麻豆社

Libby Purves meets engineer and performer Professor Brendan Walker; former Home Secretary Alan Johnson MP; blues musician Johnny Mars and actor and campaigner Amanda Waring.

Professor Brendan Walker is an aeronautical engineer and TV presenter. He is known as the Renaissance Showman for his technology-inspired performances and has been dubbed 'the world's only thrill engineer.' In his new four-part series for Channel 4 he examines recent aviation incidents and near misses to discover what they tell us about safety in the sky.

Alan Johnson MP was general secretary of the Communication Workers Union before entering Parliament as Labour MP for Hull West and Hessle in 1997. He went on to serve as Health Secretary, Education Secretary and Home Secretary, a post he held from June 2009 to May 2010. He was Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer until his resignation in 2011. His book, This Boy - A Memoir of a Childhood, is published by Bantam Press.

Johnny Mars is a blues singer and harmonica player. Born into a sharecropping family in the Deep South, he formed his first band in 1957 and performed at Woodstock. During his career he has played on the same bill as Jimi Hendrix and BB King. He is now involved in a music mentoring scheme called 'Dare to Dream'. He is playing alongside other musicians for the Clod Ensemble who are performing their show Zero at the Brighton Festival and Sadler's Wells.

Amanda Waring is the daughter of actor Dorothy Tutin. She is an actor herself and also a campaigner for dignity and compassion in care. She is appearing in her one woman show, For the Love of Chocolate, at the Festival of Chichester.

Producer: Paula McGinley.