Kirsty Young

Our castaway today is Caitlin Moran, whose journey into writing began in a three-bedroom council house in Wolverhampton, where she lived with her parents and seven siblings.

Back in 2017, Kirsty Young asked her what her most pungent memories were of a cramped childhood.

Pungent is the right word.

It's primarily smells.

In some cases, it's not perfect, but look at what you can do, and that's changing all the time.

Mr Brittain's keynote with the BBC presenter Kirsty Young came just days after he confirmed that he would allow a programme to be made and presented by Generative AI within guardrails.

The comments also come amidst the BBC's £500 million saving drive, which is expected to cut almost one in ten jobs at the broadcaster.

Mr Britton said that he's having conversations with people whose jobs are at risk on a daily basis and that he doesn't underestimate the difficulty of the situation.

Written by Laura Pollock.

Andy Burnham has sparked backlash after once again failing to recognise Israel's genocide in Gaza.

The Prime Minister was quizzed on the topic by LBC presenter Nick Ferrari at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool, in which he said the UK government will take our lead from the courts when recognising the destruction in Gaza as a genocide.

The genocide in Gaza has been described as such by UN Special Committee and Commission of Inquiry, the International Association of Genocide Scholars and a raft of human rights groups including Amnesty International, Made Sounds on Frontier, and the Jerusalem-based Bidzelem.

Today's postcard comes from Harry Potter actor Warwick Davis.

In 2016, Warwick told Kirsty Young how he got his very first acting role in Star Wars Return of the Jedi when he was just 11.

I've got radio to thank for my career.

My grandmother was at home in her kitchen, and she had, uh, the radio on as she always did.

Our castaway today is the singer-songwriter Lily Allen.

Back in 2014, Lily told Kirsty Young how her old school reports painted a mixed picture of her academic achievements.

Nursery started really well.

It sort of said, you know, "Lily is the life and soul of the class, and she always joins in and helps all the chil- other children if they're sad, and she's a fantastic little helper," and blah, blah, blah.

And what did the cool girl who wanted to smoke and drink and, and be grown up think of that?

Well, she was only, she was only 11, so I think she liked the reaction that she got and suddenly felt like this was something that she could do.

Lily Allen speaking to Kirsty Young.

You can listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds.

Today's castaway, Malorie Blackman, has written more than 70 books for children and young adults, with her Noughts and Crosses series perhaps best known among them.

But getting her first book published was hard, she told Kirsty Young in 2013.

When I was in my mid-20s, I had enough of computing, and I thought, "Okay, what can I do?" And I tried acting classes for a while, and I was a dead loss.

[laughs]

Oh, my God." And I just freaked out, and it was one of the best days of my life.

And, and after my third book was accepted for publication, that's when I gave up my job.

Malorie Blackman speaking to Kirsty Young in 2013 when she was Children's Laureate.

She was made a dame in this year's Birthday Honors.

You'll hear from Hollywood greats, award-winning authors, Olympians and Paralympians, comedians, singers, and more.

Our first postcard comes from the Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, who spoke to Kirsty Young back in 2015.

He recalled the moment he bumped into his primary school friend Mick Jagger at Dartford train station in 1961, years after losing touch with him.

I was going to Sidcup Art School.

And as a broadcast journalism student, it was quite something to watch the coverage that day.

And I'll always remember on ITV, Kirsty Young was one of the ITV news presenters at the time, and she was on throughout the day.

And she interviewed this guy in a way which made it feel like she knew them more than just another interviewee.

And off the back of it, she said, and this was her husband in New York, and off the back of it, she said, oh, and just by the way, that was my husband.