Rosebud with Gyles Brandreth

Lucy Fleming and Simon Williams give Rosebud a truly romantic Valentine's treat today, as they read the wartime letters of Lucy's parents: Celia Johnson, the great actress and star of Brief Encounter, and Peter Fleming, writer and older brother of Ian Fleming. The letters you hear in this episode were written from 1940 until VE Day, while Peter was away in Burma and India, working for Lord Wavell,...

Mark Gatiss: actor, writer, producer, director and creator - this is someone who makes Gyles Brandreth look like an under-achiever! From The League of Gentlemen, to Doctor Who, Sherlock and the Christmas Ghost Stories, Mark has been behind some of the most distinctive and original television of recent times. He's also an actor - recently winning awards for his portrayal of Sir John Gielgud in Jack...

You're in luck, diary fans, as this is one of the most enthralling episodes yet of Gyles's schoolboy diaries. It's the first half of 1963 and at school, Gyles is learning that relationships are complicated things, and that it's not usually OK to love two people at the same time. Outside school, the sexual revolution is beginning and Britain is gripped by the Profumo affair. Learn more about your a...

In this episode, Vanessa Feltz wows Gyles with some of the funniest stories he's ever heard on Rosebud: from a first kiss with Pete Tong by the pool in Lanzarote, to an illicit encounter with a stranger who was bowled over by the magnificence of her bosom... this show is full of laughs and brilliant anecdotes. Vanessa takes Gyles two generations back in the Feltz family, to her grandparents and gr...

In this episode of More Rosebud, the hypnotist and self-help writer Paul McKenna talks to Gyles about a subject you may have heard about before on Rosebud: manifesting. Plus he also tells Gyles about his early life, how he became a hypnotist, and he shows Gyles some relaxation techniques. So beware, this episode may make you exceedingly relaxed! Make sure you aren't driving or operating machinery...

Krishnan Guru-Murthy has been presenting the news on Channel 4 since 1998, but his career began long before that, when he was only a teenager. In fact, Gyles is a bit jealous when he finds out that Krishnan was even younger than him when he first appeared on TV! In this interview, Gyles also learns about the fascinating story of Krishnan's parents, how they met, and his father's inspirational jour...

Welcome to part 7 of Gyles reading from the diaries he has kept since he was 10. Gyles is now 14, and a pupil at Bedales, a progressive Hampshire boarding school populated by many CND-supporting teachers and the children of liberal-minded, artistic parents. In this episode we hear about Gyles's summer holidays, spent on his own in Paris, learning French and staying in a boarding house. We hear abo...

We're honoured to have the great Dame Penelope Wilton as our very special guest on Rosebud today, in a rare podcast interview for this distinguished and well-loved actress. Penelope talks to Gyles about her happy childhood, in and around Knightsbridge and Kensington in London - we find out about her interesting neighbours, Mr Onion and the one-armed colonel. She tells Gyles about her mother's illn...

Danny Baker tells Gyles his extraordinary rags to riches story - from a council house in Bermondsey to partying with Elton John and Rod Stewart. He tells Gyles about his extraordinary father, Spud Baker. He also talks about getting cancer, and about getting cancelled, and how he survived both by being a "natural born Pollyanna". This story is full of wit, charm, funny stories, and Danny's characte...

Our guest today is a sporting legend, and one of cricket's all-time greats: Sir Vivian Richards. Sir Vivian talks to Gyles about his childhood in the close-knit community on the island of Antigua, the discipline and faith he was given by his parents, his early memories of practising his batting technique in his bedroom mirror and his dramatic first international match for Antigua. He tells Gyles h...

This is episode 6 of Gyles reading from his schoolboy diaries. He's still at Bedales, and settling in - getting his newspaper delivered every morning, dining like a king at Sunday breakfast (soft white rolls with honey and marmite) and being entered into poetry reading competitions. He also carries on with his hobbies - theatre-going, reading and politics. We hope you enjoy these snapshots of a di...

It's the start of a big new year of podcasts from Rosebud, and we're beginning with a real treat for you - an interview with one of Britain's most successful actors: Hugh Bonneville. During his ordinary childhood in a comfortable, middle class home in Blackheath, in which showing off was strongly discouraged, Hugh plundered the family dressing-up box and made his schoolfriends put on plays. At sch...

It's the eve of the beginning of a brand new year, so we're asking the most fundamental question: what is happiness? How can we try to live a happy life? In this episode, which was recorded at a live event at Grosvenor House, Gyles talks about his book, 'The Seven Secrets of Happiness'. He describes his work with the psychiatrist Dr Antony Clare to find the seven things we each need to try and do...

