One To One

For his One to One series, Sir Trevor McDonald explores the idea of redemption, talking to two very different people with very different ideas on what it means. This week a former maximum security prisoner talks about finding redemption through sport. Former armed robber John McAvoy once shared a wing with convicted terrorist Abu Hamza in Belmarsh Prison. His life was going nowhere but then he discovered rowing in the prison gym and went on to break the world record for indoor rowing. Now he's a semi professional tri-athlete seeking to inspire other young people who risk becoming offenders.Producer: Maggie Ayre.

Unexpected educational journeys: the journalist Datshiane Navanayagam speaks to the first female head teacher in the 500 year history of Magdalen College School in Oxford.The journalist Datshiane Navanayagam had a challenging childhood punctuated by periods of homelessness but she was always expected to achieve academically. She won a bursary to a private school which led her onto Cambridge University. As a result she's fascinated by the transformative role education can have. For One to One she's speaking to three people who have been on unexpected educational journeys.Today she meets Helen Pike. Born in Preston and educated entirely in the state sector, Helen Pike has almost exclusively worked in private schools and has just been appointed as the first female head teacher in the 500 year history of the independent Magdalen College School. At one stage she was the head teacher of the school that Datshiane attended (although not while Datshiane was there). They speak about background, confidence and breaking

Unexpected stories of education: The journalist Datshiane Navanayagam speaks to the crime writer, Val McDermid, about an unusual educational experiment she was part of in the 1960s.Datshiane Navanayagam had a difficult childhood punctuated by periods of homelessness, but she was always expected to achieve educationally and won a bursary to a private school which led her onto Cambridge University. As a result she's fascinated by the transformative role of education and for three editions of One to One is speaking to people who went on an unexpected educational journey.Today she meets the crime writer, Val McDermid, who was part of an educational experiment in the 1960s which separated her from her peers and pushed her forward by a year. Producer: Karen Gregor.

Unexpected stories of education: Datshiane Navanayagam speaks to the musician and broadcaster Soweto Kinch about his experience as an inner-city child of going to a private school.The journalist Datshiane Navanayagam had a challenging childhood which involved periods of homelessness. But her parents always had high expectations of her and what she could achieve educationally. She was awarded a bursary to a private school, and went onto Cambridge University. As a result she's fascinated by the transformative role of education and for three editions of One to One is speaking to people who went on unexpected educational journeys.Today she meets the musician and broadcaster Soweto Kinch. Soweto was brought up in inner city Birmingham, but from the age of nine was educated in private schools. On a daily basis he found himself crossing cultural boundaries and confounding expectations. He discusses this experience with Datshiane in terms of the confidence it gave him, and in the context of his West Indian heritage.

Tim Samuels goes in search of alternative relationships and meets women who have ditched traditional monogamy. He meets those making their own rules in a world less constrained by religion and gender norms and where we are evolving and adapting to changing times. For the second of his three programmes for One to One, Tim travels to Birmingham to meet Salma (not her real name) who chose to become the second wife in a polygamous relationship. She tells Tim why she wanted to share a husband and talks about the benefits. However, there are downsides to every relationship. The producer is Perminder Khatkar.

Tim Samuels goes in search of alternative relationships and meets women who have ditched traditional monogamy in favour of part-time, polygamous and pragmatic love. Tim recently wrote about the challenges of being a 21st century man, including how monogamy can be a struggle. He's not the first man to feel it could run counter to men's biological make-up. And these days, in heterosexual couple break ups, female infidelity is just as likely to be cited as a cause for divorce as the male half of the partnership straying. Tim says we are now living in a world where religion has lost its grip, women are freer than ever before to express their sexuality without male diktats, and we are continually evolving and adapting to changing times. He's long been interested in alternatives to monogamy, and now he wants to hear about some actual examples. In the first of his three programmes for One to One, Tim meets Helen who has ripped up the relationship rules to find a model that works for her. She is a mother of two, but

