Like This, Love This

Alex Lawther is an actor who began his career in a David Hare play which saw the London Critics Circle name him Young British Performer of the Year as well as being selected by BAFTA as one of 2015’s Breakthrough Brits. He has appeared in films such as The Imitation Game, Goodbye Christopher Robin and The French Dispatch. He’s no stranger to the small screen having starred in The End of the F*cking World, Black Mirror, AndOr and Alien:Earth.Alex has also written and directed his own films - the most recent of which, Rhoda starring Emma Darcy and Juliet Stevenson, was selected for the BFI London Film Festival in 2024. Alex’s title choices take us from a film that inspires his own filmmaking ambitions, a podcast that shared an insight into other artists, a TV show about a Spanish tour-de-force and a book that tells a life story in an entirely new and innovative way.Enjoy!

Beth Rigby was the first woman to be appointed as Political Editor of Sky News back in 2019. She has interviewed everyone from the current prime minister Sir Keir Starmer and many of his predecessors to the former England footballer Gary Neville, Hillary Clinton and Dame Kelly Holmes. But this time, she’s on the other side of the microphone as she sits down with Lucie McInerney to discuss her favourite stories. Beth’s story choices start off in Naples with a dark, addictive TV show that won’t allow for double-screening - unless you speak fluent Neapolitan. We are back in London for her book choice which again tells a dark tale of psychological manipulation set in the Victorian era. Her preferred podcast was a global sensation when released almost ten years ago and dives into the real life story of a clockmaker from Alabama whilst her movie choice is a previously-discussed British classic which again tells a story about men. Over the course of our conversation, Beth did reassure us that she is a feminist but that perhaps her choices reflect her ongoing pursuit of understanding of the opposite sex. As well as her regular appearances in person on TV and through the medium of the written word on the Sky News website, Beth also hosts the political podcast Electoral Dysfunction with former leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Ruth Davidson, and Labour grandee Harriet Harman. It’s a wonder she gets a chance to sit down - never mind get through the amount of box sets she seems to!Enjoy! 

On this week’s episode of Like This, Love This, Lucie McInerney is joined by actor, comedian and Amy Poehler devotee, Hayley Morris. After a childhood spent writing and filming sketches with comedy heroes: her dad & her brother, Hayley started her own YouTube channel in 2009. At first it didn’t exactly attract big numbers…and by at first, we mean for about a decade. But she stuck at it and finally she cracked it. Starting with her first sketch about intrusive thoughts, Morris started to build her online audience and hasn’t looked back since. Now she has more than 9 million subscribers across YouTube, TikTok and Instagram and she is going from strength to strength, writing and starring in her own short films and she even wrote a book: Me vs Brain: An Overthinker’s Guide to Life. Hayley’s choices took us right across the United States, from Los Angeles and Las Vegas to Upstate New York with a stop off in Texas as we talked about a pair of funny women in an unusual working partnership, a podcast from her hero, a film about impact the arts can have in the most unexpected of places and a book about women making it in man’s world. Her dedication and perseverance is echoed in the stories that appeal to her and we had a great time learning about just how similar to her hero, Amy Poehler, Hayley actually is in real life.Enjoy!

Jack Edwards, the Internet’s Resident Librarian, is one of Britain’s biggest book influencers. He started posting online regularly when he first went to Durham University to read English Literature. As the first of his family to attend third level, he had no idea what to expect and thought that sharing his experience might help others.From there, he published a guide to life at university and - through his love of books & reading - has grown his online following to almost 4 million subscribers across platforms. He recently launched Inklings, his online book club which sees him interview authors, actors and directors about their required reading. He has recently interviewed Guillermo del Toro, Cillian Murphy and Gillian Anderson, to name but a few. Jack is a passionate advocate for those who do not have access to the rooms into which he is now regularly invited through posting on his various social media accounts or by asking event organizers to stream talks and interviews online. Jack’s story choices are as diverse as his own reading interests, but empathy lies at the heart of everything for him as well as championing stories from new voices and voices of those less heard. His book choice is a debut novel from a poet which examines addiction, loss and grief, his movie choice is a modern classic focussed on the human need for connection and love, his podcast retells some of the world’s oldest stories and his TV show is an Irish gem that shows how the best of storytelling is born of conflict.Enjoy the episode!

Felicity Ward is a comedian, actor and writer who has appeared on BBC Radio 4’s The News Quiz, Russell Howard’s Good News and Mock the Week. Earlier this year, she participated in Australia’s Dancing with the Stars making it all the way to the finale and last year, she starred as Hannah Howard, Australia’s answer to David Brent, in a new version of The Office.She has long been a mental health advocate after channeling her experiences into a stand-up routine about her experience of dealing with anxiety and depression. She subsequently presented her own documentary on the topic, Felicity’s Mental Mission, in 2014 and hosted a BBC audio series, Appisodes, which sees her try different smartphone apps in an attempt to solve her mental health issues. Her story choices range from a podcast of couples working through the toughest challenges of their relationship, a TV show which Felicity insists is the perfect studio comedy, a book which insists we all need to lighten up and a classic comedy about a couple of con artists on the French Riviera in the 1980s. 

This week’s guest Genevieve Turley is a make-up artist and beauty influencer who has amassed hundreds of thousands of followers on social media thanks to her hilarious take on the beauty industry online. Having started her career as a nurse in the Air Force, Genevieve turned her attention to her lifelong love of make-up and beauty after having had children.Initially, Genevieve focussed on bridal make-up with Instagram merely a tool for promoting her business. But one day she posted a funny Reel on Instagram and before she knew it, she had gone viral with the Kardashians sharing her post. Now with over a hundred thousand followers on TikTok and well over half a million on Instagram, Gen is a fully fledged influencer. Her choices are as varied as her career but throughout you can see Gen’s love of stories that show both the lighter and darker side of life. Gen takes us from the experiences of women in Vichy France during the Second World War and life on a council estate in the Eighties in England to a Quentin Tarantino-penned romantic adventure and an interview series that examines struggles and how people can benefit from them.

Actor Taj Atwal has graced stage and screen for over a decade, starting off with appearances in Miranda and Ruth Jones’ Stella. Since then she has gone on to star alongside the likes of Liam Neeson, Monica Bellucci, Lily James & Dame Emma Thompson. Taj has had series regular roles in the BBC dramas Line of Duty and The Syndicate as well as comedies like Hullraisers on Channel 4, Daddy Issues on BBC Three and Trying on Apple TV+ and many more. Her story choices go from a British council estate to a flatshare in North London via the history of Asians in Britain and the podcast that launched the medium into the mainstream. Her choices reflect her wide-ranging career and Taj’s passion and dedication to people and their stories. 

Jen Brister is a comedian and writer who has appeared on some of the UK’s best loved comedy shows such as Live at the Apollo, QI, Mock the Week and BBC Radio 4’s The News Quiz. She hosts her own podcast Memory Lane with fellow comedian Kerry Godliman as well as appearing on some of the country’s top podcasts such as Off Menu with Ed Gamble & James Acaster, The Guilty Feminist with Deborah Frances-White and Never Live It Down with Vogue Williams.Jen gave a TEDx talk about changing the way we raise our boys in 2018 and published her first book, The Other Mother, in 2019 about life raising her twin sons with her partner, Chloe.Jen’s story choices range from a gritty gang vs cops tale set in Baltimore, Maryland to a movie about the spying and surveillance carried out on potential enemies of the state in East Berlin during the Cold War. She described her book choice as “the funniest book ever written” and her podcast choice is one of the best ever made, setting the standard for audio production for over twenty years.