The Modern Mann

How To Write A Christmas Hit

16 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Slade. Wizzard. Wham! When it comes to Christmas songs, we know what we like, and we like what we know. But is there a magical formula to writing a fe...

Christmas Spectacular 2019

01 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The legendary Foxhole XXXMas Quiz is the high-voltage highlight of our 2019 festive special, as Olly, Alix and Ollie gather round the Yuletide fire wi...

In My Defence

01 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Can martial arts save your life? Self defence instructor Kriss Pyke says they can - not just because the moves themselves offer protection in a skirmi...

Surgery On The Front Line

01 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Adrenalin, stress and composure is in the job description for a trauma surgeon. But how do doctors cope with routinely operating on patients with deva...

Porn Messed Up My Brain

31 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Sebastian Schub was 19 when he first experienced erectile dysfunction. But he wasn’t a big drinker. There was no clear medical cause, such as heart ...

Let's Build A Brewery

31 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

With zero experience of beer-making, Tommy Barnes quit his safe, corporate London job to start his own beer business. As if that weren’t precarious ...

Credit The Con

30 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Private Investigator Bob Nygaard specialises in bringing psychics to justice. Fortune-tellers, who offer palm-reading for as little as ten dollars, ar...

Air Born

31 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Jen Bricker was abandoned at birth by her biological parents. Due to a genetic defect, she had been born without legs. Her adoptive family showered he...

'Pupil A'

01 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Ben used to be a secondary school teacher. He isn’t anymore. In a brutally honest feature interview, he tells Olly his compelling story. Trigger war...

How To Be A Dad, Part 5 (Season 9, Ep 10)

08 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Tom Price and Stuart Goldsmith join Olly Mann once again to discuss the dilemmas faced by the modern Dad. How can you control a toddler who has no con...

Christmas in the Vicarage

18 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

It’s Christmasssss!... well, nearly: so time is running out for our charity single, ‘The Sounds of Christmas’, to crack the UK festive Top 40. I...

The Case Against Snow White

11 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Actors with dwarfism rarely get cast in title roles, but in panto season there’s an obvious exception: the many major productions of ‘Snow White a...

The Empty Seat

04 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Samuel was nine years old when he first asked his Dad, Martin, to raise some money for the other children on his ward to have some nicer meals. Samuel...

The Face Detectives

27 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Don’t you hate it when you forget a face? Spare a thought for the 1.5 million people in the UK suffering from developmental prosopagnosia - facial b...

Fastest Fingers First (Season 9, Ep 5)

20 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

How do you win a game-show? Olly’s assembled a dream-team to find out: Fifteen To One grand finalist Will Howells, Chase question-setter Julia Hobbs...

What Nobody Tells You About Rape

13 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Martha Adam was raped. For a week afterwards, she couldn’t even say the word. Couldn’t tell her parents what had happened to her. But she did repo...

The Only Way Is Up

06 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Suspended from 100 helium balloons, Tom Morgan flew 15.5 miles across South Africa, seated in a collapsible camping chair. And now he wants YOU to do ...

The Downing Street Heckler

30 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Shouting at Prime Ministers was off-limits at BBC Westminster before Paul ‘Gobby’ Lambert. He was the Producer who cried, ‘ANY MONEY IN THE BOX,...

My Head Is Killing Me

23 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Stuart Farrimond was a disillusioned Junior Doctor. Night-shifts, the grim reality of hospital life and emotional exhaustion were all taking their ...

The Inseminator

28 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Sperm donors are anonymised in British clinics. Recipients don’t even get to see a photo of the man who will father their child. Donor-conceived kid...

Hannah Witton: Stomasexual

21 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

At 25, YouTube star Hannah Witton suffered acute abdominal pain. She’d had a decade in remission from ulcerative colitis, but the episode was so sev...

Cruising With Mickey (Season 8, Ep 8)

14 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Working aboard Disney’s cruise ships requires a commitment to customer service, a never-fading smile, and a mastery of ‘the Disney point’. But f...

