Rosebud with Gyles Brandreth

Our guest today is the writer, columnist and broadcaster Caitlin Moran. Caitlin talks to Gyles about her unusual childhood in Wolverhampton, homeschooled by a father who was a frustrated rock star and a mother who looked like Mick Jagger. She talks about her parents' sex life and her dreams of escaping the Midlands. Caitlin talks about winning her first journalism prize and writing her first novel...

We are delighted to have the actor Adrian Lester, currently in the West End as Cyrano de Bergerac, in the Rosebud chair today. Adrian talks to Gyles about his childhood in Birmingham, growing up in an effusive and loving family of Jamaican heritage, surrounded by aunties, cousins and grandparents. He talks about the formative experience of being a chorister in the cathedral choir, and of doing dra...

It's The Mooch! Yes, today Rosebud celebrates 250 years of American independence with our final U.S. guest: the irrepressible host of the Rest Is Politics U.S., Anthony Scaramucci. In this fascinating and free-wheeling conversation, Anthony talks to Gyles about his childhood in a Long Island, in a loving and hard-working Italian-American family, with parents who managed to fit 600 years of argumen...

It's 1977, and Gyles is welcoming his first daughter, Saethryd, into the world - and explaining the origins of her name to all his friends. "Why such an extraordinary name?" "Because she's an extraordinary girl!" He's also fighting on several fronts: with the noisy neighbours next-door, with the theatre company which is refusing to pay up, and with the National Theatre. Gyles and Harriet chat abou...

Michael Feinstein, the pianist, singer and perhaps the greatest living interpreter of what is known as The Great American Songbook, is our guest today. He talks about his childhood, when his life was changed by his father's impulsive decision to buy a piano, which young Michael discovered he could play by ear. He talks about being an outsider, his belief in reincarnation, and his early enthusiasm...

Akshata Murty, entrepreneur, philanthropist and wife of the former Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, is our guest today. And it's particularly interesting to listen to this episode in light of the resignation of Keir Starmer yesterday (Monday 22 June 2026): what is it really like to be married to a prime minister? What are Akshata's memories of the day, in the pouring rain, that Rishi Sunak announced t...

Our guest today is the hugely successful author of twisty, suspenseful, page-turning, gripping novels - such as Tell No One, Fool Me Once and Deal Breaker - Harlan Coben. Here, Harlan talks to Gyles about his childhood, spent in a very ordinary all-American town in New Jersey, which had secrets and rumours lurking beneath its cookie-cutter exterior. He talks about his family - his inspirational fa...

It's 1976, and we have more hilarity, honesty, and social commentary from Gyles's diaries. In this episode he shares a stage with Bernard Manning and some go-go dancers, publishes a cheeky book about the Queen, and fires the nanny. Plus Gyles and Harriet chat about love at first sight and John Keats. Enjoy this! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're in New York City, so we need glamour, class, poise, elegance, talent and wit; and we're pleased to say we've got them all... because our guest today is Christine Baranski. Star of The Gilded Age, The Good Wife, Sybil, Mama Mia and guest star in Big Bang Theory, Christine Baranski is a gifted actress with an impressive body of work across stage, television and film. In this brilliant and in-d...

Graydon Carter, the celebrated magazine editor, is the second guest in our New York series. Carter edited Vanity Fair for 25 years and transformed the magazine into the must-read glossy for the intelligent, the curious and the culturally-savvy. He talks to Gyles about his vision for Vanity Fair and why it was such a success, about the four elements you need to put together a good story, and about...

Leading up to the 250th anniversary of American independence, Rosebud is giving you a series of interviews recorded in New York City. Our first is with the sharpest observer of New York life - the wit, conversationalist and writer, Fran Lebowitz. In this brilliant interview, Fran tells Gyles about her family, who moved to the US from Russia and Eastern Europe to escape the Jewish pogroms. She talk...

We're entering the long, hot summer of 1976, and Gyles is moving into a big, new house with his young family and still forging ahead in his life and career. He is embarking on a second Oxford Theatre Festival, with his friend Noel Davis (who likes the start and end the working day with a stiff drink, and have a couple more over lunch); he is celebrating Michele's birthday in style at the Ritz, and...

The writer, satirist and urban explorer Will Self talks to Gyles about his childhood, his career and his life now. From his boyhood as "little Willy", the apple of his mother's eye, who was both enfolded and smothered by her love; to his adolescence when he began smoking, drinking and experimenting with drugs earlier than most; to his student days when his good looks meant he found it easy to get...

