Front Row - Shappi Khorsandi and Gillian Clarke on stage in the BBC's Big Blue Tent at the Edinburgh Festival

Shappi Khorsandi and Gillian Clarke on stage in the BBC's Big Blue Tent at the Edinburgh Festival

Download Shappi Khorsandi and Gillian Clarke on stage in the BBC's Big Blue Tent at the Edinburgh Festival

Shappi Khorsandi is the first guest in a week of programmes from the Edinburgh Festival. On stage in front of a live audience in the BBC's Big Blue Tent, she discusses her new show Mistress and Misfit, about Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson's mistress, Lady Emma Hamilton.

In Nassim, Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour sets out to teach the audience his native language Farsi in a show which features a different performer from the Festival each day. So how does he prepare when the deal is that performers have not even seen the script before stepping out in front of an audience?

The former National Poet of Wales, Gillian Clarke, discusses her new poetry collection Zoology.

As the Edinburgh International Festival and Fringe celebrate their 70th birthday this year, the International Festival's director Fergus Lenehan is joined by 90-year-old Dr Pamela Epps, who has attended every festival in the city since 1947.

Presenter John Wilson
Producer Jerome Weatherald.

Published on Monday, 14th August 2017.

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