Saturday Live

Joining Adrian Chiles this week on the programme are:

Nick Park, filmmaker, animator and author will be talking about his latest book about the life of Gromit - the beloved character from the adventures of Wallace & Gromit.

Next Wednesday will mark sixty years since the disaster at the Welsh village of Aberfan. On 21 October 1966 a mountain of coal waste slid down into a school and houses resulting in 144 people - including 116 children - losing their lives. Janett Bickley was eight years old and attended the school on that day, she tells us her life story.

And Dr Xand Van Tulleken grew up alongside his identical twin brother with a passion to become a doctor. He has gone on to have a stellar career in broadcasting and continues to navigate our understanding of health and medicine matters.

Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies

Adrian Chiles is joined by three guests who have made a success in business, music and broadcasting.

The musician Tinie Tempah has in recent years flexed his talents across the industries of fashion and property. But music remains at the top of his priorities with a new album - The Night's Not Dead - and a UK/European tour, more than sixteen years since finding global success in the industry.

Entrepreneur Sara Davies was a student at university when she launched an idea for the crafting industry that went on to become a multi-million pound international business. Sata has a new book out called Crafting for All Occasions.

And Choirmaster Gareth Malone found personal confidence through singing and choirs before helping other people find their voice through the power of collective song. He is about to go on a tour called Sing-A-Long-A-Gareth: At The Movies, during the autumn and winter.

Plus, we'll hear the Inheritance Tracks choices from actor and writer Nigel Planer.

Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies

Adrian Chiles is in the company of a talented trio on today's programme:

Charlie Higson, writer, actor and comedian has enjoyed great success in television, not least with The Fast Show. And as a novelist the writer of the much admired young James Bond series has now published his first work featuring the grown up 007.

Billy Monger holds the world record at Ironman as a double amputee, this after going back to motor racing following the calamitous crash which changed his life at the age of 17. Now he has an eye on the 2028 Paralympic Games.

And Rebecca Coxon’s life was changed after curiosity about her family history led to a DNA test with results she never saw.

Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies

When it comes to bringing history to life on television Lucy Worsley is queen of the realm; she’s written a personal history of the Queens and Kings whose lives she’s almost lived through her work.

Clare Balding’s one of the most respected and well-loved broadcasters in the business, bringing the biggest sporting and ceremonial events into our homes, as well as writing a series of best selling books, her latest being a first novel for adults.

Dr Liz O’Riordan has at least two crowning achievements to her name. Firstly, qualifying as a doctor and becoming a breast surgeon. Secondly, negotiating the trauma of having breast cancer herself and finding a new path after she had to leave her career in surgery behind.

Plus we will hear the Inheritance Tracks of the comedian Lucy Porter.

Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies

On the programme this week are Caitlin Moran, Eric Idle and Rob Brydon.

Caitlin’s here to talk about - how to be hopeful in a world gone mad.

For more than half a century Eric Idle’s refuge from the mad world of comedy, music, film and fame has been a little place in Provence. And his latest book is a love letter to it.

And Rob Brydon is in a happy place having found hope, peace and contentment in his work, not least in writing about his cat.

Also, we have a listener on the Isle of Wight offers thanks to the young man who pulled him out of trouble when a swim went very wrong one day last month.

Plus, we have the Inheritance Tracks of the Professor of Physics and broadcaster Jim Al-Khalili.

Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies

Adrian Chiles presents Radio 4's Saturday morning programme full of remarkable people with extraordinary stories.

Academically we’re in very good shape today.

Dr Kevin Fong has degrees in medicine, astrophysics, aerospace engineering and he’s a fellow of the Royal College of Anaesthetists. Kevin has spent his working life in high-risk, high-performance teams and he's written a new book called Minute Six which charts his experiences.

Professor Alice Roberts warmed up for her degree in medicine with a BSc in Anatomy and went on to get a PhD in palaeopathology.

And while Alexis Sayle might not be quite so well endowed in the degree department he is considered the godfather of alternative comedy, which is something of which we’re all very much in awe.

Plus we have Inheritance Tracks from the actress Sian Brooke.

Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies

Adrian Chiles presents Radio 4's Saturday Morning programme:

Alan Cumming has always had a lot going on, in theatre, in Hollywood, as presenter now of one of the biggest shows in television. And yet he stays close to his Perthshire roots as Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s artistic director.

In search of Mel Giedroych’s roots, we travel south to Leatherhead in Surrey where her new novel is set. Like Alan, Mel has an enormous range of work on stage and screen to her name.

And Eric Ngalle Charles is a poet and writer whose life story is something to which no work of fiction could do justice: trafficked from Cameroon to Russia before somehow finding his way to sanctuary in Wales. Eric gets a chance to speak to Liz Mitchell, the original lead singer with Boney M who he had met on stage at a concert during his time in Russia.

We revisit the last programme before we went on our summer break. Back on the programme in July, listener David Cornmell from York was desperately seeking the kind policemen from Greater Manchester Police who came to his rescue when he came a cropper at Manchester Airport last year.

And we have the Inheritance Tracks of the professional dancer, Carlos Gu.

Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies

Today we’re in the company of three luminously talented people who’ve survived seriously dark periods to shine brightly in their fields.

More than thirty years after Irvine Welsh’s debut novel caused a sensation, he tell us how Trainspotting The Musical was a natural next step.

Alan Davies’ career has been going strong for more than thirty years too. There's a lot going on in his new memoir - the story of his stand-up comedy told in the context of the trauma he went through as a child, and his cancer treatment in middle age.

And Clemency Burton Hill was an accomplished classical musician, writer and broadcaster when a catastrophic brain haemorrhage almost robbed her of everything.

Also, thanks are given to a couple of coppers who were on hand when a listener’s homecoming from holiday went badly wrong.

And we have the Inheritance Tracks of the actor Adrian Lester.

Presenter: Adrian Chiles

Joining Adrian this week on Saturday Live, BBC Radio treasure and bestselling author Sara Cox. She just taken over BBC Radio 2's breakfast show but has found the time to write a brand new novel, 'The Truth of Us' that is published on the 16th July.

We have the Booker Prize Winning Author and poet Ben Okri, he is a giant amongst writers, a master storyteller with a fascinating life story of his own to tell.

And Chris Terill has more than 200 documentaries under his belt, awards galore, and a long career worthy of a documentary in its own right.

Plus, the inheritance tracks of the chef and restaurateur behind Mowgli Street Food restaurants, Nisha Katona.

Presenter: Adrian Chiles

Joining Adrian Chiles on this week's programme is Mark Foster, for a good while the fastest swimmer on the planet.

We have author and psychologist Katriona O’Sullivan, a woman raised in poverty in Coventry, who went on to get a PhD from Trinity College, Dublin.

And the remarkably gifted Ralf Little, who we know as an actor but might equally have been a doctor or a footballer.

Plus the Inheritance Tracks of the singer-songwriter Clare Grogan.

Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies