Charlotte MetcalfEvery podcast appearance, updated as new ones drop

Nigel Havers is the well-known actor, renowned for his numerous movies from Passage to India with David Lean to Chariots of Fire alongside his television work. He’s been in The Charmer and acted for long stints in Coronation Street , Don’t Wait Up and the very popular The Bidding Room . He talks to Charlotte Metcalf about his latest one-man show Talking Bollocks , being in the annual pantomime at the Palladium and much more. This week’s podcast is kindly sponsored by Baillie Gifford, Actual Investors, who take a long-term approach to investing in exceptional companies.

Michael Rosen is the multi award-winning and prolific children’s author and poet and the former Children’s Laureate. He’s also the presenter of BBC Radio Four’s Word of Mouth , a hugely successful You Tuber and Professor of Children’s Literature at Goldsmith’s College. He talks to Charlotte Metcalf about his latest book Where are You Eddie? Exploring his feelings around his son’s tragic death from Meningitis, as well as about his own near death from Covid and his life and work. This week's podcast is kindly sponsored by Baillie Gifford, Actual Investors, who take a long-term approach to investing in exceptional companies.

Amanda Craig is a critic, award-winning journalist and author. She’s one of our only female state-of-the-nation novelists and has been compared with Balzac, Trollope and Dickens. She talks to Charlotte Metcalf about her latest novel High and Low . This week's podcast is kindly sponsored by Baillie Gifford, Actual Investors, who take a long-term approach to investing in exceptional companies.

Nicholas Shakespeare, who talks to Charlotte Metcalf about his latest novel Frame 37 , was described by the Wall Street Journal as one of the best English novelists of our time. His novel The Dancer Upstairs was made into a feature film by John Malkovich in 2002. Alongside his fiction, his non-fiction includes acclaimed biographies of Bruce Chatwin, Ian Fleming and Six Minutes in May about Winston Churchill. This week's podcast is kindly sponsored by Baillie Gifford, Actual Investors, who take a long-term approach to investing in exceptional companies.

Kathy Lette burst onto our scenes as the exuberant and hilariously outspoken Australian novelist with Puberty Blues when she was just 17. With 20 more novels to her name since then, she talks to Charlotte Metcalf about her move to Britain, her marriages, sex and relationships, raising an autistic son and her latest novel The Sisterhood Rules which is underpinned by her determination to boost older women’s confidence and encourage and promote female solidarity. This week's podcast is kindly sponsored by Baillie Gifford, Actual Investors, who take a long-term approach to investing in exceptional companies.

Kathy Lette burst onto our scenes as the exuberant and hilariously outspoken Australian novelist wi...

Charlotte Metcalf talks to the multiple-award winning writer Margaret Drabble about her books, her u...

Charlotte Metcalf talks to the multiple-award winning writer Margaret Drabble about her books, her upbringing, her early life in theatre and her new book, The Great Good Places and discovers why she will never write another novel nor be publishing her long memoir during her lifetime.

Christopher Hampton is one of Britain’s most outstanding and prolific playwrights and screenwriters. Currently his Dangerous Liaisons is playing at the National Theatre, while his Atonement has its world premiere at Chichester Festival Theatre on 29th May and his The Truth opens at The Apollo Theatre in June. He talks to Charlotte Metcalf about his life in film and cinema and the characters he’s met along the way range from his legendary agent Peggy Ramsay and schoolfriend David Hare to David Lean, Stephen Frears, Sean Connery, Emma Thompson, Martin Scorsese and many many more.

Christopher Hampton is one of Britain’s most outstanding and prolific playwrights and screenwriters...

Charlotte Metcalf talks to Christine Dawood, whose book 96 Hours is published on 12th May. The book tells Christine’s harrowing story of losing her husband, Shahzada, and 19-year-old son, Suleman, when the Titan submersible imploded on an exploratory diving mission down to the Titanic in June 2023. It intersperses her account of that agonising wait with vignettes from her happy, loving family life. Christina tells Charlotte about her grief, her book and her plans to create a healing centre for others who have suffered a devastating loss.

Charlotte Metcalf talks to John Tusa, the distinguished journalist and arts administrator about his ...

Charlotte Metcalf talks to John Tusa, the distinguished journalist and arts administrator about his new podcast, The Best is Yet to Come , interviewing oldies in their nineties about their lives. He also talks about own his life, from leaving Czechoslovakia on the brink of war to his life in London now.

Charlotte Metcalf talks to the historian and biographer, Anne Sebba, about her latest book, The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz . Anne tells Charlotte that she became fascinated with how the women survived and then how she tracked down and interviewed the two remaining survivors, including 100-year-old cellist Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who came to and was honoured as Oldie Maestra of the Year at this year’s Oldie Awards in February.

Charlotte Metcalf visits the artist Rose Wylie, born in 1934, at her Kent studio to chat to her about her life and her first major one-woman museum show, The Picture Comes First , at the Royal Academy. It’s the biggest exhibition of her work to date and it is also the first time that a British woman painter has ever occupied all the main galleries at the Royal Academy.

