Saturday Live

Sian Williams & Richard Coles with author and arts champion Sir Christopher Frayling, Steve Marsling and Sean Hosey tell the story of their lives as undercover ANC recruits; listener Rupert Horrox describes how he chanced on a film set and ended up on the red carpet; listener Gail Simmons delivers a Soundsculpture about an iron; John McCarthy reveals more of Gran Canaria; JP Devlin goes on a D...

Sian Williams & Richard Coles with the BBC's Business Editor Robert Peston, artist and designer David Gentleman, Claire Guest who trains dogs to sniff out a range of diseases including cancer and Bomber Command pilot Frank Dell who was shot down behind enemy lines in WW2; John McCarthy watches cricket with comedian Miles Jupp, Uri Geller reveals his secret life, and writer and actress Meera Sy...

Sian Williams & Richard Coles with classicist and comedian Natalie Haynes; Mark Lawson and JP Devlin breakfast in Dublin for Bloomsday; Julie Wassmer who discovered the daughter she'd given up for adoption by quite extraordinary coincidence; Dominic Walker, The Bishop of Monmouth, who conducts exorcisms; Susan Richards who was inspired by a damp June village fete to send a million books to Rus...

Sian Williams and Richard Coles with actor and comic Stephen Mangan; Jackie Malton, the retired Detective Chief Inspector who was the inspiration for Prime Suspect's Jane Tennison; ex-cricketer David Gower reveals his secret life, a love of bats; John McCarthy discovers the deserted beaches and overlooked attractions of Gran Canaria; Beryl Ritchie, one of the few female record cutters of the 1970s...

Sian Williams & Richard Coles with founder of the Eden Project Tim Smit, a brother and sister returning for the first time to the Congo where the rest of their family was massacred in 1964, a couple who spent 12 years and £35,000 trying to have a baby, a caricaturist turned amateur scientist who's trying to prove that people who look the same also sound the same, John McCarthy as a tourist in...

Sian Williams and Richard Coles with writer and broadcaster Bamber Gascoigne, a woman dubbed 'The Angel of Mostar' who was reunited via Facebook with the baby she saved 20 years before, the funeral director decorated for his service to fallen soldiers, a real life Billy Elliot from Warrington who's off to the Bolshoi ballet school, John McCarthy returns to Beirut, a Thing About Me feature about a...

Sian Williams and Richard Coles with historian Peter Hennessy, John McCarthy on Canvey Island with Dr Feelgood's Wilko Johnson, Sheri Pitman a young woman who went through school refusing to speak, Tony Walker a 56 year old man whose life has been documented on TV since he was seven, Kevin Allmond the Yorkshire businessman who has become the Baron of a small European principality, a Crowdscape fro...

Sian Williams and Richard Coles with 1970's pop mega-star David Cassidy; writer Jane Johnson who got lost in the Atlas mountains in Morocco and ended up marrying the Berber tribesman who rescued her; actor Patrick Duffy (aka Dallas' Bobby Ewing) who describes his love of caravanning; translator Mary Hobson who took a degree in Russian in her sixties and, now in her 80s, is winning awards for her v...

Anita Anand with "The Idler" editor Tom Hodgkinson, gay dads Barrie and Tony Drewitt-Barlow talk about their decision to have a sixth child by a surrogate mother, Emma Gray on her life as a shepherdess, poetry from Matt Harvey, Caroline Cornish tells the story of her daughter's red dress, Jacquie Meredith explains how she was adopted by a stray cat, and former Bishop of Edinburgh Richard Holloway'...

Richard Coles with musician and activist Billy Bragg, poet Murray Lachlan Young, Prof Harry Rothman, son of Benny Rothman, the leader of the Mass Trespass on Kinder Scout to mark the 80th anniversary of the climb that won our generations' right to roam, Simon Wheatcroft an blind ultra-marathon runner, a feature about a homeless man from London, James Bowen, who was adopted by a cat and now they're...

Richard Coles with food writer Tamasin Day-Lewis, David Gollancz, who discovered he's one of the 600 children fathered by a British scientist's sperm donations and Moss Hills, who's been on board two different ships as they've sunk. There's poetry from Aoife Mannix, a sound sculpture featuring the unforgettable sound of the iconic 2CV engine, Inheritance Tracks from Nicholas Parsons and news of wh...

Anita Anand with author Jeanette Winterson, poet Mr Gee, young taxidermist Polly Morgan and urban birder David Lindo. Plus a crowdscape from the Welsh town of Carmarthen, Inheritance Tracks from 80s pop star Howard Jones and listener Sir George Pollock remembers taking part in a ski jump on Hampstead Heath in London in the 1950s.

