Mel Giedroyc, Alan Cumming, Eric Ngalle Charles and the Inheritance Tracks of Carlos Gu

Adrian Chiles presents Radio 4's Saturday Morning programme:

Alan Cumming has always had a lot going on, in theatre, in Hollywood, as presenter now of one of the biggest shows in television. And yet he stays close to his Perthshire roots as Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s artistic director.

In search of Mel Giedroych’s roots, we travel south to Leatherhead in Surrey where her new novel is set. Like Alan, Mel has an enormous range of work on stage and screen to her name.

And Eric Ngalle Charles is a poet and writer whose life story is something to which no work of fiction could do justice: trafficked from Cameroon to Russia before somehow finding his way to sanctuary in Wales. Eric gets a chance to speak to Liz Mitchell, the original lead singer with Boney M who he had met on stage at a concert during his time in Russia.

We revisit the last programme before we went on our summer break. Back on the programme in July, listener David Cornmell from York was desperately seeking the kind policemen from Greater Manchester Police who came to his rescue when he came a cropper at Manchester Airport last year.

And we have the Inheritance Tracks of the professional dancer, Carlos Gu.

Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies
Assistant Producer: Catherine Powell and Imy Harper
Researcher: Jesse Edwards
Editor: Andrea Kennedy