Reshmin Chowdhury is a sports broadcaster who’s had a love of football since she was a little girl.

Growing up in a large and close Bengali community, she told me her childhood memories are of being the only girl, surrounded by boys, watching football on TV.

Reshmin’s drive to break into the world of sports presenting was very strong - much to the surprise of her teacher Mum and accountant Dad - and she is proud to have made it, although she feels it shouldn’t have been that hard. Her parents were very supportive of her dreams and we talked about how difficult it was losing her Dad 3 years ago, and that he was always the person she would pick up the phone to speak to after a big match.

Reshmin shared how her children hold a mirror up to all her faults, including losing her temper. She says she’s working on this and I’ve asked her, when she's solved that one, please share the answer with me too!

Spinning Plates is presented by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, produced by Claire Jones and post-production by Richard Jones.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nina Tame is a counsellor and a content creator. I started following her on Instagram because I love the way she educates non-disabled people in a light-hearted way.

Nina was born with spinal bifida, and has four children. Her third child was also born with spina bifida. His arrival helped Nina accept her own disability much more, and also helped her own mum come to terms with her complex feelings, including guilt of having a disabled child. Incidentally, I spoke to Nina when she had recently lost her mum and we talked about her difficult journey of grief and the huge support of her other half, Jase.

Nina is a great storyteller and made me laugh while telling me how awkward platform lifts at theatre venues feel. But the message beneath the story was that what disables her all over again in life, is not the disability but it is inaccessibility or other people’s attitudes.

Spinning Plates is presented by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, produced by Claire Jones and post-production by Richard Jones.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I first came to follow Joanne Hardcastle (@hardcastletowers) when she was a contestant on the fourth series of Interior Design Masters, which is one of my favourite TV shows. Joanne's husband Tim encouraged her to apply for the show and she says it was the first time she had ever put herself first, and she loves her new found 'me-time'.

Joanne lost her mum at the age of 17 and had a strong urge to become a mum herself, and she has been open about having 6 miscarriages during her motherhood journey. She now has 3 grown up daughters, the youngest being her foster child. She spoke to me about the journey of building up trust with her foster daughter and how she has taught her children not to be frightened of conflict and to know that adults aren't always right.

Like me, Joanne loves colour and vintage interior design, including collecting childhood treasures such as Sindy dolls. She has documented on Instagram, the intricate furnishing of an amazing dolls house which she claims not to play with... but she clearly does!

Spinning Plates is presented by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, produced by Claire Jones and post-production by Richard Jones.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kirsten Lane is a freelance music supervisor who negotiates the deals that make it possible to put music into films, TV and adverts. She was the music supervisor for Saltburn and so that is how we met. She is now part of Murder on the Dancefloor’s journey and helped make its inclusion in the film’s soundtrack possible, naked dance and all!

We talked about the importance of music in changing the atmosphere, and she sees it almost as another character on screen.

Kirsten told me how she had made her career work, alongside bringing up two children, often as a single parent. Sometimes she had to fit her freelance work into the little pockets of 20 minutes that you have when your children are babies, and then late into the night when they were asleep.

We realised we have shared the same experience over the past months when Murder has become unexpectedly popular again - both Kirsten’s teenage children and mine have been momentarily impressed by their mothers, when they’ve heard Murder being played on Tik Tok and by their friends. What a wild ride!

Spinning Plates is presented by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, produced by Claire Jones and post-production by Richard Jones.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Anne Twist is a first time writer and a long-term philanthropist who has two very succesful grown up children. Her eldest is podcaster and writer Gemma Styles, and her youngest is the singer, Harry Styles.

I spoke to Anne, not long after she’d become a grandmother for the first time, which sounds like a very special feeling indeed. She’d also just published her first children’s book ‘Betty and the Mysterious Visitor’.

We talked about Anne’s lifelong battle with shyness, the pride that she feels about the adults that both her children have become, and how she gets so much pleasure from looking around at people while they are watching Harry perform on stage.

We also talked about how Anne has wing-walked to raise money and awareness for Parkinson’s. And I tried to persuade her to do a double wing walk and a loop the loop with me in the future! I’m genuinely up for it.

Spinning Plates is presented by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, produced by Claire Jones and post-production by Richard Jones.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rachel Jackson is a jewellery designer whose work I particularly love. We even collaborated with on a necklace design once.

She discovered her passion for her career while solo travelling in South America where she made a good friend Ali in Brazil and then spent 2 months living with his mum Cinderela (yes that really was her name!) who taught her how to make jewellery. 6 weeks after she returned to the UK Ali was killed in a plane accident which made Rachel feel how fleeting life is. She then gave up a well-paid job in TV to pursue her dream of designing and selling her own jewellery. She started with a stall in Spitalfields market, earning very little, and worked up to selling to Liberty and Selfiridges. She often collaborates with charities which gives a meaning and a story to each piece of jewellery.

Rachel has two children, Herbie aged 6 and River aged 10. Her husband took a year out of his job to do the lion's share of the child care when they had their 2nd baby, enabling Rachel to grow the company at a crucial time.

Like me, Rachel doesn't really feel she's a baby person but particulalry loves the feeling of being increasingly needed now, as they are getting older. Unlike me, she's an excellent planner and always has plenty of activities sorted out for the weekend. When we spoke, I had a Bank Holiday of nothingness ahead, so I rather envied her good planner trait!

Spinning Plates is presented by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, produced by Claire Jones and post-production by Richard Jones.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Natalie Cassidy is familiar to us all from EastEnders where she's been playing Sonia since the age of 10!

When we met she told me about her love of growing up on a TV set, where age meant nothing and her best friend was June Brown, who was 50 years older than her!

Natalie is a mum of two daughters, Eliza and Joanie. My heart melted when she described how she and her husband Marc met when Eliza was just three, and he said he'd fallen in love first with Natalie and then when he met Eliza, he fell in love again.

Natalie's about to turn 41 this week. She already has one podcast 'Off the Telly' which she co-hosts with actress Joanna Page and she's just launched a solo podcast 'Life With Nat' which immediately went to number one in the podcast charts!

We talked about how grateful we are that we didn't have social media as teenagers and we revisited our teen love of culottes! Also I tried to invite myself on her podcast to talk about teenagers and phones. I have no shame!

Spinning Plates is presented by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, produced by Claire Jones and post-production by Richard Jones.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bat For Lashes aka Natasha Khan is a singer, songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist and a mum to a three year old.

She has just brought out her 6th album and this one is inspired by the birth of her daughter and is called The Dream of Delphi.

She was pregnant in LA during Covid and the album recalls how she reconnected with nature during that time, reflecting the landscape of the city, mountains and the desert. She's now separated from Delphi's Dad but explained they are still best friends and happily co-parent together.

We spoke about how she felt about becoming a mum later in life and we talked about that special liminal moment when you have just given birth and it dawns on you that you are moving from who you were into who you are going to be - a transformational moment.

Spinning Plates is presented by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, produced by Claire Jones and post-production by Richard Jones.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.