Rosebud with Gyles Brandreth
Legendary British writer, broadcaster, ex-MP and TV star Gyles Brandreth hosts “Rosebud”, in which he talks to famous and fascinating people about their first memories and first experiences. Expect laughter, nostalgia, memorable stories, revelations and, of course, the odd name-drop from Gyles. We want to hear about your first memories - email us at hello@rosebudpodcast.com And you can follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @therosebudpod Artwork: Freya Betts. Music: Phil Lepherd. Producer: Harriet Jaine. Rosebud is a 'Plain Jaine Media' production. Creator: Gyles Brandreth/Plain Jaine Media Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Episodes
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Sebastian Faulks
Tuesday, 28 October 2025
Gyles speaks to the novelist and writer Sebastian Faulks, who tells him about his childhood growing up in Berkshire and his clear memories of being left at boarding school when he was seven. He talks about his rebellious streak, drawn out by rock and pop music, which manifested itself in periods of instability at school and university. He talks about the close friends he made at Cambridge, and going on University Challenge. He talks about writing his first novel and how he had his breakout moment. Sebastian's new book, a collection of autobiographical essays called 'Fires Which Burned Brigh...
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Charles Spencer
Friday, 24 October 2025
This week's guest is Charles Spencer: the writer, broadcaster, and heir to the Spencer family title and estate at Althorp, where his sister, Diana, is buried. In this unmissable conversation, Charles talks to Gyles about his childhood, the breakdown of his parents' marriage, and his mother's sudden and shocking departure from the family home. He talks about his three sisters, and his close relationship with Diana. He talks about his schooldays, and in particular his harrowing experience at Maidwell Hall prep school - this episode does include Charles's account of the corporal punishment tha...
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Gyles's diary, episode 27
Tuesday, 21 October 2025
A momentous time for the young GDB in this week's diaries, as he prepares to take his finals and to leave Oxford. The three years have flown by, as they do for all undergraduates - but Gyles has packed more in than most. And, despite the fact he's in the middle of his exams, he continues to do so this term. No sooner has the ink dried on his last history exam paper, he's off up to London to get his hair cut and appear as a talking head in a BBC election broadcast. All this, plus some vintage, and slightly hysterical, Gyles and Harriet chat. Enjoy this. You can find Rosebud on Instagram @the...
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Sir David Hare
Friday, 17 October 2025
Sir David Hare is one of the UK's most prolific and successful playwrights, and in this episode he talks to Gyles first about theatre, about great actors, and about the sensitivity necessary to writing drama; he also talks about his unusual childhood - his father was in the merchant navy and was rarely at home, his mother was resourceful and talented but also fearful and anxious. He talks about the teachers who helped inspire him to read and broaden his horizons. He talks about his relationship with the fashion designer Nicole Farhi, and about his new play Grace Pervades, which is about the...
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More Rosebud - we talk to Julia Samuel MBE about grief, bereavement and loss
Tuesday, 14 October 2025
In this long-awaited episode, Gyles (and Harriet) talk to the psychotherapist, writer and broadcaster Julia Samuel about bereavement. As regular Rosebud listeners will know, bereavement - whether in childhood or adulthood - is a recurring theme on the podcast, and we have received and shared many heartfelt and deeply moving emails from listeners who lost parents and family members when they were very young, and in difficult circumstances. We also know that we're listened to by lots of recent widows, and others who are grieving. This special episode is for you, and for anyone else who knows ...
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Ben Elton
Friday, 10 October 2025
Ben Elton was instrumental in the transformation of British comedy that took place in the 1980s. His scripts for The Young Ones and Blackadder were fresh, anarchic, rude, clever and hilarious. The people that worked alongside Ben - Richard Curtis, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Rik Mayall, Ade Edmondson, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders - to name but a few - are legendary. In this episode of Rosebud, Ben talks to Gyles about his parents, his father's family story - they had escaped persecution in Germany at the start of the war - and how he became interested in comedy as a young boy. He talks abou...
