Rosebud with Gyles Brandreth – Details, episodes & analysis

Rosebud is a year old, so it's time for something a little bit different: to round off our first year, Gyles is talking to Professor Jon Simons - who is a world expert in memory, and the head of a specialist research lab at Cambridge University called The Cambridge Memory Lab. What is memory? Where are memories stored, and how are they formed? Why do we remember some things and not others? How far back is it posslble to remember? And what can we do to improve our memories as we age? These, and other, questions are addressed in this fascinating episode. Gyles and Jon look back at some of the guests we've had on Rosebud this year, talk about their own memories, and lots of other intriguing topics. The Cambridge Memory Lab are currently running a research project into people with exceptional memories. If you think you'd be an interesting subject for this experiment, you can volunteer yourself by following this link: http://tinyurl.com/memorysearch And the Memory Lab is at http://www.memlab.psychol.cam.ac.uk/ - have a look around and see the amazing research they're doing into our memories, how they work, and how we can help those whose memories start to deteriorate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Felicity Kendal's irresistible performance as Barbara in The Good Life made her a household name almost 50 years ago; but her life was unique and fascinating long before that. Her childhood was spent touring India and Asia with her parents' theatre company, performing in makeshift theatres, schools, jungles and palaces. Her first stage appearance was in Midsummer Night's Dream when she was nine months old. She tells Gyles all about this amazing travelling circus life - how she caught typhoid as a teenager, went to a different school every couple of months and only ever took one exam, and still speaks Hindi and thinks of India as home. Felicity also talks about returning to London as an unknown 17 year-old and how she made it as an actress. This episode is charming, funny, unusual and full of laughter. Felicity will star in Filumena at Theatre Royal Windsor from 4 October. Thank you to Felicity for this wonderful interview. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Björn Ulvaeus is pop music royalty, a founder member of one the most successful pop groups in history - ABBA. So when Gyles was given the opportunity to interview him at a special event in Bridlington, the Rosebud team hotfooted it up there to record it. What you're going to hear is a very special, wide-ranging and fascinating conversation about Björn's life and his incredible career. Björn grew up in Västervik, a small coastal town on Sweden's east coast. It was a happy childhood, but he knew his future lay beyond the little town, and it turned out that his guitar was his escape route. In this interview, Björn tells Gyles about meeting Benny, how they clicked immediately and started to write songs together. He tells Gyles about their songwriting process, which is riveting. He talks about the night ABBA won Eurovision, and the difficult period that followed. He talks about the band's split, and about the effect of fame on his family. Gyles and Björn also - exclusively - reveal that they've been writing a song together. Will it ever see the light of day? You'll have to listen to find out... Our thanks to the team at Bridlington Business Day. And our thanks to Björn Ulvaeus and Christina Sas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week's guest is the stand-up comedian, actor, marathon-runner and political activist Suzy Eddie Izzard. Suzy tells Gyles about her new name, and why she's relaxed about what people to choose to call her. She then takes Gyles back into her childhood, spent in Aden, Northern Ireland and South Wales, until the sudden death of her mother changed everything and Suzy and her brother were sent to boarding school. Suzy talks about what made her want to perform, what gives her drive to take on new and greater challenges all the time; she and Gyles talk about street performing, and about Suzy's current, ground-breaking solo production of Hamlet (on at London's Riverside Studios in Hammersmith). Enjoy this fascinating episode of Rosebud. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gyles gets together with comedian Chris McCausland to record a really special episode of Rosebud. Chris takes Gyles back to his childhood days, playing football and messing about in the streets of West Derby Village in Liverpool, part of a close-knit family and friendship group. Chris talks about the beginnings of the problems with his sight, which started in childhood, how this affected his schooling and could, at times, make him feel self-conscious. He and Gyles also talk about whether Chris's sight problems affect his memories - which is fascinating. Chris tells Gyles about getting into stand-up, his best friend, how he met and married his wife and his experiences of being a dad. This is a life-affirming, inspiring, profound and at times, moving, episode of Rosebud - as Gyles demonstrates at the very end of the interview! Our huge thanks so Chris for giving his warmth, wit and wonderful reminiscences to us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Who is the cleverest person in Britain? When Gyles asked this question to readers of his columns last year, one name was mentioned more than any other; that of Martin Rees, Lord Rees of Ludlow, the Astronomer Royal. Lord Rees is one of the most distinguished scientists in the country, a former President of the Royal Society and a Cambridge fellow. He wrote the first papers on quasars (a type of black hole) and he, alongside other greats such as Dennis Sciama and Stephen Hawking, helped to develop our understanding of the origins of the universe. He is also, Gyles discovers, a man of incredible modesty who just got into science because "he wasn't much good at anything else". This is a wide-ranging conversation which takes in not only Rees's childhood in Shropshire and early academic career, but also includes discussions of the big bang, the future of the earth, and what happens to scientists when they get old. Plus, there's a bombshell revelation about Sir Isaac Newton. This is one of our most profound and intelligent Rosebuds yet: which isn't surprising, given our guest. Thank you, Martin Rees. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gyles and Alexander Armstrong reminisce about Alexander's idyllic childhood in Northumberland, the son of a country GP. They talk about his school years, when he was an 'odd little boy' who sang in the school choir and was obsessed with Gilbert and Sullivan. They discuss the joy of Evensong, and the delights of PG Wodehouse, and Gyles finds out what it was like to live on Imogen Stubbs's barge in Chiswick. This episode was recorded on a sunny day in May, and we hope you can feel the sunshine as you listen to it - enjoy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gyles meets the writer, clergyman and former member of the Communards Reverend Richard Coles. Together they talk about Richard's childhood, growing up as the musically gifted youngest son in a family of shoe manufacturers in Kettering, about how he discovered his sexuality and became part of London's gay scene in the 1980s, and about how he found his faith in the aftermath of the AIDS crisis. Gyles and Richard discuss the best way to pull a vicar, and whether a mental orgasm is better than a physical one. Thank you to Reverend Richard for his openness and for this wonderful conversation. Our other big news is that this week is our sponsor Grosvenor House's 95th anniversary. To hear Gyles interview Stuart Bowery, the Manager of the hotel, all about Grosvenor House's fascinating history, go to https://grosvenorhousecasts.podbean.com/. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gyles has fun talking to Katherine Ryan about her early memories and formative experiences, with added discussions about the rights and wrongs of plastic surgery, whether you should tell anecdotes during sex, and what, exactly, is phallic swagger. This is a frank, open, revealing and sometimes inspiring conversation that's possibly slightly more adult than our usual episodes. Katherine tells Gyles about her childhood in a Canadian industrial town, about her parents and their divorce, and about her student job waitressing at Hooters. Thank you to Katherine for this brilliant conversation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week, Gyles has John Cleese in the Rosebud hotseat. Gyles finds out about John's childhood, growing up in the Westcountry during the war, with a father whose surname was actually 'Cheese' and a mother who was suffering from post natal depression. John also shares stories about his school days, what it was like being the tallest boy in the form, and how he enjoyed being "subversive" at the back of the class and discovered his love of being funny. John also talks about Python, Fawlty Towers and his spiritual side. This is a fascinating, wide-ranging and sometimes hilarious conversation. Thank you, John. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices