Imagine opening your front door to find Squeaky Mike McClean and a camera crew on the doorstep. That was life on The Big Breakfast.

Mike joins Simon Hood on Ask Bigger to talk about his remarkable television career, from Nick AM, It’s Not Fair and Mad for It to The Big Breakfast and Richard & Judy. Along the way, he interviewed some of the biggest names in the world, including Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts and Britney Spears.

Hear the stories behind the shows, the famous faces and that unmistakable voice. Listen now on Spotify and follow Ask Bigger for more.

Comedian Simon Evans joins Simon Hood for a brilliantly open conversation about the making of a comic: from starting stand-up at 31 and finding his voice on stage to politics, free speech and being labelled a “right-wing comedian”.

Simon also talks about the DNA test that revealed he could have up to 1,000 half-siblings, his experience meeting some of them, and why he worries AI could do serious damage to creativity.

If you grew up in Britain in the 90s, Saturday night meant one thing: Gladiators. And today's guest didn't just enter the arena — he owned it.James Crossley became HUNTER at just 19, the youngest gladiator on the show, and stayed for all eight years of the ITV original. In this episode he tells Simon what the cameras never showed: the producer who told him he was rubbish after year one, the note pushed under his hotel door each night telling him which 50ft event he'd be doing, the game that broke a gladiator's neck, the fake tan that got them banned by the hotel, and the press office that was leaking the stories it was supposed to protect them from.And then there's everything after the arena: touring America with the Royal Shakespeare Company, winning Britain's Strongest Master at 40, breaking the Dinnie Stones grip world record in 2018 (with a little help from a psychic), and the injury that ended it all — leading him somewhere nobody would predict: gong baths, sound healing, and the London Handpan Academy.Oh — and Simon challenges him to a duel. It goes about as well as you'd expect.