Midweek: Diverse Conversation

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  Weekly

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  Indefinitely

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Recent episodes (10)

• Clare Balding 8 Feb 12

  Wed, 8 Feb 12

  Duration:
  42 mins

  This week Libby Purves is joined by actor Katherine Kelly; Dr Steve Peters, psychiatrist with the British Cycling Team; former US army chief Rhonda Cornum; and BBC presenter Clare Balding.

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• is joined by Lord Baker 02 Feb 2012

  Wed, 1 Feb 12

  Duration:
  43 mins

  This week Libby Purves is joined by Lord Baker who is a cartoon enthusiast and is also Vice-Chairman of the Cartoon Museum. A new exhibition HER MAJ: 60 Years of Unofficial Portraits of the Queen is at the Cartoon Museum; Rudi Richardson is the founder of Streetlytes a charity for the homeless, which he set up after 33 years drifting in and out of addiction, prison and life on the streets; Ishy Din,a taxi-driver from Middlesborough who now writes plays. His new one is entitled Snookered, about young Asian men struggling to find their identity in modern Britain and Michele Hanson who is a columnist and writer. She writes a weekly column in the Guardian’s Women section called A Certain Age. Her memoir What The Grown Ups Were Doing is published by Simon and Schuster.

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• guests include Peter Tatchell 25 Jan 12

  Wed, 25 Jan 12

  Duration:
  43 mins

  This week Libby Purves is joined by micro-graver Graham Short whose latest work was to engrave The Word of God, the first chapter of the Qur'an, onto the head of a pin; Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell on his 45 years of campaigning; former banker Gary Mulgrew, one of the 'NatWest Three' who spent time in prison in the US for fraud; and Vincent Simone and Flavia Cacace, stars of BBC's Strictly Come Dancing, who bring their creation, Midnight Tango to London's Aldwych Theatre.

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• guests included Sandy Gall 18 Jan 12

  Wed, 18 Jan 12

  Duration:
  42 mins

  This week Libby Purves is joined by Antony Woodward, author and microlight pilot who features in BBC Two's Wonderland: The Real Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines; journalist, broadcaster and former ITN news presenter Sandy Gall on his book 'War Against The Taliban - Why It All Went Wrong In Afghanistan'; Nick Coleman, a music journalist who has to relearn how to listen to music after suffering from Sudden Neurosensory Hearing Loss; and musician turned comedian Rosie Wilby on her show 'How (not) to make it in Britpop'.

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• guests include Tasmin Little 11 Jan 12

  Wed, 11 Jan 12

  Duration:
  42 mins

  This week Libby Purves is joined by violinist Tasmin Little talking about a new BBC Four documentary about Vaughan Williams' Lark Ascending; filmmaker John Akomfrah on his new film 'The Nine Muses' which looks at the history of mass migration to post-war Britain using Homer's poem The Odyssey as a starting point; retired vet Dr Andrew Higgins who was posted to Oman in 1974 during the Dhofar War as one of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps to help win the hearts and minds of the local population; and Sir Stephen Waley-Cohen on the 60th Anniversary of the play, The Mousetrap.

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• guests include Simon Russell Beale 28 Dec 11

  Wed, 28 Dec 11

  Duration:
  42 mins

  This week Libby Purves is joined by Frank and Winnie Tovey who spent sixteen years in India where Frank was a medical missionary; actor Simon Russell-Beale is currently playing Stalin in the National Theatre production of 'Collaborators' by John Hodge; Noo Saro-Wiwa, daughter of the political activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was murdered in Nigeria in 1995, writes about her own journey back there; and Anne Wallace, has branched out from fish and chips to a coffee shop offering IT courses to the elderly.

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• guests include Martha Fiennes 21 Dec 11

  Wed, 21 Dec 11

  Duration:
  42 mins

  This week Libby Purves is joined by Alistair Sutcliffe, a GP who became the first man to summit the highest mountain on each of the seven continents at the first attempt, but subsequently suffered a near fatal brain haemorrhage; filmmaker Martha Fiennes who has created her first digital installation, Nativity, based on the Christmas Nativity scene, on display in a specially constructed chalet in Covent Garden piazza; Celia Imrie who is currently in Michael Frayn's 'Noises Off' at the Old Vic; and Prof Amanda Vickery who presents a BBC Two documentary 'The Many Lovers of Miss Jane Austen' which explores her enduring popularity through her plots and characters.

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• guests include Prof John Wallwork 14 Dec 11

  Wed, 14 Dec 11

  Duration:
  42 mins

  This week Libby Purves is joined by Susie McKenna, Creative Director of the Hackney Empire; Peter Bougourd was second Coxn of the St Peter Port lifeboat; Professor John Wallwork performed the world's first triple transplant and features in a BBC Inside Out documentary 'The Heartman'; and musician and composer Matthew Herbert whose latest work is an album called ONE PIG, which records the 24 week lifecycle of a pig from birth to table and beyond.

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• guests include Matthew Bourne 7 Dec 11

  Wed, 7 Dec 11

  Duration:
  42 mins

  This week Libby Purves is joined by Runa Khan Marre is winner of a Rolex Award for Enterprise, for preserving the unique cultural heritage of Bangladeshi boat-building; conductor Charles Hazlewood has created an orchestra from scrap for a BBC Four documentary, 'Scrapheap Orchestra'; chroeographer Matthew Bourne's ballet company New Adventures' returns to Sadler's Wells this Christmas with their much loved production of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker!; and Gebisa Ejeta is one of the world's leading scientists who has been developing drought-resistant crops for Africa and is in conversation for the BBC World Service's 'Exchanges at the Frontier' at the Wellcome Collection.

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• guests include Chris Mullin 30 Nov 11

  Wed, 30 Nov 11

  Duration:
  42 mins

  This week Libby Purves is joined by extreme fisherman Jeremy Wade on his book 'River Monsters'; Jacqui Thompson, widow of an RAF Reservist killed in Afghanistan; Chris Mullin, former MP on the play 'A Walk On Part' based on his diaries; and Professor Roger Kneebone who is presenting 'Professor Kneebone's Incredible Inflatable, Pop-Up Anatomy Lesson' at the Wellcome Collection as part of the Performing Medicine season.

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