Send us a text

Nirjay Mahindru in conversation with actress Rula Lenska. Rula talks about her childhood, her journey within acting,  and her support for the various charities she feels passionate about.  

Support the show

Send us a text

In conversation with former footballer and stroke survivor Nick Clarke about his stroke and how and why he set up Stroke Information.

Support the show

Send us a text

Nirjay Mahindru in conversation with Professor of Neurology Alexander Leff from Kings College London.  

Support the show

Send us a text

Tony Banks spent 10 years at the Stroke Association and was the head of Conferences and events.  

Support the show

Send us a text

Oliver Robert Ford Davies (born 12 August 1939) is an English actor and writer, best known for his extensive theatre work, and to a broader audience for his role as Sio Bibble in Star Wars Episodes I to III. He is also known for his role as Maester Cressen in HBO series Game of Thrones.

In 1959, as a member of the Oxford University Experimental Theatre Club, he appeared in his first Stratford performance in the Memorial Theatre's open-air production of Bartholomew Fair. His first professional appearances were, at the age of 27, in the 1967 season at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre.[5] Short Seasons at the Mermaid, London, the Oxford Playhouse and the Cambridge Arts Theatre followed. His long and prolific association with the Royal Shakespeare Company started in 1975, when director Terry Hands cast him as Mountjoy in Henry V. He is an Honorary Associate Artist of the company. From 1990 until 2019 He appeared more frequently at the National Theatre, London, until at the age of 80 he lent his "sublime presence" to the part of the appraising button moulder in Henryk Ibsen's Peter Gynt at the Olivier Theatre.

On television, Davies had a regular role as Peter Foxcott QC in Kavanagh QC and was schoolmaster Le Bas in the serialization of A Dance to the Music of Time (1997). He also appeared with John Thaw in an episode of Inspector Morse and also appeared in the ITV television drama The Uninvited, and in a 2002 episode of the popular drama Foyle's War.

On film, his most prominent role was probably Sio Bibble in the Star Wars "prequel trilogy" films, released in 1999, 2002 and 2005. In 2003, Davies appeared in the film Johnny English, where he portrayed the Archbishop of Canterbury.

He appeared on stage as Polonius in Hamlet with the Royal Shakespeare Company, alongside David Tennant and Patrick Stewart, and in 2009 appeared in All's Well That Ends Well at the Royal National Theatre as the King of France. In 2010, he appeared as Balfour in the premiere of Ben Brown's play The Promise, about the Balfour Declaration.

In 2011, he appeared in a stage adaptation of Michelle Magorian's book Goodnight Mister Tom, in which he played the central character, Thomas Oakley. He was back with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2014 as Justice Shallow in Henry IV, Part 2. Davies again appeared with David Tennant in Richard II in 2013. In February 2019 Davies discussed his career in the BBC Radio Three series Private Passions.

Support the show

Send us a text

Dr Adam Ali is an Orthopaedic Surgeon and NHS Clinical Entrepreneur. He is co-founder of carecompare.net, an innovative site that enables people paying for their own care to quickly find and choose between local care companies able to help. CareCompare is free-to-use and being supported widely by the NHS, Homecare Association, voluntary sector and Innovate UK. 

Support the show

Send us a text

Stroke survivor John Gordon in conversation with Nirjay Mahindru.  John met InterAct whilst at Newcastle hospital and was inspired to write poetry afterwards.  He's published book of poetry Popcorn is available online.  

John's story was the inspiration behind InterAct's recent BBC Radio 4 Charity appeal.    A civil servant during his working life, John talks about his background, the civil service and his experiences both of stroke and InterAct Stroke Support.  

Support the show

Send us a text

Ronald Ferguson is a music producer and stroke survivor who now campaigns for what he describes as "social prescribing enterprise".  Ronald is now a director of the charity  Arts4dementia

In this interview Ronald talks about his experiences of suffering a stroke and his treatment during his hospital stay, and how the organisation Headway, the brain charity, put him back together again.  

This interview was recorded during the period of the lockdown.

Support the show

Send us a text

Allie Esiri’s best-selling anthologies SHAKESPEARE FOR EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR, A POET FOR EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR, A POEM FOR EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR and A POEM FOR EVERY NIGHT OF THE YEAR have lit an explosion of interest in poetry in the UK, are regularly chosen for National Poetry Day and have been picked as best books of the year in The Observer, The Times and the New Statesman. Live performances at festivals and theatres and on audio with poems read by some of our best-known actors - from Helena Bonham Carter to Dominic West - are capturing and enthralling a new generation of poetry lovers. 

Support the show

Send us a text

Robin Norton-Hale is an English theatre and opera director. She is the Artistic Director of OperaUpClose, having founded the company alongside Adam Spreadbury-Maher and Ben Cooper in October 2009 and an Artist in Residence at Oxford Playhouse. She studied English Literature at Hertford College, Oxford and was a Clore Cultural Leadership Fellow (2013/14).

Her directing credits for OperaUpClose, all in her own new English translations, include La Bohème (Soho Theatre, Cock Tavern Theatre and King's Head Theatre), winner of the 2011 Olivier Award for Best Opera and Best Off-West End Production in the 2011 Whatsonstage.com Awards, La Traviata and Carmen (both co-productions with Belgrade Theatre, Coventry) and La Voix Humaine (Kings Place) .

Other directing credits include The Little Sweep and La Traviata (Malmo Opera, Sweden), Masters Are You Mad? by Glyn Maxwell (Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre), The Taming of the Shrew (Southwark Playhouse), the UK premiere of Martin Duberman's Visions of Kerouac (Half Moon Theatre).

She has written new English versions of six operas, including Eugene Onegin and The Marriage of Figaro. Her librettos for La Bohème and Don Giovanni are published by Oberon. Her agent is Micheline Steinberg.

Support the show