Rosebud with Gyles Brandreth

Rochelle Humes: popstar, business woman, TV personality, wife and mother. Gyles and Rochelle know each other from This Morning, but in this chat Gyles finds out much more about the person behind the success story. Rochelle tells him about her childhood, growing up in a single parent family in Essex. She tells him about her early experiences on stage in the West End, and how she auditioned for S Cl...

It's a big moment for Rosebud, because in this episode Gyles talks to Stephen Fry about his first memories. As you can imagine, this is a brilliant conversation, as Stephen tells Gyles about his parents and their remarkable marriage, his childhood, schooldays, how he went slightly "off the rails" as a teenager and then got things back on track at Cambridge. There are various detours, via Oscar Wil...

On 8th September 2024, it is the second anniversary of the death of Queen Elizabeth II. In memory of that day, and of the Queen, our guest today is Terry Pendry. Terry worked with Queen Elizabeth II for over 28 years, as her Stud Groom and Manager at Windsor Castle. Terry's relationship with the Queen was unique, because he rode with her every morning when she was at Windsor. This is when the Quee...

Rosebud is a year old, so it's time for something a little bit different: to round off our first year, Gyles is talking to Professor Jon Simons - who is a world expert in memory, and the head of a specialist research lab at Cambridge University called The Cambridge Memory Lab. What is memory? Where are memories stored, and how are they formed? Why do we remember some things and not others? How far...

Felicity Kendal's irresistible performance as Barbara in The Good Life made her a household name almost 50 years ago; but her life was unique and fascinating long before that. Her childhood was spent touring India and Asia with her parents' theatre company, performing in makeshift theatres, schools, jungles and palaces. Her first stage appearance was in Midsummer Night's Dream when she was nine mo...

Michael Rosen is one of Britain's most popular poets - his poetry is loved by children all round the world, either through Michael's brilliant performances of them on YouTube and in primary schools, or because they are classics, like 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt'. Michael is also an old friend of Gyles's and a great storyteller, and this episode is slightly longer than our usual because it's full o...

Aled Jones has been famous since he was only 13, when he was a choirboy at Bangor Cathedral in North Wales with a beautiful voice. In this interview he tells Gyles about his first ever public performance, in a village hall on Anglesey; about how he was discovered and asked to record an album, and about his incredible, and rapid, rise to fame. The next 4 years were a whirlwind - trips to London to...

Joining Gyles this week is is one of Britain's best loved actresses, Anne Reid. Anne's long career began when a teacher at school persuaded her to apply for RADA at only 16, and after a stint in weekly rep and appearances on The Benny Hill Show and Hancock's Half Hour, she became a household name as Valerie Barlow in Coronation Street in the 60s, and then as a regular performer with Victoria Wood...

Richard Ayoade is Gyles's guest this week. A director, writer and actor, Ayoade is well known for his portrayal of Maurice Moss in cult sitcom The I.T. Crowd. He's also an acclaimed film director (the award-winning Submarine was his debut, and his next film The Double starred Jesse Eisenberg), a writer of books, and a TV personality. Gyles and Richard have a connection - Richard is a friend of Gyl...

It's a big day for Rosebud, as it's our 50th episode. No, we can't quite believe it either! We started Rosebud in September 2023 with Dame Judi Dench, and so we wanted to bring you another theatrical dame for our 50th show. And so it's with pride that we give you one of our greatest actresses, and an old friend of Gyles's, Dame Maureen Lipman. Maureen tells Gyles about her childhood, growing up in...

The comedian, actor, star of The Mummy, and activist Omid Djalili talks to Gyles about his life and memories. From his childhood, growing up in an unconventional home in Kensington surrounded by the Iranian convalescents his parents took in as guests, to discovering his skill for comedy at secondary school, to his days at university in Northern Ireland and a scary experience being shot at on a bea...

This week's Rosebud guest is Professor Kathleen Stock, the philosopher and writer. As Gyles says in his introduction, Stock has, at times, been a controversial figure in the debate about gender identity, but in this episode, we aim to get behind the headlines and find out about her life. The conversation takes us from her early years, playing games in the park behind their terraced house, to schoo...

Robert Lindsay is Gyles's guest this week, and the conversation they have is brilliant: evocative, revealing, and funny. Robert takes Gyles back to his working class childhood, growing up as the son of a carpenter in a two-up-two-down house in Derbyshire; he reminisces about his parents' love for each other and for dancing and laughing together, and about the practical jokes they used to play on t...

