Like This, Love This

Jenny Colgan is a Scottish author who has written more than sixty books, sold fifteen million of them in more than thirty five countries. Her series include The Little Beach Street Bakery , The Christmas Bookshop and the School by The Sea series. She has also written six books in the Doctor Who universe under the name J.T. Colgan. Colgan won Romantic Novel of the Year in 2013 for Welcome to Rosie...

This week’s guest Christine Adams has worked as an actress for more than two decades and describes herself as “the hardest working actress you’ve never heard of”. Having left university here in the UK in the early 2000s, Christine first worked - as many young British actors do - in the likes of Doctors, Casualty and Eastenders before moving to the United States in search of more interesting roles....

This week I really have a treat in store for you as I speak to Director of Tate Maria Balshaw CBE. Maria was the first woman to take on the role back in 2015 and for the last ten years she has used her position to introduce a broader range of artists to Tate’s various galleries as well as attracting a younger audience through the introduction of Tate Collective which offered free membership to 16-...

Alasdair Beckett-King is a comedian, children’s author, animator, illustrator, filmmaker & podcaster - there are many strings to this man’s bow. And he is a man who even looks like he might own a quiver… He has appeared on the likes of The News Quiz on Radio 4, Mock the Week & 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown as well as hosting not one but two of his own podcasts - one about folklore &...

Aurie Styla is not just a comedian: he’s also an actor, a broadcaster, a podcaster, an event host & producer and a designer. As well as creating several of his own award-winning stand-up shows, he also wrote on the BAFTA winning series of The Lateish Show with Mo Gilligan, appeared on Radio 4 shows like Newsjack, The Now Show & The Infinite Monkey Cage and even Richard Osman’s House of Gam...

Desiree Burch is an American comedian who has called London home for over a decade. Having studied in Yale, she worked in New York whilst trying to get her comedy career going, she worked as a phone sex operator and even a dominatrix - whilst still a virgin. After moving to the UK, Desiree worked herself silly and got her comedy career going - particularly after winning the Funny Women award in 20...

Diana Vickers first rose to prominence when she auditioned for The X Factor at the age of just sixteen. With Cheryl Cole as her mentor she finished the show in fourth place. She landed a record deal with RCA once the show had finished, released two albums and finished up 2010 as the label’s biggest-selling domestic artist.  After The X Factor, Diana landed the lead role in Jim Cartwright’s Th...

Pearl Lowe is a creative to her core: she started her career in music as singer and songwriter fronting the bands Powder and Lodger before switching to fashion, textile & homewares design.  She has set trends for decades from her tea dresses that exploded in popularity from the Nineties all the way through her signature interiors style which she has dubbed ‘faded glamour’ and now written...

Alex Lawther is an actor who began his career in a David Hare play which saw the London Critics Circle name him Young British Performer of the Year as well as being selected by BAFTA as one of 2015’s Breakthrough Brits. He has appeared in films such as The Imitation Game, Goodbye Christopher Robin and The French Dispatch. He’s no stranger to the small screen having starred in The End of the F*ckin...

Beth Rigby was the first woman to be appointed as Political Editor of Sky News back in 2019. She has interviewed everyone from the current prime minister Sir Keir Starmer and many of his predecessors to the former England footballer Gary Neville, Hillary Clinton and Dame Kelly Holmes. But this time, she’s on the other side of the microphone as she sits down with Lucie McInerney to discuss her favo...

On this week’s episode of Like This, Love This, Lucie McInerney is joined by actor, comedian and Amy Poehler devotee, Hayley Morris. After a childhood spent writing and filming sketches with comedy heroes: her dad & her brother, Hayley started her own YouTube channel in 2009. At first it didn’t exactly attract big numbers…and by at first, we mean for about a decade. But she stuck at it and fin...

Jack Edwards, the Internet’s Resident Librarian, is one of Britain’s biggest book influencers. He started posting online regularly when he first went to Durham University to read English Literature. As the first of his family to attend third level, he had no idea what to expect and thought that sharing his experience might help others. From there, he published a guide to life at university and - t...

Felicity Ward is a comedian, actor and writer who has appeared on BBC Radio 4’s The News Quiz, Russell Howard’s Good News and Mock the Week. Earlier this year, she participated in Australia’s Dancing with the Stars making it all the way to the finale and last year, she starred as Hannah Howard, Australia’s answer to David Brent, in a new version of The Office. She has long been a mental health adv...

