Saturday Live

The illusionist Derren Brown joins Aasmah Mir and the Rev. Richard Coles to discuss why he's spent three years researching what makes us happy.

Happy: Why More Or Less Everything Is Absolutely Fine, by Derren Brown, is published by Bantam.

Producer: Louise Corley

Comedian and writer David Baddiel on writing for children and whether death and dementia make good subjects for comedy.

Olympic diver Chris Mears won gold in Rio in spectacular style. He reveals how a brush with death inspired his success and his sideline as a music producer.

On the centenary of Roald Dahl's birth, Dr Tom Solomon discusses how the writer's fascination with medicine inspired many of his characters such as the BFG. As a junior doctor, Tom shared many late night conversations with the writer and gained a unique perspective on the celebrated author.

Palaeobiologist Dr Tori Herridge tells us about mysterious asteroid craters in Britain and her search for fossil dwarf elephants. Plus the Inheritance Tracks of former Chelsea manager and Dutch international Rudd Gullit.

Producer: Steven Williams

Editor: Karen Dalziel.

Cerys Matthews, Damon Hill, Meik Wiking and Benny Lewis join Aasmah and Richard for Saturday Live.

He became Formula One World Champion in 1996, following in the footsteps of his father, the legendary F1 champion Graham Hill who tragically died in a plane crash when Damon was 15 years old. Now a SKYF1 racing commentator, Damon will be telling us how he ended up behind the wheel himself.

Cerys Mathew came to our attention singing about Road Rage and Mulder and Scully with her band Catatonia, she's sung with legends like Tom Jones, the Pet Shop Boys and the Manic Street Preachers, now she presents a show on BBC 6Music and has started her very own Festival.

Benny Lewis spoke only English until the age of 21, now he speaks 11 languages and runs the largest language learning blog in the world. He joins us to tell his story.

Denmark is often ranks the happiest country in the world. Could their passion for hygge be behind it? We talk to happiness and hygge expert, Meik Wiking.

We have your thank you's and the inheritance tracks of opera star Joseph Calleja who chooses I'll never love you performed by Mario Lanza and his own version of A Vuchella.

Watching the Wheels by Damon Hill is out now

Producer: Corinna Jones

Stand-up comedian and actor John Bishop joins Aasmah Mir and the Rev. Richard Coles. John Bishop found fame after discovering his talent for stand-up comedy in his thirties. He talks about his willingness to try new things, which includes a new TV interview series, his Liverpudlian identity and creating comedy.

Listener Rachel Gadsden is an artist who is involved in creating artworks and an animation for the lighting of the Paralympic Heritage Torch Lighting Ceremony.

Pianist Antimo Magnotta talks to JP Devlin about his experience on board the Costa Concordia cruise ship on the night the vessel collided into a rock.

Comedian and writer Deborah Frances-White was adopted at ten days old in Australia. She has tracked down her birth mother and family, and continues to search for her birth father.

American singer PP Arnold shares her Inheritance Tracks: River Deep Mountain High by Ike and Tina Turner and Aretha Franklin's Natural Woman, written by Carole King

Simon Cowell MBE, not the X-Factor music mogul but a former city trader. He now runs his own animal rescue centre, the Wildlife Aid Foundation.

John Bishop: In Conversation With... continues on Thursday's at 9pm on W.

Producer: Claire Bartleet

Aasmah Mir and Richard Coles are joined by Ralf Little. He first came to our attention as Antony in The Royle Family and has now produced the 'mockumentary' series Borderline. He reveals why he swapped medical school for acting and what it was like to play football with Zinedine Zidane.

Borderline is on Channel 5, Tuesday nights at 10pm.

Produced by Louise Corley and Annette Wells.

Miles Jupp joins the Rev Richard Coles and Aasmah Mir and shares his love of cricket, rollercoasters and why he is possibly the poshest stand-up comedian on the circuit.

