Cats and Other Celebrities

Chrissy Iley

Forget everything you know about celebrity podcasts. This one's got claws. Award-winning journalist Chrissy Iley has spent decades getting the world's biggest stars to say things they've never said anywhere else, to her, to anyone. Barbra Streisand. Bono. Hillary Clinton. Now she's found the question that gets past every rehearsed answer: tell me about the animal in your life. Some guests are household names. Others are cult heroes, brilliant eccentrics and unlikely outsiders you've never heard of, until now. They've lived remarkable lives and have stories you'll still be thinking about long after the episode ends. Every single one of them, undone by a question about a pet. The animal is never really the subject. The human is. And what comes out is warm, funny, occasionally outrageous, and always the last thing you expected. Limited series available on all podcast streaming platforms and YouTube Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episodes

  1. 1d ago

    Murray Lachlan Young, From £1 Million Poet to Viral B******t Guru, on Aliens, Poodle Ear Hair and a Tractor Driving Collie

    Murray Lachlan Young once met a woman at the Cadogan Hotel whose handbag was made of poodle ear hair. Years later, she sat in the front row of his show with a standard poodle beside her, just as he was about to tell the audience all about her. Murray has a gift for moments like that. Today he is a poet, screenwriter, children’s author and performer with his film Summerset in development. He writes and performs his own characters on social media, including the B******t Guru, who has gone viral, with a live night coming to Soho. Follow him on Instagram at @murrayly. It started in the 90s, when Everyone’s Taking Cocaine made him the only poet EMI ever signed for £1 million. Since then he has become the BBC’s longest serving resident poet, toured with Julian Cope, supported Chrissie Hynde, written for Mark Rylance at Shakespeare’s Globe, and adapted Under Milk Wood for the screen. He tells Chrissy all: the line he made up for About a Boy that got him cut from the film, his childhood cats Puddy and Grandmaster Flash the Second, and the summer on a farm when he discovered horses have personalities. He also performs his poem about Don, the collie who drove a tractor onto the M74 to become a beat poet. New episodes wherever you listen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Murray Lachlan Young, From £1 Million Poet to Viral B******t Guru, on Aliens, Poodle Ear Hair and a Tractor Driving Collie

  2. Oct 29

    Arran Day of These Wicked Rivers on His No.1 Album and the Demon Cat Who Thinks She’s His Wife

    Arran Day's cat rides the roof of his narrowboat in a tiny life jacket, flirting with strangers on the towpath. Meet Luna: fluffy, black and pure demon energy. Chosen as the maddest kitten in the litter, she combs his beard at three in the morning, leads him to his guitar when it's time to write, and is quite sure the two of them are married. Her sister Mishka is the darker diva, a decapitator of mice who, in another life, would drink red wine in Paris and listen only to Joni Mitchell. Arran plays guitar in These Wicked Rivers: wizard rock in three-piece suits and heels, whose album Fire and Folklore just hit number one on the rock and metal chart. Ten years ago it was two blokes and a dog, paid in a Mars bar. Across the table with Chrissy: high kicks, nana lampshades, and life afloat on Bilbo, his hobbit hole on the water. New episodes wherever you listen. Roger's verdict: accepted the socks. Will not be wearing a life jacket. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Arran Day of These Wicked Rivers on His No.1 Album and the Demon Cat Who Thinks She’s His Wife

  3. Oct 22

    Nick Egan, Punk’s Cover Artist, on Oasis, Bob Dylan’s 3am Phone Call and Iggy Pop’s Frilly Apron

    Nick Egan watched Iggy Pop answer the door in a frilly apron covered in flowers, then vacuum the entire flat in front of him. The ultimate punk rocker said it was the only way he could think. Nick has seen everything, and designed most of it. Album covers for The Clash, Bob Dylan and INXS, six videos for Oasis, and a Duran Duran cover that is now a postage stamp. Bob Dylan rang him from Russia at three in the morning. Liam Gallagher's entire brief was: don't mess it up. He has no cat. He has a fluffy bichon frise, and a neighbour's cat that sits on the wall, flicks its tail and sends the dog demented. As far as Nick is concerned, that cat is Oasis. Across the table with Chrissy: the room of music royalty Dylan kept waiting an hour for him, the edit that came back with 39 pages of notes, and a punk squat in a Regent's Park mansion. New episodes wherever you listen. Roger's verdict: unmoved by Dylan. Very interested in Nick's offer to design his album cover. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Nick Egan, Punk’s Cover Artist, on Oasis, Bob Dylan’s 3am Phone Call and Iggy Pop’s Frilly Apron

  4. Oct 15

    Catalina Guirado, TFI Friday's Gorgeous Girl, Traded Her Father's Art for a Hollywood Horse

