English Biography

Vivian Stanshall is the quintessential pop hero of the 60s, 70s, and 80s who first shot to fame in 1968 in the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band. Viv was well known too for his ribald tales of the upper-class Rawlinsons and Maynards who were the bees’ knees for anyone with a warped sense of humor. Born in 1943 in Oxfordshire, his family settled in the coastal town of Leigh-on-Sea. After being a bingo-caller to painting fairground attractions (with a spell in the merchant navy), Stanshall enrolled at London’s Central School of Art and Design.

Something strange is happening to us. The intelligent machines we’ve built to serve us have started to sound like us, look like us and even think like us. The line between real and artificial is dissolving… so, what awaits us in the uncanny valley?Across six episodes, award-winning journalist Marc Fennell will explore how AI will change us as humans.So much of the conversation around AI is about technology and speculation about the future. But this about us: how AI will change our sense of self, our sense of reality, the way we love and the way we grieve. Parents bring back a murdered son.

Listen as Adam wrestles with his mid-life crisis, grapples with his existential anxiety and stares resolutely into his naval, all via the medium of sketches, songs, conversations with his funny (and annoyingly successful) friends. And yes, in between, he has conversations with his dog.

When the nephew of world-famous director Steven Spielberg turns up at a high school in suburban Virginia, he is untouchable. This 14-year-old - Jonathan Taylor Spielberg - is a star on the rise, filming for his latest movie close by. His new classmates are within touching distance of fame and talk about the new student spreads like wildfire. He promises to hook them up with Hollywood agents and it’s the late 90s, so his invite to the MTV Awards is enticing… But all is not what it seems. The students start to realize they have been unwillingly cast in a twisted real-life drama.

In this wild, genre-bending audio documentary, New York Times best-selling author and Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Ronan Farrow dives deep into the strange and storied life of high-society socialite and former Miss Arizona Celia (Cece) Doane.

Ed is the grandson of footballing legend Gordon Banks. He was a national icon, the only goalkeeper ever to win the soccer World Cup for England. But Ed’s heard a rumour: that in 1970, while defending the title, his granddad, his hero, was poisoned… by the CIA. All part of a Cold War plot to bolster a military dictatorship in Latin America, supposedly. Could this possibly be true? Banks did get ill in Mexico in 1970 with food poisoning. And England crashed out, marking the start of decades of hurt. Ed enlists the help of investigative journalist Gabriel Gatehouse.

In September 2024, Canadian influencer Lauren Southern suddenly found herself in the eye of a media storm, accused of spreading Russian propaganda. The US government had just alleged that the founders of the startup she’d been making videos for - Tenet Media - were working with Russian state media, in a $10 million Kremlin-backed operation. What exactly did Russia want with a group of YouTubers? And did they succeed? Who knew what was allegedly going on within Tenet Media, and when? And what does all of this say about where everyone gets their information?

Hailed as the most compelling biography of the German dictator yet written, Ian Kershaw's Hitler brings us closer than ever before to the heart of its subject's immense darkness. From his illegitimate birth in a small Austrian village to his fiery death in a bunker under the Reich chancellery in Berlin, Adolf Hitler left a murky trail, strewn with contradictory tales and overgrown with self-created myths. One truth prevails: the sheer scale of the evils that he unleashed on the world has made him a demonic figure without equal in the 20th century.

My Amish Story is the story of the last few years of Amish life for the Graber family in the 1990s. It’s about the hurdles of breaking the barriers of centuries, of family circles being broken with no good-byes, of heartbreak and estrangement, and of the transitions and adjustments to a new way of living.

For years, Amy Thunig thought she knew all the details about the day she was born, often demanding that the story of her birth be retold. Years later, heavily pregnant with her own first child, she learns what really happened that day. It’s a tale that exemplifies many of the events of her early life, where circumstances sometimes dictated that things be slightly different from how they might seem–including what is meant by her dad being away for ‘work’ and why her legal last name differs from her family’s.