Diving to Adventure!

07 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Smuggling marijuana from Thailand to Alaska; trading illicit fuel in Nigeria; evading the law in France - Robert Stone did it all. From one small fish...

The Cop Who Went To Prison

31 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Michael Bunting always wanted to be a police officer. He qualified aged 19, with his Dad’s old Constabulary collar number. Then, one Summer Sunday e...

Inside RT's Newsroom

24 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Russia Today is one of Britain’s most controversial TV networks. Backed by the Kremlin and based in Moscow, its London newsroom portrays Russia more...

I Am A Gazelle

17 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

What does it take to be an Olympic champion? Performance Scientist Dr Steve Ingham knows: he’s supported over 1000 athletes, including Steve Redgrav...

The Unlucky Ones

10 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Miscarriages are the most common form of pregnancy loss - yet are rarely talked about in public. Jo and Steve Peck suffered not one, not two, but recu...

So, You Have A Fear of Flying

03 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Claustrophobia, panic attacks, and hyperventilation can feel even more acute at 35,000 feet. Perhaps that’s why some aviophobics never get as far as...

A Restaurant Ruined My Life

26 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

With zero experience running a professional kitchen, home cook Robert Maxwell poured his life savings into his passion project: a gastropub-inspired T...

Hands-on Dad

03 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Ben Ryan’s two year-old son, Sol, was born with a blood clot in his arm. Following amputation, the medical advice was to wait until Sol’s third bi...

The Declutterer (Season 7, Ep 9)

24 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Former investment banker Nicola Lewis likes to organise. Which is just as well, because the demand for decluttering has never been higher. Her clients...

Cloudspotting (Season 7, Ep 8)

17 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Professional dancer Raquel Meseguer had back surgery at the age of thirty, to treat chronic neuropathic pain. But it didn’t alleviate her symptoms. ...

The Ten Commandments of Touring (Season 7, Ep 7)

10 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Being in a band - on a world tour - is the stuff rock n roll dreams are made of. But the modern reality is a corporate concern, involving hundreds of ...

Inside Amazon's Warehouse (Season 7, Ep 6)

03 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Demeaning, poorly paid and tedious: life as an Order Picker in Amazon’s ‘fulfilment centre’ in Rugeley, Staffordshire was a draining, revelatory...

Closure and Disclosure: Surviving Abuse (Season 7, Ep 5)

27 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Manny Waks was 11 years old when he was first sexually abused. Raised in the ultra-Orthdaox sect of Judaism known as Chabad, he lacked the education o...

Anatomy of a Movie Trailer (Season 7, Ep 4)

20 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Why are movie trailers more beloved and enduring than other forms of advertising? How has the medium changed, to keep the video-game generation engage...

Nature, Nurture (Season 7, Ep 3)

13 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Ex-soldier Craig Jones escaped a brutal father and found solace in the natural world. Now a distinguished wildlife photographer and conservationist, t...

The Headhunter (Season 7, Ep 2)

06 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

On a bad day, what are you like to work for? When was the last time you felt professionally vulnerable? You’ve probably never been asked these quest...

The Two Billion Dollar Man (Season 7, Ep 1)

27 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In his 20s, yet running a $50billion book, Kweku Adoboli had worked his way up the trading floor at the very point the market crashed. His actions wip...

The Truth About Clean Eating (Season 6, Ep 10)

02 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Are you doing 'Dry January'? Experimenting with gluten-free snacks? Or stocking up on 'superfoods'? If so, Anthony Warner warns, you are, in fact, bui...

How To Be A Dad, Part 4 (Season 6, Ep 9)

20 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Tom Price and Stuart Goldsmith once again join Olly to compare notes on the perils of parenthood. Their sons are now coming up to two years old -...

The Trouble With Tall Buildings (Season 6, Ep 8)

12 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Wind speeds, planning restrictions, financial crisis... a lot can go wrong when designing a super-tall building. Yet, each year, more skyscrapers are ...