Matt Haig, the international best-selling author of books such as The Midnight Library , Reasons to Stay Alive , and his new release The Midnight Train, is our guest today. And this is one of our most in-depth and fascinating ever discussions of mental health and the true nature of depression. Matt's observations are genuinely illuminating, and full of hope and advice for anyone who has experience...

We're lucky to have the talented actress Anne-Marie Duff (St. Joan, The Magdalene Sisters, Shameless, Bad Sisters, The Virgin Queen) as our guest today, taking Gyles back to her happy childhood in a tight-knit community in West London, where she lay in bed hearing the sounds of piano from the local pub wafting in through the windows, and heard her father singing love songs to her mother. She talks...

It's 1975 and new father Gyles Brandreth is multi-tasking, like any young parent. One day he's feeding the ducks in Regent's Park with his new baby, the next, spearheading the campaign for Britain to remain in the European Common Market. He's also planning his next Oxford Theatre Festival, learning to play bridge, and being interviewed by the Mail. Plus Gyles and Harriet chat about their favourite...

At Rosebud we know how lucky we are to meet and talk to so many talented and fascinating guests. And this week we are especially lucky, as our guest is one of our greatest living actors: Ralph Fiennes. In this conversation recorded at the Haymarket Theatre (where Ralph is currently appearing with Miranda Raison in the David Hare play Grace Pervades ), Ralph talks to Gyles about his childhood. He t...

Our More Rosebud guest today is the Children's Commissioner for England, Dame Rachel De Souza. Dame Rachel advocates for children in parliament, and on May 8 published a major survey of 1 million children in the UK - entitled "The Big Future". The children she's surveyed are especially those who are hardest to reach, living away from home, with disabilities, or in care – and the survey provides an...

Our guest today is Sir Lenny Henry, the pioneering comedian, entertainer, actor and campaigner, who tells Gyles his story, and it's an impressive one: from the streets of Dudley in the West Midlands, to winning New Faces at only 16 years old, to an acclaimed run as Othello at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. Lenny brings his childhood home to life - his mother, a gifted preacher who came to the UK fr...

Rosebud has been on its first international road trip, to New York City. In this episode, Gyles and Harriet chat about their trip... about how they gossiped for 15 hours straight on the flight over, about being guests of the Queen at the New York Public Library and seeing Pooh Bear, Kanga, Eeyore, Tigger, Piglet and the new Roo, and about Anna Wintour giving Gyles an unexpected compliment. In the...

Jeremy Corbyn MP is our guest on this May Day morning. Now an independent MP and the leader of Your Party, Jeremy has been in Westminster for 43 years - for 41 of those as a Labour MP. He was leader of Labour Party from 2015 to 2020, and fought two general elections in 2017 and 2019. He talks about this to Gyles in this episode, and about the bitter divisions and recriminations that followed the f...

An action-packed edition of Gyles's diaries, from 1974 and 75. Gyles masquerades - very convincingly - as the European Monopoly Champion, and wows the crowds in New York City. He tosses the world's smallest pancake live on television. Margaret Thatcher is elected Leader of the Conservative Party, and on the domestic front, Gyles and Michele become parents for the first time. It's a momentous year,...

It's the second of our guests this week with a royal connection: India Hicks. India is the granddaughter of Lord Mountbatten - the last Viceroy of India who oversaw the transition to independence, and his fascinating wife, Edwina Mountbatten, who was rumoured to have had a love affair with Nehru, India's first Prime Minister. India tells Gyles about this, and about her experiences of the day Mount...

Today - Tuesday 21 April 2026 - would have been Queen Elizabeth II's 100th birthday, and we're marking the occasion with two regal Rosebuds. Our guest in this episode is Major General Alastair Bruce, the former Army Reserves officer and governor of Edinburgh Castle who is now a respected royal expert and commentator for Sky News. Alastair talks to Gyles about his family, and how they got to know t...

On Hayley Mills's 80th birthday weekend, Gyles speaks to the legendary actress and her sister, Juliet Mills, about their remarkable lives and careers. They talk about their parents, Sir John Mills and Mary Hayley Bell. They talk about their famous godparents, who included Vivien Leigh and Noel Coward. They talk about their first acting jobs - Juliet on stage, and Hayley in Tiger Bay. They talk abo...