Weekend Breakfast with Alison Curtis

Alisha Weir has been in Matilda, Wicked Little Letters and now Abigail – and she's only 14! It wasn't Alison's first time chatting with Alisha, so the pair caught up on how the last two years have been going for her and whether the films are affecting her school life. Alisha shared how she handled the news that she was in Matilda with her school mates and Alison had to find out, was Alisha even allowed to watch Wicked Little Letters? Plus, what's it like becoming a vampire ballerina for Abigail? Well, press the play button on this page to find out!

National Treasure and Irish acting legend Brendan Gleeson on Weekend Breakfast.Alison has not hidden the fact that Brendan is one of her absolute heroes. She spoke to him about his brand-new documentary, ‘Brendan Gleeson's Farewell to Hughes’ and why he felt it was so important to record this period in his life and what trad music and a creative space is so important to humanity and Irish people in particular. He is a proud fiddle and mandolin player.Brendan also revealed his thoughts on the current Irish acting renaissance, Paddington 2 "I nearly sliced the finger off meself!" , Harry Potter, Smurf Movie, Joker 2 (he was amazed by Joaquin in first movie and signed by straight away to Folie A Deux once he knew Phoenix was attached) and loads more!‘Brendan Gleeson's Farewell to Hughes's’ documentary will make its world premiere at the Dublin International Film Festival on Friday 1st March followed by a Q&A with Brendan Gleeson.It will be released in the Lighthouse Cinema and Pálás Cinema Galway on March 2nd. For more see diff.ie.

Laura de Barra is a Cork-born property portfolio developer and illustrator working in the competitive London rental market. Her first book, 'Gaff Goddess', was a No.1 bestseller.Now she has turned her hand to clothing. She reveals all the helpful hacks and advice from things to consider before we buy an item of clothing, changing room cheats, trying to buy sustainably and on a budget, parental clothing tips and loads moreHer new book is 'Garment Goddess' - Buy well, mend well, wear well, life changing advice from the queen of the household hack' It's out now.

Former model and Mother of 3 Award winning content creatorSunday Times bestselling author, campaigner - Louise Boyce is better known online as Mamasstillgotit_She pivoted from plus size positive modelling to comedy content creator during Covid and never looked back. On Instagram she has built up a following of over 500k and on Tik Tok nearly 400k Followers and 6.5M Likes.Her campaign called 'Push It Out' exposed how the fashion industry didn't play fair when selling maternity wear. (later when she became pregnant she was dropped by her agent!) A pregnancy was seen as "damaged goods"She got them to change their adverts to come with disclaimers. She has always been wary of aspects of the fashion industry and In 1998 she quit the business due to an eating disorder. She said she was "extremely unhealthy (mentally and physically) and was told I could never have children."Louise told Alison Curtis on Weekend Breakfast all about it.The paperback of her book Mamas Still Got It – How to make it through the Calpol years without losing yourself - is out 29th February.In the chat with Louise Boyce mentioned she had suffered with an eating disorder – if you or someone you know is looking for help or advice – there is the Eating Disorders Association of Ireland, a national voluntary organisation supporting people affected by this – get more at bodywhys.ie

Billy Dee Williams was born and raised in New York City. He has starred in forty movies, seven Broadway plays, and has made more than forty television shows and tv movies combined!In a Galaxy far, far away … okay maybe just L.A. over Zoom! Alison Curtis spoke to this living legend on the show --- He is best known as outlandishly handsome rogue Lando Calrissian on Return Of the Jedi and The Empire Strikes Back but he has had an INCREDIBLE career over SIX decades!He told Weekend Breakfast how he the biggest star in the world once turned up to his first Broadway show, how George Lucas made the biggest call of his life, leading to his iconic role, how he dealt with Star wars fans when they thought he double-crossed Han Solo plus his Irish connections! At one time Billy’s circle of friends included included Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, and Marvin Gaye!HIs autobiography ‘What Have We Here: Portraits of a Life’ BY Billy Dee Williams is out now.

Seven studio albums with Wet Wet Wet. Twelve solo albums. Millions sold. He has starred on Broadway and the West End."Love Is All Around" reached number one in 1994 It then remained there for 15 weeks!Throughout its chart run, some radio stations banned the song, as many listeners were fed up of hearing it for so long. Apparently - The band themselves eventually took the decision to delete the record from sale.However, it didn’t make it to number one in Ireland … and guess what kept it off the top spot?Alison chats to Marti about dealing with fame as a teenager, Scotland's link with Canada, and what does 'No Marti, No Party' mean! Can we get our own Marty's Whelan and Morrissey involved!?The WWW debut album ‘Popped In Souled Out’ which established Marti and the band as one of the greatest talents to ever come out of Scotland. The record earned him a BRIT Award and four platinum discs in the UK alone.He will play it in full with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra @ 3Arena Dublin on 10th March 2024

Ryan O'Sullivan is 30 and is a Culinary Studies graduate of MTU (Munster Technological University) He is originally from Gurranabraher in Cork CityHe had previously worked in the Maryborough and River Lee hotels in Cork city before relocating to the US to further his career, landing a job at the Mirasol County Club in Florida in 2018.He fought off 17 other highly talented chefs to take the top prize of $250,000 and a head chef role in Gordon Ramsay's famous Hell's Kitchen Las Vegas restaurant.Winner of season 22 – it took seven weeks of intense filming. He had to keep the outcome a secret the whole time!

A young Cork entrepreneur who first started with bringing his homemade energy balls to college lectures has signed a contract worth €1 million with supermarket chain ALDI.Matthew Collins is from Ballydesmond in Cork and he founded The Sibly Food Co. in 2018.After years of making product for friends, then selling at markets he recently has signed a 12 month contract to supply ALDI’s 161 Irish stores with its popular Energy Balls product.He started making his own homemade energy balls and bringing them to college lectures at the age of 21.After classmates encouraged him to sell his produce, Matthew set up a stall at a Christmas Market in Kanturk where his energy balls proved a big hit with customers and his business has grown hugely since then.He applied for the ‘Grow with ALDI’ programme in 2022 and was selected as one of five winners of the supplier development programme.He told Alison his story.

Spring has nearly sprung and we are looking to emerge from hibernation and looking for things that we can do with the kids that don’t involve screens!!Lilly Higgins is a TV chef, a crafting genius and a Mum to 3 kids - she shares her best tips for keeping them off screens and doing achievable activities that will empower them and also are loads of fun.Some suggestions by Lilly include:Toad Stool CentrepieceJewellery TreeTie-dye teesAll are available in her book ‘The Homemade Year’ by Lilly HigginsFollow her on  Insta:  lilly_higgins_

One of our very favourite people in TodayFM and ever joined Alison Curtis for a chat!Paula is usually heard Sunday to Thursday evenings from 7 on TodayFM. She joined Alison to chat wardrobes and why 'dopamine dressing' is so important especially this time of year.