Although very much a local band in the West Dorset music scene, The Sidekicks have taken their unique brand of party music throughout the country thanks to word of mouth praise for their gigs over the last ten years. In fact the band was born thanks to the busking efforts of founder members Laurie Higgins and Sean Geraghty who wanted to subsidise a trip to France more than ten years ago. On returning they decided to keep the process going and began appearing as a duo. Their first gig was the second live event at the then recently opened No 10 in Bridport’s East St, on 11th September 2001.  It’s fair to say their British debut was slightly overshadowed by other global events.

As a youngster he was always taught to avoid discussing religion and politics in the pub. So, over a cup of tea, Fergus Byrne talked to John Burton who has written a book making a case for science.

Director of such classics as Gregory’s Girl and Local Hero, Bill Forsyth’s first attempt at interpreting someone else’s work produced his favourite work. He talked to Fergus Byrne.

Singer songwriter Sarah Gillespie continues to strike out beyond musical boundaries, deftly using her love of words to highlight tricky questions. She talked to Fergus Byrne.

Selection is at the heart of Alex Lowery’s way of painting. Elements of place are distilled, the image is reduced and concentrated. Mary Talbot meets the artist that gives the banal and ordinary a surprising beauty.

Maf, a Maltese terrier, given as a present to Marilyn Monroe by Frank Sinatra became her constant companion for the last two years of her life. Katherine Locke talked to Andrew O’Hagen whose new novel looks at a fascinating moment in American culture through the dog’s eyes.

Felix Dennis doesn’t believe he’s going to live to a ripe old age. It’s something he’s been acutely aware of for a very long time. He is now 63 years old, has had at least three very close brushes with death already, and abused his body to such a degree that there is sometimes debate on whether he has lost, not one decade, but two. As we sit drinking a pre-lunch rosé in the kitchen of his flat in Soho, he chain smokes and prowls the room like a caged beast, snatching gulps of fresh air from the tiny veranda he likes to call his London garden. “It’s titchy!” he exclaims, as he gazes across the horizon. “It must be the smallest garden in the world”. One imagines his voice booms across the Soho rooftops, disturbing the occupants of tiny bedrooms, where many past tabloid headlines were born.

As she walks the red carpet at the Gala screening of the new film, Tamara Drewe, in Bridport in September, writer and illustrator, Posy Simmonds MBE, will be treading the pavements of her forebears. Her grandfather was a vicar in Bridport. Having said that, it is pure coincidence that the film, which was based on her successful graphic novel of the same name, was filmed around Bridport, as well as other locations in Dorset. With some of the characters borrowed from the plot of Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd, the story already has a strong Dorset feel, and with local scenery and many extras from the surrounding area it is sure to be a hit with the local community. It is fitting then, that a Gala screening, featuring an introduction by Posy Simmonds and a short talk by the film’s Director, Stephen Frears, is to be held at the Electric Palace cinema in Bridport on September 17th.

In workshops throughout the world, inspirational craftsmen and women have been developing complex skills to create beautiful furniture. From elegant chairs and tables, to distinctive cabinets, desks and beds, their carving, sanding, tonguing and grooving has added both function and beauty to our lives. No less inspirational and fascinating is the world of the luthier, the maker of stringed instruments. Fergus Byrne visited Lyme Regis based musician and luthier, Marshall Stapleton, who is electrifying an ancient craft.

It is said that the job of an orchestra conductor is to create perfect harmony without saying a word. Fergus Byrne went to meet Sir Neville Marriner, and found a conductor who is still in perfect harmony with his art.

While thousands of hopefuls dream of participating in television’s next X-Factor show, there are as many hard working musicians, singers and songwriters touring a gruelling circuit of pubs and clubs, trying to gain an audience. Fergus Byrne spoke to Cole Stacey from near Honiton who has just released his first CD.

Local poet and writer James Crowden, already a prolific contributor to local culture, has researched Somerset’s long history of the written word. By Fergus Byrne.

For Peter Martin, author of Samuel Johnson: A Biography, tackling the life of an English cultural icon was more than a mammoth task – it was also likely to be be scrutinised by scholars all over the world. He talked to Fergus Byrne.

It is a long time since Bill Oddie and his fellow Goodies demolished Parnham House outside Beaminster for a TV Christmas special, but, as he tells Fergus Byrne, he had more than one reason to be there.

He is one of the most decorated military men of the twentieth century, having served with the SAS and commanded the UN Protection Force in Bosnia. However, in his book Washington’s War, General Sir Michael Rose raises profound questions about the tactics and strategy used by coalition forces in Iraq. He talked to Fergus Byrne about the lessons that should have been learned over two hundred years ago.The Lessons of War

The multi-talented, multi-instrumentalist, Wild Willy Barrett, brought tears of laughter and sighs of amazement to audiences around Britain during his days with John Otway. He still takes the world as he sees it. Fergus Byrne went to find out where the ‘wild’ came from, and where it’s going.

The Western Women, one of Dorset writer and director Ann Jellicoe’s most successful Community Plays, is about to reach a new audience in a very different form. She talked to Fergus Byrne about how the plays began.

In November 2004, Clive Stafford Smith sent a letter to the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair. It detailed allegations of torture at Guantanamo Bay. Prior to being sent, the letter had to be scrutinised by US authorities for security purposes. The result, as published below, left little for the British Government to read. In his new book, Bad Men: Guantánamo Bay and the Secret Prisons Clive sheds light on some of the alleged human rights abuses carried out over many years. He talked to Fergus Byrne about some really bad men.

It’s now forty years since Dorset’s famous ambassadors, The Yetties, first turned professional. Bonny Sartin talked to Fergus Byrne about the phone box that reached the vicar, that reached the publican, that eventually introduced The Yetties to the BBC.

Roger Mayne is noted for producing some of the most important photographs of London life in the late fifties. In March he will exhibit a very personal collection of family photographs at the Town Mill in Lyme Regis. He talked to Fergus Byrne