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Gyles's diary, episode 26
Tuesday, 7 October 2025
We've got a very special guest joining Gyles and Harriet in this episode of the diaries - and this is a really fun edition of the podcast as a result. Stay tuned to find out who it is... Gyles starts his third year at Oxford, and puts on a debate at the Union with Fanny Craddock. Meanwhile, he is stood up by Barry Humphries, gets a new history tutor who is fond of red wine, and tries to help his father through a financial crisis. Enjoy this, diary fans! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Lee Child
Friday, 3 October 2025
We're excited to present the multi-million selling author and creator of Jack Reacher, Lee Child, as our guest today. And this is a brilliant episode. Lee is a master storyteller - painting a vivid picture of his childhood in Birmingham, his well-meaning but cold parents, his early forays into relationships with girls, and his days working at Granada Television. He also tells Gyles about his writing routine. This is a funny, fascinating and evocative episode with one of the best selling writers of all time.If you're a Rosebud fan, you can join our new Facebook community: just search Rosebud...
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More Rosebud - Lee Lawrence
Tuesday, 30 September 2025
A moving and important true story is the subject of More Rosebud today, featuring the writer and social justice campaigner Lee Lawrence. Lee's mother, Cherry Groce, was wrongfully shot by a police officer in a dawn raid on their house in Brixton, south London, on the 28 September 1985 - 40 years ago this weekend. Cherry was paralysed in the incident, and spent the rest of her life in a wheelchair, until her death in 2011. Her son, Lee, was just 11 at the time, and witnessed everything. Lee then spent the rest of his teenage years caring for his mum, and most of his adult life fighting for a...
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Sir John Major
Friday, 26 September 2025
Sir John Major, British Prime Minister from 1992 - 1997, is our guest today. In this deeply interesting, personal and touching conversation, Sir John talks to Gyles about his childhood in South London and about his unusual and inspiring family. Sir John's background is unconventional. His father had been a successful music hall artiste, and was a great storyteller, much older than the fathers of John's friends. His mother had been a balletic dancer, and was an extremely kind and selfless wife and parent. Both of them were role models to John; his love and admiration for them shine through i...
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Gyles's diary, episode 25
Tuesday, 23 September 2025
Join us for the further adventures of the young Gyles Brandreth, as he continues his impressive career at Oxford - in this episode Gyles finally has the success he's been hoping for in the Union elections - but finds it strangely unsatisfying. He also carries on seeing Michele, despite the fact she has now left university and is starting her first job. Gyles makes his first appearance on Women's Hour, and meets the outrageous writer Beverley Nicholls. Plus Gyles and Harriet have a fun chat which will make you laugh (we hope - it's not intended to be taken seriously!). Cue the music. Hosted...
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Jung Chang
Friday, 19 September 2025
We're honoured to have Jung Chang, the celebrated author of the international bestseller Wild Swans, as our Rosebud guest today - and her story will astonish you. In this remarkable episode, Jung tells Gyles the story of her family - and through that, the story of China over the past 100 years. This episode takes us from the tale of her grandmother, who grew up in pre-Communist China and was subjected to the cruel custom of foot binding, to her mother and father, who were committed Communists but who were eventually denounced and imprisoned by the Party, and eventually to Jung's own story, ...
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More Rosebud - Julia Bradbury
Tuesday, 16 September 2025
Julia Bradbury talks to Gyles about her life, upbringing and her new book "Hack Yourself Healthy". As Gyles finds out in this conversation, from the moment she began working her way up through the TV industry, Julia had led a stressful, action-packed and "high cortisol" life. Was this one of the contributing factors in her breast cancer diagnosis of 2021? Understandably, the discovery of her cancer led Julia to reassess her lifestyle, and ultimately to research and write the book she's talking about today. She tells Gyles about the things we can all do to increase our health and longevity: ...
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Alan Davies
Friday, 12 September 2025
You might notice that this episode of Rosebud is slightly longer than usual - and that's because this story is so powerful. This conversation with the stand-up, writer, actor and TV star Alan Davies is virtually unedited - because it's unmissable. In it, Alan tells Gyles about the two most significant, and devastating, events of his childhood: the death of his mother when he was only six years old, and the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of his father after she died. And he tells Gyles about how he has healed and gone on to have his own family, and experience unconditional love with h...
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Gyles's diary, episode 24
Tuesday, 9 September 2025
Yes, we know it's secretly your favourite part of Rosebud... it's Gyles's diary! And we know we say this every time, but it's another corker. Gyles does something unspeakable on Edward Heath's shoes. He has to chaperone an out of control drunk Irish poet. He meets Sir Gerald Nabarro, Malcolm Muggeridge and Leonard Woolf. We hear his sister Hester's fascinating account of working as a psychiatric nurse, and we hear Gyles's thoughts on turning 21 (clue: he's underwhelmed). Plus Gyles and Harriet discuss how to tell a good anecdote, childhood bereavement, and swearing. NB this episode, unusual...
