Penny Lancaster, New play Punch, Rugby grounds-women

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness, Personal Journals

4.2 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 26 September 2025

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Penny Lancaster is a special constable, TV personality and photographer. She’s also married to rock legend Rod Stewart. Penny talks to Anita Rani about her life so far - from being bullied at school and living with severe dyslexia, to her IVF journey and educating her boys about the menopause. Penny also shares insights into her marriage to Rod and how for the past four years she has served as a Special Constable with the City of London Police.

We examine the part that women’s safety is playing in protests about immigration in the UK. Reflecting the range of opinion from women who are protesting outside asylum hotels and forming street patrols they say to protect girls, to women’s organisations who believe that violence against women and girls is being weaponised for political gain. Anita speaks to the BBC's Senior UK correspondent Sima Kotecha.

Punch is a play that looks at the ripple effects of a single punch, thrown by a teenager on a night out in Nottingham with fatal consequences. It is on stage in London and the mother of the young man killed, Joan Scourfield, is played by Julie Hesmondhalgh. Both Julie and Joan join Anita to discuss this remarkable story of restorative justice.

It's the Women's Rugby World Cup Final on Saturday between England and Canada. For the first time in history, an all-female grounds management team will be prepping the pitch for the Women’s final. It’s groundbreaking: only 2% of grounds managers are women, and there’s a recruitment crisis looming. Anita is joined by Cheryl Hill, part of the team at Twickenham stadium and Jennifer Carter of the Grounds Management Association.

Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Rebecca Myatt

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, radio podcasts.
0:07.3	Right, you feeling ready? I'm feeling ready.
0:10.8	I'm Amal Rajin. Join me on my new podcast for in-depth conversations with pioneers and
0:16.0	innovators, talking about the trends and ideas that could help shape and change our future.
0:21.5	We are going to be digital citizens of this AI world, whether we like it or not.
0:26.2	From declining birth rates to disinformation online, can they solve the world's biggest challenges?
0:32.0	What I would love to do is go to the transfer and say radically cut the taxes of those with children.
0:37.3	Radical with me, Amal Rajin.
0:39.3	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:41.0	Hello, this is Neula McGovern, and you're listening to The Woman's Hour podcast.
0:45.6	Good morning and welcome to the program.
0:48.5	The brilliant actor Julie Hesmond Halsh is in to tell us about the play Punch.
0:53.9	It's based on the memoir of Jacob Dunn, who threw a single punch that tragically killed James Hodgkinson, the son of Joan Scorfield, who somehow found the compassion to get to know Jacob. It's the story of the play, which is incredibly moving. Joan will also be here with Julie.
1:13.5	We'll also look at the part that women's safety is playing in protests about immigration in the UK,
1:18.9	reflecting the range of opinion from women who are protesting outside asylum hotels and forming street patrols,
1:24.8	they say, to protect girls, to women's organisations who believe that violence against women and girls
1:30.2	is being weaponised for political gain.
1:33.4	And Penny Lancaster, former model, a special police constable
1:37.0	and wife of Sir Rod Stewart, has written a memoir,
1:40.0	and she's popped in for a chat.
1:41.7	Famously, Sir Rod has publicly defended Penny a couple of times.
1:45.1	We'll get into that in our conversation. However, this morning, I'd like you to tell me about a time
	...

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