The Friendship File Podcart

Six years ago, a young man climbed off a tiny boat onto a Greek beach. He was clutching his shoes and could only say one thing to the woman holding out her arms to him: "Are we safe now?" It was the start of something no one could have predicted.

On the steps of a politics tutorial there was an accusation. "You don't know anything about me." That changed. There was a roast chicken involved. More than one. This is the story of thirty years of mutual support ... and insults!

Five key things come up again and again as our friends talk about each other and their relationships. Five things that could make a difference to our own friendships. In this short mid-season special, find out what the friends are trying to tell us.

"I am the reason she always carries snacks in her handbag."
"She is like a dance I know all the moves to."
Two young women guiding each other through life, creating a strong, honest, playful relationship as they do it.

Catherine Carr and Louise Halling met as students and bonded over dodgy sign language. They have been talking ever since. Find out how they've helped create - literally and figuratively - each other's life story.

Martin Plimmer and Michael Magenis met on a bus or over a bottle of vodka ... no one is sure. What is certain is they were destined to go places together neither would have reached alone. They became The Men Who Know, sharing 24-hour schnapps-fuelled writing sessions, prank calls to the BeeGees, performances with Eartha Kitt and being sung off stage to the death march - but, above all, an extraordinary friendship.