Spinning Plates with Sophie Ellis-Bextor

Lorraine Kelly is a hugely-loved TV presenter and phenomenal communicator, and known by everyone in the land simply as ‘Lorraine’.  Well, nearly everybody 😉  We sat down with a cup of tea to talk about what it’s like having a grown up child (Rosie, now in her 20s) and how their relationship has changed and become richer as she’s become an adult.  We talked about Lorraine’...

Lisa Eldridge is a make up artist with her own brand, who has also appeared on TV in ‘10 Years Younger - the Challenge’ and in a documentary series which I adored, called ‘Makeup: A Glamorous History’ about the manufacture, use and politics of makeup. She grew up in New Zealand and then Liverpool and was at the top of her career, flying around the world and doing fashion shows and Vogue cover...

Claire Richards - or Claire from Steps as most of us know her - left school at 17 and within 2 months had signed a record deal. So began a hugely successful pop career, with Steps still at the top of their game in this, their 25th anniversary year. They recently finished an arena tour - where I was their support act and experienced for myself what incredible fans they have - almost like...

Jools Oliver may be well-known for being married to chef Jamie Oliver but what I wanted to talk to her most about, was being a fellow ‘mum-of-five’. We talked about how we both coped with the eponymous ‘spinning plates’ of raising our children alongside our work, about how we both ended up turning the cameras on our otherwise private families during lockdown, and how we’re always trying to talk ou...

Becky Unthank is a folk musician best known for performing with her elder sister Rachel in The Unthanks. As well as singing and touring, she is also mum to 3 year old Wren who she says she loves hanging out with, like a little buddy. We talked about her childhood which was steeped in folk music from her musical parents to summers spent at folk festivals. She described the frankly sublime-soun...

Dr Karen Gurney is a psychosexologist who has been helping couples overcome sexual problems since 2003. I can see why. She is a reassuring presence and talks in a straightforward way about sex. She is full of wisdom about how to futureproof a long term relationship, as well as how to guide your children, especially as they get into their teens. This is an important chat I feel - as...

YolanDa Brown is a saxophonist and broadcaster who has a constant, dazzling smile and an air of joy, which I hope comes across during our chat.  In our house we know her best for her Cbeebies show YolanDa's Band Jam where she shows children the joys of music through singing, dancing and playing.   Mum to 8 year old Jemima and 2 year old Alelphi, YolanDa talked to me about her two ve...

This week’s guest for Spinning Plates is the wonderful comedian ventriloquist Nina Conti. I’m a huge fan of Nina, having seen her live a few times, so it’s particularly special for me that she agreed to chat. We spoke about her childhood memories of watching her actor father Tom Conti on broadway, the joy of bringing your real personality out on stage, how puppets and the conversations you have wi...

Clara Francis is an actor and businesswoman, who’s recently started her own online dress company 'O Pioneers' with a friend. Happily married to actor Jason Watkins, she has an older daughter, Bessie, and a younger son, Gilbert.  On the surface she has the perfect life. But Clara came to speak to me about how she is surviving the death of her child. Her middle child Maud, who was 2 when she di...

Helen Glover is a two-time gold medal winning rower and a mum to three under threes. She is also the first mother to have qualified for the GB Olympic rowing team. We talked about how lockdown hit when her twins were 6 weeks old and how Helen found herself training at home and then qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics. She explained how she found her body was actually stronger after giving...

Hannah Graf is a transgender campaigner and mum to 21 month old Millie. Hannah came out as a trans woman in 2013, while serving in the British army, and met trangender Jake in 2015. When they married in 2018 they became the highest-profile transgender couple in the UK. I recommend watching the excellent Channel 4 documentary about their journey to parenthood 'Our Baby: A Modern Miracle' Hanna...

Helena Merriman is a radio and podcast producer who discovered she was going deaf when her second child was 4 months old and she realised she wasn't being woken up by him crying in the night. She was working on her podcast Tunnel 29 at the time and found great solace in her work. She now has a BBC Radio 4 series 'Room 5'. It's based on her conversations with other people who have gone in...