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Professor Dame Mary Beard
Friday, 5 September 2025
Our guest today is one of the UK's best known and best loved public intellectuals, the classicist and expert on Roman history Professor Dame Mary Beard. Mary tells Gyles about her country childhood in Shropshire, playing on a disused railway track and trying to memorise Jane Eyre by heart. She talks about her interesting parents - a headmistress and a "raffish" historical buildings architect, and about the alarming visits up ladders into church belfries she made with her dad. She talks about Cambridge, sexism, and discusses interesting questions such as 'how to think' with Gyles. She talks ...
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The Rosebud Second Birthday Edition - Dame Judi Dench Returns
Tuesday, 2 September 2025
It's Rosebud's second birthday, and we're celebrating with another conversation with our very first guest: Dame Judi Dench. This time, it's been recorded in front of an audience, at the Concert Artists' Association in Covent Garden, London. Dame Judi treats us to some more stories from her amazing career. She tells Gyles about working with Tommy Steele, Johnny Depp and Clint Eastwood. She tells Gyles about having Eric Morecambe over for lunch. She talks about Macbeth and Twelfth Night and gives us some speeches from those plays - which will stop you in your tracks. We're extremely lucky to ...
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Dame Eileen Atkins
Friday, 29 August 2025
To end our second year of Rosebud, we have one of our most charming, talented and brilliant theatrical dames: Dame Eileen Atkins. Dame Eileen is a uniquely talented writer and actor, both on stage and screen - from Cranford, to the RSC, to The Killing of Sister George on Broadway, to Upstairs, Downstairs and The House of Eliot (which she co-created), to Mrs Dalloway (for which she wrote the screenplay). And this is one of our most entertaining interviews yet, with stories from Dame Eileen's long life and career . From her early years in Tottenham, when a gypsy going door-to-door prophesied ...
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Gyles's diary, episode 23
Tuesday, 26 August 2025
Gyles is back at Oxford after the summer... with a bang, of course. His long-awaited pantomime, Cinderella, opens at the Playhouse, with Sir Michael Redgrave reading the Prologue (and getting stage fright in the wings before the show). Plus Gyles sees James Robertson Justice naked, goes on TV again and forgets his lines for Twelfth Night. Yes, it's another great episode for you, diary fans! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Melvyn Bragg
Friday, 22 August 2025
We have a broadcasting legend for you today on Rosebud, as Gyles interviews the creator and host of In Our Time and The South Bank Show, Melvyn Bragg, Lord Bragg of Wigton. Melvyn takes Gyles back to his roots in Wigton, a small town in Cumbria, in which his parents ran one of the local pubs, and the young Bragg played all day long in the streets, making bows and arrows from trees overhanging the river. He tells Gyles about his schooldays, the brilliant teachers who guided him and there's a really interesting discussion of the unexpected mental health problems he had as a teenager. He takes...
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More Rosebud - Lord Ivar Mountbatten
Tuesday, 19 August 2025
Our guest today is Lord Ivar Mountbatten, a great-great-great grandson of Queen Victoria, cousin of Prince Phillip, descendant of Russian Tsars and of Pushkin, and the second son of David, the late Marquess of Milford Haven, who was Prince Philip's best man at his wedding to Princess Elizabeth in 1947. Lord Ivar tells Gyles about his complex and fascinating lineage, and he also tells him about growing up in a grand house "like Downton Abbey", surrounded by servants and with a mother who was lazy, uninterested in her children and too posh to pack her own suitcase. He talks about the death of...
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Su Pollard
Friday, 15 August 2025
The sun is out and our guest this week is a ray of sunshine. It's the unique British comic actress and fashion icon Su Pollard. In this brilliant conversation, Su tells Gyles about her childhood in Nottingham, how she got the bug for performing when she was still in the infants and used to go to school dressed in wild outfits that made her look like a morris dancer. He hears about her parents, Don and Hilda, how her father liked to garden in his shirt and tie and their impressive work ethic. He hears about Su's first boyfriend, her first professional role and her first meeting with the Quee...
