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Lenny Henry, Cyrille Regis, John McCarthy

Sian Williams and Richard Coles with actor and comedian Lenny Henry, the Inheritance Tracks of former footballer Cyrille Regis, and John McCarthy in the Lake District.

Sian Williams and Richard Coles with actor and comedian Lenny Henry, The Inheritance Tracks of former footballer Cyrille Regis, forensic anthropologist Heather Bonney, The Queen of Yorkshire Comedy, Jo Little on Cromer Pier, John McCarthy travels round the Lake District in Mike Hardings camper van and JP Devlin with a crowdscape from Dudley.

Producer: Chris Wilson.

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1 hour, 28 minutes

STUDIO GUEST :: LENNY HENRY

STUDIO GUEST :: LENNY HENRY

Lenny Henry, actor, comedian, writer and co- founder of Comic Relief. Lenny is starring in 'Fences' at the Duchess Theatre in London. Lenny Ìýhas risen from being a cult star on children’s television to being one of Britain’s best known and loved personalities – and has had a significant Ìýinfluence on the creation of black-centred comedy and characters. ÌýHe’s now taking on increasingly big and serious roles on the stage. In ‘Fences’ he plays Troy ÌýMaxson, the grizzled anti-hero of 's 1987 drama about black American family life. Troy stamps on the ambitions of his sons because his own dreams of being a professional baseball player have been thwarted by the colour of his skin. Lenny joins Sian and Richard to talk about his acting, his professional life, Comic Relief and his roots in Dudley, West Midlands.

Ìý

Ìý

TRAVEL :: MIKE HARDING IN THE LAKE DISTRICT

TRAVEL :: MIKE HARDING IN THE LAKE DISTRICT

Folk musician Mike Harding, who has written a biography of the VW campervan, sets off in his own van and takes John McCarthy on a tour of the Lakes - with a spot of fishing included.Ìý

Ìý

INHERITANCE TRACKS :: CYRILLE REGIS MBE

INHERITANCE TRACKS :: CYRILLE REGIS MBE

Cyrille Regis,Ìý former West Bromwich Albion and Coventry strikerÌýwas and still is an iconicÌý role model for many people. HeÌý received an MBE in 2008 in recognition ofÌý his services to football and to the community. Cyrille inherited Distant Drums by Jim ReevesÌý and would like to pass on How Great Thou Art sung by the Canoldir Male Voice Choir.

Ìý

HEATHER BONNEY :: FORENSIC ANTRHOPOLOGIST

HEATHER BONNEY :: FORENSIC ANTRHOPOLOGIST

Heather Bonney is a forensic anthropologist – she deals in the recovery and analysis of human remains. ÌýHer job is to assess the age, sex , stature of the skeletons and bones that come her way. At the she works on their collection of some 20,000 sets of human remains, but is also frequently called out to assist the police with their enquiries if suspicious bones are unearthed – do they belong to man or beast, and if human – how and when did that person die – and was it an untimely death?

Ìý

END-OF-THE PIER SHOW PERFORMER :: JO LITTLE

END-OF-THE PIER SHOW PERFORMER :: JO LITTLE

Jo Little is currently amusing crowds with herÌýown brand of musical comedy in the on Cromer Pier in Norfolk – one of the only surviving end-of-the pier shows in the country. Jo tells us about life as a performer in the fast paced - and fast vanishing - end-of-the pier show tradition, and how her childhood struggle with scoliosis may have shattered her Olympic dreams but ignited a career in comedy.Ìý

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Ìý

Ìý

CROWDSCAPE :: DUDLEY

CROWDSCAPE :: DUDLEY

Chatting to the people in town centre

Ìý

BLOG :: RICHARD ON ST SWITHUN'S DAY

St Swithun’s Day on Wednesday, so that’s forty days of sun to come if the legend is reliable. Swithun (aka Siwthin) was Bishop of Winchester in the 10th century and asked to be buried outside his cathedral so footsteps and raindrops alike could fall on his grave till Doomsday. It was not to be. His posthumous fame spread and his successor decided to move him into the cathedral and turn him into a Visitor Attraction. The day for the Translation of the Relics, as it is called, was July 15th and Swithun was so irritated he made the rain fall on the unfortunate inhabitants of Winchester for the next forty days.

Make of that what you will. I was at the cathedral last week, invited to preach at a Festival Evensong to mark the dedication of a new set of altar tapestries made by Maggi Hambling. I say ‘made by’ - they were actually designed by her but made by a master weaver of Aubusson in France, a man who stands in a tradition which goes back to the 16th C. Aubusson provided tapestries for Louis XIV at Versailles, and, with commendable pragmatism, for the Revolution too when regime change intervened in the late eighteenth century.. Anyway, in Winchester the weather was gloriously sunny, and the cathedral looked magnificent, and the choir sounded heavenly; what more perfect way could there be to spend a lovely summery afternoon in England? As fate would have it, Evensong coincided with a certain game of tennis being played in Wimbledon that very afternoon, the Final of the Men’s Singles. What a terrible choice to set before churchgoers in an English cathedral city. Evensong, or the chance to watch the first British player win Wimbledon in 77 years? The Dean, in his welcome, generously suggested that those who had turned out would receive a substantial discount in purgatory for their diligence. Fortunately quite a few had turned out and embarrassment was avoided largely down to the excitement caused by the arrival of Maggi Hambling’s new altar hangings. From aÌý distance you would not believe they were tapestries at all. They look like they’ve been painted, so fluid the shapes and so subtle the gradations of colour, a blood red swirl for the frontal and anther in blue behind. The high altar at Winchester, typically for a Gothic church is pointy - strong, sharp verticals proliferate - so the circular fluid shapes in the new tapestries are all the more striking. But if you get up close, as I was able to do, you saw that this was not paint applied freehand, but work of the most meticulous craftsmanship. The warp and weft was so minute, so carefully executed, that it looked like the work of nature rather than of art.

ÌýMost things, where human aspiration and ingenuity are involved, look better from a distance. On Saturday Live however, we sometimes like to get close up, and see the warp and weft of people’s lives, endlessly fascinating, sometimes moving, occasionally bizarre. This week, for example, we meet The Queen of Yorkshire Comedy, topping the bill at Cromer, the only surviving end of the pier show. John McCarthy tours the Lakes with Mike Harding in a VW Camper, we uncover secrets with a forensic anthropologist from the Natural History Museum and we have Inheritance Tracks from Cyrille Regis, famous 70s black player from West Brom and a favourite of our studio guest Lenny Henry. Join us at nine.

STUDIO PHOTO :: RICHARD, LENNY HENRY, HEATHER BONNEY, SIAN

STUDIO PHOTO :: RICHARD, LENNY HENRY, HEATHER BONNEY, SIAN

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Sian Williams
Presenter Richard Coles
Interviewed Guest Lenny Henry
Interviewed Guest Cyrille Regis
Interviewed Guest Heather Bonney
Interviewed Guest Jo Little
Interviewed Guest John McCarthy
Interviewed Guest Mike Harding
Interviewed Guest JP Devlin
Producer Chris Wilson

Broadcast

  • Sat 20 Jul 2013 09:00

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