Best James Ockenden Podcasts (2025)

1
Classic Desert Island Discs - Jack Thorne 35:41

2d ago35:41

35:41

Jack Thorne, screenwriter and playwright, shares the eight tracks, book and luxury item he would want with him if cast away on a desert island. With Lauren Laverne.By BBC Radio 4

1
Classic Desert Island Discs - Dame Joan Plowright 35:13

10d ago35:13

35:13

Sue Lawley talks to the actor Dame Joan Plowright in a programme first broadcast in 2006. Dame Joan died in January at the age of 95.By BBC Radio 4

1
Classic Desert Island Discs - Colm Toibin 37:53

16d ago37:53

37:53

Kirsty Young interviews writer Colm Toibin in a programme first heard in 2016.By BBC Radio 4

1
Classic Desert Island Discs - Dame Louise Casey 36:52

23d ago36:52

36:52

Lauren Laverne talks to crossbench peer Dame Louise Casey in a programme from 2021.By BBC Radio 4

1
Lindsey Hilsum, journalist 50:59

1M ago50:59

50:59

Lindsey Hilsum is a multi-award-winning journalist who has been a foreign correspondent for the past four decades. She has been Channel 4’s international editor for the past 22 years and has reported on every continent except Antarctica. After studying French and Spanish at University, she worked as an aid worker in Mexico and Kenya before becoming…

1
Donna Ockenden, midwife 50:58

1M ago50:58

50:58

Donna Ockenden is a former clinical midwife who led the Ockenden Review which revealed, at the time, the biggest maternity scandal in NHS history. Published in 2022, the review highlighted serious failings in maternity care at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust which contributed to the deaths of more than 200 babies and nine mothers. Don…

1
Professor Carl Jones, conservation biologist 52:52

2M ago52:52

52:52

Professor Carl Jones is a conservation biologist who is best known for saving the Mauritius kestrel from extinction. He is the scientific director of Mauritian Wildlife Foundation, chief scientist at Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and an honorary professor in ecology and conservation biology at the University of East Anglia. He was born in Car…

1
Cyndi Lauper, singer-songwriter 49:15

2M ago49:15

49:15

Cyndi Lauper is a multi-award winning singer and songwriter. She has sold more than fifty million records, won an Emmy for acting and her musical Kinky Boots earned her a Tony and an Oliver award. Born in 1953, Cyndi grew up in a blue collar neighbourhood in New York. Her mother loved music and art and took her children to free exhibitions in New Y…

1
William Boyd, writer 50:52

2M ago50:52

50:52

William Boyd is the author of eighteen novels, five short story collections and numerous screenplays. His first published novel, A Good Man in Africa, was inspired by his childhood in West Africa. He is well known for writing ‘whole life’ novels including Any Human Heart which he adapted as a BAFTA-winning television series. He was born in Accra in…

1
Sir Jony Ive, designer 51:41

2M ago51:41

51:41

Sir Jony Ive is a designer who is best known for his pioneering work at Apple alongside his friend and colleague, the late Steve Jobs. Jony’s creative vision is behind some of the company’s seminal products which have transformed the way we live today including phones, music players and watches. He was born in Chingford in east London and loved dra…

1
Mina Smallman, activist 50:55

3M ago50:55

50:55

Wilhelmina – Mina – Smallman is an activist who campaigns for the safety of women and girls and police reform. She is a former teacher and priest who was the first woman of colour to be an archdeacon in the Church of England. In 2020 her daughters Bibaa and Nicole were murdered as they celebrated Bibaa’s 46th birthday in Fryent Country Park. It lat…

1
Stephen Mangan, actor 50:40

3M ago50:40

50:40

Stephen Mangan is an award winning actor who is also a presenter and writer. His prolific career includes comedic roles in TV hits Green Wing; Episodes and Adrian Mole. He also plays the much loved Nathan in BBC drama The Split and has appeared in many award winning theatre productions in the UK and on Broadway. Born in London to Irish immigrant pa…

1
Nemone Lethbridge, lawyer and writer 50:59

3M ago50:59

50:59

Nemone Lethbridge is a barrister who was called to the bar in 1956. One of very few female barristers working at the time, she encountered misogyny and was one of the trailblazers for women working in the legal profession who followed behind her.At her first Chambers, she wasn’t allowed to share a toilet with her male colleagues and had to use the …

1
Nick Cave, singer and writer 48:58

3M ago48:58

48:58

Nick Cave is a singer and writer who, with his band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, has released emotionally intense and provocative music since the mid-Eighties. He is also a novelist, composer and has written film scripts and soundtracks along with his writing partner and Bad Seed Warren Ellis. Nick grew up in Wangaratta, Australia the third of four…

