

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

Jan 25, 2014 • 1h 25min
Tracey Thorn
The Reverend Richard Coles and Aasmah Mir talk to singer/songwriter Tracey Thorn.

Jan 18, 2014 • 1h 25min
Will Gompertz
Suzy Klein and JP Devlin with BBC Arts Editor Will Gompertz who talks about his unpromising beginnings in the arts and a project to find the Art of the Nation. Appropriately they also hear the Inheritance Tracks of popular artist Jack Vettriano and why the mandolin is so widespread from musician Simon Mayor. Zoe Lemon tells what happened to a message in a bottle she threw into the sea twenty three years ago and Brian Conaghan explains how the late diagnosis of Tourette's syndrome affected his life. Princess Michael of Kent reveals a secret passion for singing and Jan Prebble reveals her secret passion - a married man whose his clandestine mistress she was for over forty years. And there are the unspoken thanks of listeners, spoken at last.Producer: Harry Parker.

Jan 11, 2014 • 1h 25min
Rob Newman and the Inheritance Tracks of Kate Adie
Writer and comedian Rob Newman joins Richard Coles and Suzy Klein to talk about his return to comedy. His latest show - Rob Newman's New Theory of Evolution - looks at the controversies surrounding evolutionary biology and is his first complete show in 7 years.Also on the programme, forget the 7.39am, we meet two commuters who met and fell in love on the 5.35am from Gillingham, Dorset to London Waterloo. As a memento of the moment when lightning struck they have the train seats they were sitting on ensconced in their front room.We also speak to a couple of recently arrived economic migrants - one from Bulgaria and one from Romania - about why they decided to move to the UK, the twins who were big in post war entertainment and the teenager trying to singlehandedly revive punk rock. Author Horatio Clare tells us about his year spent as the writer in residence on a cargo ship, with the Inheritance Tracks of journalist Kate Adie.Producer: Alex Lewis.

Jan 4, 2014 • 1h 25min
Ian Rosenblatt and the Inheritance Tracks of Jennifer Saunders
Richard Coles and Suzy Klein with lawyer and founder of the Rosenblatt Opera Recitals Ian Rosenblatt, the Inheritance Tracks of comedian Jennifer Saunders, the story of Roger Mason who along with a friend and fellow veterinary surgeon, took much needed animals to the Falkland Islands after the 1982 War in an old converted fishing boat, the delights of Riga in Latvia with travel writer Adrian Mourby, one of Britain's leading forensic scientists, Mike Silverman, talking about a life in forensics, poems from Kate Fox and JP Devlin meets a Second World War meteorologist.Producer Chris Wilson.

Dec 28, 2013 • 1h 25min
Philosopher Angie Hobbs
Anita Anand and JP Devlin with philosopher Angie Hobbs, poet Murray Lachlan Young, 11 year old popster Fynnjan Leach-Verhoeven and his mum Su, Saturday Live listener Ted Chance who made it into the Culture Club Christmas video in 1983, international football coach Paul Watson, 4th generation Salvation Army member Janet Martin, Andy Miller who's just finished a song he started 35 years ago, and the Inheritance Tracks of Boycie from Only Fools and Horses.Producer Dixi Stewart.

Dec 21, 2013 • 1h 25min
Lyricist Don Black and Sir Cliff Richard's Inheritance Tracks
Richard Coles and Anita Anand meet Britain's leading lyricist Don Black who has worked with most of the top songwriters and composers including John Barry and Andrew Lloyd Webber and put words in the mouths of everyone from Matt Monro to Michael Jackson. 'Lost' actor Jeff Fahey tells about his work with refugees in Syria, the woman who invented the phrase explains why a dog is for life not just for Christmas, and we hear how the world's wackiest records are checked out in South America. Plus your Thanks and Sir Cliff Richard's Inheritance Tracks.

Dec 14, 2013 • 1h 25min
Dreda Say Mitchell, Ed Smith, Doreen Lawrence
Richard Coles and Suzy Klein with author, journalist and educational adviser Dreda Say Mitchell. They are also joined by listeners Sarah and Mark Horsburgh on their experience of offering respite foster care. We travel to Nottingham with John McCarthy on the trail of Alan Sillitoe, meet two lads who tell of a chance encounter with Nelson Mandela and Doreen Lawrence's Inheritance Tracks.Producer Alex Lewis.

Dec 7, 2013 • 1h 25min
Michael Arditti, Judith Kerr
Richard Coles and Suzy Klein meet novelist Michael Arditti who talks about faith and the novel, nearly dying after eating goats cheese and his travels around the Philippines researching a book, enjoy the Inheritance Tracks of Judith Kerr who wrote and illustrated, amongst other things, The Tiger Who Came To Tea, talk to Melvyn Evans who fought in Aden in the 1960's and realised, 40 years later, that he was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and hear from Joe Glackin, a former priest who worked in Liberia with child soldiers and street children. There's more travel with Professor Cathy Warwick CBE, General Secretary of the Royal College of Midwives, who organises midwifery tours of South Africa, a celebration of Martin Wright, the inventor of the peak flow meter, and JP Devlin travels to the recently announced City of Culture 2017, Hull, where he meets some of the locals.Producer: Chris Wilson.

Nov 30, 2013 • 1h 25min
Restaurateur Rick Stein
Richard Coles and Anita Anand with chef and restaurateur Rick Stein who tells of the ups and downs of his life, the Inheritance Tracks of Canadian author Margaret Atwood and traveller Tim Cope's tales of his journey on the trail of Genghis Khan. Teacher Guy Tarrant talks about the items that teachers have confiscated from pupils and Steve Rodgers, a fourth generation fisherman from Devon, joins Richard and Anita with his personal recollections of life on the sea and the future of fishing and we hear the latest on Fynnjan Leach-Verhoeven the boy with Aspergers who has made a Christmas single.Producer Harry Parker.

Nov 23, 2013 • 1h 25min
Camila Batmanghelidjh, Joan Collins, Luke Wright, Charlie Higson, John McCarthy
Richard Coles and Anita Anand with Kids Company Founder Camila Batmanghelidjh, The Inheritance Tracks of Charlie Higson, JP Devlin waxing lyrical with actress Joan Collins, the willowy sound of a cricket bat being fashioned, Ben Markus who was given, maybe, 12 months to live in January 2012 on finding love and the strength to KBO ( keep battling on ), topical poetry from Luke Wright and John McCarthy is joined by London writer Travis Elborough on a trail through the capital to see the sites of sights you can't see any more. They don't see the Euston Arch, old London Bridge, Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens or Battersea Park Funfair.Producer Chris Wilson.