Spinning Plates with Sophie Ellis-Bextor

Lliana Bird is a writer, broadcaster and co-founder of the charity Choose Love. She describes herself as a butterfly flitting from flower to flower. She was also the longest employed female DJ - for 16 years - at Xfm and then Radio X as it is now called. Lliana and her partner Noel Fielding have two girls, Dali and Iggy, aged 2 and 4, and Lliana told me how their house might be described...

Sara Pascoe is a stand up comedian who I particularly love. She now has two little boys after a long period of trying for a baby, including IVF.  She spoke honestly to me about how she can remember being in a liminal head space for a long time while trying for a baby, and acknowledges she was 'horribly spiky' about parenthood before she had her boys, realising now that it was s...

Hollie McNish is a poet who tours the country performing her poems. She says the whole of the UK is full of amazing theatres and bookshops. I love Hollie's writing, the way she looks at motherhood, and how she always stand up for her small person, which I feel is empowering for them both. I was delighted when she offered to read one of my favourite poems of hers during our chat. Hollie told me how...

Steph Douglas is a mum of three who founded the gift company Don't Buy Her Flowers ten years ago. I’m a repeat customer of the website when I want to send a friend some TLC if they don’t live round the corner.  Steph explained how the idea for her company came about when she received 8 well-meant bouquets following the birth of her first child - and felt she now had something else she ha...

Ashley James is a presenter and DJ who first made her name appearing briefly in Made in Chelsea. On instagram @ashleylouisejames has a huge following amongst 25-35 year old women and she frequently posts about being a mum of two little ones, and about other women's issues.  Originally from the North East, you would never know that from Ashley's accent. She told me about her extraordinary...

Ayalah Bentovim - known as Sister Bliss - is the woman behind Faithless, which she created in 1995 with Rollo Armstrong, Jamie Catto, and the legendary Buddhist rapper Maxi Jazz. Maxi died in 2022 and Ayalah talked to me about how she’s managing to keep him as part of the show, as they prepare to go on tour for the first time in 8 years. We also talked about how she took her son Nate on tour as a...

Reshmin Chowdhury is a sports broadcaster who’s had a love of football since she was a little girl.  Growing up in a large and close Bengali community, she told me her childhood memories are of being the only girl, surrounded by boys, watching football on TV.  Reshmin’s drive to break into the world of sports presenting was very strong - much to the surprise of her teacher Mum and accoun...

Nina Tame is a counsellor and a content creator. I started following her on Instagram because I love the way she educates non-disabled people in a light-hearted way.  Nina was born with spinal bifida, and has four children. Her third child was also born with spina bifida. His arrival helped Nina accept her own disability much more, and also helped her own mum come to terms with her complex fe...

I first came to follow Joanne Hardcastle (@hardcastletowers) when she was a contestant on the fourth series of Interior Design Masters, which is one of my favourite TV shows. Joanne's husband Tim encouraged her to apply for the show and she says it was the first time she had ever put herself first, and she loves her new found 'me-time'. Joanne lost her mum at the age of 17 and had a strong ur...

Kirsten Lane is a freelance music supervisor who negotiates the deals that make it possible to put music into films, TV and adverts. She was the music supervisor for Saltburn and so that is how we met. She is now part of Murder on the Dancefloor’s journey and helped make its inclusion in the film’s soundtrack possible, naked dance and all!  We talked about the importance of music in changing...

Anne Twist is a first time writer and a long-term philanthropist who has two very succesful grown up children. Her eldest is podcaster and writer Gemma Styles, and her youngest is the singer, Harry Styles.  I spoke to Anne, not long after she’d become a grandmother for the first time, which sounds like a very special feeling indeed. She’d also just published her first children’s boo...

Rachel Jackson is a jewellery designer whose work I particularly love. We even collaborated with on a necklace design once.   She discovered her passion for her career while solo travelling in South America where she made a good friend Ali in Brazil and then spent 2 months living with his mum Cinderela (yes that really was her name!) who taught her how to make jewellery. 6 weeks aft...

