Family farming with Janice and Matt Baker; Author Susan Spindler; Statues of famous women

What do you do, when your mother is in a spot of bother? You run to help… of course! That’s the situation the Countryfile and former One Show presenter Matt Baker found himself in last summer, when his mum Janice had a serious accident with some sheep, and was unable to continue with the day to day running of the family farm in the Durham Hills. Their story is documented in a four part series for More4 called Matt Baker: Our Farm in the Dales. Emma speaks to Janice and Matt. Another statue of a strong woman has made the headlines. Last year it was Mary Wollstonecraft. Now it's Greta Thunberg. A statue of the 18 year old environmentalist was unveiled in Winchester last week but some think it's a waste of money. Emma is joined by Christine Charlesworth, the statue's creator, who's not only made Greta during lockdown but two other British feminist icons as well. Susan Spindler's first novel Surrogate tells the story of Ruth who, at the age of 54, volunteers to carry a baby for her daughter, who has just had her seventh miscarriage. But how selfless is Ruth's kind offer? She has done all of the research, taken the hormones, done the tests, thought of everything. What she doesn't know is how being her daughter's surrogate will make her feel and the upheaval it will cause in all of her relationships. Susan tells Emma how she researched the story.