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Gyles's diary, episode 22
Tuesday, 12 August 2025
Well, Gyles's diary continues to wow Harriet - and all our lovely listeners - and this week is no exception... Because at the height of the Cold War (it's 1968 and the USSR have just invaded Czechoslovakia), the young Mr Brandreth goes off on a research trip to Moscow. And it is truly fascinating - a snapshot of Soviet life with all its surveillance, austerity and difference. Back in the UK, life is as busy as ever - preparations for Cinderella continue, the relationship with Michele is flourishing, and Gyles meets Jack Profumo. Plus a fantastic listener email from Amelia Stay. Enjoy this! ...
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Anthony Horowitz
Friday, 8 August 2025
A best-selling novellist with a life story that reads like a best-selling novel... our guest this week is Anthony Horowitz. In this absorbing and - at times - moving and shocking conversation, Anthony tells Gyles about his young life and upbringing, which is extraordinary. Born to wealthy parents into a very large home of extreme privilege, Horowitz's childhood was cold, lonely and lacking in love and affection. His father was critical and prone to cruelty, his mother was stifled. The teachers at his prep school were brutal and abusive. So it's not surprising that Anthony looks back at this...
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More Rosebud Poetry Special: Roger McGough
Tuesday, 5 August 2025
A special episode of More Rosebud today with a great poet, and filled with great poetry. Roger McGough tells Gyles about his striking first memories, his childhood in Liverpool, and interweaves this with some readings of poems inspired by his life. Roger remembers his hardworking father, the long line of men who came to the house to pay their respects to his father laid out in the coffin after his death, meeting Philip Larkin at Hull University, and then his early days performing poetry and sketches in clubs in Liverpool in the sixties - which led to his fame as a poet and as an unlikely po...
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Kemi Badenoch
Friday, 1 August 2025
Kemi Badenoch is the Leader of the Conservative Party and the current Leader of the Opposition, a job often described as the toughest in British politics. And in this interview with Gyles, Kemi talks about her upbringing and how it gave her the toughness she needs to survive in the ruthless environment of Westminster. Born in a hospital in Wimbledon in 1980, but brought up and educated mainly in Lagos, Nigeria, Kemi's story is one of contrasts: her family were middle class and affluent, but eventually they lost their money and Kemi was sent to the UK at 16. There she got a job in McDonalds ...
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Gyles's diary, episode 21
Tuesday, 29 July 2025
It's hard to believe how much Gyles packs into his summer term at Oxford: he's filming with the BBC, he's casting his first Oxford University Dramatic Society production, he's looking for a girlfriend, he's going to numerous balls and parties, he's in the newspapers... so this is a long and action-packed episode of the diaries. Harriet and Gyles discuss some of the changing attitudes of the times. They also talk about phobias, dahlias, stamps, cape-wearing, and read out some brilliant listener emails. If you want to get in touch, email us at hello@rosebudpodcast.com. Enjoy this! Hosted on ...
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Hi-de-Hi Holiday Special from Broadstairs, with Jeffrey Holland
Friday, 25 July 2025
Rosebud is off to the seaside, to the Sarah Thorne Theatre in Broadstairs in Kent, where we meet the much-loved star of Hi-de-Hi and You Rang, M'Lord, Jeffrey Holland. And we meet some Rosebud listeners! And we sing a song and Harriet dresses up as a yellow coat. Jeffrey tells Gyles about his days working with Croft and Perry, his early life in Walsall, the sadness of losing his father when he was only 14, and how he got into acting. He talks about his love of Superman and Stan Laurel, and his life lesson. We remember Simon Cadell and generally have a marvellous day out. Enjoy this. Hosted...
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Gyles's diary, episode 20
Tuesday, 22 July 2025
It's another cracking episode of Gyles's Oxford diaries... Gyles continues his illicit flirtation with his friend's wife, has a sad meeting with Sal, and goes to a party at Robert Maxwell's mansion. He writes a lot of articles, appears in the Sun and on a BBC documentary, and he struggles to find time to do any work. "Busy people are happy people"... but maybe Gyles is trying to squeeze too much into the eight-week terms? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Mel Giedroyc
Friday, 18 July 2025
Mel Giedroyc is Gyles's special guest on this episode; and she talks about her amazing family story. Her father and his family were taken from Eastern Poland to Siberia by the Russians in 1939 - Mel's grandfather was shot, but her grandmother, dad and aunts made an extraordinary journey and eventually reached London, where Mel's father settled and met her mother. It's a fascinating, moving and sometimes shocking tale, and a very special edition of Rosebud. Mel also talks about meeting Sue Perkins at Cambridge, about being flashed at in Italy, and about her love of walking holidays. Mel Gied...
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