

Saturday Live
BBC Radio 4
Join Adrian Chiles for a Saturday morning full of remarkable people with extraordinary stories.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Aug 19, 2023 • 58min
Angela Barnes, Hanan Issa, Richard Essien (aka Magical Bones), Lou Sanders, Jason Williams...in nature
Angela Barnes grew up on comedy and now appears on the shows she used to listen to with her dad. Hanan Issa is the National Poet of Wales who has a bi-cultural perspective. Richard Essien is the street magician Magical Bones. Lou Sanders is a comedian and Jason Williams transforms his balcony into a garden. The podcast also explores special teachers, self-care, and impactful teachers.

Aug 12, 2023 • 59min
Suzi Quatro, Henry Firth and Ian Theasby (aka BOSH!), Amy McCulloch, Ros Atkins, Nicky Dorrington...in nature
Suzi Quatro grew up in Detroit in a very musical family. It was, at the age of six, after seeing Elvis perform on television that made Suzi decide music was to be her life. She’s also an actor, poet, has a new album called 'Face to Face' with KT Tunstall, is on tour...and she once broke Alice Cooper’s nose.Shortly after they got married, the best-selling author Amy McCulloch and her new husband headed to South America for a six-month backpacking adventure. Then, one night, Amy heard that a cabin had suddenly become available on a ship heading to the Antarctic. She was desperate to take it. He wanted to stay. This thrilling real story was the spark for the inspiration behind her new book 'Midnight'.Picture the scene...Sheffield in the mid-nineties. Two cheeky teenage lads sitting together in the school canteen tucking into burger and chips for lunch or maybe a bacon sandwich. Since then, Henry Firth and Ian Theasby are the plant-based chefs behind the hugely successful “BOSH!” and whose new cookbook 'Meat' sees them make bacon from bananas and chicken from peas.All that plus The Inheritance Tracks of journalist, broadcaster and BBC Explainer–in-Chief, Ros Atkins - and we join Nicky Dorrington ...In Nature.Presenters: Nikki Bedi and Jon Kay
Producer: Ben Mitchell

Aug 5, 2023 • 59min
Jon Culshaw, Asmaa Al-allak, Tommy Jessop, Alice Oseman, Molly Lemon...in nature
Jon Culshaw's big break came when convincing the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, in a prank phone call that HE was the then Conservative leader William Hague - an infamous moment in his life for which he was called an imposter. Since then, he’s built up a repertoire of 350 celebrity voices, starred in 23 series of Dead Ringers and joins us live from the Edinburgh Festival where he’s starring in his new show, Imposter Syndrome.Tommy Jessop is an actor, a campaigner and has just had his first book published, 'A Life Worth Living’. In 2007, he became the first actor with Down Syndrome to star in a primetime BBC Drama in the film ‘Coming Down the Mountain’ and has gone onto tour theatres as Hamlet and played Terry Boyle in 'Line of Duty’.This year’s Great British Sewing Bee champion Asmaa Al-allak spent her formative years growing up in Iraq. Her grandmother was a seamstress who passed her skills on to Asmaa’s mother, who in turn taught her and after winning the series, Asmaa said it’s fair to say ‘it’s in the blood’. After leaving Iraq at the age of 14, having lived through the Iran-Iraq war, Asmaa and her family moved to Durham where her father was working as a scientist. She went on to study medicine and is now a consultant breast surgeon at a cancer centre in Cardiff.Also - the first in our '...In Nature' series where we hear from artists and creatives about how they are inspired by the natural world. Today is the turn of printmaker and wood engraver Molly Lemon.And...the Inheritance Tracks of Heartstopper creator Alice Oseman.Presenters: Nikki Bedi and Jon Kay
Producer: Ben Mitchell

Jul 29, 2023 • 1h 1min
Peggy Seeger, Tanni Grey-Thompson, Ruth Birch, Dave Mustaine
Peggy Seeger is often described as the godmother of folk. She was married to Ewan McColl who led the British Folk Revival in the late 50s and 60’s and wrote The First Time Ever I Saw your Face, for her. Peggy’s been singing since the age of two; has played guitar, banjo, piano, electroharp, the concertina and Appalachian dulcimer. All of this is not surprising given she’s a member of the North American musical Seeger family.Many songwriters have penned the lyrics – Love Changes Everything and in Ruth Birch’s case – it certainly did. Ruth was forced to leave the job she loved after the "horrific" experience of being interrogated by military police over her sexuality. She was an analyst in the Intelligence Corps having joined the Army in 1987 – where it was illegal to be gay until the year 2000 - and was investigated over her same sex relationship with Ju - who was an officer as they served together in Northern Ireland in the 1990s. Dame Tanni Grey Thompson is one of the country’s greatest sports stars. A Baroness, gold medals aplenty, sits on the board of many organizations, TV and radio presenter and Mastermind veteran. Need we say more.All that – plus the Inheritance Tracks of metal music icon Dave Mustaine. Presenters: Nikki Bedi and Jason Mohammad
Producer: Ben Mitchell

