大象传媒

Austin Mitchell, MP on the 'feminisation' of politics with Isabel Hardman and Ivana Bartoletti.

In August Jo Pavey became the oldest female European Athletics champion after winning gold in the 10,000m in Zurich. The extraordinary win came just ten days after winning a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. At the age of forty and only eleven months after giving birth to her second child, Jo was unsure if she would even qualify for the championships, let alone win it. Jo joins Jenni to discuss her thrilling win and why she puts her success down to being a busy mum.

Last year the actress Briony McRoberts died when she threw herself in front of a train on the London underground. She was 56. Her husband, the Downton Abbey actor David Robb, has more recently attributed her death to her eating disorder, which she had battled with since she was a teenager. He said听鈥淪he was murdered by anorexia. It isn鈥檛 a self-centred, teenage disease. It kills people 鈥� middle-aged women鈥� If it gets its hooks in, it suffocates the person.鈥�

So why, even in the wake of cases like Briony鈥檚, do we still see eating disorders as a young women鈥檚 disease? Julie Kirkwood is aged 43 and from Dumfries, and Aimee Yates is aged 40 and from Cambridge. Both have been treated for anorexia and Aimee is still battling her binge eating disorder. They join Jane along with Dr Paul Robinson, consultant听psychiatrist at the Eating Disorders Unit at St Ann鈥檚 Hospital in London.

Beat is the UK鈥檚 leading charity supporting anyone affected by eating disorders or difficulties with food, weight and shape. It provides information and support through its helplines and online support.

Helpline: 0845 634 1414

This weekend hundreds of thousands of people will flock to London鈥檚 Notting Hill Carnival. Since 1966 this corner of London has dedicated a weekend in August to a massive celebration of Caribbean culture, but the origins of this celebration are even older. Film maker Nia Reynolds tells us the story of Claudia Jones, the civil rights activist who staged the first major celebration of Afro-Caribbean culture in 1959, and who spent her life fighting tirelessly for the rights of black people.

Thursday is GCSE result day and often the first time that young people seriously start considering their next steps and thinking about career options.听 Research shows young women are still being discouraged from traditionally male-dominated careers like IT and engineering.听 If they鈥檙e taking a vocational route how are those stereotyped choices being challenged?听 Jenni speaks to Marion Plant OBE, Joint Principal of North Warwickshire & Hinckley College and South Leicestershire College and Tiana Locker, youth engagement officer for City and Guilds.

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Over a lengthy career, Helen McCrory has played an impressive range of roles. On stage she鈥檚 been Rosalind in 鈥楢s You Like it鈥�; and Libby in 鈥楾he Last of the Haussmans鈥�; her film roles have included Cherie Blair in 鈥楾he Queen鈥�, Narcissa Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies and Clair Dowar in the James Bond film, Skyfall. On the small screen she has played a raft of roles including the older woman who falls for a much younger man in Tony Marchant鈥檚 Leaving.

Now she stars as the ultimate anti-heroine, Euripides鈥檚 Medea, in a new听. Medea tells the story of a jilted wife, who breaks the ultimate taboo by murdering her children as a way of revenge against her ex-husband.听Jenni Murray talks to Helen about playing the title role in one of the most horrifying of the Greek tragedies.

The production听听will be broadcast from the National Theatre live to over 550 cinemas in the UK on听

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In May 2014,听听published a report highlighting the overwhelmingly low numbers of women directors working in British television, and showed that the numbers are dwindling. When they presented it the industry was shocked. So why are there are so few women behind the camera in the UK, and does it matter? Jane discusses with Susanna White, director of Bleak House and Parade鈥檚 End, with Amy Walker,听factual series producer and founder of听, and with factual director Anna Keel.