David Benedict discusses with Ivan six things which he thinks should be better known.

David Benedict is a culture critic and broadcaster. He read drama at Hull University, spent ten years as an actor, singer and director and was artistic director of the U.K.’s national lesbian and gay theatre company, Gay Sweatshop. He joined The Independent in 1993, becoming a daily arts columnist and associate editor. The former arts editor of The Observer, he is the London critic of Variety and a weekly columnist for The Stage and divides his time between criticism, arts journalism and broadcasting. He is writing the authorised biography of Stephen Sondheim and also plays Tristram Hawkshaw on The Archers.

1. Better Things https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/feb/28/better-things-gets-better-pamela-adlon-triumphs-without-louis-ck
2. Betty MacDonald https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/books/looking-for-betty-macdonald-finds-comedy-and-tragedy/
3. The Cloud-Capp’d Towers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKzB359qAuM
4. It’s Only Fair Weather https://takeonecinema.net/2020/focus-on-its-always-fair-weather/
5. Dungeness https://www.timeout.com/kent/things-to-do/best-things-to-do-in-dungeness
6. The Robber Hotzenplotz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Robber_Hotzenplotz

Beaty Rubens discusses with Ivan six things which he thinks should be better known.

A BBC Radio producer for 35 years, Beaty Rubens has collaborated with some of the great names in broadcasting, the arts and academia. Her many documentaries have focussed on the arts, history and the lives of women and children. Some high-points include working with Lyse Doucet, Katya Adler and James Naughtie, Professor Mary Beard, Professor Emma Smith and Professor Thomas Dixon, dancers Akram Khan and Marianela Nunez, poets Seamus Heaney, Alice Oswald, Sean O’Brien and Sasha Dugdale, writers Michael Morpurgo, David Almond, Shirley Hughes and Anna Pavord. She has won the radio category of the prestigious One World Media Award, the Glenfiddich Award and The BP Arts Journalism Award. In 2021 she left the BBC and now works as an independent producer and writer. Particularly happy in the Aegean, Beaty is also a passionate three-season swimmer in the Thames near where she lives in Oxfordshire with her husband and daughter.

1. Journey to the River Sea https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zdn6dp3
2. Celia Pym http://celiapym.com/
3. Charlotte Green giggling on air https://soundcloud.com/greville-suitcase/charlotte-green-radio-4-today
4. Wet-Sox https://www.wetsuitwearhouse.com/wetsuits/category/worn.html
   5.Rameau’s Les Inde Galante – Les Sauvages – played on the cello by Christian Pierre La Marca https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2MJ-QrF90k
5. A beach in the SE of the Peloponnese in Greece which I am not going to name https://drinkteatravel.com/best-beaches-peloponnese-greece/

Alexei Sayle discusses with Ivan both things which he thinks should be better known and a number of things which he thinks are terrible.

Alexei Sayle is a comedian and writer. He was the original MC of the Comedy Store in London when it opened in 1979 and was a central part of the alternative comedy circuit in the early 1980s. He is best known for his performances in the BBC TV programmes The Young Ones, The Comic Strip and Alexei Sayle’s Stuff. He has written three novels and two volumes of autobiography: Stalin Ate My Homework and Thatcher Stole My Trousers. He presents The Alexei Sayle Podcast.

The Bride https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bride_(1985_film)

The Supergrass https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090102/

Whoops Apocalypse https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083502/

Lenin of the Rovers https://archive.org/details/leninoftherovers1-2

Socialism https://www.yesmagazine.org/democracy/2020/01/30/socialism-understanding

Derry Girls https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/jan/19/derry-girls-channel-4-the-funniest-thing-on-tv-lisa-mcgee

Motherland https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/motherland-review-bbc-b1844797.html

Louis CK https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/02/10/can-louis-ck-spin-his-troubles-into-art

Predator 2 https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/jul/21/hear-me-out-why-predator-2-isnt-a-bad-movie

Movie sequels better than the original https://time.com/5353143/sequels-better-than-original/

Charles Spencer https://charles-spencer.com/about/

Carry On Columbus https://www.filmstories.co.uk/features/carry-on-columbus-and-the-failed-attempt-to-revive-a-comedy-series/

Author Francis Spufford discusses with Ivan six things which he thinks should be better known.

Francis Spufford’s novel Light Perpetual has been longlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize. His first novel Golden Hill was published in 2016 and won the Costa First Novel Award. He is the author of five celebrated books of non-fiction. The most recent, Unapologetic, has been translated into three languages; the one before, Red Plenty, into nine. In 2007 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He teaches creative writing at Goldsmiths College, University of London.

1. The leafy hills of South London https://www.southlondonclub.co.uk/blog/2016/10/14/8-secret-leafy-getaways-to-visit-this-autumn-in-south-london
2. The Pilot G-Tec C4 fine-line pen https://www.penandpaper.co.uk/product/pilot-microtip-rollerball-g-tec-c4/
3. Crisp Green Williams pears sliced thin, and eaten with Italian blue cheese https://www.bertolli.co.uk/recipes/warm-pearblue-cheese-crostini-180506
4. The works of Elizabeth Knox https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/mar/25/the-absolute-book-by-elizabeth-knox-review-an-instant-classic
5. The Church of England https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/a-defence-of-the-church-of-england
6. The entire genre of science fiction https://www.salon.com/1999/05/25/sfdefense/

Virginia Ironside discusses with Ivan six things which she thinks should be better known.

Virginia Ironside started off as a temporary secretary to Shirley Williams at the Fabian Society and then worked at Vogue, followed by the Sunday Telegraph, the Daily Mail (as a rock columnist), Woman magazine, the Sunday Mirror, Today (as an agony columnist) and now with a weekly column in the Independent and a monthly one in the Oldie.

1. Anna Kavan https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/03/30/the-curious-creation-of-anna-kavan
2. Isle of Sheppey http://www.sdpt.org.uk
3. Hippodrome Circus, Yarmouth hippodromecircus.co.uk
4. A House in Bayswater http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFZlBYJ0_uY&t=43s
5. Anne Acheson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Acheson
6. Motherhood https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2003/sep/03/familyandrelationships.features10

Sam Gilbert discusses with Ivan six things which he thinks should be better known.

Sam Gilbert is an affiliated researcher at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy at the University of Cambridge. An expert in data-driven marketing, he was employee number one and chief marketing officer at Bought By Many, an award-winning fintech start-up named as one of Wired’s hottest start-ups in Europe and ranked in the Sunday Times TechTrack100 list of the UK’s fastest growing companies. Previously, he was head of strategy and development at the data company Experian and head of consumer finance at Santander. He lives in Copenhagen.

1.  West Highland Line: https://www.scotrail.co.uk/scotland-by-rail/great-scenic-rail-journeys/west-highland-line-glasgow-oban-and-fort-williammallaig

2.  AnswerThePublic.com: https://answerthepublic.com/ 

3.  Danish Summerhouses: https://www.howtoliveindenmark.com/podcasts/danish-summerhouse-dollhouse-expect-youre-invited-danish-summer-home/

4.  The Zuckerberg Files: https://zuckerbergfiles.org/

5.  Judith Shklar’s Liberalism of Fear: https://philpapers.org/archive/SHKTLO.pdf

6.  Novels of Magnus Mills: https://www.bloomsbury.com/author/magnus-mills

Michael Wood discusses with Ivan six things which he thinks should be better known.

Michael Wood is Professor in Public History at the University of Manchester. He is the author of several highly praised books on English history including In Search of the Dark Ages, Domesday, and In Search of England. He has made well over one hundred documentary films, among them Art of the Western World, In Search of the Trojan War, In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great, Conquistadors and The Story of India – all of which were accompanied by bestselling books.

1. Du Fu https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2020/10/08/du-fu-li-bai-poems/
2. Tamil Nadu landscape and culture https://theculturetrip.com/asia/india/articles/tamil-nadus-landscapes-and-ancient-poetry/
3. Debate on Universal Human Rights in Valladolid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valladolid_debate
4. Hadrian the African https://www.historyextra.com/period/anglo-saxon/hadrian-clerk-libya-african-who-anglo-saxon-england/
5. Sven Lindqvist https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jun/22/sven-lindqvist-life-in-writing
6. Ethos https://www.duvarenglish.com/ethos-has-put-us-all-in-the-therapists-office-and-asked-us-to-speak-article-55126

Helen Thompson discusses with Ivan six things which she thinks should be better known.