The Confidence Trick (Season 6, Ep 7)

05 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Best mates with Eminem, signed by Sony, and on the verge of international superstardom, Californian rap group Silibil 'n' Brains were the music indust...

Suits You Sir (Season 6, Ep 6)

28 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Andrew Ramroop OBE made his first pair of trousers whilst he was still in school shorts. At 17, he headed away from his home nation of Trinidad, gravi...

Into The Deep (Season 6, Ep5)

21 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Diving up to 700ft with no oxygen tank may seem like an extreme sport, but instructor Emma Farrell says freediving is more like a meditative state. Co...

There's Something About Gavin (Season 6, Ep 4)

14 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Gavin Hay was a high-flying TV exec with a string of hits under his belt when he and his partner sold their production company for millions of pound...

Do Focus Groups Work? (Season 6, Ep 3)

07 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

The pollsters failed to predict Brexit, Trump and Theresa May's lost majority. But, in political circles, faith remains in one particular research tec...

Cabin Crew Confessions (Season 6, Ep 2)

31 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Tricky customers, fixed smiles and terrible turbulence: it's all in a day's work for a flight attendant. But how to keep your cool at 30,000 feet? How...

Lost At Sea (Season 6, Ep 1)

24 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Tumbling overboard following a fit of food poisoning, Brett Archibald survived 28 hours alone in the Indian Ocean. In this extraordinary interview wit...

Let's Live Adventurously (Season 5, Ep 10)

08 Aug 2017

Contributed by Lukas

From the desert to the jungle, Belinda Kirk has lead expeditions through some of the world’s most inhospitable places. She’s been kidnapped, suffe...

Life In Westminster (Season 5, Ep 9)

01 Aug 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Would you be an MP, at a time when public trust in politicians has fallen to the lowest level in living memory? Could you dedicate yourself to your co...

Hacker For Hire (Season 5, Ep 8)

25 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Using the same techniques as criminal hackers, ethical ‘white hat’ hackers help governments and companies test their own security. FC (hacker name...

How Are We For Time? (Season 5, Ep 7)

18 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Being a TV warm-up is one of the hardest jobs in showbiz. How can you capture the interest and affection of an audience who don’t know who you are, ...

The Accidental Pimp (Season 5, Ep 6)

11 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Life as a landlord means trusting strangers to live in your house. Try as you might, you can't know everything about them. Sometimes, you just have to...

Subliminal Criminal (Season 5, Ep 5)

04 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Does the mind of a murderer look any different to yours? Can brain-scanning technology help explain criminal activity? And if could - should that evid...

Anatomy of a Music Festival (Season 5, Ep 4)

27 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

From Glastonbury to The End Of The Road, Summer festivals continue to colonise the countryside. But how do people pull together such enormous events y...

I See Dead People (Season 5, Ep 3)

20 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Pathology technician Carla Valentine always knew she wanted to work with corpses. In childhood, she conducted funerals for roadkill. These days, she i...

Micronesia's Got Talent (Season 5, Ep 2)

13 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Paul Watson realised he would never play football for England - so attempted, instead, to be recruited by the worst international team in the world. H...

Serving the Super-Rich (Season 5, Ep 1)

06 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

There are more billionaires than ever. Rockstars. Oil tycoons. Internet entrepreneurs. And all of them - all of them - employ private staff. The age o...

Yours Sincerely (Season 4, Ep 10)

18 Apr 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Is there still a place for the pen-and-paper posted letter? Alison Hitchcock thinks so: when she discovered her friend Brian Greenley had cancer, she ...

The Woman Who Talks To Paedophiles (Season 4, Ep 9)

11 Apr 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Sarah Goode spent six years talking to, and writing about, self-defined paedophiles - grown men sexually attracted to children. She believes, if ou...

