20 Questions With

20 Questions With Jim White

Most famous for hosting Deadline Day on Sky Sports in his yellow tie, Jim White is Mr Football. Here the Talk Sport presenter chats about his new book, Deadline Day, that he co-wrote with Kaveh Solhekol. Full of his characteristic enthusiasm, Jim leads us on a journey of his love for the beautiful game, taking us behind the scenes of some of the biggest stories in sport. 

20 Questions With Dan Jones

The New York Times bestselling historian, Dan Jones, has brought out his second work of historical fiction, Wolves of Winter, the sequel to the successful Dogs of Essex. Here he takes a deep dive into what it means to be an historian, the joy of writing novels, the Hundred Years War, holidaying with Jonathan Sumption, history on TV, his love of sport, and how he likes to spend his free time. 

20 Questions With John Cleese

John Cleese is a comedy legend. Here he discusses causing offence, cancel culture, GB News, not wearing socks, why he lives abroad, old age, losing friends, the importance of silliness, Basil Fawlty, his favourite Python, A Fish Called Wanda, Clockwise, the Tory government, the British press, cricket, Brexit and the incompetence of human beings. 

20 Questions With Lord Sumption

Lord Sumption has been described as the "biggest brain in Britain". After a distinguished career as a silk, he moved straight from being a QC to the Supreme Court, skipping the High Court and Court of Appeal. He has just completed the fifth and final book in his history of the Hundred Years' War. Here he explains how he has managed to combine a career in the law with writing history, gives his take on the merits of leaving the European Court of Human Rights, reflects on the lockdowns imposed during the Covid 19 pandemic, discusses the state of the English legal system, outlines the differences between being an advocate and sitting as a judge, addresses his record of speaking out on political issues despite a convention that former judges do not do so, and reveals his passions beyond work. 

20 Questions With Ruby Wax

Ruby Wax is on tour - except right now she's in bed. Which is appropriate as she once interviewed very famous people in bed. Here she remembers interviewing Donald Trump, discusses her fascination with neuroscience, speaks candidly about her mental health, reveals that she's never been invited on the Graham Norton show, talks about her difficult upbringing as the daughter of Jewish immigrants from 1930s Vienna, and claims that we are all devils and angels underneath. 

20 Questions With Victoria Hislop

Number One bestselling author Victoria Hislop on success, Ian Hislop, celebrity dancing, her love of Greece, the British Museum, her new novel, 'The Figurine', the criminal trade in figurines, cooking, dinner parties, skipping, boxing and tennis.

20 Questions With Six-time All Star Chase Utley

Known as the Silver Fox, Chase Utley won the World Series with the Phillies in 2008, cementing his place his baseball history. He is a six-time All Star, a four-time Silver Slugger Award-winner and is regarded as one of the greatest baseball players of his generation. Here, during a spell living in London, he explains some of the basics of the game, describes the thrill and the pressure of performing at the highest level, details the physical demands of the sport and reveals some of the perks of fame. After hanging up his bat on his own terms with his boyhood club, the LA Dodgers, Chase is currently championing baseball in Europe and enjoying life in England. This is a rare chance to understand what it takes to be one of the finest athletes on the planet. 

20 Questions With World Cup winner Maggie Alphonsi

Maggie Alphonsi is one of the leading figures in women's sport. A Women's Rugby World Cup winner with England in 2014, she won 74 caps for her country, scored 28 tries and became known as 'Maggie The Machine' for the relentlessness of her tough tackling. Born with a club foot, she was brought up by a single mother of Nigerian heritage on a north London estate, and used to fight other children, including boys, in a bid to prove herself. Through rugby she was able to express her physicality and she relished the challenges the sport posed. Today she is a role model for others as she helps pioneer a greater female presence in the men's game and champions female participation in rugby and beyond. An MBE, she is one of ITV's Rugby World Cup pundits alongside Sir Clive Woodward and Jonny Wilkinson, and is a Telegraph columnist. Here she tells the remarkable story of her rise to becoming a household name, that includes tackling Owen Farrell and the comedian Jack Whitehall, and discusses her love of a sport that she acknowledges faces serious challenges in the form of concussion and its effects. 

20 Questions With Sam Peters

Concussion in rugby has forced the sport into an existential crisis. With household names, including England World Cup winner Steve Thompson, suffering from early onset dementia, one of the great global games is having to face up to searching questions about the way it is - and has been - played. Sam Peters is the journalist who has led an often lonely campaign to bring the risk of brain injuries to the attention of the sport's administrators, coaches, players and the paying public. Here, ahead of the launch of his book, 'Concussed, Sport's Uncomfortable Truth', Peters spells out the huge challenge rugby has in coming to terms with the dangers associated with physical contact. A lover - and former player - of the game himself, he describes the conflict of interest he felt while reporting on a sport enjoyed by millions, and offers his views on how rugby can find a future. 

20 Questions With Mike Procter

As a white boy, Mike Procter grew up in South Africa, a beneficiary of the unfair advantages of Apartheid. When he saw white people doing road works on the way to his hotel from Heathrow during a school cricket trip to England, his eyes were opened to the injustices back home. One of the great fast bowling all-rounders (with a Test bowling average of just 15 and 48 first class centuries), Procter would be stripped of his international career during the years of South Africa's international isolation. Although he helped stage a walk-out in the early 1970s during a domestic game in protest at the Apartheid government refusing to allow two players of colour to tour with the country, he still resented the likes of Peter (now Lord) Hain for their campaign to boycott South African sport. With time, however, he realised Hain, with whom he has been interviewed on stage about their different experiences of the time, was right. Here he tells the story of his extraordinary life in cricket and beyond.