Lance Corporal Richard Jones from the Household Cavalry reveals how he combines being a magician alongside his military career.

Plus a trio of extreme sports enthusiasts: Blake Aldridge on why he left the world of Olympic diving to become a cliff diver, Emily Guilding explains the appeal of wing walking and why she performs headstands strapped to the wings of a plane and Saturday Live listener Romy Shovelton who races camels in her spare time.

Plus the Inheritance Tracks of the former head of the army Lord Richard Dannatt, High on a Hill by the Band and Bugles Of The Light Division and Highland Cathedral by the Royal Scots Dragoon Guard.

Miles Jupp's stand-up tour Songs Of Freedom starts on September 7th at the Stables in Milton Keynes, and continues around the UK finishing in February 2017.

Produced by Claire Bartleet and Steven Williams

Craig Charles and David Emanuel join Richard Coles and Aasmah Mir.

For a while Craig Charles was best known for playing Dave Lister in sci fi comedy Red Dwarf, but he has probably usurped that with his love for Funk and Soul, dj-ing on BBC 6 music and gigging around the country. With acting, poetry, performance, dj-ing and writing under his belt, now he's championing BBC Get Playing.

Fashion Designer and Royal Couturier David Emanuel has dressed Elizabeth Taylor, Madonna, Joan Collins and Princess Diana, done the Jungle and now he's on Saturday Live!

Claire Garabedian contacted Saturday Live about her unusual job - working in the therapeutic arts as a professional cellist. She joins Richard and Aasmah.

Earlier this year Lizzie Carr became the first person to paddle board the length of England via its connected waterways, using entirely human powered means. She'll tell us about her adventure, and why she did it.

We'll have a thank you from one of our listeners.

And we'll have the Inheritance Tracks of geneticist Steve Jones who chooses Rachie by Caradog Roberts and Richard Wagner: Twilight Of The Gods: Siegfried's Funeral March.

Producer: Corinna Jones

Martin Fry is a singer/songwriter who came to prominence in the early 1980s as lead singer of the band ABC. Their debut album, the Lexicon of Love, was a UK number one. Thirty four years on, he has released a sequel to reflect how his perspective on life and love has changed; and he explains why he now chooses to perform with an orchestra. The conductor Paul MacAlindin recalls how a newspaper advert: 'Iraqi teen seeks Maestro' led to him becoming the musical director of the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq.

The Lexicon of Love II is out now. ABC will be performing an autumn tour with the Southbank Sinfonia Orchestra, conducted by Anne Dudley.

Dancer and choreographer Wayne Sleep talks about life as a dancer, his love of the stars and shares his unusual new hobby.

With the Rev Richard Coles and Suzy Klein

Producer: Claire Bartleet

Saturday Live's summer road trip begins in South Shields, at the Westovian Theatre, with Aasmah Mir and Richard Coles.

As preparations for the maritime themed summer parade get underway, actor and presenter Denise Welch talks about why the North East will always be home, the return of TV series Boy Meets Girl and keeping her Geordie accent.

Olympian Brendan Foster talks about his athletic career and his inspiration for founding the Great North Run.

Leading the summer parade in South Shields is listener Ray Spencer, who is also the Executive Director of the Customs House arts centre. Ray will be revealing his maritime themed costume and sharing his love of pantomimes.

JP Devlin reveals what happened when he followed up a listener email and went to the reunion of the Double Decker Club, who set off on a holiday across Europe in the summer of 1964, on a red double decker bus purchased from London Transport.

Graham Young has been celebrating the British chippy for the Birmingham Mail since 2005. He talks about how he became a chip reviewer and what makes the perfect take-away.

Mike, Chris, Steve and Ken from the English folk group The Wilson Family will be performing live and talking about the regional influences that inspire them.

Chris Rea shares his Inheritance Tracks. He has chosen My Father, sung by Nina Simone and So What by Miles Davis.

Producer: Claire Bartleet