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Saturday Live: Omid Djalili

22/05/2021

Omid Djalili

BBC Radio 4 - Saturday Live, Omid Djalili

Accidental footballer turned commentator Pat Nevin and Inheritance Tracks of Mary Beard.

Comedian and actor Omid Djalili, accidental footballer Pat Nevin, Debbie Gayle on her Kirov ballet experience, shepherd Emma Gray and the Inheritance Tracks of Mary Beard.

Award winning comedian and actor Omid Djalili joins us to talk about his route to fame, taking part in Splash, quiz show catchphrases, performing in Persian for the first time recently and getting back on stage after lockdown.

In 1974, aged 17, Debbie Gayle travelled to the Soviet Union to train at the Kirov school of ballet.  It was the height of the Cold war, and she found the experience thoroughly unwelcoming with the exception of a woman called Natasha who became her friend.  When Debbie became ill and was isolated in hospital, Natasha proved to be a life line, helping her return to the UK where she left ballet and started a family.  Almost 50 years later she told the story to her son and tracked Natasha down, creating a podcast about her experience called "Finding Natasha".

Former Chelsea and Everton winger turned 5live pundit Pat Nevin on becoming a footballer by accident.  

Emma Gray is a world-renowned sheepdog trainer who recently relocated from a remote farm in Northumberland to the even more remote Isle of Bute in Scotland. Not only did she take along her husband and baby, as one would expect, but she packed up her 500 sheep, 40 cows and 20 dogs and transported them by ferry. She talks to us about uprooting, new love and new pastures.

Mary Beard chooses her inheritance tracks: Bridge over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel and Sisters are Doin' it for Themselves by Eurythmics with Aretha Franklin.  And your thank you!

Producer: Corinna Jones

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