1
Harriet Wistrich, lawyer 50:54

4M ago50:54

50:54

Harriet Wistrich is one of the country’s most prominent human rights lawyers. In 2016 she founded the Centre for Women’s Justice and over the course of her career, she has won landmark victories in very difficult legal cases. She has helped women imprisoned after killing their abusers regain their freedom. She’s also represented women seeking justi…

1
Laurie Anderson, artist 49:52

4M ago49:52

49:52

Laurie Anderson is an artist and performer who came to fame in the UK with her 1981 hit O Superman. Her work spans music, film and multimedia projects which interrogate our relationship with technology and tell stories about the world we live in. She was born in Chicago in 1947, the second-oldest of eight children, and started learning the violin w…

1
Mark-Anthony Turnage, composer 52:14

4M ago52:14

52:14

Mark-Anthony Turnage is a composer of contemporary classical music. Once called “Britain’s hippest composer”, he has been in a rock band, got drunk with Francis Bacon, and tackled anything from drug abuse to football in his works.Mark was born in June 1960 in the Thames estuary town of Corringham in Essex. His musical talent was nurtured by his par…

1
Marianela Núñez, ballerina 50:33

4M ago50:33

50:33

Marianela Núñez is a Principal dancer of the Royal Ballet and Opera. Born in Argentina in 1982, Marianela knew she wanted to be a ballet dancer from the age of five and joined the Teatro Colón Ballet School in Buenos Aires when she was eight. She dedicated herself to becoming a professional ballerina and had the full support of her parents despite …

1
Gareth Southgate OBE, football manager 50:54

5M ago50:54

50:54

Gareth Southgate OBE is the most successful England men’s football manger in the modern game. He holds the record as the man who has represented England in more games than anyone else, with 102 games as men's senior team manager, 57 caps as a player and 37 as men's under-21 head coach, leading to a total of 196 games in which he has been involved a…

1
Cher, singer and actor 48:56

5M ago48:56

48:56

Cher has been a global star for over six decades. Her career has spanned music, television and film and throughout that time her outfits have made flamboyant fashion statements. She was born Cherilyn Sarkisian in El Centro, California and had a peripatetic childhood. Her mother married six times and with each new husband the family moved house. In …

1
Ebony Rainford-Brent, former England cricketer 50:03

5M ago50:03

50:03

Former cricketer Ebony Rainford-Brent is the first Black woman to play for England and she was part of the team which won the Women’s Cricket World Cup in 2009. Today she is a broadcaster and cricket commentator for Channel 4, Sky Sports and the BBC’s Test Match Special. Ebony was born in south London and as a child it was football that caught her …

1
Mark Steel, comedian 50:17

5M ago50:17

50:17

Mark Steel is a writer, comedian and radio presenter. His performing career began as a poet in the alternative comedy scene in the early eighties at the Comedy Store. A regular presenter on Radio 4, he began his award winning series, Mark Steel’s in Town in 2009. Alongside his performing career, he’s been a regular newspaper columnist writing for t…

1
Classic Desert Island Discs - Ian Wright 44:17

6M ago44:17

44:17

Lauren Laverne talks to Ian Wright in an episode first broadcast in 2020. Ian Wright is a former professional footballer and now a football pundit on TV and radio. He began his career at Crystal Palace before moving to Arsenal where he became their highest goal scorer of all time, a record only surpassed eight years later by Thierry Henry. Born to …

1
Steven Knight, writer 50:03

9M ago50:03

50:03

Steven Knight CBE is a screenwriter, producer, and director for film and television. He is best known for creating the TV series Peaky Blinders but he has also turned his hand to feature films, novels, comedy and even gameshows. He co-created the global TV quiz show Who Wants to be a Millionaire. His first film, Dirty Pretty Things, was nominated f…

1
Mark Knopfler, musician 48:04

9M ago48:04

48:04

Mark Knopfler OBE is one of the UK’s most successful rock musicians and composers. He co-founded the band Dire Straits and their album Brothers in Arms is one of the bestselling albums of all time with 30 million copies sold. Alongside the many successes of Dire Straits, Mark has also composed hit songs for other artists like Private Dancer for Tin…

1
Sarah Raven, gardener and writer 51:51

9M ago51:51

51:51

Sarah Raven is one of Britain’s best known gardeners. Since her debut book, The Cutting Garden in 1996 she has written for national newspapers and magazines and shared her gardening knowledge as a broadcaster. Sarah’s love for gardening started with her family. Her father John was a Classics scholar at Cambridge and a keen amateur botanist and her …