Having The Last Word (Season 4, Ep 8)

04 Apr 2017

Contributed by Lukas

From David Bowie to George Michael, celebrity deaths are becoming increasingly common, as the rock generation reaches retirement age. How does a paper...

I Was A Child Soldier (Season 4, Ep 7)

28 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

When he was just 14, Wayne Sharrocks realised he wanted to join the Army - within a year, he’d begun the process of signing up to serve his country....

The Man Who Stole My Year (Season 4, Ep 6)

21 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

What’s it like when the person you’re closest to in the world is not the person that you think they are? ‘Elizabeth’ spent a year dating a man...

The Quiet Ones (Season 4, Ep 5)

14 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

From Morrissey to Laurence Olivier, public figures through history have channelled shyness and stage-fright into their work. But is shyness a useful t...

Being Amy Winehouse (Season 4, Ep 4)

07 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Amy Winehouse’s voice may have seemed unique - but you can sing just like her if you understand her influences. So says Emma Wright, whose musical j...

The Impossible Cream (Season 4, Ep 3)

28 Feb 2017

Contributed by Lukas

The story behind Baileys, the blockbuster booze brand, is unexpectedly lo-fi. It was invented not in Ireland but in London’s Soho, with ingredients ...

The 21st Century 'It-Boy' (Season 4, Ep 2)

21 Feb 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Artist, muse, socialite: when Daniel Lismore visits a nightclub, he charges THEM to host him. How did this quiet man from the Midlands become a fashio...

CEO at 22 (Season 4, Ep 1)

14 Feb 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Raising $1m in venture capital whilst still at Uni; starting a business seemed like child's play for James Routledge. His start-up attracted 50m page ...

How To Be A Dad, Part 3 (Season 3, Ep 10)

03 Jan 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Comedians Tom Price and Stuart Goldsmith are facing up to daddy decisions: how to rescue their respective relationships from a world of 'guilt-tennis'...

Mr Panto (Season 3, Ep 9)

20 Dec 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Pantomime: the most peculiarly British of festive entertainments. Each year, we Brits gather the family together to watch the same old stories. To che...

The Queen's Stunt Double (Season 3, Ep 8)

13 Dec 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Gary Connery is a Hollywood stunt-man. He's played them all: Harry Potter, Sherlock Holmes, Indiana Jones. But it's for his role as Queen Elizabeth II...

Let's Go Brown-Signing (Season 3, Ep 7)

06 Dec 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Amanda Hone has a 'hobby that got out of hand': traversing the UK, visiting myriad miscellaneous landmarks designated by brown signs. In this intervie...

I Was An Islamic Extremist (Season 3, Ep 6)

29 Nov 2016

Contributed by Lukas

What's it like to be radicalised? How do young British men set out to murder their fellow citizens in the name of 'jihad'? And, once committed to that...

The World's Most Productive Man (Season 3, Ep 5)

22 Nov 2016

Contributed by Lukas

‘Productivity’ is a term that gets tossed around a lot: you should be more productive at work; the nation needs to be more productive in general.....

The Gentleman Bank Robber (Season 3, Ep 4)

15 Nov 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Down on his luck, and under pressure to maintain his lifestyle, Radcliffe Royds decided to rob a bank. In this incredible interview, he tells Olly his...

Part Time Hero (Season 3, Ep 3)

08 Nov 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The RNLI lifeboats don’t just save lives at sea - they also rescue people on rivers. London’s Thames is teeming with party-boats, where drunken mi...

How To Cure Insomnia (Season 3, Ep 2)

01 Nov 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Guy Meadows, founder of The Sleep School, is a man on a mission. He wants you to sleep better. Not just if you're one of the 30% of Brits who will,...

The Last British Bullfighter (Season 3, Ep 1)

25 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Frank Evans, 74, is a working bull-fighter who lives in Marbella. In this extraordinary interview, he tells Olly how he discovered the controversial s...

