Rachael Stirling

Rosebud with Gyles Brandreth

Gyles Brandreth / Plain Jaine Media

Society & Culture, Unknown

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 2 May 2025

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Our guest today is Rachael Stirling: the brilliant theatrical actress and one of the stars of BBC comedy Detectorists, who is currently on stage in London in Giant, about the writer Roald Dahl. Gyles and Rachael begin by talking about a memorable conversation Gyles had with Rachael's mother, the great actress Dame Diana Rigg, when he interviewed her 25 years ago. And this interview with Rachael is no less memorable: it's a fascinating discussion of her childhood, her complex relationship with her mother, and her parents' divorce. It's a frank discussion of her first sexual experiences and her boarding school days (NB this episode is more graphic than our usual, with sexual refs and some swearing). And, finally, it's a moving discussion of Rachael's experiences as her mother's carer in the final months of her life. This is a special and very touching episode, thank you so much to Rachael. Rachael Stirling is currently playing Felicity Crosland in Giant, about the writer Roald Dahl, at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London. It's on for the rest of the summer and tickets are available here. Enjoy this. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Give me an R, give me an O, give me an S, give me an E, give me a B, give me a U, give me a D,
0:10.0	Give me Rosebud.
0:12.0	Cue the music. This is Rosebud and you're about to meet a brilliant actress called Rachel Sterling.
0:40.9	We had a wonderful conversation. We've recorded it. You're going to hear it.
0:46.0	In fact, we began our conversation by talking about a day, about a quarter of a century ago,
0:52.3	when I interviewed a great actress, the great Dame Diana Rigg,
0:57.1	and I interviewed her for the Sunday Telegraph. For me, that was a very memorable day,
1:01.8	because Diana and I, we knew each other a little. We actually, we had lunch at the National Theatre,
1:06.2	and I remember we ended up holding hands and even feeding each other, pudding, you know, over the lunch.
1:13.1	And the reason that Rachel and I were talking about this is that Rachel Sterling is Diana Riggs' daughter.
1:21.5	Rachel is a hugely distinguished actress herself, twice nominated for the Olivier Award,
1:27.4	one of the stars of the
1:29.3	brilliant television comedy detectorists. Currently on stage in the West End in a remarkable play
1:35.3	called Giant. It's a play about the writer Roald Dahl and his controversial anti-Semitism.
1:41.3	Now this conversation with Rachel, it's different from the one I had with her
1:47.5	mum. Her mom and I, we did talk about sex a bit, but not as much as I would have liked, because
1:52.7	it was, of course, me writing it up for the Sunday Telegraph. We're a little bit more uninhibited
1:57.8	with Rachel, because I think she is a little bit more uninhibited than her mum was.
2:04.1	But she's very like her mum in many ways.
2:06.9	She's tall.
2:07.5	She's brilliant.
2:08.5	She's beautiful.
	...

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