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The last general election saw the Conservative party almost triple its number of women MPs, so how will it do next time around? The party is currently selecting candidates for its most winnable seats in a process that relies less on the power of the A-list and more on the power of persuasion that women are good for the party. We talk to political commentator Gaby Hinsliff and to Conservative MP and one time A-lister Margot James about how the party is doing, and ask what Maria Hutchings’ defeat in Eastleigh might tell us about the type of woman who will appeal to voters.

Travel writer and author, Sara Wheeler, joins Jane Garvey to talk about her new book, O My America, Second Acts in a New World, the stories of six remarkable English women who, in middle-age, set off from 19th century England for a different  life in the ‘new world’.

Sara Wheeler's new book, O My America! Second Acts in a New World, will be published 7th March by Jonathan Cape.

It is the 25th anniversary of Comic Relief’s first-ever . Over the past 25 years the money raised by the public will have helped 50 million people across Africa, the world’s poorest countries and here in the UK.  Jane has been to Ghana to see how some of these projects are helping to transform people’s lives.

The musical A Chorus Line, which has just opened in London’s West End, includes a song called At The Ballet, in which three characters describe how they escaped miserable personal lives by taking up ballet.  Actress and writer Tracy-Ann Oberman discusses the song and shares her ideas for banishing the blues.  Email us with your ideas or text us.

After the UK riots in 2011 many commentators blamed absent fathers for the lack of positive male role models for young men. The punitive approach does not seem to be working, so how can the crisis amongst young men be tackled? A Brighton based male mentoring scheme called claims the key lies in a community approach by older men supporting disaffected younger men with the ‘confusing transition to manhood’.  We speak to 19 year old Tom whose troubled life of crime and drugs was transformed after being enrolled in the scheme and with his mentor Jolyon Hammond.