Rosebud with Gyles Brandreth

This week we welcome the singers Michael Ball and Alfie Boe. Ball and Boe have been singing together for ten years, and are about to release their sixth album, but in this conversation Gyles takes them right back to the beginning. We hear about Alfie's childhood, growing up as the youngest in a family of nine in a council house in the north-west, about how he was discovered as he sang to himself at work as a mechanic, about his first girlfriend and the death of his father. Michael tells Gyles about his unhappy school days, his wild years at drama school in Guildford and the amazing first night of Les Mis at The Barbican. This is a warm, funny and sometimes touching conversation with two great musicians. 'Together at Home', Michael and Alfie's new album, is out now. Their UK arena tour is in March and April 2025, with a date at the O2 on April 13th 2025. Tickets are on sale now at livenation.co.uk. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today on More Rosebud Gyles talks to the American actress, singer-songwriter and star of Downton Abbey Elizabeth McGovern. In this conversation they talk about Elizabeth's childhood in a Bohemian and bookish household - first in Illinois and then in Los Angeles. They talk about the formative friendship of her adolescence. They talk about her sudden rise to fame: she was discovered as a teenager and cast in Robert Redford's Oscar-winning debut, Ordinary People; and they talk about the effect of fame on a young person. Gyles and Elizabeth also discuss how she met and married her British film-director husband, Simon Curtis, moved to London and started a family. And they talk about Downton, Elizabeth's music... and much more besides. Thank you, Elizabeth, for this fascinating conversation. Listeners who’d like to book tickets to Harriet’s choir’s Christmas concert on 6 December can do it at www.voxcetera.co.uk. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we welcome the restaurateur, entrepreneur, cook, writer and judge of Great British Bake Off Prue Leith onto Rosebud. Prue tells Gyles about her childhood, growing up under apartheid in South Africa; she reveals how she joined the boy scouts, became president of the tree-climbing club, and confronted the headmistress at her religious school with a shocking revelation. She and Gyles talk about her year in Paris learning French, the lightbulb moment in which she discovered her love of food, and the early years of setting up her first restaurant in London. This is a fascinating conversation about a fascinating, and boldly lived, life. Prue's book 'Life's Too Short to Stuff a Mushroom' is out now, published by Quarto, and is a great Christmas present. Thank you to Prue for this wonderful interview. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Exciting news: it's time for the next instalment of Gyles's schoolboy diaries. In this episode, the young GB goes on his holidays, to Germany and then, unaccompanied, to Paris. We also hear about his attempts to smuggle a copy of Lady Chatterley's Lover into his boarding school. P.S Harriet got a bit of ahead of herself and released this on a Monday instead of a Tuesday by mistake! Enjoy it a day early, your special Rosebud bonus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alan Titchmarsh has been gardening since he was a child, and in this special episode of Rosebud (recorded live in Salisbury in aid of Arundells, the former home of Sir Edward Heath) he tells Gyles about how he grew his first flowers from a packet of seeds bought at Woolworths. Alan also talks about leaving school at 15, his first kiss and the only lie he ever told. The episode ends with a treat: Alan reads one of his poems to Gyles and the audience. Alan Titchmarsh is one of our best-loved broadcasters, and this is a wonderful conversation. Enjoy this. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's episode of More Rosebud, we meet the bestselling writer and literary powerhouse Kate Mosse. Kate's historical novels have been global hits, and her much-loved classic Labyrinth is 20 next year. She talks to Gyles about her new book, The Map of Bones, the final novel in her series The Joubert Family Chronicles, which, it turns out, is set in a town in South Africa where Gyles once considered buying a house! But more than that, Gyles and Kate discuss Kate's first memories, her happy childhood growing up to loving and community-minded parents in a close family in West Sussex, where she still lives today. She tells Gyles about her first love, Greg, whom she later re-met on a train, and eventually married. She talks to Gyles about her love of being a granny, and how poleaxed she was by the sudden death of her mother. Thanks to Kate for this fascinating conversation. The Map of Bones by Kate Mosse is published on 10 Oct by Mantle (Pan Macmillan) and is available as a hardback, ebook and audio recording. Kate’s live one-woman stage show, Labyrinth, will be on tour in 2025. Dates and info can be found here: www.labyrinthlive2025.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we are extremely lucky to welcome Timothy Spall onto Rosebud, in what is a rare podcast interview with the great man. Tim is one of our most distinctive, and distinguished, actors - a star of TV and films such as Auf Wiedersehn, Pet, Mr Turner, Harry Potter and Secrets and Lies. You may also have seen his recent Bafta-winning performance alongside fellow Rosebud alumni Anne Reid and Sheila Hancock in The Sixth Commandment. In this wide-ranging and evocative interview, Timothy takes Gyles back to his childhood in Clapham Junction and Battersea, South London. We get to know his family home, his nan, who lived upstairs, and his school friend Hairy Pierry. We find out how Timothy first fell in love with acting, in a school production, and delighted his mum by getting a place at RADA. And we find out how he met and married his wife, Shane. A huge thank you to Tim for sharing these wonderful memories with the Rosebud family. