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Sir Kenneth Branagh, Christian Slater, Hugh Bonneville and Leading Ladies

Chris is joined by actors Sir Kenneth Branagh, Christian Slater and Hugh Bonneville. Plus live music from Leading Ladies Beverley Knight, Amber Riley and Cassidy Janson.

Chris is joined by actor Sir Kenneth Branagh who tell us all about his moustachioed adventures playing Agatha Christie's Poirot in the new film Murder On The Orient Express, which he also directs. Hugh Bonneville talks about the much-talked about Paddington 2, including Hugh Grant's starring role in the film. Christian Slater also stops by the studio give Chris the lowdown on bringing Glengarry Glen Ross to London's West End and how he crowdsurfed over the audience when he was last here. Plus West End musical stars Leading Ladies Beverley Knight, Amber Riley and Cassidy Janson blow everyone away with their powerful vocal harmonies, performing three classic show tunes and an incredible cover of George Michael's Freedom live in the studio.

2 hours, 59 minutes

Last on

Fri 3 Nov 2017 06:30

Music Played

  • Pharrell Williams

    Happy

    • (CD Single).
    • RCA.
  • Tom Chaplin

    Under A Million Lights

    • Twelve Tales Of Christmas.
    • Island.
  • Dion

    The Wanderer

    • The Wanderers (Original S/Track).
    • Sequel Records.
  • Clean Bandit

    Symphony (feat. Zara Larsson)

    • (CD Single).
    • Atlantic.
  • The Housemartins

    Happy Hour

    • Now That's What I Call Quite Good.
    • Go! Discs.
  • Earth, Wind & Fire

    Fantasy

    • The Best Of Earth Wind & Fire.
    • CBS.
    • 5.
  • Charlie Puth

    How Long

    • (CD Single).
    • Atlantic.
  • Vanilla Ice

    Ice Ice Baby

    • Vanilla Ice - To The Extreme.
    • Sbk.
  • Queen & David Bowie

    Under Pressure聽

    • Queen - Greatest Hits II.
    • Parlophone.
  • Olly Murs

    Wrapped Up (feat. Travie McCoy)

    • (CD Single).
    • Epic.
    • 1.
  • Petula Clark

    Downtown

    • The Ivor Novello Winners.
    • EMI.
  • The Beatles

    Eight Days A Week

    • The Beatles - 1.
    • Apple.
    • 008.
  • Living in a Box

    Living In A Box

    • Fantastic 80's - 3 (Various Artists).
    • Sony Tv/Columbia.
  • Pratt & McClain

    Happy Days

    • Television's Greatest Hits Volume 3 70s & 80s.
    • Silva Screen Records Ltd.
  • Rita Ora

    Anywhere

    • (CD Single).
    • Atlantic.
  • Leading Ladies

    I'm Every Woman (Radio 2 Session, 3 Nov 2017)

  • Leading Ladies

    One Night Only (Radio 2 Session, 3 Nov 2017)

  • Tears for Fears

    I Love You But I'm Lost

    • Rule The World: The Greatest Hits.
    • Virgin EMI Records.
  • Leading Ladies

    Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow (Radio 2 Session, 3 Nov 2017)

  • Leading Ladies

    Freedom! '90 (Radio 2 Session, 3 Nov 2017)

Pause for Thought: "We want everything to add up, to make sense, like trigonometry or the movement of a clock."

From the Reverend Richard Coles:

It鈥檚 the season of remembrance, All Saints and All Souls in the church鈥檚 calendar, coinciding with Trick or Treat and red poppies in the wider world. It鈥檚 one of those rare moments when the pulse of the church鈥檚 year, which once regulated all our lives, beats in time with the secular year - well sort of.聽

I鈥檝e had two funerals this week and for those who have just lost someone, the arrival of a zombie on the doorstep demanding sweeties can be a little jarring.

One of those funerals was for the last of a shoemaking dynasty, an industry which kept the whole county in employment until it was rationalised practically to nothing by an early exercise in globalisation in the 70s. Intelligent and resourceful, like a character in Glengarry Glen Ross he had to adapt to this changed world, but did so successfully, and retired comfortably, spending his last years in charge of the church clock. Every week he wound it, regulated it, so diligently that it struck the hour of his funeral perfectly in time, even though his own pulse had stilled.聽

Bong! We all looked up, and it was as if a voice from above was calling with a message of reassurance.

聽Trick or treat? For some, once you鈥檙e gone, you鈥檙e gone, and we preserve only in memory the person we loved, who shaped us, and is suddenly, shockingly, absent. Pieties from the pulpit for them may be as jarring as the zombie on the doorstep. But others, no less shocked, stumble unexpectedly into a new reality, and the conviction that person lives on, impossibly, in unfading light.

What makes people believe one or the other? There are all kinds of explanations on offer, but I鈥檝e never known someone be convinced, ultimately, by an argument. And arguing about faith can be so frustrating - because we want everything to add up, to make sense, like trigonometry, or the movement of a clock. But it鈥檚 never like that, well not for me: no, it鈥檚 much more like the chime of a bell, that rings entirely unexpectedly, and suddenly opens our ears and our thinking and feeling to infinitely multiplying harmonics. Bong!

Broadcast

  • Fri 3 Nov 2017 06:30

Farewell Chris Evans: The best bits from his last shows at Radio 2

After eight years of hosting the Breakfast Show, Chris Evans leaves Radio 2.

500 Words

成人快手 Radio 2's story-writing competition for kids.