Richard Coles with Jarvis Cocker, poet Elvis McGonagall, Zuhal Sultan who taught herself to play the piano and set up the Iraqi Youth Orchestra, Garret Smyth who's planning to cryogenically preserve his brain at the point of death in the hope of the being brought back to life, Anne Pattullo who hitched a ride with Salvador Dali, Piers Plowright's I Was There from a ski jumping competition in the m...

Richard Coles with materials scientist Professor Mark Miodownik, poet Luke Wright, Sue Chapman who learned to read and write in her sixties, Maurice Holder whose life was saved by his dog, JP Devlin takes a Daytrip with Chas Hodges from Rockney duo Chas 'n' Dave, and the Inheritance Tracks of comedian Sarah Millican. Producer: Lisa Jenkinson.

Richard Coles with The Selecter's Pauline Black, poet Kate Fox, Natasha Owen Jones who traced her long-lost brother only to find he was a convicted killer and who has just returned from meeting him for the first time, one of the original inhabitants of Milton Keynes, the story of a beloved breadboard, and the Inheritance Tracks of comedian Ben Miller. Producer: Dixi Stewart.

Richard Coles with Joan Collins, poet Aoife Mannix, Hammer House of Horror actor Shane Briant, the mother of three who took adopted her friend's 5 children when tragedy struck, a voice artist makes us go 'aaaaah', a Sound Sculpture about Morse Code and the Inheritance Tracks of Duke Fakir from The Four Tops. Producer: Sukey Firth.

Richard Coles with comedienne Andi Osho, poet Murray Lachlan Young, Dr Bill Ritchie who helped create Dolly the Sheep, Philip Morrell, the Barnado's boy turned millionaire who's lending his boat to the Queen for the Jubilee, Patrick Newman who's trying to change the date of British Summer Time, a Soundscape of a guitar, and the Inheritance Tracks of arts guru Sir Christopher Frayling. Producer: JP...

Richard Coles with astronomer Dr Lucie Green, poet Salena Godden, Diane Blood who made legal history 15 years ago by fighting for the right to bear her dead husband's children, and super athlete Chrissy Wellington who's 4 times winner of the female Iron Man triathlon, a Daytrip to Sheffield with The Human League/Heaven 17's Martyn Ware, a man who has a theory about height and school uniform and th...

On this week's Saturday Live, Richard Coles' guest is a television presenter and media personality whose private life has intrigued the tabloids - Anthea Turner. The sometime 'perfect housewife', Anthea will be fronting the 'Get Britain Crafting' campaign later in the year. This week's poet is Mr Gee, from humble beginnings as a Hip-Hop DJ, Mr Gee has honed his spoken word skills to become one of...

Anita Anand with singer/songwriter Christy Moore, poet Matt Harvey, a couple whose house burned down so they built a boat and set sail, a woman who treasures a blanket from the Isle of Wight Festival, a professional matchmaker, and the Inheritance Tracks of actor/comedian Rob Brydon. Producer: JP Devlin.

Richard Coles in Leicester with journalist, broadcaster and political aide Alastair Campbell, songwriter and comedian Mitch Benn, 1970's popsters Showaddywaddy, Ugandan Asian exile Nisha Popat who came to Leicester in 1972, International Rescue fireman Ian Holden who helped out after the Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand a year ago & fitness guru and Dancing on Ice star Rosemary Conley's...

Richard Coles with philosopher Alain de Botton, poet Aoife Mannix, the 70's pop star who was summoned to play at the Kremlin, the woman who tracked down her long lost brother only to find him serving 99 years for murder in an American jail, one of the UK's oldest diabetics who was treated by the man who invented insulin, the vicar's son who got a windfall from the local undertaker and the Inherita...

Richard Coles with TV personality Ulrika Jonsson, poet Elvis McGonagall, a sword swallower who tore his own oesophagus, a woman who became best friends with her husband's mistress, a man who hitched a ride with a coffin, and a Crowdscape from Sleaford. Plus the Inheritance Tracks of comedian Ruby Wax. Producer: Sukey Firth.

Richard Coles with journalist Jon Ronson, poet Kate Fox, a man who extracts alien implants, the teacher who went to Turkey and found herself driving the school bus, a woman who is addicted to the South Pole and a Sound Sculpture of crows. Plus the Inheritance Tracks of actress Jenny Agutter. Producer: JP Devlin.

Richard Coles with fashion icon Twiggy, poet Luke Wright, a woman whose baby was born in the back of a cab, a boy who drives his own school bus, a 70 year old Hollywood body double, and a man who speaks 26 languages. Plus choreographer Arlene Phillips' Inheritance Tracks. Producer: Anna Bailey.