Christine McGuinness is a model and TV personality and a mum of three. She has just featured in a TV documentary with husband Paddy, talking about their life with their children, all of whom have been diagnosed with autism. Christine was also diagnosed herself during the making of the documentary. We spoke about her parenting journey so far, and how, during her own tough childhood, her w...

My guest this week is Katie Piper, who is a lovely woman. In itself this a massive achievement, considering her life story and the continuing challenges she has faced, since she was the victim of an acid attack in 2008. We spoke over zoom and I felt I got to know and like her immensely - and I hope you will feel the same. Katie talked about her love of being busy, her work on many things...

While I was preparing for my Children in Need 24 hour Danceathon, I was lucky enough to visit Bonny Downs community centre in Newham, East London which receives some funding from Children in Need to help local children attend their 3 week summer camp. I met some amazing people there and one of them was the powerhouse that is Stacey Cordery, a woman so full of energy, positivity and...

Harriet Gibsone is a freelance journalist and mum of a much-longed-for one year old. She recently interviewed my mum and I for a lovely Guardian feature called Flashback. But even before that meeting I liked her immensely as I had come across an incredible article she wrote about her journey to becoming a mum. At 31 and newly married, Harriet started suffering the symptoms of the me...

This week’s guest is artist Polly Morgan. She's a taxidermist and uses animals in her art. At the moment she's making sculptures using stuffed snakes. So, she's an artist who works in a basement where she has a freezer full of dead snakes (!), but she is also a mum to two little boys, Clifford and Bruce. Polly had her boys through IVF after suffering a burst appendix which damaged her fa...

Kate Robinson is a writer, a speaker and a mother. She’s making it her mission to continue her father’s legacy and finish the book he was writing. It’s a promise she made to him just before his untimely death last year. Kate’s beloved Dad was Sir Ken Robinson, whose TED Talk about education remains the most watched TED Talk nearly 2 decades after he delivered it. Probably because he is so charisma...

Dannii Minogue is a woman of many talents. From acting to singing to presenting to fashion designing, Dannii has been honing her craft in the world of show business since she was in single figures. Mother to 11 year old Ethan, she spoke to me from Melbourne (still on lockdown) about her range of clothes for petite women, how much she loves her job and the ‘effortless’ way her son joined her life....

Pallavi Barnwal is a sex coach and she lives in Delhi with her eight year old son. I first heard about Pallavi when I read about her in an article on the BBC news website. I then watched her Ted Talk and thought her story and perspective on life was fascinating. She was born and raised in a traditional Indian family, and didn’t become a coach until she found herself a single mum and a divorcee, th...

Helen Thorn is one half of the wonderful comedy duo Scummy Mummies whose stage show and podcast explores all the dirty, grimy, embarassing stuff you never thought was part of being a mum - till you become a mum. She's just written a book called Get Divorced Be Happy, charting the year she split from her ex, which happened to start 3 weeks before lockdown. She told me how difficult it was...

Rachel Ama is a chef and a vegan, as well as mum to her one year old boy. We talked about the pros and cons of having a 'lockdown baby', about her amazing-sounding home birth, and how living with her mum has helped with the birth of two babies: her son and her new book! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

6 years ago businesswoman Jo Tutchener Sharp underwent brain surgery and was very much afraid she wasn't going to see her family again, including her then 1 and 3 year old boys. Happily surgery was successful, but having looked at her life so far, from the pearly gates, Jo decided she hadn't done enough good with her life. So she came up with superhero sleep buddies - cuddly toys which have a...

Binky Felstead made her name on Made In Chelsea back in 2009, leaving 8 years later, just after she'd had her daughter India.   Binky told me how being a reality TV star gave her huge anxiety but how becoming a mum to India was the best thing that ever happened to her. Now she's just got married to the dad of her new - and very well-behaved - baby, Wolfie, who mostly slept through our po...

My guest this week has just helped save the world! Dr Catherine Green OBE is one of the team in Oxford who developed and began manufacturing the AstraZeneca vaccine. Together with her colleague Professor Sarah Gilbert (now a Dame) she has just written a book 'Vaxxers' which explains in a rather thrilling and readable way, just how they did this, in the hope of communicating the science b...