The Modern Mann

Best mates with Eminem, signed by Sony, and on the verge of international superstardom, Californian rap group Silibil 'n' Brains were the music industry's Next Big Thing. There was just one problem: they'd never been to California. They were from Dundee. In this extraordinary interview with Olly, Gavin Bain - who, as Brains Mcloud, was one half of the hip hop duo - recalls how a heady mix of humil...

Andrew Ramroop OBE made his first pair of trousers whilst he was still in school shorts. At 17, he headed away from his home nation of Trinidad, gravitating towards London’s world-famous Savile Row. In this interview with Olly, he recalls how the racism he faced as a young tailor fuelled his career progression, and how he went on to create suits for Tony Curtis, Samuel L Jackson and Princess Diana...

Diving up to 700ft with no oxygen tank may seem like an extreme sport, but instructor Emma Farrell says freediving is more like a meditative state. Coaching Olly to hold his breath like an underwater explorer, she explains why she's never more relaxed than when she's 'one breath away from potential death'. Meanwhile, Ollie Peart - fresh from testing out 'Carrotea' on an unsuspecting culinary profe...

Gavin Hay was a high-flying TV exec with a string of hits under his belt when he and his partner sold their production company for millions of pounds. Still only 42, he could have taken up golf, or skydiving. Instead, Gavin tried his hand at becoming a porn star... In this exclusive interview with Olly, he explains how he became 'Trojan Rock', the 'Daddy' who starred in such titles as Roid Rage, H...

The pollsters failed to predict Brexit, Trump and Theresa May's lost majority. But, in political circles, faith remains in one particular research technique: the focus group... Edelman's James Morris was an advisor at the Number 10 strategy unit under Tony Blair, and has advised international businesses including Virgin Media and Starbucks on reputation management.  In this insightful interview wi...

Tricky customers, fixed smiles and terrible turbulence: it's all in a day's work for a flight attendant. But how to keep your cool at 30,000 feet? How to cope with unpredictable emergencies? And how to let off steam afterwards? Daisy White is a woman who knows. Now a YA author, she spent 12 years working for airlines including Monarch and Caledonian. In this interview with Olly, she lifts the lid...

Tumbling overboard following a fit of food poisoning, Brett Archibald survived 28 hours alone in the Indian Ocean. In this extraordinary interview with Olly, he re-lives his onslaught of hallucinations, his encounter with a shark, and how he contemplated certain death... You can read more about Brett's amazing story at BrettArchibald.com, and in his book, Alone, which is out now.  Elsewhere in our...

From the desert to the jungle, Belinda Kirk has lead expeditions through some of the world’s most inhospitable places. She’s been kidnapped, suffered extremes of heat and cold, and nearly drowned - yet believes such adventures help keep her sane in a modern world that can seem increasingly sedentary and predictable. In this inspiring interview with Olly, Belinda explains the difference between ‘ri...

Would you be an MP, at a time when public trust in politicians has fallen to the lowest level in living memory? Could you dedicate yourself to your constituents, yet also make time for your family, fighting fires on social media and keeping the media on-side? Wes Streeting, Labour MP for Ilford North since 2015, entered the fray in time to experience the Brexit vote, the murder of his colleague Jo...

Using the same techniques as criminal hackers, ethical ‘white hat’ hackers help governments and companies test their own security. FC (hacker name: ‘Freakyclown’) has been a white-hat hacker ever since being approached by some ‘men in suits’, having found himself in a spot of legal bother. He’s since been employed to rob dozens of high street banks - all with the consent of the owners. In this hon...

Being a TV warm-up is one of the hardest jobs in showbiz. How can you capture the interest and affection of an audience who don’t know who you are, have spent hours sitting around, and may simply want to go home? Andy Collins is a man who knows. Often cited as the best in the business, he’s honed his skills over decades, warming-up audiences for shows as diverse as Strictly Come Dancing, Big Broth...

Life as a landlord means trusting strangers to live in your house. Try as you might, you can't know everything about them. Sometimes, you just have to rely on an instinct that your tenants are good people. Until, that is, you get a knock on the door from the Police... That's what happened to listener Ian from Dublin. In this interview with Olly, he re-lives the moment he became involved in an arme...