What does it take to be a successful runner of extreme distance and why do people do it? David Greig is the Artistic Director of the Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh and an internationally successful playwright. He's also an ultra-marathon runner who has twice completed the punishing 96 mile West Highland Way as well as many other long-distance races. He took up running fifteen years ago when he stopped smoking and running has since become an endorphin-fuelled obsession.For One to One, David is speaking to two fellow runners. Today he meets former world hill running champion, Angela Mudge. Born with birth defects that affected her feet, Angela spent the first two and half years of life almost continually with her lower legs and feet in plaster. Despite this, she went onto be a hugely successful long-distance runner. Her most memorable race was when she became the first woman to break three hours when she won the Sierre-Zinal - 'the race of the 4000m peaks'.But why do they do it?Producer: Karen Gregor.

What does it take to be a successful runner of extreme distance, and why do people do it? David Greig is the Artistic Director of the Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh and an internationally successful playwright. He's also an ultra-marathon runner who has twice completed the punishing 96 mile West Highland Way amongst many other long-distance races. He took up running fifteen years ago when he stopped smoking and running has since become an endorphin-fuelled obsession.For One to One, David speaks to two fellow runners. Today, he meets Ben Smith who - at the time of their conversation - was attempting to set a world record by running 401 marathons on 401 consecutive days. Following a difficult childhood and a challenging time during his 20s, Ben discovered running and it became a form of confidence building and healing. Out of this new sense of confidence, Ben decided to set himself an outlandish challenge, and the 401 was the result. Producer: Karen Gregor.

Sathnam Sanghera feels he has come a long way from his working class Wolverhampton background and now regards himself as firmly middle class. In this second programme for One to One, he meets Alpesh Chauhan, an Asian Brummie from a working class background, who has become an Assistant Conductor with the CBSO (City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra). As someone who has broken through so many social barriers, has Alpesh's ethnic background proved to be a bigger hurdle than his social class? Producer: Perminder Khatkar.

Sathnam Sanghera explores class. As the son of an illiterate factory worker who ended up going to Cambridge and working for The Times, he now regards himself as firmly middle class. In the first of his two programmes for One to One, he interviews Janice Turner, a fellow journalist from The Times, at her home in South London. She had a similar journey to Sathnam; she moved from working class Doncaster to the London media establishment, but she feels very differently about which class she belongs to.Producer: Perminder Khatkar.

Mark Lawson has a problem. He is writing a memoir but he's always had the habit, when writing or broadcasting, of avoiding the first person pronoun. This rather puts him at odds with modern culture where journalists and presenters are urged to use the one-letter vertical word. Bloggers, Vloggers and Tweeters lay their lives on-line, and autobiography is an ever more crowded literary form. So, in his series of One to One, Mark takes the opportunity to discuss self-revelation with artists who - in various ways - have taken themselves as their subject matter. Here he talks to writer and novelist Rachel Cusk who found herself branded, 'the worst mother in Britain' for writing candidly about her experience of motherhood. Producer Lucy Lunt.

Mark Lawson has a problem. He is writing a memoir but he's always had the habit, when writing or broadcasting, of avoiding the first person pronoun. This rather puts him at odds with modern culture where journalists and presenters are urged to use the one-letter vertical word. Bloggers, Vloggers and Tweeters lay their lives on-line, and autobiography is an ever more crowded literary form. So, in his series of One to One, Mark takes the opportunity to discuss self-revelation with artists who - in various ways - have taken themselves as their subject matter. Here he talks to the artist and Turner Prize nominee, Marvin Gaye Chetwynd. Producer Lucy Lunt.