1
David Nicholls, writer 49:46

10M ago49:46

49:46

The writer David Nicholls is best known for his 2009 novel One Day which has sold 6 million copies, been made into a film and a Netflix series which reached the top 10 in 89 countries. He’s written six novels and his work as a screenwriter has won him a BAFTA and an Emmy nomination. He was born in 1966 and studied Drama and English Literature at Br…

1
Errollyn Wallen, composer 52:23

10M ago52:23

52:23

Errollyn Wallen is one of the world’s most performed living composers. Her work, which includes 22 operas, orchestral, chamber and vocal works, was played at the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games in 2012 and at Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden and Diamond Jubilees. She was the first black woman to have a piece featured in the BBC Proms and the fi…

1
Rob Delaney, actor and comedian 50:16

10M ago50:16

50:16

Rob Delaney is a comedian, writer and actor who is best known for the television series Catastrophe, which he co-wrote and co-starred in alongside Sharon Horgan. He has also appeared in Hollywood blockbusters including Deadpool and Mission Impossible. Rob was born in Boston, Massachusetts and grew up in Marblehead on the north shore. He studied for…

1
Professor Patricia Wiltshire, forensic scientist 51:48

10M ago51:48

51:48

Professor Patricia Wiltshire is a forensic ecologist who specialises in palynology – the study of pollen. Her expertise has led her to work with every police force in Britain and helped solve some of the country’s most notorious crimes including the Soham murder case in which two young girls were killed by school caretaker Ian Huntley. Patricia was…

1
Anthony Joshua, boxer 51:47

11M ago51:47

51:47

Anthony Joshua MBE is a British heavyweight boxer, Olympic gold medallist and two-time former unified world heavyweight champion. Anthony was born in 1989 and grew up in Watford. When he was 11, he moved with his mother to Nigeria, her home country, and attended a boarding school there for several months. When the family returned to Watford, Anthon…

1
Clive Myrie, journalist 52:05

11M ago52:05

52:05

Clive Myrie is an award-winning journalist and news presenter who is one of the BBC’s most experienced foreign correspondents. In 2021 he took over from John Humphrys as Question Master of the quiz show Mastermind and has also presented travel programmes about Italy and the Caribbean. Clive’s parents are from Jamaica and he was born in Farnworth, n…

1
Shirine Khoury-Haq, businesswoman 49:42

11M ago49:42

49:42

Shirine Khoury-Haq is the chief executive officer of the Co-op Group – the first female chief executive in its 180-year history and the first from an ethnic minority background. Shirine was born in Beirut to a Palestinian father and a Turkish mother. Her father was a geophysicist who worked in the oil industry and his work took the family around th…

1
Rebel Wilson, actor 48:36

11M ago48:36

48:36

The Australian actor Rebel Wilson became an international star with a breakthrough part in the 2011 Hollywood comedy Bridesmaids, opposite Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy. She followed this up playing Fat Amy in the highly successful Pitch Perfect trilogy, which documents the fortunes of a female college acapella group. Rebel was born in Balmain,…

1
John Boyne, writer 51:31

12M ago51:31

51:31

The Irish writer John Boyne is best known for his 2006 novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, which became a literary phenomenon, selling more than 11 million copies around the world. It was translated into 60 languages and adapted into a film, a play, a ballet and an opera. He has written more than two dozen books, including a number of titles for …

1
Dame Sarah Storey, athlete 50:33

12M ago50:33

50:33

Dame Sarah Storey is Great Britain’s most successful Paralympian, winning 17 gold, eight silver and three bronze medals. She was just 14 when she took two weeks off school to compete as a swimmer in the 1992 Barcelona Paralympics, where she won her first two gold medals. Since then, she has competed in a further seven Paralympics, switching to cycl…

1
Greg Davies, comedian 49:38

12M ago49:38

49:38

Greg Davies is a familiar face on television as the host of Taskmaster, the BAFTA-winning game show, and he has achieved sell out national arena tours as a stand-up. His on-screen breakthrough came in 2008 when he played the head of the sixth form, Mr Gilbert, in the highly successful teenage comedy series the Inbetweeners. He wrote and starred in …

1
Professor Tim Spector, scientist 49:17

1y ago49:17

49:17

Tim Spector is Professor of Genetic Epidemiology and Head of the Department of Twin Research at King’s College London. He was one of the co-founders of the ZOE Covid Symptom study, which for which he was awarded an OBE. He has also written best-selling books about the relationship between what we eat and our health and well-being. Tim was born in L…

