Best of Today – Details, episodes & analysis

Garry Richardson has finished his last sports bulletin on Radio 4's Today programme - 50 years to the day since he started at the BBC.

Garry is best known for his sporting interviews, but his career has ranged from climbing towers for Radio Oxford to singing with the great Buddy Greco.

James Naughtie picks some of the highlights from Garry's half century.

Radio 4 is marking Friday 12th as “Just One Thing Day” in celebration of Dr Michael Mosley’s life and legacy. Throughout the week, we’ve asked his friends and colleagues to tell us what change they might have made that was down to him. Speaking to Today’s Justin Webb, Dr Clare Bailey Mosley shares touching tributes, and reflects on his work, influence, and legacy. Listen to the Today programme on Radio 4 and BBC Sounds: 6-9am Monday-Friday; and 7-9am on Saturdays.

Former aid worker Simon Boas, whose essays about his feelings towards life and death went viral, died in July aged 47.

He was told he had terminal throat cancer in 2023 and began writing about his experiences in his local newspaper, the Jersey Evening Post. This inspired readers across the country.

His book, A Beginner's Guide to Dying, will be posthumously published in September.

If one of his final interviews before his death, Simon spoke to Emma Barnett on Radio 4's Today programme in June 2024 ahead of being moved to a hospice.

Listen to the Today programme on Radio 4 and BBC Sounds: 6-9am Monday-Friday; and 7-9am on Saturdays.

The Today Debate is about taking a subject and pulling it apart with more time than we have in the morning.

Amid a significant backlog in crown courts in England and Wales and related problems in the system in Scotland and Northern Ireland, Today presenter Mishal Husain asks if justice delayed is justice denied?

Joining Mishal on the Today debate panel are Claire Waxman, the Independent Victims' Commissioner for London; Charlie Taylor; His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales; Joanna Hardy-Susskind, a barrister at Red Lion Chambers; Lord Falconer, Labour Peer and former Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice and Sir Max Hill, who was the director of Public Prosecutions for England and Wales until October last year.

When Theresa May was diagnosed with type 1 in her 50s, she told the consultant: "I'm too old. I can't be”. Lady May says she would also eat Jelly Babies when her blood sugar dropped during meetings.

The former Prime Minister has now chaired a parliamentary inquiry into the life-threatening consequences of having both type 1 diabetes and an eating disorder.

She speaks to Today's Justin Webb why a joined-up approach by the NHS is needed so that healthcare professionals are aware of the 'conflicting pressures' on people with type 1 and an eating disorder. She also discusses her experience while in government of managing her blood sugar levels.

The last of our Christmas guest editors is the CEO of the global biopharma company GSK, Dame Emma Walmsley.

She wanted her programme to look to the year ahead with optimism. In these highlights from her programme hear Dame Emma in conversation with the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, who urges politicians not to treat their opponents as enemies but as fellow human beings.

Dame Emma also speaks to the Health Minister for Singapore; visits Kew Gardens and she asks former guest editor and Nobel Laureate Sir Paul Nurse to discuss with a group of students, the scientific and technological advances they are most excited for in 2024.

Simon Jack interviews Dame Emma to end her programme and she chooses a special piece of music.

Professor Jason Arday is our latest Christmas guest editor.

This year he was appointed as one of Cambridge’s youngest ever professors. A significant accolade by any measure but even more so when you consider that Professor Arday was diagnosed with autism and global developmental delay aged just three and didn't learn to speak until he was eleven or read and write until he was eighteen.

He uses his programme to look at improving adult literacy and he speaks to the head of Universal Music UK about championing neurodiversity in the workplace.

Professor Arday also indulges his passion for 90s music with a discussion including Blur drummer Dave Rowntree and as a fan of a sharp suit, he champions the tailoring industry.

Andrew Malkinson is Today's latest Christmas guest editor. He spent 17 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit before being cleared in July.

He uses his programme to look at justice and how one can cope with being locked up unjustly. He speaks to John McCarthy, who was held hostage for more than five years in the 1980s.

While in prison, the world of astronomy and space offered Andrew a sense of release and sanctuary from the immediate confines of his daily experience and a way to expand his world. So as part of his guest edit, he visits Jodrell Bank observatory.

And he tells Today's Justin Webb about the months since his conviction was overturned and how he still feels anger.

The singer and UN environment ambassador Ellie Goulding is the latest Today programme Christmas guest editor.

Ellie uses her programme to explore her twin passions of music and nature, including looking at rewilding projects

She tells Today's Martha Kearney that nature has helped her through difficult times in her life, including postnatal depression.

Ellie interviews fellow musicians Brian Eno and Chris Martin about the music industry's environmental impact.

And she goes back to her sixth form college in Hereford and answers students questions, including about whether the music industry has changed for the better since the Me Too movement began.

James May, The Grand Tour and former Top Gear presenter, is Today’s latest Christmas guest editor.

He looks at the future of driverless cars and why a culture change may be needed to end conflict between cyclists and motorists.

James believes hobbies are good for people’s wellbeing so the Today team assembled a get together with hobby-mad listeners, including comedian Al Murray.

He also looks at whether coffee culture is eroding the place of tea and gets a poetry lesson from Succession star Dame Harriet Walter.

Here James shares highlights from his programme.