    Catalina Guirado was TFI Friday's Gorgeous Girl at the height of Cool Britannia, then walked away from it all for Hollywood. Booked for one show, she stayed nearly two years, right in the middle of the Oasis, Met Bar, lads' mag nineties. England only ever saw the Gorgeous Girl, never the violin prodigy who played the Royal Albert Hall at twelve, was discovered by Vogue at fifteen, and signed to Universal as a singer songwriter. So, Catalina moved to LA, not to act, but because everything was a possibility. Now she is restoring the name of her father, Spanish surrealist Juan Antonio Guirado, whose work is in the Reina Sofía, and once traded three of his paintings for an Arabian show horse. She paints too, mostly horses and cats, and teaches creative wellness, using art as stress relief for neurodivergent adults and, next, dementia patients. At home beneath the Hollywood sign, Bertie, her part-Bengal rescue, rules Bertie Towers, a floor-to-ceiling pole he has been known to knock clean over. Jelly, the feral beauty of the block, sees off coyotes on camera. In the studio with Chrissy, she spills on Britpop, the art world's murkier corners, and a Bengal who escapes like Steve McQueen. Gorgeous Girl. Surrealist's daughter. Staff to a Bengal. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Catalina Guirado, TFI Friday's Gorgeous Girl, Traded Her Father's Art for a Hollywood Horse

  5. Sep 3

    Dr Aseem Malhotra: the most influential doctor on X, and the pug who changed him.

    Dr Aseem Malhotra, ranked the world's most influential doctor on X in July 2026, was bitten by a dog as a boy, and for years afterwards he kept animals firmly at a distance. Then a beige pug called Tiny moved into his life, and the cardiologist never recovered. What followed is the reason a heart doctor belongs on a show about cats. Malhotra came to believe, and now tells his patients, that touch is medicine. He prescribes hugging: four times a day, twenty seconds each, doctor's orders. He will tell you that the unconditional love of an animal, the simple act of petting a cat, can measurably lower your heart rate and your stress, the sort of claim that sounds whimsical until a cardiologist makes it with a straight face. He is often called Britain's most controversial doctor, and he arrives at Chrissy's table fresh from testifying in the US Senate. But the conversation that matters here is quieter and more personal. He has lost his whole family and has found his way through grief with the help of Buddhism, of purpose, and, it turns out, of a pug and a cat. He talks about Samson, the cat who sat on his bed for a full day after he left, about loneliness, about why suffering is inevitable and can still be turned into growth, and about the idea that the greatest meaning in a life comes from helping other people. It is warm, unexpected and genuinely useful, an episode that quietly argues the best medicine in the house might be the one purring on the sofa. New episodes wherever you listen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Dr Aseem Malhotra: the most influential doctor on X, and the pug who changed him.

  6. Aug 27

    Patricia Quinn, Magenta in The Rocky Horror Show, still touring fifty years on, and married actor Robert Stephens the day before his knighthood.

    Patricia Quinn does not love cats, and Rocky Horror fans have loved her regardless for fifty years. She originated Magenta in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and she is still touring it, selling out theatres across America in the same jacket, night after night. She has met three generations of the same family dressed as Magenta, grandmother to granddaughter. Mick Jagger once turned up backstage. On the way into the studio to record this episode, strangers stopped her in the street asking for a photograph. She married Robert Stephens the day before his knighthood came through, and stayed twenty two years. When he died, King Charles wrote the letter read at his memorial. Cats, by contrast, never got a look in. Across the table with Chrissy, Patricia is Rocky Horror royalty who never chased a knighthood, a cat, or anyone's approval. New episodes wherever you listen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Patricia Quinn, Magenta in The Rocky Horror Show, still touring fifty years on, and married actor Robert Stephens the day before his knighthood.

  7. Aug 20

    Smutty Smiff a pioneer of Neo-Rockabilly talks being discovered in 1977

    A founding member of the first Neo-Rockabilly band put together by Leee Black Childers in 1977, who was Andy Warhols stage manager at the Factory, David Bowies tour manager for Ziggy Stardust along with Iggy Pop working for Mainmain ent, Leee Was on the Anarchy tour with his Band Johnny Thunders Heartbreakers personally invited by Malcom McClaren, Smutty Left a Basildon Essex council estate with a hippie mum and no father, with zero musical training or background. Chrissy talks about Smutty's love of cats his new cat Princess Leigh, her fussy eating habits and her favourite food: expensive dried cod from Iceland!Smutty is currently working in the studio in London and Palm Springs on his first ever solo album a Rockabilly dub album using chapters from his book for the songs, The title of the album is "No Thieves, Fakers, Rougues, or Tinkers"; the producer is Rockabilly super legend Tim Polecat. Also, a documentary about his journey from council estate boy to fame against all odds is already being filmed in London.Smutty also has a vintage Punk and Rockabilly store in the world-famous Alfie's Market in London along with a shared art gallery called "Walk on the wild side" withStephen Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Smutty Smiff a pioneer of Neo-Rockabilly talks being discovered in 1977

  8. Aug 13

    Adil Ray OBE went from Citizen Khan to broadcast legend. A cat finally won him over.

