His first stand-up gig was at the tender age of 16. It was not critically well received. But Jack Whitehall quickly became a firm favourite on our screens, dominating the television comedy circuit and starring in shows such as Fresh Meat and Bad Education. But his early success also had its problems. Jack speaks to James about how challenging it was finding his voice as well as his new UK tour, Settle Down.

At 34 years old he's the SNP's youngest ever leader in Westminster, moving at breakneck speed from supermarket checkout boy to Rishi Sunak's political adversary at PMQs. With Nicola Sturgeon's shock resignation and continuing investigation into the party's finances, he picks up the mantle during a turbulent time for the independence movement. But Flynn seems cool and collected about the task ahead. He speaks to James about his background and explains how having a disability inadvertently led him to the Commons.

For more than a decade, Liam Thomas worked as an undercover detective in the Metropolitan Police’s Covert Surveillance Unit, mixing with dangerous criminals and eventually investigating corrupt officers within his own force. A self-styled keeper of secrets, Liam believes he and his profession are recruited in childhood. His book, The Buyer is a gripping, self-reflective memoir and dramatic account of what it means to be on the inside and the outside at the same time.

On paper, a professorship at Cambridge is not an obvious outcome for a person who cannot read or write by the age of 18. It is also not what we might expect for an eleven-year-old boy who cannot speak. But after listening to Jason Arday's account of his early life, academic excellence sounds more like destiny. Now a sociologist at one of the world's most prestigious universities, Jason speaks to James about perseverance, love and the importance of the collective.

Her career contains stand-up, marathon-running, acting and campaigning; all of which tend to reappear in no obvious or particular order. Now Eddie is trying her hand at doing everything all at once: playing all 19 characters in Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations on stage. She speaks to James about the multitudes in her life. Tickets for the London show are available now.

Brought up in a household where showing off was effectively banned, an acting career was perhaps the antithesis of what Hugh Laurie's parents expected of him. He did, for a short period follow in the footsteps of his Olympic rowing gold medallist father - but it was not to be. His new production of Agatha Christie's 'Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?' broadcasts on ITV1 across Easter and streams on ITVX thereafter.

Emergency Planner and Disaster Expert Lucy Easthope has advised on everything from plane crashes and tsunamis to pandemics and terror attacks. Lucy speaks to James about the Government’s decision-making during the coronavirus pandemic and what life was like for disaster planners under austerity. Her new book, When The Dust Settles, lifts the lid on a career spent picking up the pieces. 

As with The Beatles, Adele and James Corden, Mehdi Hasan is one of the rare British talents to crack America. But he's profoundly depressed by the state of his adopted nation. The journalist speaks to James about the impact President Trump had on his daily life as well as his book, Win Every Argument: The Art of Debating, Persuading and Public Speaking

He's the nation's most loved maitre d and the first face seen by singletons looking for love of Channel 4's First Dates. But behind the friendliness and warm exterior is a man serious about service and hospitality. Fred speaks to James about his how his parents' career in the French health service made him the man he is today as well as his latest series, Fred's Last Resort which sees him train British contestants in the art of high-end hotel service.

She's best known for starring in Countdown, one of Britain's longest-running television game shows. But Carol Vorderman has managed to fit twice as much into her life as most of us. She speaks to James about her chaotic but loving upbringing, culture shock at Cambridge and new life as 'the country's most vociferous anti-corruption crusader'.