Helen Thompson is Professor of Political Economy at Cambridge University. She is a columnist for the New Statesman and a regular contributor to the podcast Talking Politics.

1. Arnold Bennett’s Clayhanger https://reading19001950.wordpress.com/2014/02/24/clayhanger-by-arnold-bennett-1910-2/
2. The Hoo Peninsula https://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/things-to-do/discover-the-hoo-peninsula-7181064
3. Battlestar Galactica  (the Ronald Moore version https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battlestar_Galactica_(2004_TV_series))
4. Dolly Parton’s My Tennessee Mountain Home https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG2kL4ojylk
5. St Vitale, Ravenna https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/early-europe-and-colonial-americas/medieval-europe-islamic-world/v/justinian-and-his-attendants-6th-century-ravenna
6. Gregor von Rezzori’s The snows of yesteryear https://notevenpast.org/snows-yesteryear-2008/

Dominic Sandbrook discusses with Ivan six things which he thinks should be better known.

Dominic Sandbrook is the author of eight books of modern history, and is best known for his books on Britain since the 1950s.

The first volume, Never Had It So Good, covers the late 1950s and early 1960s. The second book, White Heat, looks at Britain in the heyday of the 1960s, and was later used as the background for a BBC drama. The third and fourth volumes, State of Emergency and Seasons in the Sun, cover the 1970s, and were adapted for television as the BBC documentary series The 70s. The fifth volume, Who Dares Wins, covers the early 1980s, including the first Thatcher administration, the Falklands War, the New Romantics, the birth of home computers and the tragic decline of Wolverhampton Wanderers.

His new book series Adventures in Time, aimed at young readers, focuses on the Six wives of Henry VIII and the Second World War.

He has a weekly podcast, The Rest is History, with his fellow historian Tom Holland.

1. The Weather Islands of Sweden https://www.vastsverige.com/en/tanum/produkter/the-weather-islands/

2. The Good Soldier https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/jun/07/fiction.julianbarnes

3. The Byzantine Empire https://www.livescience.com/42158-history-of-the-byzantine-empire.html

4. Stan Cullis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Cullis

5. Bridgnorth https://www.mccartneys.co.uk/pages/bridgnorth-area-guide

6. The Dark is Rising sequence https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/dec/08/season-s-readings-the-dark-is-rising

John Kampfner discusses with Ivan six things which he thinks should be better known.

John Kampfner is an award-winning author, broadcaster, commentator and cultural leader. He began his journalistic career as a foreign correspondent with the Daily Telegraph, first in East Berlin where he reported on the fall of the Wall and unification of Germany, and then in Moscow at the time of the collapse of Soviet Communism. He went on to become Chief Political Correspondent at the FT and political commentator for the BBC’s Today programme and Newsnight. As Editor of the New Statesman from 2005 to 2008, he took the magazine to 30-year circulation highs. He was Society of Magazine Editors Current Affairs Editor of the Year in 2006. 

His new book, Why the Germans Do It Better, published by Atlantic, is his sixth. His previous books include the best-selling Blair’s Wars (2003), now a standard text in schools; Freedom For Sale (2009), which was short-listed for the Orwell Prize in 2010 and in 2014 The Rich, from Slaves to Superyachts, A 2000-Year History.

1. People playing cricket in Chicago www.iplcc.com

2. Cornwall’s links with Mexico https://www.journeylatinamerica.co.uk/travel-inspiration/other/mexico-the-cornish-connection/

3. Insect-based cuisine https://www.tasteatlas.com/most-popular-insect-dishes-in-the-world

4. The impact of climate change in the Russian Arctic https://www.ft.com/content/d855d522-cefc-11e9-99a4-b5ded7a7fe3f

5. Marine le Pen’s gay acolytes https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-39641822

6. German football fans drinking and smoking on the terraces https://www.theguardian.com/football/2005/dec/11/sport.worldcup20061