in everything from Dr Who to Kavanagh QC, in which she starred alongside her late husband, John Thaw. She has also been a semi-regular contestant on the BBC Radio 4 panel game Just a Minute since - wait for it -1967.The 89-year-old Da...

TW: discussions around suicide, infertility and miscarriageTrinny Woodall has been part of my life for years - even if we had never actually, well...met. Like many of you, I was riveted by the success of the makeover TV programme she presented with Susannah Constantine, What Not To Wear. Later, I would start buying Trinny London products and became mildly obsessed with their quality and efficacy (...

Today, in a special bonus episode, I have the joy of bringing you one of my favourite people - the broadcaster, journalist and now charity boss, Jo Elvin. She's an Australian powerhouse who I've been lucky enough to work with over several years (first when she was the editor of Glamour, then later when I became a columnist for You magazine under her reign) and now I just get to hang out with her a...

TW: discussion around suicide, body dysmorphia and disordered eating. For my season finale, I wanted to do something a little different. I wanted to interview one of the most amazing people I know. Conveniently, that person is also my husband, Justin Basini, so it was pretty easy to co-ordinate diaries. As well as being my husband (arguably his most important qualification) Justin is also a highly...

I am obsessed with today's guest and I'm not even going to pretend otherwise. Geena Davis, the star of such seminal movies as Tootsie, Beetlejuice, Thelma & Louise, A League of Their Own and the underrated classic, The Long Kiss Goodnight, TURNED UP AT MY ACTUAL HOUSE to record a witty, warm and fascinating conversation.*We talk about her feelings of imposter syndrome and self-doubt in the early d...

Lorraine Kelly has been on our TV screens for the best part of 40 years. Born to working-class, teenage parents, she turned down a university place to join the local paper and then BBC Scotland as a researcher. By 1984, she was TV-AM’s Scotland correspondent. Today, she’s at the helm of the eponymous Lorraine show live every weekday morning. In a special bonus episode, she joins me to talk about e...

Tom Daley is an Olympic gold medallist diver, a three time World Champion and the first ever British person to win four Olympic diving medals. He's also, for the purposes of this podcast, just such a lovely, joyous person. He joins me to talk about diving failures, choking at the Rio Olympics, anxiety, body image, the curse of perfectionism, parenthood via surrogacy and what knitting has taught hi...

I'll be honest. I was intimidated by the prospect of this interview. Plus, I never believed it would *actually* happen. I was going to get to speak to arguably the most famous activist on the planet? Yeah, right. As if. But then - it happened! And Greta Thunberg - the founder of the School Strike for Climate movement who has been nominated three times for a Nobel Prize - was an absolute revelation...

Today, in a very special bonus episode, I bring you an interview it was an honour to record. Rob Delaney is a comedian, actor and writer, known to many of us as the star and co-creator of the hit Channel 4 sitcom, Catastrophe. But behind the public smile, he has dealt with unfathomable private tragedy. In 2018, Rob and his wife's beloved son Henry died at the age of two-and-a-half of a brain cance...

TW: miscarriage Today's guest is one of our most beloved writers: the one and only Malorie Blackman. She joins me to talk about how her setbacks have helped her define who she is - from being evicted and made homeless as a child, to the early years of writing rejection when over 80 publishers turned her down and the devastating loss of her second pregnancy. Throughout it all, Malorie Blackman has...

Nihal Arthanayake is a broadcaster and author. He is the host of Radio 5 Live’s Afternoon Show and won interviewer of the year at the 2019 BBC Radio and Music Awards. His new book, Let’s Talk: How To Have Better Conversations, investigates the art of good dialogue - a skill that has served him handsomely in his chosen career. He joins me to talk about his academic failures, his failures as a son,...

Jordan Stephens was formerly one-half of the band Rizzle Kicks, formed with his childhood friend while they were both at school. He is now an actor, a solo musician, a writer and - as if that weren't enough - a gifted artist too. He's also a super smart, funny and perceptive human. It's always a joy to talk to him and today's episode was no exception - we cover male vulnerability, sobriety, compet...

Well, you asked. And here she is. Domenica Calarco, the breakout star from the latest season of Married At First Sight Australia, is one of my most requested guests. On screen, we fell in love with her feisty Italian character, her brutal honesty and her friendship with fellow contestant Ella May Ding. Off screen, Domenica is an absolute treasure: hilarious, talkative and with plenty to say about...

