What I Wish I'd Known

In this episode of What I Wish I’d Known hear senior British politician Michael Gove’s first hand account of being abandoned in an orphanage, growing up in seventies Scotland and how he feels about stabbing Boris Johnson in the back. 

WARNING: contains some strong language and discussion of sensitive topics including: drug and alcohol misuse, mental illness, grief 

Series producer: Anya Pearce

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why is it that often people with the hardest beginnings in life become the most successful adults? And is there something to learn from those people who perhaps have the strongest sense of what matters most?

In this podcast, formerly known as Past Imperfect, Alice Thomson and Rachel Sylvester chat to extraordinary people who have lived astonishing lives and not only survived, but thrived. 

Sporting icons, remarkable politicians and other well known figures give their first hand account on how they achieved success in the face of adversity. 

Plus, Alice and Rachel reflect on their greatest interviews to date from the Past Imperfect archive with new thoughts and revelations.

Follow the podcast now so you never miss an episode.

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Joan Bakewell, 89, is a Labour peer is a broadcasting legend. She was one of the first women to be taken seriously in television and on radio. She broke boundaries with her arts and investigative programmes but was in a constant battle to pursue her career in an environment where institutional sexism and discrimination were rife.

Her private life was equally fascinating, she juggled two children, a high-powered job, two marriages and a seven-year affair with the playwright Harold Pinter who wrote a play based on their relationship, Betrayal. “Even when she was behaving badly, she behaved well,” one fellow journalist commented at the time.

Today she discusses her novel cancer treatment, sex, music and miniskirts, death and growing up during the War in the industrial North of England.

Warning: Contains discussions of sensitive subjects including cancer and sexual abuse.

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OUT Links for Additional support (on Past Imperfect pod pages Website)

Child abuse

https://www.nspcc.org.uk

Cancer Support

https://www.mariecurie.org.uk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rachel Sylvester and Alice Thomson are joined by Conservative peer, campaigner and one of the founders of legendary dance club Ministry of Sound, James Bethell. James talks candidly about his campaign against online pornography, his aristocratic background, raves and the devastating impact of his mother's descent into depression, addiction and her tragically early death.

NB: (trigger warning included) Contains discussion of sensitive topics including: postnatal depression, child neglect, drug and alcohol misuse, mental illness, suicide.

Links for additional support (also on Past Imperfect podcast pages)

Post Natal Depression Support

https://pandasfoundation.org.uk/what-is-pnd/post-natal-depression

Alcoholism and Addiction

https://www.drinkaware.co.uk/advice/alcohol-support-services

https://www.actiononaddiction.org.uk

Mental health and suicide awareness

https://www.mind.org.uk/

The Samaritans Tel: 116 123

www.samaritans.org.uk

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rachel and Alice talk to Professor John Bell, Regius professor of Medicine at Oxford University. His first memory, he says, was looking up and seeing “a load of guys with white coats around me”. He’d contracted polio and his father, had also caught the disease and was critically ill in the same hospital.

 “People forget about polio,” he says, but Professor Bell never did, always concerned that another disease may sweep across the world.

Now, more than 70 years later, he is known for helping secure a covid vaccine and advising the government on how to lead Britain out of the pandemic. His research teams are also on the brink of major breakthroughs in the fight against cancer.

Links for additional support (also on Past Imperfect podcast pages)

Polio information and support

Polio - Eradication, Vaccination, & Access | Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Polio Survivors Network – Lives lived with healthcare lessons for the future

Cancer Support

https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Explorer, broadcaster and Chief Scout Bear Grylls talks candidly to Rachel Sylvester and Alice Thomson about his love of adventure, the profound impact of the deaths of his inspirational father, and one of his closest friends in the SAS, Sergeant Chris Carter. Bear discusses life in the special forces, the challenges of climbing Mount Everest, and the catastrophic parachuting accident that nearly paralyzed him for life.

Links for additional support (also on Past Imperfect podcast pages)

Bereavement support

www.sueryder.org.uk

The Royal British Legion

Support for soldiers and ex-soldiers

http://www.britishlegion.org.uk

Mental health

https://www.mind.org.uk/

www.christopherreeve.org/living-with-paralysis

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David Harewood (MBE, OBE) is an actor who attained international stardom with TV roles in Homeland and The Night Manager. 

He was the first black actor to play Othello at the National Theatre in London, and has delivered acclaimed performances as Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. His latest role is a white Conservative commentator William F Buckley pitched against the liberal Gore Vidal in the hit play Best of Enemies which has received rave reviews in the West End.

But David’s early life was marred by racist attacks, and mental illness, culminating in him experiencing a psychotic breakdown. Despite being awarded both an MBE and an OBE he still sees himself as an outsider. “There’s a sense of displacement, “he says, “That’s been constant throughout my life.”

WARNING: contains some strong language and discussion of sensitive topics including: racist attacks, homophobia, drug and alcohol misuse, mental illness, suicide.

Links for additional support (also on Past Imperfect podcast pages)

https://www.stophateuk.org/about-hate-crime/racism-in-the-uk

Alcoholism and Addiction

https://www.drinkaware.co.uk/advice/alcohol-support-services

https://www.actiononaddiction.org.uk

Mental health and suicide awareness

https://www.mind.org.uk/

The Samaritans Tel: 116 123

www.samaritans.org.uk

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lady Glenconner, talks candidly to Rachel Sylvester and Alice Thomson about growing up as a member of the Royal Family’s inner circle. She reveals the highs and lows of her life as a socialite: Riding tricycles with Princess Margaret, holidays in Mustique and being maid of honour at the Queens’s coronation. She speaks frankly about her marriage overshadowed by an abusive husband and the death of two sons.

Warning: Contains frank discussion of domestic violence, death, brothels and violence to animals (eels)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anne-Glenconner

Links for additional support (also on Past Imperfect podcast pages)

Domestic abuse

www.womensaid.org.uk

Domestic Abuse Help · National Centre for Domestic Violence (ncdv.org.uk)

Child Abuse

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pat Cullen is a trade union general secretary who has led her members out on strike for the first time in her union’s 109-year history. In recent weeks, Pat has been on picket lines all over the country with her colleagues and patients, leading the negotiations with the UK government on behalf of the Royal College of Nursing.

In this episode of Past Imperfect, Pat Cullen talks candidly to Rachel Sylvester and Alice Thomson about how her tenacity and her belief in justice has been shaped by growing up during the Troubles in Northern Ireland and through losing both her parents as a teenager.

 “When I believe in something.” She says, “I’ll follow it through to the bitter end, I absolutely will.”

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Links

the Royal College of Nursing

https://www.rcn.org.uk/

Bereavement support

https://www.sueryder.org/

https://www.thegoodgrieftrust.org/

Mental health

https://www.mind.org.uk/

young people’s mental health

https://www.youngminds.org.uk

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pauline Black has been called “the Queen of Ska”. She came to prominence in the 1970s as the lead singer of the renowned 2-Tone band The Selecter. Pauline has also been an actress with roles in film and television shows. She is a deputy lieutenant for the West Midlands and was recently awarded an OBE by the King. But throughout her childhood, growing up as an black child adopted by a white family in Essex Pauline says she felt like a “cuckoo, in somebody else nest”. Education and Music were her escapes. As she puts it: “Any band is like a surrogate family.”

Warning: Contains discussions of sensitive subjects including racism, and sexual abuse.

Additional support

www.adoptionuk.org

www.nspcc.org.uk

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.