    He built the first Muslim sitcom British television ever had, out of pure defiance, and became a national radio broadcaster long before most people knew his face. These days he anchors Good Morning Britain and fronts Lingo, the quiz show that somehow gets five year olds and ninety five year olds shouting at the telly in unison.  He is currently the only British Muslim to anchor a peak time news show in mainstream media. He is also, by his own admission, a man who spent years convinced a specific cat had it in for him. Personally. He had theories. Then a cat he did not invite sat down on his chest, and every single one of those theories fell apart. Adil throws secret vinyl-only parties nobody talks about. He has a dream guest he has never landed. He has a lot to say about the state of British comedy, and even more to say about the cat. New episodes wherever you listen.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Adil Ray OBE went from Citizen Khan to broadcast legend. A cat finally won him over.

  9. Aug 6

    DJ Smokin Jo: World's No.1, Flash the Chihuahua, and Grace Jones

    DJ Smokin Jo wrote a book called You Don't Need a Dick to DJ. She meant every word. She is the only woman ever voted world's number one DJ, and she is still out there proving it. She runs her own night, Smokin Sundays, packing out the Timber Loft in Shoreditch, and hands a scholarship to the next generation of female DJs coming up behind her. Backstage with Grace Jones once, she was offered champagne off a rider of thirty bottles and simply couldn't say no. Jo is joined in the studio by her partner, Tim, and his chihuahua, Flash, otherwise known as Grandmaster Flash when he takes to the turntables. He behaves like a true gent throughout. Jo sits down with Chrissy and holds nothing back. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    DJ Smokin Jo: World's No.1, Flash the Chihuahua, and Grace Jones

  10. Jul 30

    Arya Goggin on SKINDRED’s battles and Disney cats

    Arya Goggin spent years trying to make a cat love him. She never did. He grew up around dogs, then met Trixie, who tolerated him out of what he suspects was pity. "I fell in love with Trixie," he says. "I don't know if she ever fell in love with me." It did not put him off. He waited, and when the time came he got two cats of his own, rescue sisters from Celia Hammond named, with great ceremony, after a Bond girl and a Disney princess: Domino and Belle. One struts like a model, one is the girl next door, and one, allegedly, has a French accent. The cats are only half of it. Arya drums for Skindred, the band from Wales that took on a major label with nothing but a tiny indie behind them and stole a UK number one, a win so unlikely the whole rock community rallied behind it. He is brilliant on what that actually took, on the MOBO that was, by any sensible measure, too sharp to hand out on the night, and on a truth that applies equally to bands and to cats: no one will ever care about your work more than you do. He joins Chrissy to trace the whole unlikely road, from Wales via Devon and Iran, through drummer's arms and a shield that would not look out of place on Jason and the Argonauts, to a life where the cats arrived during Covid and now travel down to Devon like royalty. Belle and Domino, naturally, supervise the entire conversation from a polite distance. Roger has views of his own, and a French passport. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Arya Goggin on SKINDRED’s battles and Disney cats

  11. Jul 23

    Richard E Grant Answers to a Blue-Eyed Ragdoll Called Neo

    The most vicious cat in London adored Richard E Grant. She adored no one else. Her name was Shiksa, she belonged to Chrissy, and she once worked a dinner table of Oscar winners dispensing pure contempt. Richard she loved on sight, and that was the test passed. Forty years after Withnail & I, he sits across the table with Chrissy. He now lives in what he cheerfully calls a commune, with his daughter, a two-week-old grandchild, and a blue-eyed ragdoll called Neo who comes when whistled and whom he calls his master. He keeps a two-foot sculpture of Barbra Streisand's head in his garden. He told her. She said he was crazy. An Oscar nominee, a devoted cat slave, and a raconteur who could charm the varnish off a door. New episodes wherever you listen. Roger's verdict: a natural. Shiksa had taste, and Roger trusts Shiksa. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Richard E Grant Answers to a Blue-Eyed Ragdoll Called Neo
  • 11 Episodes

About

Forget everything you know about celebrity podcasts. This one's got claws. Award-winning journalist Chrissy Iley has spent decades getting the world's biggest stars to say things they've never said anywhere else, to her, to anyone. Barbra Streisand. Bono. Hillary Clinton. Now she's found the question that gets past every rehearsed answer: tell me about the animal in your life. Some guests are household names. Others are cult heroes, brilliant eccentrics and unlikely outsiders you've never heard of, until now. They've lived remarkable lives and have stories you'll still be thinking about long after the episode ends. Every single one of them, undone by a question about a pet. The animal is never really the subject. The human is. And what comes out is warm, funny, occasionally outrageous, and always the last thing you expected. Limited series available on all podcast streaming platforms and YouTube Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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