Mark Lawson has a problem. He is writing a memoir but he's always had the habit, when writing or broadcasting, of avoiding the first person pronoun. This rather puts him at odds with modern culture, where journalists and presenters are urged to use the one-letter vertical word. Bloggers, Vloggers and Tweeters lay out their lives on-line, and autobiography is an ever more crowded literary form. So, in his series of One to One, Mark takes the opportunity to discuss self-revelation with artists who - in various ways - have taken themselves as their subject matter. Hannah Witton is a history graduate who has been a prolific vlogger, blogger and tweeter since her early twenties. She talks to Mark about making her life, her views and beliefs, ups and downs, all available for public consumption on the net.Producer: Lucy Lunt.

Mark Lawson has a problem. He is writing a memoir but he's always had the habit, when writing or broadcasting, of avoiding the first person pronoun. This rather puts him at odds with modern culture. Journalists and presenters are urged to use the one-letter vertical word. Bloggers, Vloggers and Tweeters lay their lives on-line and autobiography is an ever more crowded literary form. So in his series of One to One, Mark takes the opportunity to discuss self-revelation with artists who - in various ways - have taken themselves as their subject-matter, starting with the writer and critic Adam Mars-Jones. Long admired for his fiction and criticism, Adam has just published a work of non-fiction, Kid Gloves, which describes the experience of becoming end-of-life carer to his father, a retired judge, Sir William Mars-Jones. Mark and Adam reflect on the honesty and self knowledge needed when writing about your own life. Producer: Lucy Lunt.

Actress and impressionist, Jan Ravens talks to one of her favourite subjects, the BBC's Chief International Correspondent, Lyse Doucet. They discuss how much her public image reflects her private self and how much consideration she gives to clothes and jewellery when appearing on television . Producer Lucy Lunt.

Jan Ravens has created impressions of some of our most iconic women but all she has to work with is the public persona, how someone in the public eye presents themselves for our view. In her series of One to One she talks to some of her subjects about their image as seen by others and how it differs from how they see themselves. Is image something they have consciously created or has it sprung naturally from their personality and from the way they look? Jan wants to know if their self perception is changed through their portrayal by impressionists and cartoonists. Is image a useful tool, or does it become a millstone around your neck ? Academic and author, Germaine Greer, has been in the public eye for over forty years, she talks to Jan about the way her image has changed over the decades. Producer Lucy Lunt.

Steve Backshall is one of our leading natural history broadcasters; he's also an extreme sportsman who has conquered some of the world's most dangerous mountains. Despite suffering a severe rock-climbing injury in 2008 he continues to set himself extraordinary challenges.For this edition of One to One, Steve meets explorer Ann Daniels to discover what drives her need for adventure: Ann is the record breaking polar explorer who, in 2002, became the first woman in history (along with a teammate) to have reached both the North and South poles as part of an all-woman team.Producer: Karen Gregor.

David Schneider, despite being healthy, is terrified of dying. He wants to overcome his fears and find out whether a 'good death' is ever possible and how those facing up to it, cope. He visits the journalist and writer Jenny Diski who was told last summer that she had inoperable lung cancer and, at best, another three years to live. She now writes about the experience and her treatment, with her usual wit and candour, and her tweets have a devoted following. But as she says, 'I tell jokes but that doesn't mean that I'm not terrified at the prospect of my own non-existence.' They discuss this fear, what it is they are afraid of and whether faith might make a difference. Producer: Lucy Lunt.

David Schneider is terrified of death. In his two editions of One to One, he wants to try to overcome his fear by talking to those who have first-hand understanding of dying. In this programme, he talks to Palliative Care consultant, Kathryn Mannix. With almost forty years of clinical experience and witnessing over twelve thousand deaths, she believes that a 'good death' is possible even when you are seriously ill. She explains the process of dying to David. This, she believes, if accepted by the patient, removes much of the anxiety and fear surrounding the end of life. To hear an extended version of this programme please visit the programme page. The second programme in David's series in which he talks to writer and journalist, Jenny Diski, who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, can still be found on the BBC iplayer. Producer: Lucy Lunt.

Bel Mooney talks to author Penelope Lively about the nature of home. Is it an idea as much as a place?