Loose Ends

BBC Radio 4
  • 4.3 (14)
  • SOCIETY & CULTURE
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

Clive Anderson and guests with an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy

  1. Joanna Scanlan, Adèle Anderson, Faye Tozer, Elles Bailey, ERNIE

    1D AGO

    Joanna Scanlan, Adèle Anderson, Faye Tozer, Elles Bailey, ERNIE

    Stuart Maconie talks to the Riot Women and In The Thick Of It actress Joanna Scanlan on her lastest project, Mercy - a dark comic thriller. Faye Tozer is perhaps best known as part of the crowd pleasing, hearts and flowers pop band Steps, but now she's joining the cast of Mean Girls the musical - what does she make of the world of queen bees and "plastics". Fascinating Aïda's Adèle Anderson on staying fierce and fabulous while on tour with Priscilla Queen of The Desert the musical without her caberet co-stars. Plus music from smokey-voiced, Americana-inspired English singer song-writer Elles Bailey and BBC Introducing NorthEast indie pop singer ERNIE. Presenter: Stuart Maconie Producer: Olive Clancy

    37 min

  2. FEB 21

    Lucy Beaumont, Gizzi Erskine, Alasdair Beckett-King, Jonny Balchandani, Jesca Hoop & Lail Arad with The Songs of Joni Mitchell

    Joining Stuart for this week's Loose Ends are... Comedian and actress Lucy Beaumont on the play that, 40 years ago, inspired her mum to become a writer. It also features a chip-eating Alsatian. Chef and broadcaster Gizzi Erskine with tales of members of The Damned being left with Courtney Love's baby. Comedian Alasdair Beckett-King on the good old days of landline phones and pop tarts. Jonny Balchandani, known to his huge social media following as the Bearded Plantaholic, tells us how he covertly turned his wife's office into a living, breathing jungle. And there's music from Jesca Hoop and Lail Arad as they perform Morning Morgantown and Big Yellow Taxi from their show The Songs of Joni Mitchell. Presenter: Stuart Maconie Producer: Elizabeth Foster

    37 min
  3. Tim Firth, Fatiha El-Ghorri, Operation Mincemeat, Lois, Stuart Maconie, Tom Hodgkinson

    FEB 14

    Tim Firth, Fatiha El-Ghorri, Operation Mincemeat, Lois, Stuart Maconie, Tom Hodgkinson

    Stuart talks to the award winning writer and composer of Calendar Girls and Kinky Boots - Tim Firth - about his latest stage creation, The Ladies Football Club. Can the man who got his break with a play about two yucca plants strike fresh gold with this tale of the women who began to play football whist working in Sheffield's munitions factories during World War I and end up playing to many thousands in a South Yorkshire women's league. Taskmaster and Mr Bigstuff star Fatiha El-Ghorri says she's ironing her swaggest hijab to head out on her debut stand up tour - Cockney Stacking Doll. She'll also have the story of her journey out from divorce and back on the dating scene in her new Radio 4 comedy - A Match Made Inshallah. Tom Hodgkinson's the editor of The Idler and author of books such as How to be Idle, The Idle Parent and - here's the outlier - The Ukelele Handbook. So perhaps busier than he makes out? His new book is a fresh look at one of the world's oldest philosophies - How to Live Like A Stoic. Stoicism is having a moment in the manosphere but he explains how "bro-ism" has got stoicism all wrong. With music from the cast of the smash hit musical Operation Mincemeat and from BBC Introducing "one to watch" , Lois. Presenter: Stuart Maconie Producer: Olive Clancy Assistant Producer: Samuel Nixon Technical Producers: John Coles, Amy Brennan, Phillip Halliwell Production Co-ordinator: Pete Liggins.

    36 min

  4. FEB 7

    Beverley Knight, Keala Settle, Michaela Strachan, Ross Noble, Melvyn Hayes

    Joining Clive this week are the actress and singer Keala Settle, who's starring in a newly re-imagined production of John Ransom Phillips' Mrs President. Presenter Michaela Strachan is heading off across the country with her show Not Just A Wild Life, to celebrate 40 years of her career in television. Comedian Ross Noble joins us mid-tour to delve into his Cranium of Curiosities. Star of stage and screen Melvyn Hayes brings along his new autobiography It Ain't Half Late Mum. And there's music from Beverley Knight, who's about to grace the stage in the West End premiere of Marie and Rosetta. Presenter: Clive Anderson Producer: Elizabeth Foster

    39 min

  5. JAN 31

    Marcus Brigstocke, Ashley Storrie, Louise Welsh, Stuart Maconie, Rum Ragged, Hen Hoose Collective

    Stuart Maconie is in Glasgow for the city's annual folk, roots and world music festival - Celtic Connections. He's joined by comedian Marcus Brigstocke, whose tour Vitruvian Mango sees him trying to figure out what it is to be a man, and why he feels like more of one when his wife asks him to reach something from a high shelf. Ashley Storrie will be chatting all about the new series of her award-winning BBC show Dinosaur. Autistic palaeontologist Nina is knee-deep in mud on an Isle of Wight dig site, living the dream. Well, either that or she's desperately missing reality tv marathons on her own sofa with some sausage rolls. In writer Louise Welsh's latest novel The Cut Up, Glasgow auctioneer Rilke is once again drawn in to drama, murder and detective work, as he curses his very loyal but very troublesome friends. With performances from Newfoundland folk band Rum Ragged who are keeping the music of their Canadian island home alive. Plus Glasgow-based female and non-binary music collective Hen Hoose share a track from new album The Twelve. Producer: Caitlin Sneddon Production Coordinator: Lauren Stewart Engineers: Andrew Hay, Fiona Johnstone, Sean Mullervy

    37 min

  6. JAN 24

    Nigel Havers, Rosalie Minnitt, Mike Wozniak, Dan Gillespie Sells, Stealing Sheep

    Joining Stuart for this week's Loose Ends are actor Nigel Havers, who tells us about his remarkable shepherd's pies and the sex appeal of Mrs Thatcher. Comedy writer and performer Rosalie Minnitt on how dreaming of cows and seeing moonlit owls doesn't bode terribly well. Comedian Mike Wozniak on how a luxuriant moustache can help balance out an underdeveloped lower face. And there's music from Dan Gillespie Sells, performing a song by his band The Feeling, and Liverpool's electro-pop trio Stealing Sheep, with their track GLO. Presenter: Stuart Maconie Producer: Elizabeth Foster

    35 min
  7. The Charlatans, Stuart Maconie, Jill Halfpenny, Ian Smith, Jess Robinson

    JAN 17

    The Charlatans, Stuart Maconie, Jill Halfpenny, Ian Smith, Jess Robinson

    Stuart Maconie's tiptoeing the line between dark and light in this week's Loose Ends. When she won Strictly Jill Halfpenny got the highest ever score for her sequin studded jive, but there's not a glitterball to be seen in her latest role as the traumatised mum Eve in the dark psychological thriller Girl Taken, which also stars Alfie Allen as the creepiest teacher you'd never hope to meet. Ian Smith is a comedian who mines his own anxieties for his art - be that his Radio 4 series called "Ian Smith is Stressed", the unintentionally hilarious news from his hometown in the Northern News Podcast or his new tour, "Footspa Half Empty". The comic, actor and Dead Ringers impressionist Jess Robinson's very funny and also very sad new memoir contrasts her own twentysomething exploits as a stage ingenue with her Jewish Grandmother's diaries at the same age - Life Is Rosi: Grandma, Me and Our Diaries at 23. Grandma Rosi loved music, boyfriends and having a laugh too but was enduring Germany during the rise of Hitler at the same time. And as they head out on tour, we have performance from The Charlatan's new album We Are Love. Producer: Olive Clancy Assistant Producer: Samuel Nixon Technical Producers: John Cole and Mark Ward Production Coordintor: Pete Liggins

    36 min

  8. JAN 10

    Alice Roberts, Amir El-Masry, Rob Auton, Esther Manito, Cast

    Joining Stuart Maconie for this week's Loose Ends are Professor Alice Roberts with her book Domination, which takes a deep dig into the heart of the Roman Empire. Comedian and poet Rob Auton is about to tour with his show CAN: The Story of a Man Called Can...he's here to tell us all he can about that. Actor Amir El-Masry is starring in the new film Giant as the boxer Prince Naseem Hamed, and he joins Loose Ends to talk technique, training and working with Pierce Brosnan and Sylvester Stallone. The comedian Esther Manito drops into the studio mid-tour to bring her humorous take on what she calls a "very undignified period of life". And there's music from Cast who are about to release their new album Yeah Yeah Yeah at the end of January. Presenter: Stuart Maconie Producer: Elizabeth Foster

    33 min
See All (473)

Ratings & Reviews

4.3
out of 5
14 Ratings

About

Clive Anderson and guests with an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy

Information

  • Creator
    BBC Radio 4
  • Years Active
    2016 - 2026
  • Episodes
    473
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © (C) BBC 2026
  • Show Website
    Loose Ends

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