Saturday Live

Aasmah Mir and Richard Coles are joined by travel documentary maker Simon Reeve who has come a long way since leaving school with no qualifications; he wrote a book on international terrorism and his latest series is on The Americas. Also, Kate Young who was homesick for her native Australia when she decided to cook a comforting dish described in Harry Potter. It led to more literary dishes, a blog and a book. Jeroen Olyslaegers is an award-winning author from Antwerp. His latest book Will was inspired by stories from his own family, in particular his Grandfather who was a Nazi collaborator during WWII. He joins us, along with Lucy Mathen who contacted us with her own extraordinary story - she was the first Asian reporter on Newsround, and went on to retrain as an ophthalmologist, founding a charity to treat eye problems in India. We have the Inheritance Tracks of TV stylist and presenter Gok Wan who chooses Top of the world by The Carpenters and Make your own kind of music performed by Cass Elliot. Producer: Corinna Jones Editor: Eleanor Garland

Harry Connick Jr, was brought up by lawyers in New Orleans, but it was the music of the city that inspired him. A child prodigy playing a Beethoven concerto at nine, a disaster singing to Sinatra at 22, then Harry Met Sally happened, and It Had To Be You, made him a star. He He is now celebrating the genius of Cole Porter. Paulette Constable grew up in Manchester, the youngest of eight children from a Windrush generation family. Following an early divorce, she became a club DJ in 1992, with residencies at The Hacienda, the Ministry of Sound, Heaven and Ibiza Rocks, but explains how family responsibility caught up with her and brought her home. Rachael Rogan gave up a career in marketing when she was diagnosed with cancer. She describes how, following treatment and strong community support, she decided to make a radical change to her life and to follow her passion – children’s books. Andrew Ridgeley - one half of Wham! recalls about meeting Georgios Kyiacos Panayiotou at school, discovering their shared passion for music, finding success and their enduring friendship. Danny Wallace shares his Inheritance Tracks - Sunshine on Leith by The Proclaimers, and Live Forever by Oasis. Producer: Louise Corley Editor: Eleanor Garland

Richard Coles and Aasmah Mir are joined by the British crime writer Martina Cole, known to her fans as the Queen of Crime, with twenty-four novels to her name, fifteen of which have been No.1 bestsellers and translated into twenty-nine languages. Thomas Harding ran a local newspaper in West Virginia before returning to the UK to research his family history, which in one direction took him to his uncle Hanns, a Nazi hunter who tracked down the Auschwitz commandant, Rudolf Hoess. Now he has turned his attention to the other half of his family, who created the famous Lyons Corner Houses. Emily Chung co-founded, with her sister Amy, the pop-up Rangoon Sisters Burmese Supper Club between their shifts as doctors in the NHS. Justin Hawkins was a jingle writer and jobbing musician before forming rock band The Darkness. They had chart success with hits including I Believe in a Thing Called Love and Christmas Time (Don’t Let the Bells End) before the band disbanded in 2006. Five years later they reunited and have just released a new album Easter is Cancelled. Author and LGBT activist Armistead Maupin shares his Inheritance Tracks - Every Time We Say Goodbye by Cole Porter and sung by Ella Fitzgerald and Being Boring by Pet Shop Boys. Producer: Annette Wells

Aasmah Mir and Richard Coles are joined by Gerald Scarfe, one of our best known artists, caricaturing those in power, and also a production designer for theatre, ballet and opera and designer of animation sequences for Disney's Hercules and Pink Floyd’s The Wall. Liam Charles was the people’s champion of Bake Off 2017, and the youngest contestant in that series. He went from cake sales at sixth form to having his own cookery show, and presenting Bake Off The Professionals within three years. Goldie Puricelli has taught kids with dyslexia, dyspraxia and autism, for over twenty years, she’s also a member of the Magic Circle and incorporates those skills into her teaching work. Helen Zaltzman was an early adopter of the podcast, launching the award winning comedy podcast Answer Me This! with Olly Mann in 2007. In 2015 she began The Allusionist linguistics podcast, which was immediately named iTunes UK's best new podcast. Helen gave up her flat and has spent the last two years touring the world with her live show in which she uses her love of language to unpick gender stereotypes, crime reporting and vegan restaurant menus. We have your thank yous and folk singer Shirley Collins chooses Fantasia on Greensleeves by Ralph Vaughn Williams and A Denying - The Blacksmith performed by Shirley And Dolly Collins Producer: Corinna Jones Editor: Eleanor Garland

Aasmah Mir and Rev Richard Coles talk to former SAS soldier Andy McNab. He was captured in Iraq while leading the Bravo Two Zero mission in 1991. His book on his ordeal became a bestseller - his first of many. His latest book "Get Me Out Of Here" is aimed at young readers. Children's book illustrator Axel Scheffler has given visual form to Julia Donaldson's characters The Gruffalo, Stick Man, Room on the Broom, A Squash and a Squeeze and many more. But if you find the Gruffalo scary, be aware that Axel's original version was even more menacing. His latest books are "Kind" and "The Smeds and the Smoos" - two stories about tolerance and inclusivity. Veronica Thompson goes by the stage name Fancy Chance when she performs aerial burlesque while hanging from her hair. Her show Flights of Fancy explores ideas of beauty and her feelings of alienation at having been abandoned as a baby on the doorstep of a South Korean police station. Actor and comedian Roisin Conaty shares her Inheritance Tracks. And listener Emma Wyatt-Haines talks about overcoming serious spinal injury to compete in an Iron Man contest. Presenters: Aasmah Mir and Rev Richard Coles Producer: Paul Waters