Celebrating the best of 5 live and the best thing about 5 live…our listeners
For the 20th birthday of 5 live we’ve brought together people whose lives have been changed in some way because of something they participated in via the network or because of something they heard on the station. Sometimes we forget how much radio can simply be a friend in the corner of the room.
The range of stories has surprised us most.
The most loyal members of the Special Half Hour Club from Richard Bacon’s late night programme became friends through their membership of the group and are still all in touch today. A small group of them used to meet up quite regularly. They reunited with Richard Bacon and Rachael Bland for the 20th birthday: Podcast.
Ex-pat Matt Horn, a huge fan of Up All Night, found it to be a “lifeline” while living and working in China. He often calls into the World Football Phone-Inand recently took part in a discussion in the studio when he was visiting the UK. He told us how 5 live helps him stay in touch with people and events at home.
John is the only English born imam in Pakistan. Forty years ago John Butt did what many people did and went travelling along the hippy trail to South Asia. The difference is he never came back. Now with the middle name of Mohammed, John is a respected Islamic scholar. He's spent most of the last 40 years living among the Pashtun tribes and set-up a radio station there based on 5 live.
We caught up again with ‘Rachel’ the alcoholic doctor who first rang Victoria Derbyshire in 2011– and whose call, on the day she was about to enter rehab, provoked the biggest reaction the programme has ever had. Three years on she tells us she’s returned to work again as a doctor and speaks to 5 live listeners who chart their own recovery from alcoholism through her appearances on the programme.
Back in 2011 Shelagh Fogarty asked listeners to write in if they wanted to learn to swim as part of the Big Splash. She heard from Mary Allott who was very shaky when anywhere near open water. She tells Shelagh how it feels now to get into the pool with her kids.
20-year-old amateur filmmaker Phillip Chidell, who won the Well Done U short film competition with his film Pong tells Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode about how the 5 live competition gave him a British Board Film Classification film U certification, got him an audience of tens of thousands, and has set him up with the confidence to pursue a career in filmmaking.
In December 2011, Stephen Nolan spoke to the mental health charity Papyrus, whose Chief Executive, Ged Flynn,criticised the Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson after he branded people who throw themselves under trains as "selfish". Chris, a listener who attempted suicide three years earlier, heard the conversation and called the show. Ged and Chris join Stephen Nolan to tell him about the relationship they have developed and the role Chris now plays with the charity helping young people at risk of attempting suicide.
Hear the stories throughout the day on 28 March and on catch up online