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's time for episode two of Gyles's childhood diaries. It's 1960, he's eleven going on twelve, and still a pupil at boarding school in Kent. We hear about how Gyles met T.S. Eliot and got the Archbishop of Canterbury's autograph. We hear about his hatred of games and his sudden attack of appendicitis. We also hear about Gyles's English teacher, whose behaviour towards Gyles becomes increasingly inappropriate. Listeners should be aware that there is some discussion of issues relating to the sexual abuse of minors in this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rick Stein is one of Britain's best-loved chefs. He's also a highly successful businessman, restaurateur, writer and TV presenter, who has single-handedly put Padstow on the map. HIs warm, down-to-earth manner and infectious curiosity about food have made him a star. What you may not know is that, surprise surprise, he and Gyles know each other - they were actually at Oxford University together in the 60s. But Rick's route to Oxford was highly unconventional, and in this conversation he tells Gyles about his lack of academic success, the death of his father, his two years spent travelling and "running away to sea" and his eventual return to university and subsequent start in the restaurant trade. Rick's new book, Rick Stein's Food Stories, is out now, published by BBC Books. It's inspired by Rick's travels around the UK and is a very nice Christmas present! Thank you to Rick for this great conversation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We’ve got a very different kind of guest this week. It’s Lisa Squire, the mother of Libby Squire, who was born on the 1st January 1998 and tragically lost her life on the 1st February 2019 in Hull, when she was a student at university. She was missing for seven agonising weeks, and her body was eventually washed up in the Humber estuary in March of 2019. It was later found that she had been raped and murdered. In this conversation, Lisa and Gyles remember Libby, and tell her story in full: the happy times, the unhappy times, and the tragic end of the story.  Lisa is spearheading a campaign to highlight the importance of reporting non-contact sexual offences such as flashing and voyeurism, called ‘It Does Matter’, in partnership with Thames Valley Police. https://www.itdoesmatter.org.uk/ There are some references to self-harm and to some sexual offences in this conversation with Lisa. Many thanks to Lisa for this wonderful conversation and for the memories of Libby. We dedicate this episode of Rosebud to the memory of Liberty Anna Squire, 1/1/98 - 1/2/2019. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dame Harriet Walter is one of the UK's most distinguished stage actresses, and an award-winning star of Ted Lasso and Succession. In this candid interview, she talks to Gyles about her parents' divorce, her teenage struggles with mental health, and her famous uncle, Christopher Lee. She describes her first experiences of acting at school, and how her headteacher spotted her talent and encouraged it. Make sure you listen to the end, to hear Harriet amaze Gyles with some Shakespeare. Harriet's brilliant book, 'She Speaks' is a daring and inventive collection of speeches for Shakespeare's female characters, imagining what they might have said if they'd had the chance. It's out now, published by Little, Brown. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is the first of our episodes in which Gyles reads from his childhood diaries, and Gyles and Harriet discuss the events therein. In this episode, Gyles starts reading from the beginning: Tuesday 28th April 1959, his first day at Betteshanger School in Kent, and ends on 31st December 1959. How did Gyles settle into school? Did he get a part in the school play, Tom Sawyer? Did he like his teachers? And what were his top 10 TV shows of 1959? Listen to find out about all this and more. We'll continue with Gyles's diary in a couple of weeks' time, so you'll be able to follow the story along if you listen to the episodes in order. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Get ready for a really wonderful edition of Rosebud, with the poet and performer Pam Ayres. Pam makes Gyles laugh and cry with the stories from her fascinating life. Pam paints vivid pictures of her childhood, growing up in relative poverty in a big family in an insular village in rural Berkshire (now Oxfordshire). All the family's food was grown in the back garden, there was no hot water, the family shared beds and the toilet was a bucket. She tells Gyles about the games she played, the first boyfriend she had, and about her first job. She tells Gyles about the joining the RAF, and how, through that, she began performing, and eventually got posted to Singapore. And she tells Gyles about being discovered and winning Opportunity Knocks. Pam's is a truly unique life, and in this interview she paints a compelling picture of a forgotten time. Sit back, relax, and enjoy this. With huge thanks to Pam for this wonderful conversation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Our guest on this episode of More Rosebud is Petroc Trelawney, the broadcaster and writer who is best known as a presenter on BBC Radio 3. Petroc is also an author who is talking to Gyles about his new book 'Trelawney's Cornwall' and about his childhood, growing up on the remote Lizard peninsula. This a moving and open interview, in which Petroc talks about the death of his mother from cancer when he was 12, about the way life in his family of boys changed after that, about the difficulties of coming of age as a gay man in the 80s, about being arrested in Zimbabwe, and about how to cheat in piano lessons. 