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Karl Bushby, the British man walking around the world, is almost home. The former paratrooper set off from Chile in 1998. He walked through the Americas, crossed the frozen ocean from Alaska to Russia, and last year became the first person to swim the Caspian Sea between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. These are all huge achievements in their own right but for Bushby they were just sections he had to complete to finish his epic journey. Originally scheduled to finish in 2006, Bushby is now 56 and still going. Geopolitics has played its part, with Russian and Iranian visa rejections some of the main causes of delay. He arrived in Budapest last month and with the English Channel being the only obvious remaining obstacle to navigate, he should be back in Humberside by this time next year. Stephen Smith finds out who he is and what's kept him going for so long. Contributors Jonny Beardsall - Journalist and milliner Keith Bushby - Dad Genevieve Gil - Friend Dimitri Kieffer - Crossed the Bering Strait with Bushby Angela Maxwell - Swam the Caspian Sea with Bushby Art Mortvedt - Friend Damaris Mortvedt - Friend Kevin Shoesmith - JournalistProduction Presenter: Stephen Smith Producers: Ben Crighton, Alex Loftus and Mhairi MacKenzie Production Coordinator: Maria Ogundele Editor: Nick Holland Sound: Gareth Jones

Dame Mary Berry has been teaching Brits to cook for more than half a century. Aged 90, she remains a staple on our screens at Christmas. Born in Bath in 1935, Berry was the middle child of two brothers. She struggled in school and studied Home Economics class instead of Maths.Berry left school with no qualifications but continued to pursue her love of cooking, training at the famous Le Cordon Bleu school in France. In 1971, she began her TV career with slots on shows like Collector’s World and Good Afternoon with Judith Chalmers, where she’d teach viewers how use newfangled items like freezers and tinfoil.Over the next four decades, Berry would go on to write dozens of cookbooks, feature in and present her own cooking programmes, and teach thousands to cook in her Aga lessons, which she hosted in her own home. But it was her role as a judge on Bake Off that introduced her to a new generation of viewers, and cemented her as one of the nations best-loved cooks. Stephen Smith looks back on her decades-long career.Contributors: Belles Berry – Mary Berry’s daughter Maragret Berry – Mary Berry’s sister in law Rosie Millard – Journalist Kirsty Wark – Journalist and presenter Candice Brown – Winner of the Great British Bake Off 2016Production Presenter: Stephen Smith Producers: Tom Gillett, Mhairi Mackenzie and Alex Loftus Editor: Nick Holland Production Coordinator: Maria Ogundele Sound: Gareth Jones

David Harewood, who turned sixty this week, returns as Othello for the third time on stage. It’s a role he first took on in 1997, becoming the first black actor to play the part at London’s National Theatre. Growing up in multicultural Birmingham in the sixties and seventies, he was born to immigrants from Barbados. Described as gregarious by his teachers at school, Harewood showed an interest in entertaining from an early age and subsequently trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of the Dramatic Arts. In his early twenties, he had a psychotic breakdown, something he spoke about in a recent documentary. A string of roles in TV and film followed. And then came his breakthrough role as CIA agent David Estes in the acclaimed hit US TV show Homeland.Mark Coles looks back at his career. Contributors Gary Turner – childhood friend Pete Mortiboys – school physical education teacher Jeremy Harrison – Royal Academy of the Dramatic Arts (RADA) classmate and friend Afua Hirsch – broadcaster, journalist and author of the book Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging Tom Morris – Theatre director and colleague Toby Jones – Actor and colleague Production Presenter: Mark Coles Producers: Ben Carter, Laura Cain Editor: Nick Holland and Justine Lang Sound: Gareth Jones Archive Audio of David Harewood as Othello, 2025, Theatre Royal Haymarket, clean from trailer David Harewood: Psychosis and Me documentary, 2019, for BBC, production company: Films Of Record Limited