Does the mind of a murderer look any different to yours? Can brain-scanning technology help explain criminal activity? And if could - should that evidence be admitted into court? Dr Lisa Claydon, Senior Lecturer in Law at the Open University, has spent decades considering these questions. In this fascinating interview with Olly, recorded at Cheltenham Science Festival, she explains the issues arou...

From Glastonbury to The End Of The Road, Summer festivals continue to colonise the countryside. But how do people pull together such enormous events year after year? In our 2017 Summer Festivals Special, Olly meets Pete Lawrence, co-founder of The Big Chill, which went from being a low-key ‘festival in a club’ for 150 people in Islington to an massive outdoor happening, taking over huge venues acr...

Pathology technician Carla Valentine always knew she wanted to work with corpses. In childhood, she conducted funerals for roadkill. These days, she is curator of the St Bart’s Museum of Pathology, and a passionate advocate for more discussion about what happens when the mortuary doors swing shut. In this interview with Olly, she reveals how to prepare for an autopsy, how to get a sense of how a p...

Paul Watson realised he would never play football for England - so attempted, instead, to be recruited by the worst international team in the world. His quest lead him to Pohnpei, Micronesia; and, although he never realised his dream of becoming an international soccer star, he ended up coaching them instead... What's it like training a team 9000 miles away from home, in a country with no football...

There are more billionaires than ever. Rockstars. Oil tycoons. Internet entrepreneurs. And all of them - all of them - employ private staff. The age of Jeeves and Wooster may be over, but the demand for a dependable butler remains. Lawrence McKenna has been serving the super-rich for three decades, including stints in private suites in London's poshest hotels and the Royal Enclosure at Ascot. In t...

Is there still a place for the pen-and-paper posted letter? Alison Hitchcock thinks so: when she discovered her friend Brian Greenley had cancer, she decided to write him regular letters throughout his treatment - initially as an attempt to cheer him up, then as companionship through some of his darkest hours. In this interview with Olly, she recalls how writing over a hundred letters to Brian hel...

Dr Sarah Goode spent six years talking to, and writing about, self-defined paedophiles - grown men sexually attracted to children. She believes, if our society were more accepting of this ‘involuntary’ sexual predilection, then more children might be protected from abuse - if the men concerned were prevented from acting out their fantasies. In this compelling interview with Olly, Dr Goode outlines...

From David Bowie to George Michael, celebrity deaths are becoming increasingly common, as the rock generation reaches retirement age. How does a paper of record go about documenting their lives? Simon Pearson is Obituaries Editor of The Times, and in this interview with Olly he explains how profiles of the great and the good are created - ready to be published the moment a notable name pops their...

When he was just 14, Wayne Sharrocks realised he wanted to join the Army - within a year, he’d begun the process of signing up to serve his country. At 18, he had his regimental cap badge tattooed on to his chest. In this searingly honest interview with Olly, he describes how the Army broke him down and built him back up again; training him to follow orders without question and desensitising him t...

What’s it like when the person you’re closest to in the world is not the person that you think they are? ‘Elizabeth’ spent a year dating a man who provided only sketchy details about his life, but ingratiated himself into her friendship circle, her family and her home. In this interview with Olly, she reveals how it felt to discover he was living a double-life, and how it’s affected her trust ever...

From Morrissey to Laurence Olivier, public figures through history have channelled shyness and stage-fright into their work. But is shyness a useful tool, or is uninhibited confidence a better way to navigate the modern world? Backstage at the Southbank Centre’s ‘Being A Man’ festival, social and cultural historian Joe Moran talks to Olly about the implicit difficulty of silence, the internal mono...

Amy Winehouse’s voice may have seemed unique - but you can sing just like her if you understand her influences. So says Emma Wright, whose musical journey began with an X Factor audition that sounded like Christina Aguilera, morphed into a Stars In Their Eyes contest in which she played Lady Gaga - and culminated in a fully-fledged career impersonating one of the most troubled and celebrated music...

The story behind Baileys, the blockbuster booze brand, is unexpectedly lo-fi. It was invented not in Ireland but in London’s Soho, with ingredients purchased on impulse from a corner shop. David Gluckman was one of the creative team who, by mixing whiskey and cream, unwittingly spawned a new sub-category of drinks - Irish chocolate cream liqueurs - which went on to sell billions of bottles. In thi...