logo
episode-header-image
Jan 2025
28m 25s

The Steamy Reading Question

Bbc Radio 4
About this episode

Is your wife's bedtime reading a little on the raunchy side? Should you worry, if it is? Do you have a friend who never helps to organise your get-togethers? And ... what is love, anyway? Another superb slice of life served up by Radio 4's in-house agony aunts, Tara Flynn and Marian Keyes.

Each week Marian and Tara do their best to shed their particular brand of warmth, wit and wisdom onto listeners' questions with topics big and small.

Earlier series of Now You're Asking were welcomed by listeners and critics: "Both are warm and kind enough to not only be funny but also offer genuinely thoughtful, if left-field, advice." (Miranda Sawyer, The Observer) "Keyes and Flynn are my new favourite double-act." (Jane Anderson - Radio Times) "I found their compassion endlessly soothing." (Rachel Cunliffe - The New Statesman)

Marian Keyes is a multi award-winning writer, with a total of over 30 million of her books sold to date in 33 languages. Her close friend Tara Flynn is an actress, comedian and writer. Together, these two friends have been through a lot, and now want to use their considerable life experience to help solve the biggest - and smallest - of the things that keep us awake at night.

We continue to be inundated with emails but everything gets read and we're always on the lookout for new questions, queries and conundrums to include on the show.

Got a problem you want Marian and Tara to solve? Email: marianandtara@bbc.co.uk.

Producer: Steve Doherty. A Giddy Goat production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

Up next
Jan 2025
The 'Functioning Alcoholic' Problem
Alcoholism and the idea of the 'functioning alcoholic' is one of the serious topics tackled by Marian and Tara in this final edition of series 4 - alongside ways to choose your battles with a petulant 11 year-old daughter, and a conundrum encountered by a listener getting an inti ... Show More
28m 42s
Jan 2025
The Knick-Knack Nightmare Problem
You're gay and your best friend is married to a man who seems to be jealous of your relationship with his wife - what would you do? Your girlfriend's father is sick and you want to support her but are conflicted - what should you do? Your boyfriend's mother seems determined to fi ... Show More
28m 42s
Dec 2024
The Upstairs Neighbour Problem
Neighbours - you can't live with 'em and you can't live without 'em. This week, one of our askers is having trouble with the mysterious noises from upstairs, another is feeling increasingly awkward when sex scenes pop up on tv, while a third is toying with the idea of an affair w ... Show More
28m 32s
Recommended Episodes
Jan 2025
105. Not for Wife Guys + Blake Lively and the One Thing No One is Talking About
This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit https://www.betterhelp.com/notforeveryone today to get 10% off your first month. This show is sponsored by Skims. Check out the Fits Everybody Collection at https://www.skims.com/notforeveryone #skimspartner __ Coming off the holidays, ... Show More
1h 10m
Nov 2024
the threesome
Hiyaaa!  Today we chant, we chant our dear shooshies because we love threesomes!!! One of our gorgeous shooshies feels weird about the threesome she had years ago - she’s even lied to her current partner about it. It raises the question; do we need to know who our partner has sle ... Show More
37m 15s
Mar 2023
The Lady Vanishes - Where is My Mum Marion? Uncut with Sally Leydon
Today we've got a lot to unpack. First up is how we feel that international women's day doesn't stand for what it used to and how now the day can be tokenistic. We’ve got a huge problem with the sex shaming that a nursing advisory board has put on NSW nurses and their OnlyFans pr ... Show More
1h 9m
Feb 2025
111. Not For Yapping + Navigating Core Differences with Your Partner
This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit https://www.betterhelp.com/notforeveryone today to get 10% off your first month.__It’s time for a new segment! Introducing Am I The Hater, a take on Reddit’s famous Am I The Asshole threads, where listeners write in about moments where ... Show More
1h 23m
Oct 2024
Tammy Pitkin - USA
In this episode we tell the baffling story of the disappearance of Tammy Pitkin, whose car was found abandoned on a dead end forest service road in Sweet Home, Oregon, almost 400 miles from her home in Red Bluff California. Tammy had recently separated from her husband but was lo ... Show More
40m 36s
Apr 2024
Yes, We're Reading 'Fairy Smut' Out Loud
Subscribe to Mamamia It’s been a rollercoaster week for Australian women with an outcry about our safety after the Westfield Bondi Junction tragedy was paired with the relief after the long-awaited verdict, the Bruce Lehrmann defamation case. We unpack. Plus, is it hot in here? W ... Show More
47m 51s
Feb 2023
The Concern Trolling Of Madonna’s Face
Listen to Holly's One Piece of Baby Advice for Jessie The weight-loss “miracle drug” that Hollywood stars have co-opted from the people who actually need it.  Plus, the growing trend of women who really, really want to be left alone. And Madonna’s face. Apparently, it’s ‘confusin ... Show More
49m 13s
May 6
Girl Talk: Is it me…am I the drama?!
Congratulations, it's Wednesday! We're introducing a new segment and seeing if you can tell your Aristotles from your Alexander-Arnolds. We're asking for stories of outfits which failed to slay, and our long suffering new mother gives us the third and final update on her godparen ... Show More
1h 11m
Nov 2021
Christmas Classics: Love Actually
Give the carol singers at your door a quid and tell them to bugger off - it’s time for Hey Now! Hey Now! Christmas Classics! We have waited approximately two years, seven months, three days, and I suppose an hour and thirty minutes to discuss today’s film - Richard Curtis and Bil ... Show More
52m 18s
Nov 2023
My Partner Had An Emotional Affair. What Do I Do?
This one is from a person whose partner has been having an emotional affair with a 22yo colleague. They've stayed together for a little while after the affair, but now they feel like it's time to go. The only thing hold them back is their daughter. Will they blow their life up by ... Show More
11m 28s