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Episode details

Radio 4,17 Jan 2026,42 mins

The Charlatans, Stuart Maconie, Jill Halfpenny, Ian Smith, Jess Robinson

Loose Ends

Available for over a year

Stuart Maconie's tiptoeing the line between dark and light in this week's Loose Ends. When she won Strictly Jill Halfpenny got the highest ever score for her sequin studded jive, but there's not a glitterball to be seen in her latest role as the traumatised mum Eve in the dark psychological thriller Girl Taken, which also stars Alfie Allen as the creepiest teacher you'd never hope to meet. Ian Smith is a comedian who mines his own anxieties for his art - be that his Radio 4 series called "Ian Smith is Stressed", the unintentionally hilarious news from his hometown in the Northern News Podcast or his new tour, "Footspa Half Empty". The comic, actor and Dead Ringers impressionist Jess Robinson's very funny and also very sad new memoir contrasts her own twentysomething exploits as a stage ingenue with her Jewish Grandmother's diaries at the same age - Life Is Rosi: Grandma, Me and Our Diaries at 23. Grandma Rosi loved music, boyfriends and having a laugh too but was enduring Germany during the rise of Hitler at the same time. And as they head out on tour, we have performance from The Charlatan's new album We Are Love. Producer: Olive Clancy Assistant Producer: Samuel Nixon Technical Producers: John Cole and Mark Ward Production Coordintor: Pete Liggins

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