1
Professor Alice Roberts, scientist and broadcaster 36:56

1y ago36:56

36:56

Professor Alice Roberts is one of the most popular science communicators in Britain today. As the presenter of the BBC archaeology programme Digging for Britain, she reveals the underground mysteries of our collective past to millions of viewers. Alice was born in Bristol and developed an interest in science from an early age – examining insects un…

1
Jenny Sealey, theatre director 34:47

1y ago34:47

34:47

Jenny Sealey has been the artistic director of Graeae Theatre Company since 1997: Graeae is a deaf and disabled-led company and a leader and innovator in accessible theatre. Jenny has directed opera as well as plays, and was the co-director of the 2012 Paralympic opening ceremony. Jenny was born in Nottingham in 1963, the eldest of four sisters. Sh…

1
James Graham, playwright 50:35

1y ago50:35

50:35

James Graham is an award-winning dramatist whose plays include This House, Ink and Dear England starring Joseph Fiennes as the England football manager Gareth Southgate. His acclaimed television productions include Sherwood and Quiz, based on the story of the so-called coughing Major Charles Ingram who was found guilty of cheating on the game show …

1
Rita Rae, Lady Rae, lawyer and judge 38:15

1y ago38:15

38:15

The Honourable Lady Rita Rae is a lawyer and judge, and the current Rector of the University of Glasgow. Early in her career she was a rare woman in the heavily male-dominated legal world. She went on to work on many high profile criminal cases over five decades as a solicitor, an advocate and subsequently a judge in Scotland’s Supreme Court. Rita …

1
Sandy Powell, costume designer 36:04

1y ago36:04

36:04

Sandy Powell won her first Academy Award for dressing Joseph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love, and has since won two more Oscars - along with a further dozen nominations - and three BAFTAs. Her credits range from Gangs of New York for Martin Scorsese to Mary Poppins Returns for Disney, and she's worked with many of the biggest cur…

1
Clive Oppenheimer, volcanologist 38:02

1y ago38:02

38:02

Clive Oppenheimer is a volcanologist, filmmaker and Professor of Volcanology at the University of Cambridge. His research has taken him on expeditions across the world, from Antarctica, where he discovered the camp of Captain Scott’s attempt to reach the South Pole, to Ethiopia where he was held at gunpoint by rebels. Clive was born in London, and …

1
Cillian Murphy, actor 35:47

1y ago35:47

35:47

Cillian Murphy has received global acclaim for his performance in the title role of Christopher Nolan’s epic film Oppenheimer. He has been nominated for an Oscar, which follows the best actor award he picked up at this year’s Golden Globes. On the small screen he played the Birmingham gangster Thomas Shelby for a decade in the BAFTA-winning Peaky B…

1
Val Wilmer, writer and photographer 38:32

1+ y ago38:32

38:32

Val Wilmer has photographed and interviewed many of the most significant musicians of the post-war years, including Duke Ellington, Muddy Waters, Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin and many more. Val grew up in Streatham in South London, where a local record shop helped to nurture her love of music, especially jazz. Her lifelong …

1
Jamie Dornan, actor 36:23

1+ y ago36:23

36:23

Jamie Dornan is an actor who first came to the attention of television audiences in 2013 when he played serial killer Paul Spector in the BBC series the Fall. Two years later he starred alongside Dakota Johnson in the film Fifty Shades of Grey and went on to play the same part in the rest of the trilogy. In 2022 he was the lead in the BBC drama the…

1
Sheku Kanneh-Mason, cellist 37:55

1+ y ago37:55

37:55

Sheku Kanneh-Mason is a cellist who came to international attention when he performed at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018. Still only 24, he has performed at a series of high profile locations including the Hollywood Bowl and Downing Street. Last year he was a soloist at the Last Night of the Proms. Sheku was brought up in Nott…

1
Guli Francis-Dehqani, Church of England Bishop 36:58

1+ y ago36:58

36:58

The Rt Revd Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani is the Bishop of Chelmsford. She also sits in Parliament as a Lord Spiritual and last year she played a prominent role in the Coronation, administering Holy Communion to the King and Queen. She was born in Isfahan, central Iran, the youngest of four children to Hassan Dehqani-Tafti, the first ethnic Iranian Angli…

1
Graham Nash, musician 36:26

1+ y ago36:26

36:26

Graham William Nash is a musician, singer, songwriter and photographer. He had his first musical success as a member of the UK band The Hollies before his move to America when he sang as part of Crosby, Stills and Nash. Graham was born in 1942 and grew up in Salford. He found his singing voice at the age of six when he realised that not only could …

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