Our More Rosebud guest today is the Children's Commissioner for England, Dame Rachel De Souza. Dame Rachel advocates for children in parliament, and on May 8 published a major survey of 1 million children in the UK - entitled "The Big Future". The children she's surveyed are especially those who are hardest to reach, living away from home, with disabilities, or in care – and the survey provides an urgent and definitive state of the nation of childhood, at a time when children are facing numerous challenges.

Regular listeners to Rosebud will know that we're particularly interested in childhood, and the huge impact the memories of our earliest years have on us. A childhood lasts a lifetime. And that's why Gyles is talking to Dame Rachel today - to ask her about the state of childhood in the country today, and to find out about her own story. Rachel tells Gyles about growing up in a working class family in Scunthorpe, about studying theology, and about becoming one of the most successful headteachers in the country.

Thank you to Dame Rachel De Souza for this frank and fascinating conversation.

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Our guest today is Sir Lenny Henry, the pioneering comedian, entertainer, actor and campaigner, who tells Gyles his story, and it's an impressive one: from the streets of Dudley in the West Midlands, to winning New Faces at only 16 years old, to an acclaimed run as Othello at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. Lenny brings his childhood home to life - his mother, a gifted preacher who came to the UK from Jamaica, and whose formidable personality was a huge influence on Lenny. His dads - Winston and Uncle Albert. The "tall food". The park. The mood board on his bedroom wall. This is an evocative, fascinating and very funny edition of Rosebud.

This episode was recorded at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith in London, in front of a live audience, as part of Riverside's 50th birthday celebrations.

Lenny Henry is on tour nationwide, tickets are available here.

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Rosebud has been on its first international road trip, to New York City. In this episode, Gyles and Harriet chat about their trip... about how they gossiped for 15 hours straight on the flight over, about being guests of the Queen at the New York Public Library and seeing Pooh Bear, Kanga, Eeyore, Tigger, Piglet and the new Roo, and about Anna Wintour giving Gyles an unexpected compliment. In the second half of the show, Gyles talks to Josh Ellis, one of Broadway's most distinguished Press Agents, who worked on productions such as 42nd Street, Into the Woods, The King and I, The Elephant Man and The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. He tells Gyles insider tales about some of the stars he worked with during his long career, including Yul Brynner, Rex Harrison, Katharine Hepburn, Eartha Kitt, Cher, David Bowie and Ethel Merman. It's fascinating, and gives a real flavour of life at the heart New York's theatre land.

Our thanks for Josh Ellis for this fun and fascinating conversation. Our thanks to New York City for being fabulous. And our thanks to you for listening. Enjoy this.

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