Emily Beecham is an award winning actress who has appeared on TV and in film for almost two decades. In 2016 she starred alongside George Clooney, Scarlett Johansson and Ralph Fiennes in the Coen Brothers comedy Hail, Caesar! and in 2019, she won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival for her role in Little Joe.  Emily has appeared in many TV dramas ranging from Emily Mortimer’s The Pursuit...

This week’s guest Genevieve Turley is a make-up artist and beauty influencer who has amassed hundreds of thousands of followers on social media thanks to her hilarious take on the beauty industry online. Having started her career as a nurse in the Air Force, Genevieve turned her attention to her lifelong love of make-up and beauty after having had children. Initially, Genevieve focussed on bridal...

Actor Taj Atwal has graced stage and screen for over a decade, starting off with appearances in Miranda and Ruth Jones’ Stella. Since then she has gone on to star alongside the likes of Liam Neeson , Monica Bellucci , Lily James & Dame Emma Thompson .  Taj has had series regular roles in the BBC dramas Line of Duty and The Syndicate as well as comedies like Hullraisers on Channel 4, Daddy...

Jen Brister is a comedian and writer who has appeared on some of the UK’s best loved comedy shows such as Live at the Apollo, QI, Mock the Week and BBC Radio 4’s The News Quiz. She hosts her own podcast Memory Lane with fellow comedian Kerry Godliman as well as appearing on some of the country’s top podcasts such as Off Menu with Ed Gamble & James Acaster, The Guilty Feminist with Deborah Fran...

Louisa Young is a novelist, biographer and songwriter who has been nominated for the Orange Prize for Fiction, the Costa Novel Award and the Carnegie Medal as well as winning Audiobook of the Year at the National Book Awards. She has written several children’s books with her daughter as well as a biography of her grandmother, Kathleen Scott, widow of Captain Robert Scott. Previously, she worked as...

Zachary Hart is an actor who graduated from the Academy of Live & Recorded Arts in 2017 and headed straight to the Bridge Theatre in London to perform in legendary director Nic Hytner’s Julius Caesar. And he’s just kept going ever since. He has appeared in many of the biggest shows on TV since his career rocketed into action: from Peaky Blinders on BBC One and The Witcher on Netflix to Masters...

In this episode of Like This Love This, we are joined by Alison Balsom , a classical trumpet player, music producer and educator, who started playing the trumpet at age seven and went on to graduate top of her class from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She has since won Young Artist of the Year and later Female Artist of the Year at the Classical BRIT awards and Artist of the Year at the...

This week’s guest is Patrick Grant - best known for his time as a judge on BBC1’s Great British Sewing Bee since the show started in 2013. But he has also turned around the fortunes of the Savile Row tailor Norton & Sons after seeing it advertised for sale in the back of a newspaper, won Menswear Designer of the Year at the British Fashion Awards in 2010 and has worked with some of the world’s...

Alexandra Haddow is a writer and comedian who sold out her debut show, Not My Finest Hour, at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2023 as well as her follow-up show, Third Party, in 2024 - which she also took on tour around the UK this year.  Alexandra has opened for comedy legends such as Frankie Boyle, Tommy Tiernan and Bill Bailey and has contributed to Have I Got News For You, The News Quiz on BBC Ra...

Amaka Okafor is an actor who has starred in Bodies on Netflix, The Responder and The Split on BBC One and the film version of the Take That musical Greatest Day .  In 2023 Screen International named her as a Star of Tomorrow and she is starring in the upcoming Netflix series Black Rabbit alongside Jason Bateman and Jude Law this September - so it’s safe to say she is going places! Over the co...

Shabaz Ali is a social media sensation with 1.8 million followers on Instagram and 2 million on TikTok. Known by the handle @shabazsays, he judges the rich and famous from the comfort of his own bed all while shrouded in his signature fleecy blanket. His videos achieve many millions of views thanks to his sharp sense of humour and refusal to be cowed by anyone’s fame.     This succe...

Hosted by Lucie McInerney, Like This Love This features interesting, fun personalities from all walks of life discussing the stories they love: the books that they always recommend, the ones that changed their lives, carried them through grief, made them laugh time and again, or changed their perception of love, the films they can’t help talking about for years after watching, the podcasts that ha...