Libby Purves meets circus performers Alain and Antoine Carabinier; former police officer James Bannon; pianist James Rhodes and fashion designer Zandra Rhodes.

Father and son Alain and Antoine Carabinier are members of Cirque Alfonse, a Canadian company which was formed in Quebec. They are performing at London's Southbank Centre in their show, Timber!, which is inspired by the remote forests where the family is based. Highlights of the show include axe juggling and stunts with lumberjack saws all set to traditional music from Quebec. Timber! is at Southbank Centre, London.

James Bannon is a former police officer who went undercover as a hooligan to infiltrate Millwall Football Club back in the late Eighties. His book, Running with the Firm, tells of his experiences inside one of English football's most brutal and fearless gangs. He has since gone on to become an actor and a stand-up comedian. Running With The Firm is published by Ebury.

James Rhodes is a classical pianist who has made a name for himself by performing in non-traditional classical venues. For a Channel 4 documentary, Notes from the Inside, he takes his piano into a psychiatric hospital, where he spent time himself, to perform for the patients. Notes from the Inside is part of Mad4Music, a classical music season on Channel 4. He is also playing at the Latitude Festival and at London's Soho Theatre.

Zandra Rhodes is one of Britain's best-known fashion designers who helped put London at the forefront of the international fashion scene in the 1970s. To celebrate ten years of London's Fashion and Textile Museum - which she founded - she has created a new exhibition, Unseen. Through sketches, designs and garments, the exhibition shows how she has experimented with colour, print and fabric - as well as with her own image - over the last fifty years.

Producer: Annette Wells.

Libby Purves meets singer Natalie Cole; actor Joan Shepard; columnist Liz Jones and comedian Tom Wrigglesworth.

Natalie Cole is the multi Grammy award-winning singer/songwriter and daughter of Nat King Cole. Her new album, Natalie Cole en Español, is recorded entirely in Spanish and features duets with her father and siblings. The album is a tribute to her late father, who recorded three albums in Spanish, and her own love of the region's music and culture. Natalie Cole en Español is released on Decca Records

Veteran actor Joan Shepard is celebrating 73 years in show business this year. She was born in London and brought up in New York. She made her debut on Broadway at the age of seven, having been spotted in the crowd by Sir Laurence Olivier. She went on to work with Tallulah Bankhead, Quentin Crisp and Lenny Bruce. Confessions of an Old Lady #2 is at St James Theatre, London and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival at Fingers Piano Bar.

Liz Jones is fashion editor and columnist for the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday. Columnist of the Year in 2012, her copy features intimate details of her personal life and the lives of her friends and family. Her sharp observations about women in particular have caused rifts with several celebrities. Her autobiography Girl Least Likely to - 30 years of Fashion, Fasting and Fleet Street reveals details of her anorexia, sexual encounters and experiences of cosmetic surgery. Girl Least Likely to - 30 years of Fashion, Fasting and Fleet Street is published by Simon and Schuster

Tom Wrigglesworth is a comedian and a regular performer and presenter on BBC Radio 4. He won a Sony Radio award in 2011. His show Tom Wrigglesworth: Utterly at Odds with the Universe is partly a celebration of his grandfather and partly his take on our throwaway society. Tom Wrigglesworth: Utterly at Odds with the Universe is at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival at the Pleasance Courtyard.

Libby Purves meets James Bowen who befriended Bob the cat; author Mary Sheepshanks; surgeon Dr Gino Strada and Ty Jeffries, also known as cabaret star Miss Hope Springs.

James Bowen is a street musician and former heroin addict who found Bob the cat in 2007. Bob was badly injured and James nursed him back to health. The pair have been inseparable ever since and Bob helped James recover from drug addiction. The World According to Bob is published by Hodder & Stoughton.

Mary Sheepshanks is a poet and author who published her first novel when she was in her sixties. She was brought up at Eton College where her father was a housemaster. At 21 she married the head of a prep school, becoming responsible for the welfare of the staff and 80 boys. Her book, Wild Writing Granny, is published by Stone Trough Books.

Dr Gino Strada is an Italian surgeon who co-founded Emergency, an NGO which provides free medical and surgical treatment to victims of war and poverty. The charity operates in a range of war-torn countries including Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Sierra Leone and Cambodia. Dr Strada is in London to speak at Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church.

Ex-Las Vegas showgirl, pianist and nightclub singer Miss Hope Springs is the creation of composer and lyricist Ty Jeffries. Ty is the son of the late actor and director Lionel Jeffries. He spent his formative years in Hollywood where his father had moved to work on the film Camelot. Family friend Fred Astaire taught Ty to tap dance down Sunset Boulevard. Miss Hope Springs performs every Sunday at The Crazy Coqs Cabaret room, Brasserie Zedel, in London's Piccadilly.

Producer: Paula McGinley.

Libby Purves meets pig farmer Tracy Mackness, former state defender turned art dealer Rhonda Long Sharp, writer Elisa Seagrave and artist George Butler.

