Vince Gilligan on his hit TV series Breaking Bad, author Nadifa Mohamed on her novel The Orchard of Lost Souls, What Maisie Knew reviewed, and how actors cope without understudies.

With Mark Lawson.

Mark meets Vince Gilligan, the creator of hit American TV series Breaking Bad, about a chemistry teacher who becomes a drugs overload after being diagnosed with cancer.

Meg Rosoff reviews the film What Maisie Knew. Based on the 1897 novel by Henry James, the film is set in modern day New York and stars Julianne Moore and Steve Coogan as parents going through an acrimonious custody battle, in which their young daughter Maisie has become a pawn.

Nadifa Mohamed, the award winning author of Black Mamba Boy, discusses her second novel The Orchard of Lost Souls. Set in her birthplace of Somalia, the novel tells the stories of two women and a young girl who are living through the destruction of the 1988 civil war. Mohamed talks about the difficulties of writing the book, her relationship with Somalia and the experience of moving to London.

A London theatre has had to cancel some performances of one of its productions as a cast member is indisposed and there are no understudies. Actor Michael Simkins discusses the balancing act between cancelling a performance, carrying on with the show despite illness or injury and calling in an understudy at the last minute.

Producer: Olivia Skinner.