Claire Read introduces her special podcast series about the impact of one day of the British army’s war in Afghanistan on the troops who were there and the families they left behind. Download the Deadliest Day series from the Beyond Today podcast.

For a long time, Becky Milligan has been dining out with political figures and recording the conversations for us. Here is a brand new At Lunch With…The Labour MP Clive Lewis. Becky Milligan took him out in his constituency in Norwich where they discussed him being cleared of sexual harassment charges by the Labour party, how being labelled the next future leader of his party was “a kiss of death” and why he uses a Parliamentary WhatsApp group as “therapy”. (Photo: Table setting ...

Becky Milligan invited one of the longest serving MPs in the House of Commons Dame Margaret Beckett to have lunch with one of the youngest MPs Ben Bradley. Find out what kind of conversation a Labour veteran and a budding-new Conservative sounds like. (Image: Cutlery on a napkin, credit: BBC)

Award winning naturalist and adventurer Steve Backshall is best known for presenting Deadly 60 on the BBC, where he meets the most dangerous animals on the planet. While filming his latest TV programme about dinosaurs, he talks to Becky Milligan about his little black book of secret reefs and caves, how blue a blue whale really is, and how often he thinks about going into politics (Photo:Table setting Credit: BBC)

She has had a remarkable political ascent; elected an MP in 2015 Angela Rayner is now shadow education secretary. Becky Milligan went to her constituency in Ashton-under-Lyne for the latest installment of her ‘At Lunch With’ series. The Labour MP discusses life growing up on a council estate, how being a carer changed her from being a rebel to respecting those in authority and how being told she could be a possible leader of the Labour Party feels "ridiculous... for now, but maybe one...

Grant Shapps is a former Conservative cabinet minister and party chairman. In some circles, he was once tipped to be a contender for prime minister. He is currently the MP for Welwyn Hatfield. Over lunch, he talks to Becky Milligan about his relationship with Theresa May; his resignation from government over the bullying scandal surrounding the suicide of a young Conservative activist; and his love of rap music. (Photo: Table setting Credit: BBC)

Baroness Karen Brady is a Conservative peer, who is sometimes referred to as 'The First Lady of Football' having run Birmingham football club when she was 23. Currently Vice Chair of West Ham Football club, she invited Becky Milligan to lunch in their new grounds of the former Olympic Stadium in East London. They talked about her interest in politics and business, her "disappointed" face on The Apprentice, and about romance.

Lord Falconer, often known as Charlie Falconer, is a Labour peer. His long career in British politics includes stints as Lord Chancellor and Minister for the Millennium Dome. When he met Becky Milligan for lunch, which for him consisted of two apples and two cans of Diet Coke, he expressed his concerns about the Labour Party and the pleasure he takes in buying clothes now he's lost so much weight.

Becky meets Keith Craig, someone not usually in the public eye, but who is a businessman, a former banker and an ex-diplomat. He caused a bit of stir when he wrote a letter to the Financial Times complaining about the paper's "predictions of disaster" brought on by "the Brexit/Trump axis". He ended his letter by saying "face it, we FT readers have had our decades in charge and we blew it ". He tells Becky about his unusual life working for the Foreign Office, why he wrote the letter...

Arron Banks is a British businessman and former Conservative Party donor, who came to prominence in October 2014 when he donated £1 million to UKIP. He talks to Becky Milligan about being co-founder of the Leave EU campaign, visiting Trump Tower and his future political career.

Becky Milligan At Lunch With.... Stephen Crabb MP. He is a former cabinet minister, and was a contender in the Conservative leadership race earlier this year. He talks to Becky about resigning following allegations that he sent sexual messages to a woman. He now sits on the back benches.

The film director Ken Loach won this years Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. He met Becky Milligan to discuss why he supports Jeremy Corbyn, getting a third at university and the death of his son.

The latest in Becky Milligan's series of political conversations over a meal has her At Lunch With... the now Conservative former Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin. They dined when the political storm was at its height, David Cameron had resigned and Theresa May had just started at Prime Minister. He was waiting for the call that would see him become the Conservative Party Chairman.

Lord David Owen split from the Labour party when he was an MP in 1981 and set up an alternative party called the Social Democratic Party. As he told Becky Milligan, over tea and biscuits, he sympathizes with the current MPs agonising over whether or not to leave the Labour Party.

The founder of the pro-Corbyn movement Momentum has lunch with Becky Milligan and discusses anti-Semitism, Ken Livingstone and his own memories of growing up in a Jewish household in the 1960s.

The former Conservative Deputy Prime Minister, Lord Heseltine, has lunch with Becky Milligan and discusses the EU, Boris Johnson, trees and t**s, and his legacy.

He calls himself the most working class geezer you'll ever find. Mike Penning, Minister of State, Home office and the Ministry of Justice, has lunch with Becky Milligan and talks about his former life as a spin doctor, how Iain Duncan Smith got his pet name, IDS, the EU referendum, and why he beleives in apologising.

The leader of the Green Party Natalie Bennett, who's to stand down, had lunch with Becky Milligan last year. She talks about losing her mother, being leader, and moving on.

Alan Johnson - now leading the Labour In Campaign - has lunch with Becky Milligan. The former cabinet minister and once leadership favourite, talks politics, plotting and penning his books. This interview is from December 2014.

Bradford West MP Naz Shah - currently suspended from the Labour party - has lunch with Becky Milligan. This interview is from July 2015.

Lord Fellowes, Conservative peer and creator of Downton Abbey, talks to Becky Milligan over lunch about choosing love over politics.

The MP Simon Danczuk, suspended from the Labour Party after sending lurid texts to a 17 year old girl, has lunch with Becky Milligan. He explains how he heard that the story - which would bring his suspension about - would be in the newspapers, and says it would be a travesty if he was not readmitted to the Labour Party.

The former adviser and close friend of Ed Miliband, Lord Wood, offers insight into Labour leaders, Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband, and about the night Labour lost the election.

From the archive: She doesn’t like beards and is partial to sparkling at lunch, Suzanne Evans has lunch with Becky Milligan