Jason Manford began his stand up career at the age of 17 and was nominated for the Perrier Award in Edinburgh in 2005 at just 24. As he embarks on a starring role in the West End run of Curtains, Jason tells Suzy Klein and Aasmah Mir why he won't be pigeonholed.

Justin Myers had been secretly detailing his romantic encounters and reviewing dates in the Blind Date column in the Guardian Weekend Magazine on his blog The Guyliner for ten years. Then he began to receive messages threatening to reveal his true identity. After deciding to unmask himself, Justin’s career has taken off; he published his first novel, The Last Romeo, in 2018 and his second novel The Magnificent Sons will published in May 2020.

Esther Rutter grew up on a sheep farm in Suffolk, where she learned to knit at the age of seven. She’s been an enthusiastic knitter ever since and last year, she set out to write a history of the craft, a journey which took her across the country, from Shetland to Guernsey.

Lara Band is a listener who emailed Saturday Live about her unusual hobby - creating dioramas of Pre-Raphaelite paintings using mummified rodents.

Producer: Laura Northedge

Actor and comedian Ben Miller joins Richard Coles and Suzy Klein to talk about why he chose comedy over physics and about his new children's book, The Boy Who Made The World A Disappear, in which the main character is inspired by his son.

Producer: Annette Wells

Aasmah Mir and Richard Coles are joined by Barbara Taylor Bradford who has just published her 37th book. Age 15 she started in the typing pool for a newspaper and was in Fleet Street as a reporter age 20. She published her first novel, A Woman of Substance, in 1979 and has sold 90 million books world wide.

Jazz/pop singer/songwriter Jamie Cullum joins Aasmah Mir and Mobeen Azhar. He talks about his music, and the personal stories that inspired his latest album Taller, his family and what's been passed down through the generations.

Producer: Louise Corley

This year marks Lorraine Kelly's 35th year as a broadcaster and her 60th birthday. Born in the Gorbals to teenage parents, Lorraine took a job at her local newspaper instead of a place at university and, despite being sacked while on maternity leave, is now one of Britain’s best known television presenters. Her new book Shine shares her secrets for success.

Amy Powney, creative director of sustainable fashion label Mother of Pearl, spent much of her childhood without mains electricity or running water when her parents sold their house to live off-grid in rural Lancashire. Despite being taken to school in a handmade trailer and having requests for tracksuits denied, Amy found that her parents approach to ethical living had influenced her when she began a career in fashion.

Professor Adam M Hill MB PhD is a dual-qualified Clinician and Mechanical Engineer with a military background and a career built at the interface of industry, academia and health systems. Adam is the Chief Executive Officer at immuno-diagnostics company Oncimmune, a company who are trailing new ways to detect cancer, but he has previously worked for the McClaren F1 team and has served in the Household Cavalry.

Carol Bates' mum Vivien Grant contacted us after hearing our interview with former footballer Casey Stoney, talking about her struggles to play the game she loved. Carol is from the generation of girls who weren’t able to play football at school or elsewhere and it wasn’t until she set up her own team at the age of 48, that she fulfilled her dream.

For Inheritance Tracks this week, actor Toby Stephens chooses You Are In My Vision by Gary Numan and Tubeway Army and She Belongs To Me by Bob Dylan.

Producer: Laura Northedge

Aasmah Mir and Mobeen Azhar are joined by Greg James, who started recording shows in his bedroom, did hospital radio, student radio, podcasts, and his passion has paid off as last year he became host of the Radio 1 Breakfast show, which has pulled in 250,000 new listeners in his first year.

Producer: Corinna Jones

Dave Myers - one half of the Hairy Bikers – cooks and rides motorbikes, but he also studied Fine Art at Goldsmiths, worked as a furnace-man in a steelworks and as a make-up artist, specialising in prosthetics. Alongside Si King they’ve sold almost six million books and grown a generation of fans who like real home-cooked food.

Saturday Live listener, 80-year-old Crawford Mackie, is aiming to break his own 5k record today at Parkrun, attempting it in a new pair of running shoes.

When Tim Clark’s father, Sir Robert Clark, died in 2013 Tim discovered he had served in the Special Operations Executive in the Second World War, ‘Churchill’s Secret Army’, and undertook amazingly brave operations behind enemy lines. His father was a war hero, a recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross.

In 2010, powerboat racer Shelley Jory-Leigh was competing for the world title when she crashed in Sardinia. The boat sunk to a depth of 85 metres but she and her co-driver were saved just in time. Shelley made a comeback and broke a National Speed Record on Coniston Water and competed in the Cowes-Torquay-Cowes marathon race, becoming the highest ranked British female finisher ever.

Writer Dawn O’Porter came to our attention as a documentary maker - on polygamy, childbirth, and the inexhaustible riches of the film Dirty Dancing. She became a full time writer after moving to Los Angeles with her film star husband Chris O’Dowd, and writes bestselling and critically acclaimed novels while dressed in items from her extensive wardrobe of vintage 70s couture.

The DJ and musical pioneer Norman Jay MBE shares his Inheritance Tracks – Mona Lisa by Nat King Cole and Optimistic by Sounds of Blackness.

Producer: Louise Corley

Saxophonist, MC and composer, Soweto Kinch fuzzes jazz with hip hop beats. He premieres his new album, The Black Peril at the EFG London Jazz Festival, which highlights the episodes of racial tension 100 years ago in coastal cities from Liverpool to Cardiff and South Shields.

Producer: Annette Wells

Aasmah Mir and Richard Coles are joined by the actor David Suchet who has been taking photographs since he was eight when his Fleet Street photographer grandfather passed on his knowledge. His new book Behind the Lens: My Life is a collection of David’s photographs.

Listener Kathryn Penny reports back from the 50th anniversary reunion of the Commonwealth Expedition which involved twenty coach loads of British students setting of for India.

'Serial innovator' Samantha Moyo wanted a break from her hedonistic lifestyle and organised the first Morning Gloryville 6am sober rave in 2013. They are now staged in 23 locations world wide.

BBC weather presenter and meteorologist Simon King on his lifelong weather obsession and new book What Does Rain Smell Like?

And we have the Inheritance Tracks of actor Kelly Macdonald who chooses You are My Sunshine by Jimmie Davis and I Love You by Woodkid.

Producer: Laura Northedge

Aasmah Mir and Richard Coles are joined by travel documentary maker Simon Reeve who has come a long way since leaving school with no qualifications; he wrote a book on international terrorism and his latest series is on The Americas.

Producer: Corinna Jones