Saturday Live

Richard Coles and Viv Groskop are joined by aesthetician and skin expert Caroline Hirons. She went from counter girl to being dubbed the most powerful woman in the beauty industry, her blog has clocked up over a hundred thousand views and her book has just become the second ever on beauty to go to number one in the charts. And furniture restorer Jay Blades, known for TV's The Repair Shop on why he...

Richard Coles and Viv Groskop talk to England football legend John Barnes who earned 79 caps over 12 years. His talent was spotted as a teenager and he began his career at Watford, going on to have huge success at Liverpool in the 1980s and 90s. He has been a coach, a football manager and even scored a number 1 single with his contribution to football song World In Motion, and now works as a comme...

Nikki Bedi and the Reverend Richard Coles are joined by Ellie Simmonds. Ellie Simmonds was the face of the 2008 Bejing Paralympics, winning two gold medals in the pool at the age of only thirteen. She followed that up with further gold medals at London 2012 and Rio 2016 and was preparing for the Tokyo Olympics until the games were postponed. Sand sculptor Jamie Wardley transforms tonnes of sand in...

Nemone Metaxas and the Reverend Richard Coles are joined by Simon Le Bon. As lead singer of Duran Duran: a band that has sold over 100 million records, had 18 American hit singles and 21 UK Top 20 tunes, he continues to perform to sold-out audiences around the world. He married a supermodel, had a family and explored his passion for yachts - his life the epitome of glamour. Now a proud grandfather...

Dawn French has been one of Britain’s best-loved comedians since the mid-1980’s when her double act with Jennifer Saunders became a prime time television hit. She became even more famous as the star of The Vicar of Dibley and has gone on to write books, tour solo and write, produce and perform in television comedy and drama. William Sitwell is a restaurant critic and food writer whose appearances...

Richard Coles and Kate Silverton are joined by Gabby Logan who has covered most of the major sporting events in football, rugby and athletics and been a trailblazer for women in sport. Her own sporting credentials are impeccable : she’s the daughter of professional footballer and manager Terry Yorath, married to rugby international Kenny Logan and was also an international competitor in rhythmic g...

This week Richard Coles and Kate Silverton are joined by Ricky Wilson, the lead singer of Kaiser Chiefs. The band’s hits include I Predict A Riot and Ruby and last year they released their seventh album, Duck. Ricky was a judge on The Voice and now presents the Pop Detectives podcast with Tony Blackburn. Jack Monroe was an unemployed single parent living in poverty when she started a blog called A...

Richard Coles and Shaun Keaveny are joined by Kirstie Allsopp - she has been in our living rooms, stepping into other people’s living rooms, and generally exploring their houses, for 20 years via TV's Location, Location, Location. She’s also embraced the nation’s obsession with crafts with programmes such as Kirstie's Homemade Home, Kirstie's Homemade Christmas, and most recently Keep Crafting and...

Richard Coles and Shaun Keaveny are joined by Kathy Burke who became a household name in the 1990’s for her comedy roles in Harry Enfield and Chums, Absolutely Fabulous and Gimme Gimme Gimme. She won best actress at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 for her performance in Nil By Mouth and is now a theatre director and writer. Dan Jones is an author of bestselling books on English history including...

Richard Coles and Suzy Klein are joined by Sarah Millican, one of the most successful women working in comedy in the UK, Sarah Dodd, a medic in the NHS who in her freetime has completed over 1675 escape rooms and who now competes in an international team of escape room enthusiasts and writer Helen Moat discusses her bicycle journey from Rotterdam to Istanbul and the healing benefits of slow travel...

Richard Coles and Suzy Klein are joined by writer Marian Keyes, who has just published her 14th novel and has over 30 million of her books sold to date in 36 languages. Also with us is Tori Amos, the Grammy nominated singer-songwriter who has made 15 studio albums, sold 15 million records and also branched off into the worlds of classical music and musical theatre. John Partridge is known for his...

Richard Coles and Aasmah Mir are joined by Clare Balding who found success as a racing correspondent and since then has presented the Olympics 6 times as well as numerous other chat shows, documentaries and programmes about biking and walking. She has now added dogs to her list of interests and has launched her own “Dogcast”. The actor Daniel Mays has won widespread critical acclaim for roles in a...

Richard Coles and Aasmah Mir are joined by Alexandra Shulman, former editor of Vogue, who produced the magazine for 25 years and has now published a book about her life at the top, the pressures she faced and her love of clothes. Comedian Joe Lycett explains why he legally changed his name to Hugo Boss and back again. Commercial pilot Kate Burrows shares her story of surviving a crash landing in t...

Richard Coles and Aasmah Mir are joined by Claudia Winkleman, one of our best known TV and radio presenters, known for her sharp wit and self deprecating humour not to say her thick black fringe, presenter of Strictly, Radio 2, podcast with Tanya Byron amongst many other things, she joins us on Saturday Live. We also have Comic actor/ writer Robert Webb, from Peep show, Back, Mitchell and Webb, Co...

Aasmah Mir and Richard Coles are joined by former professional footballer turned sports broadcaster Gary Lineker. During his playing career he played for Leicester, Everton, Barcelona, Tottenham and Japanese side Nagoya Grampus Eight and was famously never booked. He has presented the BBC flagship show Match of the Day since 1999 and now has a 5Live Match of the Day (MOTD) podcast with fellow pund...

Aasmah Mir and Richard Coles are joined by six time Olympic Champion, Sir Chris Hoy, who discusses the inspiration behind his career, retirement and writing children’s books. Ruth Linton is a grandmother from Manchester who became a stand up comedian after being treated for a brain tumour. Saturday Live listener and former high-flying police officer James Ellson reveals why he left the challenging...

Aasmah Mir and Richard Coles are joined on the line by Sir Bob Geldof, of The Boomtown Rats, who left Dun Laoghaire for London, became known for punchy hits and outspoken interviews, then creating Band Aid and Live Aid. We also have Kelda Wood, who, in her mid twenties suffered a life changing injury and she has just become the first para athlete to row solo across the Atlantic. Derrick Osaze is ‘...

Neil Morrissey became a household name in the 1990’s playing Tony in sitcom Men Behaving Badly. As the voice of Bob the Builder he had two number one singles in the UK Charts and now combines acting with running pubs. Alice Morrison is an adventurer who lives and (mostly!) explores in Morocco. She was previously a BBC news editor. She’s travelled extensively in the region, most recently completing...

Jo Whiley joins Aasmah Mir and the Rev Richard Coles. Jo presents on Radio 2 and from Glastonbury, as well as pursing her passion for gardening. A competitive swimmer in her youth, she is about to take on the triathlon for Sport Relief. Saturday Live listener Deborah Rowland, who trained as an archaeologist and an anthropologist, describes how she uncovered her own human heritage when she tracked...

Aasmah Mir and Richard Coles are joined by Joanna Trollope CBE, who has 22 novels to her name. A keen observer of our life and times, she is also the fifth-generation niece of Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope, has chaired awards, judged literature prizes and updated Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. We also have Jason Watkins, the BAFTA winning actor who played Harold Wilson in The Crown, al...

Actor, writer and director Zawe Ashton’s career began at the age of six and, having appeared on stage and in films ever since, it was the TV role of Vod in Fresh Meat that made her famous. She has since appeared in Hollywood films, had her play For All the Women Who Thought They were Mad performed in New York and London and has published Character Breakdown, an account of her life as a young actor...

Aasmah Mir and Rev. Richard Coles are joined by the film director, DJ and musician Don Letts. He talks about being the son of Windrush, scion of dub and midwife of punk-reggae. Molly Case is a nurse specialist in cardiac care and a slam poet, who wowed the Royal College of Nursing conference with a spoken word performance that made headlines. She explains what inspired her to make the switch from...

Richard Coles and Aasmah Mir are joined by Tracey Thorn, who escaped from suburbia, went to Hull University and emerged as one half of pop group Everything but the Girl. Her latest book details the influence of her background on her journey – not least how boredom was for her a catalyst for creativity. She joins us on Saturday Live. Jenny Tong went from rebellious childhood and repeated school exc...

Frances Barber first played rock star, screen goddess and drug addict Billie Trix 18 years ago and, along with Jonathan Harvey and the Pet Shop Boys, she is set to reprise the role in cabaret Musik. Charlie Mackesy’s The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse began as two Instagram posts called “help” and “kind” that were shared a million times. They have been included in a book of life lessons that...

Kay Mellor was a married mother at 16, and by her twenties had found her way to Bretton Hall College to study drama. An actor, director and screenwriter, she started on Coronation Street, before writing such TV classics as Fat Friends and Band of Gold, which she has now adapted for the stage. Paul Olima was born in Dublin. He played football professionally, before taking up sports modelling. He ex...