In this definitive biography of one of Hollywood's most beloved stars, Michael Munn reveals the truth behind the diffident, earnest and kindly persona of Jimmy Stewart. Drawn from the author's formal interviews and informal meetings with the star and his friendship with Stewart's wife, Gloria, is this portrait of a man who came from the Presbyterian traditions of Pennsylvania to become one of the silver screen's enduring legends.

True Crime: The 60s and the 90s is the ultimate 2-in-1 true crime collection for listeners who want to go beyond the headlines - deep into the psychology, the evidence, and the chilling human stories behind the most disturbing criminal cases of the 20th century. Inside this gripping collection, you will discover: The 1960s - Peace, Love, and Pure Evil: Behind the flower crowns and civil rights marches lurked a darkness that no generation was prepared for. Revisit the calculated terror of the Zodiac Killer, and the cold-blooded domestic horrors hiding behind white picket fences.

Laura Jane Grace doesn’t defy rock ‘n’ roll. She defines it. In an inspiring examination of identity and creativity, the founder and frontwoman of notorious punk band Against Me! recounts the story of her extraordinary life, her rise to fame, and the painful but powerful moments that have led her to where she is now. Black Me Out invites listeners to not only hear Grace’s complicated journey through gender dysphoria, addiction, mental health, and artistic integrity, but recognize the universal pursuit of our authentic selves. Track the common journey with a modern icon.

This is a biography of James Baldwin, author, one-time preacher, and civil rights activist. He chose David Leeming, a close friend and colleague, to write his biography and granted him access to his correspondence. Leeming traces his life from his birth in Harlem in 1924 to his self-imposed exile in Europe, his later years as political activist, and his public funeral in 1987.

Sold is a terrifying, gripping and true story about a young Russian girl who dreams of a better life, but instead falls victim to trafficking. Seventeen-year-old Natasja is attracted by an offer to work as a nanny in Sweden. Her ticket to freedom turns out to be a worse nightmare than she ever could have imagined. Time and time again, she is sold to different men. But even though she is slowly falling apart, Natasja refuses to give up and silently starts to plan her escape. In Sold, she talks about how she managed to get free against all odds.

The long-awaited audio edition of Peter Kay’s best-selling autobiography, The Sound of Laughter, including two completely new and exclusive bonus chapters. Grab a brew and some good-for-dipping biscuits and listen to Peter take a trip down memory lane, including his first-ever driving lesson, his Bolton childhood, the numerous jobs he held, right up until he found fame in the world of comedy.

For decades, a father in the Bay Area made his living taking people’s portraits, but he harbored a monstrous secret. When one woman vanished in 1976, the only clue police had was that she’d gone to a restaurant to meet a photographer about a modeling job. Other women who’d gone to get their pictures taken were found murdered in the woods in Marin County. This disconnected series of homicides and disappearances remained stubbornly unsolved. But then in 2010, a probation officer caught a lucky break.

From 1964 to 1972, far beyond the battlefields of Vietnam and the glare of media distortions, American Green Berets and their indigenous troops fought a deadly secret war in Laos, Cambodia and North Vietnam under the aegis of the top secret Military Assistance Command Vietnam—Studies and Observations Group, or simply SOG.

How does a man shake the hand of the First Lady of the United States in May, then drive home and bury a teenage boy under his linen cupboard before midnight? How does a Polish picnic organiser, a precinct captain, a children's hospital clown, run twenty seven young men into the dirt beneath his own kitchen floor across six straight years on a quiet suburban street, while his neighbours bring round Christmas hampers and the postman calls him by his first name?

Find out about his film debut at age five playing a puppy in one of his father's cult underground films, his attempt at becoming a comedian during his ill-fated stint on comedy show Saturday Night Live, how he burst onto the scene with his moving performance in Less than Zero and how he charmed Hollywood with his Oscar nominated turn as troubled funny man Charlie Chaplin.