Natalie Cassidy is familiar to us all from EastEnders where she's been playing Sonia since the age of 10! When we met she told me about her love of growing up on a TV set, where age meant nothing and her best friend was June Brown, who was 50 years older than her! Natalie is a mum of two daughters, Eliza and Joanie. My heart melted when she described how she and her husband Marc met...

Bat For Lashes aka Natasha Khan is a singer, songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist and a mum to a three year old.   She has just brought out her 6th album and this one is inspired by the birth of her daughter and is called The Dream of Delphi.  She was pregnant in LA during Covid and the album recalls how she reconnected with nature during that time, reflecting the landscape o...

Vicky Gill is the Wardrobe Lead for Strictly Come Dancing, amongst many other things! We first met when I appeared on the show in 2013. She is passionate about merging fashion and performance. I can vouch for the fact that she is supremely talented at making costumes that people can dance in - and her sparkly leotards are still part of my onstage essentials today. But as a mum of th...

Michelle Ogundehin is best known as the head judge of Interior Designs Masterclass on BBC 1. It’s a programme I am utterly addicted to, and I was therefore delighted to have been asked to join as a guest judge for semi finals week, this week (TX 23/4/24). I have been a fan of Michelle’s expert eye when it comes to interiors for a long time, having devoured every issue of Elle Decoration published...

Heather James is best known to us all as the mum of Deborah James, the beautiful bowelbabe, who I interviewed for Spinning Plates 3 years ago. That was the year before her premature death at the age of 40, from bowel cancer. Heather explained how she is grieving but working. Not only working in her day job as a gymnastics teacher, but also doing everything that Deborah would have continu...

Natasha Bedingfield is a New Zealand-UK singer and songwriter who started out in the business at a similar time to me. Another shared link is that we are both currently on a new adventure with songs we brought out originally in our early 20s! How's that for a coincidence? We've each been on an unexpected and exciting journey with our old songs... both because of recent films. The fi...

Trinny Woodall is the CEO of the beauty brand Trinny London - she's an entrepreneur, businesswoman and author.   She became a household name in the late 90s when she teamed up with Susannah Constantine to present the TV makeover show What Not to Wear.   Last year she published her book Fearless about how to find your style and boost your confidence.   She has a 20 year old...

Michelle Kennedy is a tech entrepreneur and businesswoman. She is CEO of Peanut App, and mum to two young children, Finlay and Nuala. Michelle started her working life as a corporate lawyer and became interested in tech when she worked for Badoo and then Bumble.  She set up Peanut after she gave birth to her first child and felt lonely and isolated.  Peanut is an online community fo...

Kelly Hoppen is an interior designer who is renowned for working with big celebrity names and is known for her signature neutral palette. Kelly started her business aged 16 and a half, just afer her father died unexpectedly, and she told me that the feeling she wants to create for her clients is the one she had from her grandmother's home where she remembers learning to crochet and having tea. Kel...

Sophie Darlington is a wildlife cinematographer for shows such as David Attenborough's 'Planet Earth'. She regularly gets up way before dawn in places such as Sri Lanka or East Africa, and sits for over 12 hours a day watching the animal she’s filming, often for weeks at a time. She says it’s the best job in the world but you come back 'rinsed'. When her son Louis came along 23 years ago, Sophie h...

Amy Hart is a social media influencer, former reality TV star and podcast presenter. She appeared in Love Island in 2019 (Richard and I are avid viewers!) and she now has an adorable little baby called Stanley. Amy is the only Love Island contestant to have appeared on Question Time and she is a big food bank supporter. Amy worked as cabin crew before she joined Love Island, which I imagined...

Gabby Logan is best known as a BBC sports presenter but has also turned her hand to stand up comedy for Sports Relief (2012), to writing her memoir called The First Half, and to ice baths on Freeze Your Fear (2022). She hosts an excellent podcast called Mid-Life in which she, a guest and an expert explore how to navigate the mysterious territory of middle age. She has 18 year old twins and is...

Alex Head is the founder of Social Pantry which runs food events with the wow factor, as well as a restaruant, and a cafe. I first met Alex this Summer where she was rustling up a banquet twice a day, in a tent at Latitude Festval. Two of the banquets featured food from 'Love, Food, Family' and Richard and I had the much easier job of meeting and greeting everybody there. Alex got into cateri...