The actor Derek Jacobi talks to Charlotte Metcalf about his long career and his various roles ranging from Hamlet to acting in Gladiator, Dr Who and Last Tango in Halifax . His career stretches back to Cambridge University and then Birmingham Rep where he was spotted by Laurence Olivier and chosen to play Laertes opposite Peter O’Toole’s Hamlet in the National Theatre’s inaugural production at The Old Vic. Putting his success entirely down to luck, Jacobi celebrates his good fortune and is currently on tour in conversation with his partner of 47 years and now husband, Richard Clifford. Tickets for Derek's upcoming tour: https://www.cliveconwayproductions.com/shows/sir-derek-jacobi-in-conversation-with-richard-clifford

The eminent and multiple-prize-winning historian, Antony Beevor, best known for his popular works on the Second World War, the Spanish Civil War and Russia, talks to Charlotte Metcalf about his new book on Rasputin : And the Downfall of the Romanovs , published this week. They also talk about his life and the problems that historians are increasingly facing in an age of disinformation and electronic rather than written communication.

Comedian, actor and author Nigel Planer, stuck with being known as the lugubrious hippy Neil in the 1980’s sitcom The Young Ones , talks to Charlotte Metcalf about his memoir Young Once. He tells her how he’s finally escaped being Neil and how, alongside his career as a well-known comedian, he’s forged a successful career as an actor, musician, playwright, poet, audiobook narrator and more.

Charlotte Metcalf talks to Dr. Miriam Stoppard about her new book Sex, Drugs and Walking Sticks , a must-read bible for oldies, full of anecdotes and her personal tips on how to age well. She talks frankly about her views on sex and alcohol, about her life and motherhood and reminisces about her 20-year marriage to the late Tom Stoppard.

Charlotte Metcalf talks to Dr. Miriam Stoppard about her new book Sex, Drugs and Walking Sticks, a m...

Stephen Frears is one of Britain’s most prolific and successful film and television directors. His ...

Stephen Frears is one of Britain’s most prolific and successful film and television directors. His 1985 film My Beautiful Laundrette made his name and launched the careers of Daniel Day-Lewis and Tim Bevan of Working Title. Stephen talks to Charlotte Metcalf about his phenomenal career, from directing Dangerous Liaisons , written by Christopher Hampton in 1988 and starring John Malkovich, Glenn Close and Michelle Pfeiffer, to working with Martin Scorsese on Grifters and with Stephen Knight on Dirty Pretty Things (2002). He also talks about his admiration for Hugh Grant who played Jeremy Thorpe in his 2018 mini-series A Very English Scandal and his enduring friendship Hanif Kureshi, who wrote the screenplay for My Beautiful Laundrette .

Charlotte Metcalf talks to Helen Macdonald, author of H is for Hawk - the best-selling story of how she dealt with the grief over her father's death by bringing up a goshawk in Cambridge. The book has just been made into a film, starring Claire Foy (pictured) as Helen - it comes out this Friday, January 23rd.

Charlotte Metcalf talks to Helen Macdonald, author of H is for Hawk - the best-selling story of how ...

Beyond being one of the Pythons in Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Michael Palin has had a varied care...

Beyond being one of the Pythons in Monty Python’s Flying Circus , Michael Palin has had a varied career as an actor, writer and television presenter and is now known for his popular books and travel documentaries. He was knighted in 2019 for services to travel, culture and geography. He talks to Charlotte Metcalf about his love of travel and art, how he began in comedy, stammering, as he did in a A Fish Called Wanda , his ‘harmonious’ temperament and much more.

Matthew Bourne is widely hailed as Britain’s most popular and successful choreographer with a record number of prestigious awards. He talks to Charlotte Metcalf about Red Shoes , currently playing at Sadlers Wells, and much more. His 1995 Swan Lake, replacing female swans with male dancers, is the world’s longest running full-length dance classic in the West End and on Broadway. He was knighted in 2016 for his outstanding contribution to the art of ballet.

Pam Ayres is a much-loved poet, comedian, songwriter and broadcaster, particularly famous for her po...

Pam Ayres is a much-loved poet, comedian, songwriter and broadcaster, particularly famous for her poem ‘I Wish I’d Looked After my Teeth’. She was awarded an MBE in 2004 for services to literature and entertainment. She talks to Charlotte Metcalf about her life, including performing for the Queen, and performs her most recent poem ‘I’ll Have to Send it Back’.

Henry Marsh is a neurosurgeon who became well-known when his best-selling book, Do No Harm was published in 2014. Since then, he’s written two more books, Admissions: A Life in Brain Surgery , followed by And Finally in 2022. He’s had three BBC documentaries made about him and remains a frequent visitor to Ukraine, where he has been a volunteer surgeon and is now a popular lecturer.