Jul 25, 2023 • 1h 1min
Carrie & David Grant, Nabil Abdulrashid, Turi King, Rob Rinder
Carrie and David Grant are best known as the expert vocal coaches from Fame Academy to Carrie and David's Pop Shop. But, they’re new book 'A Very Modern Family' charts their parenting experiences in the hope that it will help other families in similar circumstances. The scientist and presenter Professor Turi King, whose genealogy, forensics and archaeological finds helped her identify Richard III during his car park exhumation. Bringing the funny to proceedings stand-up comedian Nabil Abdulrashid has gone from a finalist on Britain’s Grot Talent to making a Pilgrimage on the BBC Two show. All that – plus the Inheritance Tracks of Rob Rinder.Presenters: Nikki Bedi and Jason Mohammad
Producers: Ben Mitchell and Glyn Tansley

Jul 15, 2023 • 59min
Anita Rani, Max Dickins, Nadeem Perera, Minnie Driver
Countryfile, Woman’s Hour, and dazzling audiences on the Strictly Dancefloor – Anita Rani is a hugely popular and award-winning presenter whose Indian ancestry means a lot to her - and it was her experience on Who Do You Think You Are? that planted the seed for her debut novel “Baby Does a Runner".Max Dickins is a stand-up comedian and author who has performed thousands of gigs and 3 hour solo shows at the Edinburgh Fringe. His latest book ‘Billy No Mates’ is a memoir which touches on some really important and emotional issues about loneliness and why so many men are so bad at friendship. Nadeem Perera is a wildlife host and co-founder of the birdwatching collective “Flock Together”. He grew up in the London Docklands but was often taken back to Sri Lanka by his mother and it was the nature of her homeland that inspired him to become a naturalist.Plus the Inheritance Tracks of the mellifluous actor and musician Minnie Driver.Presenters: Nikki Bedi and Jason MohammadProducer: Ben Mitchell

Jul 8, 2023 • 59min
Dawn O'Porter, Robert Kasanga, Nick Hounsfield, Annie Mac
Dawn O’Porter reigned supreme in the area of TV that wanted the presenter ‘immersed’ in the subject; exploring the dangerous size-zero aesthetic, attitudes to nudity, mail order brides, geisha traditions and most personally perhaps, breast cancer, the disease to which she lost her mother. But since 2006 she’s refocused her attention to the written word having penned eight books, with two more on the way, her latest is Cat Lady.Believe it or not the new football season is just three weeks away. But Robert Kasanga is worlds away from the big money world of Pep Guardiola or Jurgen Klopp. Having turned his life around from a world of inner-city gangs to founding Hackney Wick FC – a club that gives young people involved in gangs a way out through football.Nick Hounsfield began his career as an osteopath, following in the footsteps of his father, and set up his own practice alongside his wife. A passionate surfer since he was knee high to a grasshopper, Nick has since founded The Wave, a pioneering artificial surfing park which opened its first site near Bristol in 2019. But less than a year later, at the age of 46, Nick suffered a series of strokes, and his infant business was forced to close because of the pandeminc.And we’ll hear the Inheritance Tracks of DJ turned author and podcaster Annie Mac.Presenters: Nikki Bedi and Jason Mohammad
Producer: Ben MitchellDetails of support for bereavement and victims of crime is available at BBC Action Line: www.bbc.co.uk/actionline

Jul 1, 2023 • 1h 1min
Martin Roberts, Jimi Famurewa, Nadine Cooper, Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Today we welcome the writer, broadcaster and journalist Jimi Famurewa.Martin Roberts, the broadcaster, property expert and host of BBC Television series Homes Under the Hammer.And the founder of the Tuneless Choir, Nadine Cooper. Plus, we’ll hear the Inheritance Tracks from 'kitchen disco queen' and singer, Sophie Ellis-Bextor.Presenters: Nikki Bedi and Jason Mohammad.Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies

Jun 24, 2023 • 59min
Charlotte Church, Reverend Eve Pitts, Clare Mackintosh, Guz Khan
Today we welcome singer-songwriter, television presenter and sound healing practitioner, Charlotte Church. Reverend Eve Pitts, one of the first Black Caribbean Vicars in the Church of England and a campaigner for racial justice.Former police officer turned best-selling author Clare Mackintosh.And we’ll hear the Inheritance Tracks from actor, comedian and writer, Guz Khan.Presenters: Nikki Bedi and Jason Mohammad. Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies

Jun 17, 2023 • 57min
Kiri Te Kanawa, Joe Jaquest Oteng, Tanya Moodie
Today we say 'kia ora' to Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, opera legend and Patron of the BBC Cardiff Singer of The World - which is in it's 40th anniversary year. With a story of ‘hidden roots’, singer Joe Jaquest Oteng reveals the huge family secrets he unearthed after the death of his father, which took his search to Ghana.And we’ll hear the Inheritance Tracks of the wonderful actor Tanya Moodie.Presenters: Nikki Bedi and Huw StephensProducer: Ben Mitchell