Tracy Mackness worked on her dad's stall in Romford market but fell in with the wrong crowd, fraternising with gangsters and the Essex criminal underworld. She was eventually convicted of conspiracy to supply cannabis and was sentenced to ten years in prison. She worked on the prison farm, and now runs her own business breeding pigs and selling sausages at farmers' markets around the UK. Her book, Jail Bird - The Life and Crimes of an Essex Bad Girl is published by Simon & Schuster.

Rhonda Long Sharp was a chief deputy state defender for twenty-five years in Indiana, working with prisoners on death row. She is now an art dealer, who set up the Indy Contemporary and Modern Masters Fine Art and Brokerage companies, specialising in well-known artists such as Picasso, Warhol and Dali, as well as local Indianapolis based artists. She will be at the Masterpiece London 2013 art fair at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, London.

Elisa Segrave is an author and writer. Her book, The Girl From Station X, is based on her late mother's diaries in which she discovered a very different woman from the one she knew. The diaries started in childhood and dealt with marriage, the loss of a son and her wartime experiences as a code-breaker at Bletchley Park. The Girl From Station X - My Mother's Unknown Life is published by Union Books.

George Butler is an artist and illustrator who captures such diverse subjects as the oil fields of Azerbaijan, soldiers in Afghanistan, the G20 riots and the New York Fire Department. Last year he went to Syria to draw the civil war damaged town of Azaz and went on to win the V&A Illustration Award for this work. An exhibition of his work - A Year of Drawing - will be at the Illustration Cupboard Gallery in London.

Producer: Annette Wells.

Libby Purves meets film-maker Claire Belhassine, photojournalist Paul Conroy, entrepreneur Douglas Villiers and composer Errollyn Wallen.

Claire Belhassine is a British/Tunisian filmmaker whose documentary film, Papa Hedi tells the story of her grandfather Hedi Jouini, whom she discovered was the Frank Sinatra of the Arab world. When he died in 1990 he was considered to be one of the significant Arabic composers of the 20th century. Papa Hedi is being shown as part of the 2013 London Shubbak Festival.

Paul Conroy is a former soldier turned photojournalist who was with war correspondent Marie Colvin when she was killed in Syria in 2012. He survived five terrifying days with serious wounds sustained during the shelling, and his eventual escape was via a tunnel under the city. His book Under the Wire - Marie Colvin's Final Assignment is published by Quercus.

Douglas Villiers is an entrepreneur, property developer, artist, adventurer and film producer. One of his first ventures was to open the first disco in London back in 1959 - La Discotheque - and one of the first legal casinos. His book, It's Only Rock 'n' Roll - My Unconventional Life is published by Book Guild Publishing.

Errollyn Wallen MBE is a composer and musician who recently won the Ivor Novello Award for Classical Music. She has written eleven operas including The Silent Twins about the love-hate relationship of black twin girls and last year composed two pieces for the Paralympic opening ceremony. She is performing at the Wapping Hydraulic Power Station and her work is also currently featured in an installation there entitled Memory, Reflection and the Passing of Time.

Producer: Annette Wells.

Mariella Frostrup meets Ruby Wax; mathematician Marcus du Sautoy; writer Wendy Law-Yone and Ian Martin of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.

Marcus du Sautoy is the Charles Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford. He presents a new series on BBC4, Precision: The Measure of All Things, which explores the history of numerical exactness in our world and how precision has come to rule our lives. Precision: The Measure of All Things is on BBC4 at 9pm.

Ruby Wax is a comedian, actress and mental health campaigner. In her book, Sane New World: Taming the Mind, she demonstrates how our minds can send us mad and how we can rewire our thinking to cope with a frenetic world. Sane New World: Taming the Mind is published by Hodder & Stoughton.

Author Wendy Law-Yone was born and brought up in Burma before fleeing the country at the age of twenty. Her book Golden Parasol: A Daughter's Memoir Of Burma tells the story of her father, the proprietor of The Nation newspaper, who spent five years as a political prisoner. Golden Parasol: A Daughter's Memoir of Burma is published by Chatto & Windus.

Ian Martin is general manager of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. D'Oyly Carte has returned to the stage after lack of funds forced it to stop performances in 2003. Following a rebate from the taxman, the company has made its triumphant return with Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta, The Pirates of Penzance. The show, produced in association with Scottish Opera, is on tour.

Producer: Paula McGinley.

Libby Purves meets musician and broadcaster Cerys Matthews; Eve Branson, mother of Sir Richard; Margaret and Barry Mizen and actor and writer Emma Decent.

Cerys Matthews is a musician, broadcaster and author. Her book, Hook, Line and Singer, is a compilation of family songs with their history and tips on how they should be sung. Hook, Line and Singer is published by Particular Books. She is also appearing at the MBNA Chester Music Festival and is taking part in the 6 Music Prom at the Royal Albert Hall.

Eve Branson, Sir Richard's mum, trained as a ballet dancer before enlisting in the Women's Royal Navy Service as a signaller. After the war she became a 'Star Girl' air hostess on British South American Airways. She writes of this adventurous life in her memoir, Mum's The Word - The High Flying Adventures of Eve Branson, published by Author House.

