“A book is the most interactive form of entertainment there is”. 
 
Crime writer Val McDermid chats to Colin Murray about keeping her characters authentic, time management techniques, TV adaptations, imposter syndrome, using Scottish colloquialisms in her writing (her American publishers asked for a glossary!), judging the Booker Prize, and advice for budding writers.
 
Oh, and getting a kiss from Blondie’s Debbie Harry!

Val McDermid

Colin talks to interesting people with fascinating life stories. No rules, no soundbites, just in-depth conversations with some incredible people.

Personal Journals

Society & Culture

History

Philosophy

Places & Travel

Ahead of their 50th anniversary tour, Squeeze members Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook chat to Colin Murray about their intense tour schedule, how they’ve improved their craft with time, their unlikely influences, the re-defining of ‘hit’ tracks, and what they think of Brit Pop. 
 
The pair also get into their most surreal moments and biggest mistakes of the last 50 years, and their favourite acts to support on tour, including Bon Jovi, REM and U2, plus performing with Dave Grohl and Elton John.

Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook

“It’s not thick skin, it’s scar tissue.”  Doctor-turned-comedian and writer Adam Kay on why he left his medical career and if he’ll ever return to it, attitudes towards the NHS and its staff, his new-found passion of writing for children, and what he thinks of the TV adaptation of his best-selling book This Is Going To Hurt.  Plus he waxes lyrical over the band he’s seen “more than his family”, Pulp!

Adam Kay

Former Beautiful South and Housemartins member Dave Hemingway on being raised in the Hull bar scene, how The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper is responsible for his love of music, and his audition process to join The Housemartins (nobody believed him!)
 
The pair also get into regional music scenes in Northern England, gigging with Oasis and Blur, and supporting REM at Glastonbury in the 1990s, and what it’s like touring the country again today as a self-funded band.

Dave Hemingway

“I went straight out of a civil war and ended up hanging out with most of the current Tory cabinet… a very strange place to be”.
 
Comedian and writer Dom Joly on his Lebanese heritage, geo-political comedy, and his dark sense of humour. 
 
Joly also discusses AI, being pigeon-holed, his infamous prank show Trigger Happy TV, and his new book The Conspiracy Tourist which saw him travel the globe to investigate and understand some of the world’s most dangerous and hilarious conspiracy theories in a ‘post-truth’ political space.

Dom Joly

ABC frontman Martin Fry on his love of late footballer George Best, starting as a music journalist before finding success in performing, the music scene in Sheffield, seeing James Brown at a convention, recording with Smokey Robinson, and how his Hodgkin’s Lymphoma diagnosis aged 27 made him see a “different side to humanity”.

Val McDermid

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