Libby Purves meets actor Mark Strong; former rugby player Maggie Alphonsi; artist Daphne Todd and blues and jazz singer Carol Grimes.
Carol Grimes is a jazz and blues singer and songwriter. Her new show, The Singer's Tale, recreates her life story through spoken word and original music. Carol spent her early life as a busker in London before eventually coming to prominence in 1969 as a member of the band Delivery. The Singer's Tale is at St James Studio Theatre, London.
Mark Strong is a film, television and theatre actor. He plays Eddie Carbone in the award-winning production of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge for which he was named best actor at the 2015 Critics' Circle Theatre Awards. His many television credits include Our Friends in the North and the Buddha of Suburbia. He also starred in Oscar-winning films Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Zero Dark Thirty. A View from the Bridge is at Wyndham's Theatre, London and will be broadcast live to over 550 cinemas across the UK as part of National Theatre Live.
Maggie Alphonsi MBE is a former England rugby union player and was part of the team which won the Women's Rugby World Cup in 2014. Following her retirement from rugby, Maggie is now focussed on her bid to compete in the shot put at the 2016 Rio Olympics. A former Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year, she is the first woman in 50 years to be awarded the prestigious Pat Marshall award, a sports personality award chosen by the Rugby Union Writers' Club.
Daphne Todd OBE is an artist who is part of the judging panel on BBC One series The Big Painting Challenge in which 10 artists compete to become Britain's best amateur artist. She also has a solo exhibition featuring portraits and landscapes inspired by the Kent and Sussex borders where she lives. The first female president of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, she won the BP Portrait Award for a painting of her 100-year-old mother shortly after her death. The Big Painting Challenge is on BBC One. Daphne Todd's exhibition is at Messum's gallery in London.
Producer: Paula McGinley. Show less