Björn Ulvaeus is pop music royalty, a founder member of one the most successful pop groups in history - ABBA. So when Gyles was given the opportunity to interview him at a special event in Bridlington, the Rosebud team hotfooted it up there to record it. What you're going to hear is a very special, wide-ranging and fascinating conversation about Björn's life and his incredible career. Björn grew u...

This week's guest is the stand-up comedian, actor, marathon-runner and political activist Suzy Eddie Izzard. Suzy tells Gyles about her new name, and why she's relaxed about what people to choose to call her. She then takes Gyles back into her childhood, spent in Aden, Northern Ireland and South Wales, until the sudden death of her mother changed everything and Suzy and her brother were sent to bo...

Gyles gets together with comedian Chris McCausland to record a really special episode of Rosebud. Chris takes Gyles back to his childhood days, playing football and messing about in the streets of West Derby Village in Liverpool, part of a close-knit family and friendship group. Chris talks about the beginnings of the problems with his sight, which started in childhood, how this affected his schoo...

Who is the cleverest person in Britain? When Gyles asked this question to readers of his columns last year, one name was mentioned more than any other; that of Martin Rees, Lord Rees of Ludlow, the Astronomer Royal. Lord Rees is one of the most distinguished scientists in the country, a former President of the Royal Society and a Cambridge fellow. He wrote the first papers on quasars (a type of bl...

Gyles and Alexander Armstrong reminisce about Alexander's idyllic childhood in Northumberland, the son of a country GP. They talk about his school years, when he was an 'odd little boy' who sang in the school choir and was obsessed with Gilbert and Sullivan. They discuss the joy of Evensong, and the delights of PG Wodehouse, and Gyles finds out what it was like to live on Imogen Stubbs's barge in...

Gyles meets the writer, clergyman and former member of the Communards Reverend Richard Coles. Together they talk about Richard's childhood, growing up as the musically gifted youngest son in a family of shoe manufacturers in Kettering, about how he discovered his sexuality and became part of London's gay scene in the 1980s, and about how he found his faith in the aftermath of the AIDS crisis. Gyle...

Gyles has fun talking to Katherine Ryan about her early memories and formative experiences, with added discussions about the rights and wrongs of plastic surgery, whether you should tell anecdotes during sex, and what, exactly, is phallic swagger. This is a frank, open, revealing and sometimes inspiring conversation that's possibly slightly more adult than our usual episodes. Katherine tells Gyles...

This week, Gyles has John Cleese in the Rosebud hotseat. Gyles finds out about John's childhood, growing up in the Westcountry during the war, with a father whose surname was actually 'Cheese' and a mother who was suffering from post natal depression. John also shares stories about his school days, what it was like being the tallest boy in the form, and how he enjoyed being "subversive" at the bac...

Dermot O'Leary and Gyles know each other from the This Morning sofa, but here they get the chance to sit down for a proper in-depth conversation. Dermot tells Gyles about his childhood, growing up in a warm and loving Irish family, and about how important his heritage is to him. He talks about his first communion, his love of poetry and Gyles finds out whether he knows the facts of life. Dermot's...

In this episode Gyles talks to the Leader of the Labour Party, Sir Keir Starmer. This isn't a political interview, instead it's an in-depth and fascinating conversation about Keir's background and personal history. Keir reminisces about his childhood in a village in Surrey; he remembers cramped car journeys in a Ford Cortina with four kids and four dogs squeezed onto the back seat. He also describ...

21st April is the birthday of Queen Elizabeth II, and in celebration of this we're giving you an interview with Merlin Holland, who has an unusual claim to fame. His mother, Thelma Besant, was the late Queen's beauty advisor - her personal makeup artiste - who was present at the Coronation in 1953, as was our guest (then a young boy). Merlin is also the grandson of the great poet, playwright and p...

Gyles's guest this week is Dame Twiggy Lawson, and this episode is recorded live at the Rose Theatre in Kingston, Surrey. Twiggy shot to fame as a 16 year-old, when her headshots - showcasing her newly cropped hair, boyish looks and signature dark eye makeup - were spotted in a London hair salon. Within weeks her face was on the front page of the Express with the headline: "Twiggy: the face of '66...