Good News Wednesday

Vernon hears about what's making you smile on Good News Wednesday. Also, a fresh round of our mid-morning music quiz Ten to the Top and Vernon turns back time with the help of the BBC Archive in Vernon's Vault.

Also, Vernon's guest on Tracks of My Years all this week is presenter, writer and podcaster Fearne Cotton. Today, her and Vernon discuss their experiences presenting Top of the Pops and the culture shock of working on TV in the US, along with her selections of tunes from The Hives and Elton John.

Fearne Cotton has been presenting since her first job on TV at the age of just 16, after winning a series of auditions for the Disney Club. By 19, she was presenting huge shows like Top of the Pops and in 2005 she joined BBC Radio 1, taking over the mid-morning show in 2009 and hosting it until 2015. Since then, she has created her hugely successful podcast Happy Place, which now has two accompanying festivals taking place this summer in Richmond, London and Cheshire. In both the podcast and her books, she has been very honest about her struggles with her own mental health, and the difficult times she has endured during her life and career. Her latest book Likeable: How I Broke Free from the Need to Please was published earlier this year, in which she shared her struggles with being a people-pleaser and burning herself out with work. In 2020 she joined Radio 2 and hosts Sounds of The 90s every Saturday night.

Listen to Fearne's full conversation with Vernon for Tracks of My Years on BBC Sounds, and watch on BBC iPlayer and Radio 2's YouTube channel, just search for 'Tracks of My Years'.

A BBC Audio production for BBC Radio 2.