Use BBC.com or the new BBC App to listen to BBC podcasts, Radio 4 and the World Service outside the UK.

Find out how to listen to other BBC stations

Episode details

Radio 4,18 Jul 2026,56 mins

Alan Davies, Trainspotting the Musical, Life After a Ruptured Brain, and the Inheritance Tracks of Adrian Lester

Saturday Live

Available for over a year

Today we’re in the company of three luminously talented people who’ve survived seriously dark periods to shine brightly in their fields. More than thirty years after Irvine Welsh’s debut novel caused a sensation, he tell us how Trainspotting The Musical was a natural next step. Alan Davies’ career has been going strong for more than thirty years too. There's a lot going on in his new memoir - the story of his stand-up comedy told in the context of the trauma he went through as a child, and his cancer treatment in middle age. And Clemency Burton Hill was an accomplished classical musician, writer and broadcaster when a catastrophic brain haemorrhage almost robbed her of everything. Also, thanks are given to a couple of coppers who were on hand when a listener’s homecoming from holiday went badly wrong. And we have the Inheritance Tracks of the actor Adrian Lester. Presenter: Adrian Chiles Producer: Ben Mitchell Assistant Producer: Lowri Morgan Researcher: Jesse Edwards Editor: Andrea Kennedy

Programme Website
More episodes