In the first episode of the series Professor Solomon speaks with the novelist and screenwriter Frank Cottrell-Boyce and health policy analyst Professor Sally Sheard.

Professor Sally Sheard is a health policy analyst and historian at the University of Liverpool, with a research focus in the interface between expert advisers and policymakers. Her latest research looks at the dynamics of policy development and healthcare worker behaviour in the UK during the COVID-19 public health emergency.

University of Liverpool honorary graduate Frank Cottrell-Boyce is a children’s novelist and screenwriter who won the Carnegie Medal for his debut novel – Millions – in 2004 and the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize for The Unforgotten Coat in 2013. Millions was made into a film by Danny Boyle, for whom Frank went on to work as the writer for the 2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremony.