Episodes
For thirty-six year, James has been chasing this interview and now, he's finally secured it. Actor, writer and director Rupert Everett joins him to talk about the highs and lows of his extraordinary 40-year career in show business. Rupert discovered performing when he was a young boy and got a thrill from showing off in school plays at Ampleforth College - so much so, that he left school at 15 to pursue a career in acting. His breakout role came in 1981 when he was cast as Guy Bennett in...
Published 11/15/24
Growing up on a Lake District farm that had been in his family for centuries, James Rebanks always knew his place in the world. School wasn't for him - he felt his teachers looked down on farming and his grandparents worried education might lure him away from the land. By the age of 15, he had left school with just two O-Levels to work full-time on the family farm. But in the evenings, a new world opened up to him as he read through the books on his mum's bookshelves. Inspired, James began...
Published 11/08/24
"I really need a future. What happened to me is so dark and so depressing that I've got to believe in something." On Boxing Day 2022, Hanif Kureishi's life changed forever. The acclaimed novelist and playwright had a fall that left him paralysed, a single, shattering moment that split his life in two. In this episode, Hanif tells James about the life he lived before the accident and what's happened since. Hanif has written about this extraordinary experience in his new book, Shattered, a...
Published 11/01/24
One of Britain’s most celebrated French chefs, Michel Roux Jr is restaurant royalty. Born into the legendary Roux family, his father and uncle, Albert and Michel Roux Snr founded Le Gavroche, the first British restaurant to earn three Michelin stars. Determined to follow in their footsteps, Michel left school at 16 to begin a pastry apprenticeship in Paris and later trained under the legendary Alain Chapel. Despite his father’s attempts to bring him into the family business, Michel initially...
Published 10/25/24
"I wasn’t driven by being famous, I was driven by being successful. I wanted to be recognised by my peers, people who I considered ‘posh actors’”. Award-winning actor and bestselling author, Sir David White, is better known by his stage name David Jason. His career has spanned over 50 years, and is best known for his iconic roles Del Boy in Only Fools and Horses and Jack Frost in A Touch of Frost. His childhood dream of becoming an actor was ‘crushed’ by his father, who couldn’t afford to...
Published 10/18/24
"I'm that lucky guy who found his hobby and was able to turn it into a job." William Dalrymple is a multi-award winning and bestselling historian. Growing up on the Dalrymple family estate in North Berwick, with an almost Edwardian childhood, William was sent off to Ampleforth College at just eight years old. It was there that his passion for history grew and he spent his free time on archaeological digs and getting lost in history books. William has gone on to turn that childhood...
Published 10/11/24
Graeme Park is a legendary DJ and one of the founders of the UK's house music movement. Best known for his nine-year residency at Manchester's iconic superclub, The Hacienda, Graeme's journey into DJing was far from planned. In fact, he stumbled into it almost by accident. However, his passion for sharing the music he loved had a huge impact on the dance scene of the 80s and 90s, influencing a generation of club-goers, including sixteen year old James O'Brien. Today, Graeme continues to...
Published 10/04/24
"Britain is nowhere near as bad as America but let's not get complacent about the risk." Jon Sopel is a journalist, broadcaster and author who launched the hugely successful The News Agents podcast with Emily Maitlis and Lewis Goodall in August 2022. Previously, he was the BBC’s North America Editor, covering U.S. elections including Donald Trump’s presidency. He is the author of several books including: If Only They Didn’t Speak English and A Year at the Circus: Inside Trump’s White House....
Published 09/27/24
James is back with another incredible guest from the Full Disclosure vault. Angela Rayner is a politician you simply can’t ignore, Her story is as inspiring as it is unlikely. She grew up in poverty in Stockport, left school at 16, pregnant and without a single qualification to her name. And yet through sheer grit, she’s fought her way up to become Deputy Leader of the Labour Party. Angela joined James on Full Disclosure back in 2021. She talks about everything from her chaotic childhood to...
Published 09/20/24
James revisits one of the most memorable episodes of Full Disclosure with none other than the current Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer. Sir Keir’s journey to Downing Street was far from straightforward. In fact, for a long time his life was headed in a completely different direction. He joined James for a live recording of Full Disclosure back in 2022, when he was still Leader of the Opposition. Sir Keir talks about his childhood, the values that shaped him, his time as a human rights...
Published 09/13/24
Radio legend Tony Blackburn has spent the past 60 years entertaining listeners with his cheeky charm and passion for soul music. His journey in broadcasting began in 1964 on the offshore pirate stations Radio Caroline and Radio London. Just three years later, he made history as the first DJ to be heard on BBC Radio 1, launching the station with his exciting new music show. Tony quickly became a household name, hosting iconic shows like Top of the Pops, the Top 40 and Capital Gold's...
Published 09/06/24
Jordan Stephens is a writer, musician and actor, best-known as one half of the hip-hop duo Rizzle Kicks. His late teens and early twenties were a whirlwind of hit records, sold-out shows and wild parties, fuelled by a heady cocktail of drugs, drink, sex and chaos. It was fun until is wasn't. In 2017, everything fell apart when Jordan cheated on his then-girlfriend, leading to a painful break up that left him heartbroken for the first time. Desperate to make sense of it all, Jordan set out on...