'Trelawney's Cornwall: A Journey Through Western Lands' by Petroc Trelawny is published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson and is out now. Thank you to Petroc for such a wonderful conversation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sandi Toksvig is someone we've wanted to have on Rosebud for a long time... so we're really delighted that she's today's guest! Sandi talks to Gyles about her amazing father, the most famous man in Denmark; she tells Gyles about her fascinating childhood, spent in Africa, the USA and the UK. She talks about playing hooky from school, about getting found out and being sent to boarding school, where she spent four miserable years. She shocks Gyles with her description of the prejudice she discovered was still alive and well when she was at university. This is as witty, wise and entertaining as you would expect, but it's also moving and profound. Sandi's new book, Friends of Dorothy, is out now, from Virago Books, and Sandi is on a UK tour - tickets at www.sanditoksvig.com. Sandi is also doing two special "One Night Only" shows at the Theatre Royal on Drury Lane on 13 and 14 November 2024 - tickets are on sale now via www.lwtheatres.co.uk. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is a very special conversation, recorded in March 2022, between Gyles and two great stars, who were also great friends: Dame Maggie Smith and Kathleen Turner. Maggie and Kathleen talk about how they met, at the stage door in a back alley in the West End, how they started out as actresses, about their breakthrough roles, and about the guardian angels who helped them along the way... and about much more besides. This is one of Maggie Smith's last interviews, and was produced and recorded by Fane Productions. We're delighted to be able to share this with you now - enjoy this. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gyles's guest this week is Tom Parker Bowles, food writer, critic, son of Queen Camilla and step-son of King Charles III. Tom tells Gyles about his idyllic country childhood, being stung by wasps, eating sweets and messing about with friends. He talks about the terrible food at his prep school and the much more delicious things on offer in the tuck shop at Eton, where he went next. He tells Gyles about his new book - Cooking and the Crown - and explains how his family have managed to stay normal, despite their fame... and he tells Gyles what a brilliant grandfather King Charles is. Enjoy this! Tom's new book is out now, published by Octopus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rochelle Humes: popstar, business woman, TV personality, wife and mother. Gyles and Rochelle know each other from This Morning, but in this chat Gyles finds out much more about the person behind the success story. Rochelle tells him about her childhood, growing up in a single parent family in Essex. She tells him about her early experiences on stage in the West End, and how she auditioned for S Club Juniors and became famous as a tweenager. She talks about her time in The Saturdays and tells Gyles how she met and married Marvin Humes, who was at that time in the boyband JLS. And she talks about her success since The Saturdays and setting up her own business. In amongst all this, she and Gyles share their love of manifesting and realise they have more in common than they thought. Many thanks to Rochelle for her time and positive Rosebud energy - enjoy this! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's a big moment for Rosebud, because in this episode Gyles talks to Stephen Fry about his first memories. As you can imagine, this is a brilliant conversation, as Stephen tells Gyles about his parents and their remarkable marriage, his childhood, schooldays, how he went slightly "off the rails" as a teenager and then got things back on track at Cambridge. There are various detours, via Oscar Wilde, Shakespeare and Derek Nimmo's nose. Thank you to Stephen for his warmth and generosity in this chat. Stephen is doing a special one-off performance at the Royal Albert Hall on Tuesday September 24, to celebrate the final instalment of his Greek myth series, Odyssey. Tickets are on sale now. Enjoy another fantastic edition of Rosebud! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On 8th September 2024, it is the second anniversary of the death of Queen Elizabeth II. In memory of that day, and of the Queen, our guest today is Terry Pendry. Terry worked with Queen Elizabeth II for over 28 years, as her Stud Groom and Manager at Windsor Castle. Terry's relationship with the Queen was unique, because he rode with her every morning when she was at Windsor. This is when the Queen was able to relax, and talk about her passions - for horses, dogs, animals and the countryside. And so, this interview with Terry - which we recorded in the Royal Mews at Windsor - gives an unusual level of insight into what it was like to spend time with the Queen, and tells us all about her love and knowledge of horses. And we meet her favourite pony, Emma, who she rode for the last few years of her life. Our thanks to Terry for this wonderful conversation, for introducing us to Noble and Emma, and to Sue Pendry for her hospitality and cake. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices