BBC Radio 4’s Jane Garvey has travelled extensively, albeit under duress. She went backpacking as far as Belgium, didn’t have a great time reporting from the Olympics in Atlanta and really doesn’t fancy going anywhere exotic like India. She does however have some brilliant stories to tell about her surprisingly extensive – taking in Ghana, South Africa, seeing her beloved Liverpool play in Istanbul and plenty of Greece. A lively and entertaining conversation with one of the UK’s best broadcasters.

On this episode we cover

How she hates travel

But has enjoyed some of it!

The joys of coming home

Her work on Woman’s Hour

Her podcast for BBC Radio 4, Fortunately, with Fi Glover

Why people want to hear women talking like they do in real life

‘A continuation of woman’s hour three quarters of the way down a bottle of Prosecco)

Liverpool in the 1960s

The cautious, unofficial Garvey family motto

Not going to the Cavern or hanging around with the Beatles

Paul McCartney and James Corden

Lipa performing arts and studios

Travelling all the way from Liverpool to Birmingham

How Birmingham has changed – New Street Station, the Bullring shopping centre

Birmingham QU hospital and NHS trust

More canals in Birmingham than the whole of Venice!

Not having fun at the Olympics in Atlanta

Atlanta’s International House of Pancakes (IHOP)

Presenting for BBC 5Live in the middle of the night

How Atlanta felt very segregated and was run by Coca Cola

Enjoying the Athens Olympics

Her recent trip to Greece

The Mediterranean quality of life

Watching the Greek locals early in the morning

Greek Tavernas and having enough beans

Comic Relief trips to Ghana, Africa

Visiting townships in Durban to raise HIV awareness

Cape Town and the Cape Flats

Cape Town’s injustices and gilded cages

British class divides and our reluctance to talk about them

Being part of the ‘liberal establishment’

Growing up in a lower middle class home

Getting a government grant to private school

Not having a Scouse accent

Veering between Northern tones and Southern

How surviving the Southall train crash changed her attitude to travel

The trauma of having to report on the crash

How trauma can impact peoples lives

How the memories come flooding back

Not enjoying flying

Her teenage children

Different health and safety levels abroad

Not wanting to go to India

How witnessing poverty abroad affects travellers

The complex emotions of visiting war sites and similar

The Anthony Gormley sculptures at Crosby Beach

Lancashire’s golf courses

Her typical Liverpool/Irish family

How Irish immigrants were negatively received in Liverpool

How immigration is in all our families

Liverpool and the slave trade

Loving Gower in Wales

The vibrancy and grit of Glasgow and Glaswegians

Being a big Liverpool fan

The FA Cup final in Wembley where Liverpool lost to Manchester United

DNA tests

How Liverpool can bring out the emotional

The moving sound of The Kop singing You’ll Never Walk Along

How the young people left Liverpool

Her failed backpacking experience (ending in Belgium)

Interrailing to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam

Her daughter’s plans for backpacking

The perils of wheelie suitcases on cobbled streets

Budapest, Hungary and Croatia

Loud-sounding Croatians

Belgian chips, mayonnaise and beer

Elton John’s In Belgium

Geographical playlists

The emotion of pulling into Liverpool Lime Street

The perils of changing train platforms

Is Lime Street lime (note: we never confirmed whether it was or not so if you can tell us let us know)..?