Saturday Live

Sian Williams and John McCarthy with studio guest Edwina Currie reflecting on her public and personal life, two very different attitudes to burial from Mark Elliott and Wendii Miller, Spanish author Javier Marias who is the literary and literal king of the micronation Redonda, the pros and cons of procrastination from Steve Swift, Talitha MacKenzie on why her song caught on in Serbia, the musings of Mancunians and the Inheritance Tracks of Big Issue founder John Bird.

Suzy Klein and Richard Coles with studio guest Lynda Bellingham. This weekend in 1939 more than 400,000 pets were killed at the outbreak of World Ward Two. We talk to Dr Hilda Kean who's researched this forgotten piece of history. Fifteen years ago Philippe Kahn invented the camera phone which has revolutionised the way we view the world and communicate. Nicholas McCarthy, who has only one hand, talks about his life as a concert pianist, Sally Pearson shares her experience of waking up on the operating table, Singer Clare Grogan takes a daytrip around North London with JP Devlin, and the Inheritance Tracks of blues guitarist Robert Cray.

Sian Williams & John McCarthy with archaeologist and broadcaster Neil Oliver; Anthony Weir tells the story of his failed attempt to live with a pygmy tribe; open-water swimmer Anne Marie Ward reveals her plans to swim the Bering Straits; Alison describes her experience of living with face-blindness; Jackie Palmer explains why she loves the sound of a telephone exchange; a group of former Spitfire pilots share their wartime memories, and actress Emma Thompson shares her Inheritance Tracks.

Producer: Harry Parker.

Richard Coles & John McCarthy with actress Tamsin Greig; listener Lalage Cambell who sealed a friendship thanks to a washed-up wallet; Sally Becker, aka the Angel of Mostar, who carried the Olympic flag at the Opening Ceremony; Sophie and Louis Staley who organised their parents' wedding; and Dan Fox who sprang his friend from a Kabul gaol with the aid of a kipper tie. We meet the 90 year old Tottenham barber whose shop was trashed during last year's riots, JP Devlin gets a tour of The Kinks recording studio with frontman Ray Davies; and piano prodigy Benjamin Grosvenor shares his Inheritance Tracks.

Producer: Dixi Stewart.

Richard Coles & John McCarthy with broadcaster Joan Bakewell; listener Kirsteen Steel who turned detective to recover her father's stolen submarine bell; Jeremy Marks who in the 1980s ran a course to help gay people suppress their sexuality; moon rock investigator Joe Gutheinz; Olympic cycling pace setter Peter Deary; JP Devlin talks to the last surviving crew member of the Enola Gay which dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima; there's a poem from the Edinburgh Festival; and agony aunt and author Virginia Ironside shares her Inheritance Tracks.

Producer: Dixi Stewart.

Sian Williams & Richard Coles live from the Olympics with newsman turned novelist Gerald Seymour, and James Partridge who founded of the disfigurement charity Changing Faces; JP Devlin mingles with the Olympic crowds; archer Tony George sets us aquiver with his Sound Sculpture; listener Arnold Gordon tells the tale of singing along to Over The Rainbow with Judy Garland in a bar during the Tokyo Olympics; John McCarthy gets out his bucket and spade in Weymouth; and Olympic athlete turned politician Ming Campbell shares his Inheritance Tracks.

Producer: Dixi Stewart.

Suzy Klein and Richard Coles with boxer Barry McGuigan. Radio 4's Zeb Soanes on his path to recovery after suffering a paralysed vocal chord. Inheritance Tracks from Leo Sayer, update from Hazel Parry on her trip to the Congo where her parents were murdered in the sixties. Foundling Andrew Rowan on finding out about his roots and making contact with his half brother Ronnie Finlayson, a guerrilla report on the tattoo industry, John McCarthy takes a barge on the Trent and Mersey canal, World Open Water Swimming Woman of the year Anne Marie Ward.

Sian Williams and Richard Coles with paralympian Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson; former beautician Georgina Blackwell who took on a local legal battle and has just graduated with a First in Law; Azzy B who is now friends with the boy he used to bully; Peggy Chadwick who secretly took the place of her twin sister in the choir at the closing ceremony of the 1948 Olympics; John McCarthy goes punting in Cambridge; Anne Jones explains why a snuff box is the thing about her; Michael Turner describes how he's travelled the world in the footsteps of Sir Francis Drake; and pop star Gary Kemp shares his Inheritance Tracks.

Producer: Lisa Jenkinson.

Sian Williams and Richard Coles with artist Grayson Perry; John McCarthy in revolutionary France; Ruth Ellis' nephew Mick Shepherd; JP Devlin meets naturist Emma James; Chris Tribe's Sound Sculpture of a hand-plane; Sylvie Dare's story of being rescued from a plane crash as a baby; Olympic Black Power athlete John Carlos' Inheritance Tracks.

Producer: Lisa Jenkinson.

Sian Williams & Richard Coles with commentator and classicist Mary Beard; Namira Salim who's set to be one of the world's first space tourists; Phillippa Yaa De Villiers who was born mixed-race but brought up as white in apartheid South Africa; listener Owen Ephraim who worked with Alan Turing at Bletchley Park; John McCarthy goes biking with travel writer Ted Simon; JP Devlin meets cave collector Jim Gardner; listener Sally Townsend explains why a red fox fur coat is the thing about her; and actress and singer Olivia Newton John shares her Inheritance Tracks.

Producer: Dixi Stewart.