Griff Rhys Jones, Mona Golabek, Lee Tannen, Marcelo Sellaro

Midweek

Libby Purves meets broadcaster Griff Rhys Jones; concert pianist Mona Golabek; playwright Lee Tannen and horticulturalist Marcelo Sellaro.

Lee Tannen is an author and playwright. He has written a play based on his memoir, I Loved Lucy, about his friendship with the legendary comedienne, Lucille Ball. He met her as a 10-year-old and became her close friend and companion until her death in 1989. I Loved Lucy is at the Jermyn Street Theatre, London.

Mona Golabek is a concert pianist who tells her mother's story in The Pianist of Willesden Lane. Set in Vienna in 1938 and in London during the Blitz, the one-woman show is the true story of Lisa Jura, a young Jewish pianist dreaming about her concert debut at Vienna's Musikverein concert hall. But with the issuing of new ordinances under the Nazi regime, everything for Lisa changes, except for her love of music, as she is torn from her family and sent onto the Kindertransport to London. The Pianist of Willesden Lane is at the St. James Theatre, London.

Griff Rhys Jones is a comedian, writer, actor and presenter. He presents Griff's Great Britain in which he sets out to explore eight quintessentially British areas from downs to highlands and coasts to wolds. He started out as a radio producer and at 26 he began to appear on the sketch show Not the Nine O'Clock News. Jones and his comedy partner Mel Smith became household names, thanks, in part, to their programme Alas Smith and Jones, which ran from 1984 to 1998. Griff's Great Britain is broadcast on ITV.

Marcelo Sellaro is a horticulturalist at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew. Born in Brazil, he has a passion for bromeliads and tends Kew's collection which originates from the southern United States, South America and the West Indies. Kew's 21st annual Orchids Festival will feature orchids and other tropical plants adorning the architecture of the glasshouse to create the flora of Brazil during Carnival season. Orchids Festival 2016 is at the Princess of Wales Conservatory, Kew Gardens.

Producer: Paula McGinley.