Margaret and Barry Mizen are the parents of 16-year-old Jimmy Mizen who was killed during an attack in a bakery five years ago. Since his death Margaret and Barry have dedicated their lives to helping young people play a positive role in their community through The Jimmy Mizen Foundation. The book, Jimmy - A Legacy of Peace, written by Margaret with Justin Butcher, is published by Lion Hudson.

Emma Decent is a writer and actor. Her play, Beyond Dreams of Aberystwyth, tells the story of her father's secret past. After his death in 2009 Emma discovered she had a half-sister she knew nothing about. She wrote the play to discover why her father made the decision to abandon his daughter. Beyond Dreams of Aberystwyth is on at Hebden Bridge Little Theatre and the Greenbelt Festival, Cheltenham.

Libby Purves meets Jimmy Connors; Damian Barr; Jonathan Miller and Natalie Coleman.

During a colourful and successful career tennis player Jimmy Connors won eight Grand Slam titles including Wimbledon twice, the US Open and the Australian Open. Taught to play by his mother, he was known for his brattish and vulgar behaviour and for his rivalries with the likes of McEnroe, Borg and Lendl. His autobiography The Outsider is published by Bantam Press.

Damian Barr is a writer and journalist. His memoir Maggie and Me is about surviving a tough upbringing in Thatcher's Britain. Growing up gay within a chaotic - and at times brutal - family environment, Damian was an isolated and unhappy youngster. But by following Margaret Thatcher's advice to work hard and strive for better, he was able to plan his escape. Maggie and Me is published by Bloomsbury.

Dr Jonathan Miller is an author, director, conductor, comedian and neuropsychologist. He is currently directing Rutherford & Son by Githa Sowerby. The play is a powerful drama about a northern industrial family headed by a domineering, single-minded father. Rutherford & Son is at St. James Theatre, London.

Natalie Coleman is the winner of BBC Masterchef 2013. She battled her way from 50 contestants to take the crown, winning with a dish of roast pork belly served with a quail scotch egg. The former credit controller - who was taught to cook by her grandmother - tried out her Masterchef dishes on her grandfather. She is appearing at the BBC Good Food Show.

Producer: Paula McGinley.

Libby Purves meets actor and comedian Hugh Dennis; David Watson, a chorister at the Queen's Coronation; campaigner Carol Highton and author Liz Trenow.

Former journalist Liz Trenow comes from a family of silk weavers. Her first novel, The Last Telegram, is set in a silk mill during World War II and draws on her own 300-year-old family history. The Last Telegram is published by Harper Collins.

Hugh Dennis is an actor and comedian. He is best known for BBC Radio 4's The Now Show, satirical panel show Mock the Week and BBC sit-com Outnumbered. His book, Britty Britty Bang Bang, explores the changing image of Britain and Britishness. Britty Britty Bang Bang - One Man's Attempt to Understand His Country is published by Headline.

In 2005 Carol Highton's son Brian Shields took his own life as a result of spiralling debts to a loan shark. The loan shark was convicted and is currently serving a long prison sentence. Following her son's death, Carol set up The Brian Shields Trust to help others in a similar situation. As a result of her campaigning work Carol was awarded an MBE which she received from Buckingham Palace this week.

David Watson was one of three solo choristers who sang at the Queen's Coronation in 1953. His singing talent was recognised early on and at eight he was accepted into the Westminster Abbey choir. He went on to become a Hollywood actor, appearing in Rawhide and Planet of the Apes, and is now a theatrical agent. He features in the documentary Choristers of the Coronation on BBC Radio 4.

Libby Purves meets cook and entrepreneur Levi Roots; Edwin Apps, actor and writer; Lydia Corbett, artist and former muse of Picasso and Don Ward, co-founder of the Comedy Store.

Levi Roots is a cook, entrepreneur and musician. Born in Jamaica, he developed his signature sauce from his kitchen in Brixton, south London, selling it out of a bag on his back. He came to fame on the TV series Dragons' Den when he won backing for his Reggae Reggae Sauce brand. His new book, Grill It With Levi - 101 Reggae Recipes For Sunshine and Soul, is published by Ebury.

Edwin Apps is a writer, actor and artist who, with his wife Pauline Devaney, created the popular TV comedy series All Gas and Gaiters about life in the Church of England. Now a painter, he is known for his paintings of bishops in unconventional situations. His memoir, Pursued by Bishops, is published by Durand Peyroles. His first UK art exhibition, also called Pursued by Bishops, is at the Parish Church of Saints Peter & Paul in Tonbridge, Kent.

Lydia Corbett is an artist. As a young girl she posed for Picasso - when her name was Sylvette David - in more than 40 Girl With A Ponytail portraits. An exhibition called Sylvette: Picasso and The Model is showing at the Kunsthalle Bremen museum in Germany next year and the Francis Kyle Gallery is holding an exhibition of Lydia's own work early in 2014.

Don Ward is the CEO of The Comedy Store which he co-founded in 1979 in London's Soho. The company now has clubs in Manchester and Mumbai. He started out as a stand-up himself, hosting rock-n'-roll road shows with the stars of the day including Cliff Richard, Marty Wilde, and Billy Fury. He is also co-executive producer of the The Comedy Store series for Paramount Comedy Channel.