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Oct 2016
1h 25m

McFly singer and author Tom Fletcher

Bbc Radio 4
About this episode

Tom Fletcher of McFly, Silent Film pianist Neil Brand, Bookshop frequenter Erica Jones and extreme engineer Jimmy de Ville join Richard Coles and Aasmah Mir.

Tom Fletcher is best known as singer and songwriter of McFly, he's also written for Busted and One Direction, clocking up ten UK number one singles. He's also a children's author, having written The Dinosaur that Pooped series with his band mate Dougie Poynter, he's now written The Christmasaurus, his first solo kids' novel.

Saturday Live listener Erica Jones is a bookshop champion - she likes them so much that she has devoted her weekends for the last 3 years travelling all over the country visiting bookshops, reviewing them for her blog.

Neil Brand is a silent film pianist, which means he is both player and composer, improviser and emotional interpreter. He sees his role as raising the dead, bringing silent films back to life, the latest being Robin Hood from 1922.

Engineer and Adventurer Jimmy de Ville went from designing toys to creating special effects to serving in Afghanistan in the British Army. More recently he's been exploiting his love of engines: advising on and acting out dangerous stunts on camera for TV programmes.

JP meets Star Trek actor George Takei, we have your thank yous, and we'll have the inheritance tracks of DJ Trevor Nelson who chooses I Want You Back performed by the Jackson 5 and As by Stevie Wonder.

The Christmasaurus by Tom Fletcher is out now. The Star Trek 50th Anniversary TV and movie collection box set is available now. Neil Brand's new score for Douglas Fairbanks' 1922 Robin Hood premieres at the Barbican on 14th October.

Produced by Corinna Jones Edited by Karen Dalziel.

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