Published 08/30/24
"When I signed up to the police my friends said, 'Why on earth are you joining a corrupt and racist organisation?'" Neil Basu joined the police force as uniformed officer in 1992. He rose through the ranks to become an assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police in 2015, a role he held until 2021. Alongside this, he served as the UK's head of counter terrorism policing and Met assistant commissioner of specialist operations, working closely with MI5. During that time, he led...
Published 08/23/24
Paul Sinha never really had a life plan and yet, somehow he's ended up with a career that's way beyond anything he could have imagined. He originally pursued a career in medicine, largely to keep his parents happy. But, whilst working as a junior doctor, he decided to give stand-up comedy a try. Now, he's not just a successful comedian but also a professional quizzer, best-known as one of the six Chasers on the ITV quiz show, The Chase. He tells James what it was like to hide his sexuality...
Published 08/16/24
Raised in an Irish Catholic family as one of nine siblings, Martin O'Neill was brought up with Gaelic football but he dreamt of becoming a professional English footballer. At 18, he was scouted by Nottingham Forest and quit his law degree to sign for the club. He went on to become an integral part of Brian Clough's legendary Nottingham Forest squad, winning back-to-back European Cups, and made history as the first Catholic player to captain Northern Ireland's national team. After hanging up...
Published 08/09/24
A chance encounter with the director Lindsay Anderson changed Robin Askwith's life forever. It led to his first acting job, playing the schoolboy Keating in Anderson's film if.... which became one of the most popular British films of all time. If.... kickstarted Robin's incredible career that spans an extraordinary period of time. Over the past 50 years, he's appeared in everything from Pier Paolo Pasolini's The Canterbury Tales to the Confessions comedies to Inside No. 9, The Madame Blanc...
Published 08/02/24
James Graham is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter for TV and film. His plays include Ink, This House and Dear England, about the struggles and successes of England’s former football manager Gareth Southgate. His acclaimed TV dramas include Quiz and Sherwood, set in the north Nottinghamshire village where he grew up.  James was born into the close-knit community of Kirkby-In-Ashfield and witnessed the deep and permanent divisions from the 1980s miners’ strikes. He wrote his first...
Published 07/26/24
"I had this inner feeling that something would happen to take me away from my mundane life". The first twenty years of Russell Watson's life were very ordinary. He grew up in Salford, left school at 16 with almost no qualifications and joined the government's Youth Training Scheme. By the age of 20, he was working on the shop floor of a factory, making nuts and bolts. He started singing in local pubs and working men's clubs after winning a local talent competition organised by Manchester...
Published 07/19/24
When Joe Pasquale was just seven years old, his mum was involved in a car accident that left her with concussion and epilepsy. She struggled to look after Joe and his three siblings and became severely depressed. Determined to try and fix things, Joe made it his mission to make her laugh every single day. Forty years on, he has become a staple in British comedy, bringing joy and laughter to millions. Tickets for his latest show, The New Normal, 40 Years of Cack! are available at joepasquale.com
Published 07/12/24
“I’m a Walter Mitty who’s actually done it.” Growing up in a tenement on the outskirts of Glasgow, Midge Ure dreamt of being a rock star, even though it seemed impossible for a working-class kid like him. But he had something special. At just 18, he got his first break as the guitarist for the pop band Slik and went on to be part of several influential bands in the 1970s and 80s, including Rich Kids, Thin Lizzy and Ultravox. Alongside Bob Geldof, he set up Band Aid, collaborating on the 1984...
Published 07/05/24
Nick Lowles is chief executive of HOPE not hate, the UK's largest anti-racism and anti-extremism movement. For the last 35 years, he has tirelessly fought against those who try to exploit frustrations, create divisions and pit groups against each other. Nick began his involvement with the anti-fascist movement as a student volunteer. He then worked for the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight before founding HOPE not hate in 2004. In his first ever interview about his life, Nick tells James why...
Published 06/28/24
Actor and writer Sally Lindsay has always loved the spotlight. She made her TV debut aged 7 when her school choir performed their No.1 single There’s No One Quite Like Grandma on Top of the Pops. But it wasn’t until university that she realised she could make a career out of performing. Sally's gone on to star in hit TV shows such as Phoenix Nights, Coronation Street, Mount Pleasant and her latest project, The Madame Blanc Mysteries, which she also writes and produces. She tells James how...
Published 06/21/24
Helen Lederer is a writer, actress and comedian. She began her career on the alternative comedy circuit, performing alongside many of today’s household names, and quickly landed roles in iconic sitcoms such as Absolutely Fabulous, Bottom and Girls on Top. Since then she’s appeared on TV and radio, written bestselling books and set up the Comedy Women in Print prize. Despite this, Helen admits she often struggles to believe in her own success. She tells James about her fascination with status...
Published 06/14/24
Danny Wallace is a bestselling author and broadcaster who loves nothing more than thinking up fun ideas and seeing how far he can take them. His first book, Join Me, tells the true story of how he he accidentally started a cult. His second book, Yes Man, describes what happened when he decided to say yes to everything - a story so compelling it was adapted into a Hollywood film starring Jim Carrey. Now he's delving into the world of conspiracies with his new book, Somebody Told Me. Danny...
Published 06/06/24