As Britain’s Ambassador to Afghanistan, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles was in a unique position to understand this country’s role in a war that has now gone on for more than ten years. He talked to Fergus Byrne about what could be done to end the conflict.

Rick Stein is horrified when I tell him that, according to the website Wikepedia, he now lives in Australia. “So that’s why people keep coming up to me in Padstow and saying ‘Oh, are you here for long?’” he exclaims. “That’s baloney, I live here!” For a brief moment I fear I may have inadvertently unleashed a powerful storm but instead he is the height of charm and warmth, and as I write this I see the Wikepedia piece has been changed to point out that, although he lives in Padstow for part of the year, he also has a house in Sydney as well as a restaurant in Mollymook, New South Wales.

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.

It’s fairly safe to say that photographer and filmmaker Robert Golden sees things a little differently to many people. After a long career and an enormous body of work he still brings an uncompromising intensity and depth to his subjects, and although his unique eye is obvious when looking at his photography and the films he has made, it is the way he lives his life that stands out. Shouldering a keen sense of justice he stands ready to do what is right, whether that is choosing to only eat locally sourced food where he lives in Dorset or ensuring that the young people in a film he is making in Bosnia are fairly represented.

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.

Tracking down photographer Christian Barnett is no simple task. As a food photographer he is much in demand, however his love of travel is as likely to keep him on the move as much as his love of photography. When we caught up with him recently in between locations, he had just finished working with chef and food writer Valentine Warner and was dashing off to his next job with chocolate maker Willie Harcourt-Cooze in Devon. “I seem to spend half my life on either the M4 or the A303” he told me. “At least every other week I am shooting in the South West”.

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.

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.

Richard Bertinet may prove to be a great advertisement for the boy scouts. One of the first nuggets of wisdom he passes on to me about his cooking style is the need to be prepared. “It makes it easier to just sit down and enjoy your food” he says. “Cooking is only a small bit of it. It is the preparation of all your ingredients – the cooking part, if you look at it, is very simple stuff. The preparation is what takes time. I believe it is a bit like winning the 100 metres, your race will last 10 seconds if you are very good, but your preparation will last two or three years.”

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.

Ever since man first learned to communicate, passion has been a source of huge inspiration – powerful emotions have compelled human beings to reach for the impossible, and often achieve the unimaginable. Whether building spacecraft, writing sonnets or expanding the horizons of medical science – like trees or plants that reach for the sky – it is often the passion of one individual that drives others to great heights of achievement.

When someone shows a particular affinity for, or skill in a chosen hobby or trade, they are often said to have it ‘in their blood’, especially if the same interest can be traced back through their recent ancestry. We have all known of artists, musicians, writers, sportsmen and even politicians who are adept at their chosen art as a result of genes passed down through the generations. Family elders might watch a youngster play the piano or kick a football and sagely comment ‘it’s in his blood you know’. And though it’s common comment for many professions and activities, there are times when the saying just sounds odd. For example to say that George Streatfeild, of Denhay Farms in West Dorset, has cheese in his blood might be a bit of a conversation stopper, but in one sense it is true.

According to Clarissa Dickson Wright the trouble with cooking and cookery books in this country is the chefs. “People either do things which are totally banal or over complicate things” she says. “Chef’s are rather like lawyers, I mean they complicate things for the sake of complicating – to make themselves appear rather more important than they really are.” As someone who passed her bar exams aged 21, becoming the country’s youngest female barrister, she should know. She is currently ensconced in London’s Goring Hotel talking about her new book Potty: Clarissa’s One Pot Cookbook. I suggest that the title is very her, to which she readily agrees but points out that it is also dedicated to her two and a half year old goddaughter and therefore doubly relevant.

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.

Though written for the cost-conscious kitchen, Tasmasin Day-Lewis’s new book is definitely not about cheap food. She talked to 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.