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Ed Balls and Strictly Come Dancing

Chris reveals Ed Balls as the first contestant for Strictly Come Dancing 2016 and catches up with Vassos who's live from the Rio Olympics.

Chris reveals Ed Balls as the first contestant for Strictly Come Dancing 2016. Ed tells us how he's preparing for the highly anticipated celebrity dance competition and how he's kept it a secret with his wife Yvette Cooper. Mike checks in with Beth Peaty, sister of Team GB's first Olympic gold medallist, swimmer Adam Peaty. Plus we catch up with Vassos who's live from Rio, he gives us the lowdown on all the Olympic action over the weekend and what we can expect today.

2 hours, 59 minutes

Music Played

  • The Lightning Seeds

    The Life Of Riley

    • Sense - The Lightning Seeds.
    • Virgin.
  • Olly Murs

    You Don鈥檛 Know Love

    • (CD Single).
    • RCA.
  • The Belle Stars

    Iko Iko

    • Rain Man O.S.T. (Various Artists).
    • Capitol.
  • Van Morrison

    Bright Side Of The Road

    • The Very Best Of Van Morrison.
    • Polydor.
  • DNCE

    Cake By The Ocean

    • (CD Single).
    • Republic.
    • 1.
  • The Smiths

    This Charming Man

    • The Smiths - The Very Best Of.
    • WEA.
    • 2.
  • Dolly Parton

    Pure & Simple

    • Pure & Simple.
    • RCA Nashville.
  • U2

    I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

    • Rock The Planet (Various Artists).
    • Polygram Tv.
  • Bruno Mars

    Treasure

    • Unorthodox Jukebox.
    • Atlantic.
    • 1.
  • Percy Faith

    Theme from A Summer Place

    • Rediscover The 50's - Here Comes Summ.
    • Old Gold.
  • Damian Wilson

    Thrill Me

  • Pharrell Williams

    Happy

    • (CD Single).
    • RCA.
  • Plastic Bertrand

    Ca Plane Pour Moi

    • VirginMegaMusic Totally 80's (Var).
    • Rhino.
  • The Supermen Lovers

    Starlight (feat. Mani Hoffman)

    • Now 50 (Various Artists).
    • Now.
  • Harry Belafonte

    Jump In The Line

    • The Best Of.
    • Camden.
    • 16.
  • Sophie Ellis鈥怋extor

    Come With Us

    • Familia.
    • Re/Essential.
    • 001.
  • Jerry Lee Lewis

    Great Balls of Fire

    • The Essential One & Only Jerry Lee Le.
    • Trax Records.
  • Zak Abel

    Everybody Needs Love

    • (CD Single).
    • Atlantic.
  • Ant么nio Carlos Jobim

    The Girl from Ipanema

    Singer: Astrud Gilberto. Performer: Jo茫o Gilberto. Performer: Ant么nio Carlos Jobim. Performer: Stan Getz. Performer: Tommy Williams.
    • It's Cool (Various Artists).
    • EMI.
  • Frank Sinatra

    Nice 'n' Easy

    • The Frank Sinatra Collection.
    • EMI.
  • Dire Straits

    Twisting By The Pool

    • Sultans Of Swing - Best Of Dire Straits.
    • Vertigo.
  • Frances

    Say It Again (Glastonbury 2016)

    • (CD Single).
    • Capitol.
    • 1.
  • The Pointer Sisters

    Jump (For My Love)

    • The Best Of The Pointer Sisters.
    • RCA.
  • Hothouse Flowers

    Don't Go

    • Emerald Rock (Various Artists).
    • Polygram Tv.
  • INXS

    Mystify

    • INXS - Kick.
    • Mercury.
  • Richard Ashcroft

    They Don't Own Me

    • (CD Single).
    • Cooking Vinyl.
    • 001.
  • Spandau Ballet

    Gold

    • The Gold Album (Various Artists).
    • The Hit Label Ltd.
  • Zara Larsson

    Lush Life

    • (CD Single).
    • Sony Music.
    • 001.

Chris' Pause for Thought: Jim Harris

Chris' Pause for Thought: Jim Harris

Art Historian, Dr Jim Harris

Anyone who watched the opening ceremony of the Olympics on Friday saw something extraordinary: thousands of the world's greatest athletes, after four years of training and self-denial, finally in the moment when they get to compete and exercise the skill and prowess that stems from an absolute commitment of time, energy and effort.

Now, in other news, while those athletes were finishing their final training sessions last week, I was on the beach. Mind you, this was not a sun-kissed, Mediterranean beach with warm water and a bar. No. This was a beach facing the cold North Sea on the long, low, bleak sandbank called Holy Island or Lindisfarne. You can鈥檛 drive to it.听 There鈥檚 no shelter.听 Everything you need you must carry.听 It is, in other words, perfect - but it's the sort of beach that takes commitment.

Frankly, just being on Holy Island, when the wind whistles in from the north and the east, takes some commitment. It's hard to believe that fourteen hundred years ago, some Irish monks actually chose to live there, in community, worshipping together and, more importantly, serving the people of the north.

St Aidan founded a monastery on the island and used the money given to his church to feed the poor and buy back the freedom of those sold into slavery. His example of commitment to both people and the environment they inhabit reflected a God who loves justice and whose creation is not a jumble of parts, but a whole thing, a unity: sea, mountains, beasts, fields, trees, humanity, all rejoicing together.听 It鈥檚 the God we read about again and again in the Psalms.

Which brings me back to the Olympics. The dedication of the athletes wasn鈥檛 the only sort of commitment that the ceremony touched on. The 12,000 trees of 208 species given to the athletes to plant, the low-emissions cauldron for the Olympic flame, the poem that Judi Dench read, by the great Brazilian poet, Carlos Drummond de Andrade, all gestured towards the need to commit to re-making a world that St Aidan and the psalmist would have recognised.

The Olympics are one of the very few occasions when, for a moment, the whole world looks in the same direction. I reckon it can only be good if when we look, we catch a glimpse of something better.

Broadcast

  • Mon 8 Aug 2016 06:30

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