TW: eating disordersFlorence Given is the ultimate feminist multi-hyphenate: an artist, a bestselling author, a podcaster and a social activist with a huge online following, especially among the young women who see her as the wise big sister they always wanted. She wrote and illustrated her debut book, Women Don't Owe You Pretty, which spent 12 weeks in the Sunday Times top 10, making her the youn...

TW: eating disorders; suicide; sexual assaultI am so honoured to welcome my first ever Spice Girl to How To Fail! Today Melanie Chisholm - the artist formerly known as Mel C or even Sporty Spice - joins me in what is arguably her most open interview yet. She tells me about the impact of her parents' divorce, the extreme lengths of her people-pleasing as one of the most famous stars of the 1990s an...

This week I interview quite possibly the kindest man in fashion. I love him so much - and I know you will too. Edward Enninful is a pioneer: the first Black person and the first man to edit British Vogue, one of the most powerful magazines in the world. He was born in Ghana, emigrated with his family to the UK as a teenager and worked his way up through the fashion industry from model, to stylist...

Welcome to Season 15 of How To Fail! And there could be no better woman for our first episode than the iconic Vanessa Feltz. I was so COMPLETELY blown away by her honesty, humour and her brilliance when we met that I knew straight away I had to make her the season opener. She joins me to talk about the breakdown of her marriage, her shock at discovering her husband's infidelity and how she had to...

The legendary Jane Goodall is a scientist, convservationist and humanitarian, whose 60-year study of wild chimpanzees in Tanzania challenged and overturned much of the conventional scientific thinking at the time. Her tireless work over the years - she is now 88 - has won her a legion of admirers, including David Attenborough, Leonardo di Caprio, Prince Harry and Greta Thunberg who calls Goodall ‘...

Our extra-special bonus guest today is the author Kit de Waal. Her debut 2016 novel, My Name Is Leon, told the story of a mixed-race nine-year-old boy and his quest to reunite his family after being taken into care. It won the Irish Book of the Year Award and has recently been adapted for TV starring Lenny Henry. Her second novel, The Trick to Time was longlisted for the 2018 Women’s Prize. A shor...

TW // descriptions of self-harmRussell Kane is a comedian, novelist, playwright, podcaster, memoirist and presenter. He's know for his sell-out stand-up gigs across and for his TV work, including Live At the Apollo and Celebrity Juice. Plus he has two -count 'em - podcasts, Evil Genius and Man Baggage. I think Russell is genuinely one of the smartest people I've ever interviewed and his mind funct...

As well as being a stone-cold legend, Asim Chaudhry is probably best known for co-creating the BAFTA-award-winning mockumentary sitcom People Just Do Nothing and if you’ve ever been on a British Airways flight and paid attention to the safety video, you’ll recognised him instantly as the inept director of a sketch involving national treasures Sir Michael Caine and Olivia Colman. He's an actor, wri...

Benjamin Zephaniah was the author of the first poetry collection I ever owned. For many of us, he was the chronicler of our youth: a novelist and poet who made language exciting and funny and told stories full of action and hilarity. I was so excited to get to speak to him for today's episode, and he didn't let me down. We talk about his failure as a 'gangsta' - and his early brushes with the law...

TW // eating disordersI'm biased but oh my goodness, I love this guest and this episode SO much. Ahead of Refugee Week, which runs 20-26th June, it is my honour to welcome the poet Warsan Shire to the podcast. Warsan was born in Kenya to Somali parents. She migrated with her family to the UK at the age of one and her powerful poem Home - which opens with the line ‘no one leaves home unless home is...

Look, anyone who knows me knows of my love for reality TV. And anyone who knows anything about reality TV realises that when you get the chance to interview a bona fide Real Housewife, you jump at it. Which is why today's special bonus episode is with Caroline Stanbury. Now, if you're not versed in your Bravo TV herstory or your pre-Selling Sunset heritage, you might not have heard of Caroline. Sh...

My sound engineer Chris is a lovely man, but he is not easily impressed. After an interview, if Chris says 'yeah, that was good' I know I've struck GOLD. Today's episode garnered TWO SEPARATE 'yeah that was good'(s) from Chris which is why I know it's a very special one. And of course it would be, because my guest is the truly wonderful Michael Rosen. He is the author of more than 200 books, inclu...