The Man Who Lives In The Woods (Season 2, Ep 10)

07 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Modern-day hermit Daniel Pike is, technically, homeless - but he does have a home, which he built himself, in woodland near Watford. He made it from c...

How to Win at Shopping (Season 2, Ep 9)

31 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

What makes you buy a product? The look? The smell? The layout of the store? In today's cut-throat business world, none of that is left to coincidence:...

Top Gear's Rory Reid (Season 2, Ep 8)

24 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

How did Rory Reid get his dream job, presenting one of the biggest TV shows on Earth? Despite many years as a motoring and tech journalist, he had onl...

Strip Club Etiquette (Season 2, Ep 7)

17 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

How should you behave in a 'gentleman's club'? Stripper Edie Licious should know - from grinding the stage at super-sized American strip bars to worki...

Going Incognito (Season 2, Ep 6)

10 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Is your smartphone spying on you? Just how secure is the dark web? And is your 'Private Browsing' time actually, you know... private? Buzzfeed's James...

How To Be A Dad, Part 2 (Season 2, Ep 5)

03 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Comedians Stuart Goldsmith and Tom Price reunite with Olly Mann to compare notes, three months after all spawning sons. What has having a baby done to...

Let's Build a Theme Park (Season 2, Ep 4)

25 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Imagine designing rollercoasters for a living. That's what Bradley Wynne, lead creative artist at Merlin Magic Making, gets to do. A life-long adrenal...

Britain's Best Barista (Season 2, Ep 3)

19 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

How DO you make the perfect cup of coffee? Do you grind? Do you press? Do you froth? One man who knows is 'Coffee Masters' champion Ben Morrow, of Mel...

Shooting A War Zone (Season 2, Ep 2)

12 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Photojournalist Alison Baskerville was serving in Iraq when she began documenting the lives of her fellow soldiers. She now independently produces ast...

How To Be A Male Model (Season 2, Ep 1)

05 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Charlie Gilmour dangled from the Cenotaph during the student protests of 2010, and became tabloid enemy #1. Now he's a writer and, since being scouted...

How to Survive Prison

29 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Shaun Attwood survived a 9½ year sentence in America's deadliest prison. He tells Olly Mann his sensational story, from Liverpool to Phoenix, from hi...

Being Santa Claus

22 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

What's it like being Santa Claus? In our Christmas Spectacular episode, Olly meets actor Nigel Harvey, who makes a living playing Father Christmas all...

Gambling Nearly Killed Me

15 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

What if your first bet kickstarted a cycle of addiction that saw you flutter away over £10,000 in the bookies before your 20th birthday? Olly Mann me...

Picking Up A Partner

08 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Dating guru Hayley Quinn reveals her 5 principles of approaching a partner, and her thoughts on the industry of 'pick-up artists'. Olly Mann asks: in ...

Confessions of a Film Extra

01 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

How do you get work as a film extra, how much do you get paid - and how do you kill time when you have to spend all day with Britney Spears? Olly Mann...

How To Be A Dad, Part 1

24 Nov 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Comedians Stuart Goldsmith and Tom Price join Olly Mann to discuss their impending fatherhood, from the impact it will have on their respective relati...

Investing in Booze

17 Nov 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Why put your money in a bank when you could buy a barrel of whisky?! Olly Mann meets Leo Scott-Francis, who offers private investors the opportunity t...

I Was a Teenage Rock Star

10 Nov 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Imagine playing Brixton Academy when you're still a teenager... Conor McGloin was 10 years old when he decided he wanted to be an international rock s...

America's Best Burgers

03 Nov 2015

Contributed by Lukas

What makes THE perfect burger? Olly travels to San Francisco to meet Thrillist's Kevin Alexander, and sample two of the best burgers in California. Al...

The Biggest Screens in the World

27 Oct 2015

Contributed by Lukas

IMAX's Andrew Cripps and Brian Bonnick, creators of the world's largest movie screens, join Olly to explore whether bigger really is better, and what ...