Today it's time to put away the Christmas chocolates and instead feast on this Rosebud Selection Box. Forget the Celebrations, this is the Christmas treat you've been waiting for. It's a chance to catch up on the best bits of Rosebud so far, and to indulge in some funny, moving and fascinating moments from some of our favourite guests: including Dame Judi Dench, Rupert Everett, Dame Mary Berry, Si...

It's Christmas Eve, the most magical day of the year, and we have an episode full of poetry and music for you. This features: Gyles reading a classic Christmas poem. Next is an interview with Igor Gudjalov, the amazing Grosvenor House pianist, and the premier of his 'Rosebud Christmas Rhapsody' on the piano. Then we have a moving conversation with the Very Reverend Dr Mark Oakley, Dean of Southwar...

When we tell you that today's guest brought a delicious coffee cake along to the Rosebud recording, you'll know it could only be one woman: Dame Mary Berry. In this wide-ranging and frequently very touching conversation, Gyles and Dame Mary talk about her life and times - from her childhood as a naughty schoolgirl nicknamed 'Scruffy' to her success as a cook, writer and educator. Gyles finds out a...

Our guest on More Rosebud today is James Rebanks, sheep-farmer and writer of best-selling books 'The Shepherd's Life' and 'English Pastoral', as well as a brand new book 'The Place of Tides'. James has lived and worked on the Cumbrian Lakeland fells since he was a boy, and farms the same hillside at Matterdale as his family have for the past 600 years. In this conversation he tells Gyles about his...

Tom Holland, co-host of The Rest Is History, is Gyles's guest this week. And, fittingly, this episode is full of history - Augustus, Napoleon III, Bram Stoker, Byron, Jesus and Cecil Beaton all get a mention. Yes, there's name-dropping of a historical kind. One of the interesting things about Rosebud is the distinctive ways in which our guests' childhoods reflect the adults they become, and Tom wa...

Another foray into Gyles's schoolboy diaries today, and this time it's the second half of 1961. In this chapter we find out what happens when Gyles starts at his new secondary school, Bedales, a pioneering liberal arts boarding school near Petersfield in Hampshire. How will Gyles cope with the ardous programme of 'outdoor work' which is part of his new timetable? Will he get a girlfriend? What wil...

This week Boris Johnson is on the Rosebud couch, and Gyles tries to get him off the usual political topics and instead talking about where it all began. We find out about Boris's early years, spent fighting with his siblings and playing violent physical games in school playgrounds. We find out about his schooldays, his first crush and his parents' divorce. We also hear about what he got up to on h...

Today's Rosebud is an enormously entertaining talk given by Gyles at the Henley Literary Festival. Ostensibly about Gyles's books - Prose and Cons, a History of the English Language in Just a Minute, and Breaking the Code: Gyles's diaries from his days as an MP - this talk is actually much more than that. In true Gyles style, it is full of amazing anecdotes, beginning with some brilliant stories a...

Sir Matthew Bourne's reimaginings of classic works like Swan Lake, The Nutcracker and Carmen have become legendary, and have transformed our ideas of what dance, and what theatre, are capable of. In this in-depth conversation, Gyles finds out about Sir Matthew's origin story, from his childhood days putting on shows for the neighbours on his street, to his teenage years, spent autograph-hunting in...

Another treat for you today, as Gyles carries on reading from his childhood diaries and discusses things with Harriet. In this chapter we join Gyles as he prepares to leave his prep school, Betteshanger, in Kent. Gyles performs in Twelfth Night, strikes up a friendship with the man who works the school boiler, becomes a prefect and spends his easter holidays being a waiter in a hotel in Bournemout...

This week we welcome the singers Michael Ball and Alfie Boe. Ball and Boe have been singing together for ten years, and are about to release their sixth album, but in this conversation Gyles takes them right back to the beginning. We hear about Alfie's childhood, growing up as the youngest in a family of nine in a council house in the north-west, about how he was discovered as he sang to himself a...

Today on More Rosebud Gyles talks to the American actress, singer-songwriter and star of Downton Abbey Elizabeth McGovern. In this conversation they talk about Elizabeth's childhood in a Bohemian and bookish household - first in Illinois and then in Los Angeles. They talk about the formative friendship of her adolescence. They talk about her sudden rise to fame: she was discovered as a teenager an...