In this final edition, we’re talking to two of the Britain’s most passionate advocates for singing in a choir. Ben England and Mark Strachan collaborated during the pandemic on the Self-Isolation Choir when thousands joined online from round the world to sing. Both were awarded British Empire Medals as a result. Today they tell us about Choir of the Earth, which grew out of the Self-Isolation Choir, and all the Christmas festive singing you can join in with. Looking ahead to next year, we hear a...
Dec 15, 2023•35 min•Season 2Ep. 138
This week we’re at the new Maddox Gallery on Mayfair’s Berkeley Street, talking to the British-American artist Russell Young about his new exhibition ‘Dreamland’, in which he dissects the American dream and the dark side of fame. Also with us is the renowned art critic and broadcaster Maeve Doyle, Global Artistic Director of the Maddox Gallery Group. Russell describes how he appropriates iconic images of famous movie and music stars, many from photographer Terry O’Neill’s archive, then transform...
Dec 08, 2023•21 min•Season 2Ep. 137
This week we’re at Gainsborough's House in Sudbury, Suffolk. We’re always delighted to discover a true gem away from London and this most certainly is one. Housed in the home where the great 18th century portrait and landscape painter artist Thomas Gainsborough grew up, this is now Suffolk’s largest art gallery and a global study centre for Gainsborough’s work. The house has recently opened its new wing with three new superb and spacious exhibition spaces. We’re talking to Rebecca Salter, the Pr...
Dec 04, 2023•24 min•Season 2Ep. 136
We talk to the young American archivist and writer who stumbled across hitherto unused material from Edward VIII’s personal archives and autobiographical notes, including his scribbled opinions about Wallis Simpson. Jane Marguerite Tippett’s new book about, ‘Once a King: The Lost Memoir of Edward VIII’ has been published to much acclaim, for being beautifully written, immaculately researched and for drawing timely parallels between the situations of Edward and Wallis and Harry and Meghan. She’s ...
Nov 24, 2023•31 min•Season 2Ep. 135
‘Women in Revolt!’ is an important and exciting new exhibition featuring work by over 100 feminist artists created between 1970 and 1990. Alongside work by well-known artists is work rarely seen before, by women who have been marginalised or left outside the artistic narrative. With us to tell us all about the exhibition are Linsey Young, Curator of British Contemporary Art at Tate Britain since 2016, and British artist and curator, Marlene Smith, a key figure in the British Black Arts movement ...
Nov 17, 2023•24 min•Season 2Ep. 134
We’re at The Coach and Horses in Soho with actor Robert Bathurst, much loved for his roles as David Marsden in Cold Feet, and Mark Taylor in Joking Apart, and with theatre producer Trish Wadley. Robert is reprising his title role in Keith Waterhouse’s Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell and tells us what fun it is to perform in the very venue where the late Jeffrey Bernard spent much of his later years propping up the bar. Trish Wadley has long championed immersive theatre, staging the Tennessee Williams ...
Nov 10, 2023•25 min•Season 2Ep. 133
We’re talking to William Boyd, unquestionably one of our greatest living novelists. He’s also a screenwriter, television writer, playwright and director, who has won multiple accolades and awards along the way, including a BAFTA Television Award for Best Drama Serial of Any Human Heart . Following The Romantic, his latest ‘whole life’ novel, a new book The Mirror and the Road comprises a series of in-depth conversations between William and the acclaimed interviewer Alistair Owen, which covers Wi...
Nov 06, 2023•37 min•Season 2Ep. 132
A major survey of 10,000 black Britons has been undertaken by the Black British Voices Project in collaboration with Cambridge University, The Voice, and management company i-Cubed. Maggie Semple, co-founder of i-Cubed, led the research team and Nels Abbbey is a writer, broadcaster and former banker who founded the Black Writer’s Guild and wrote the book ‘Think Like a White Man’. The report on the survey, which covered multiple aspects of life in Britain including culture, was published at the b...
Oct 27, 2023•31 min•Season 12Ep. 131
The prodigious, award-winning novelist talks to us candidly about her life as a novelist since she first published ‘After You’d Gone’ 23 years ago. She tells us how she started writing, her inspiration for ‘Hamnet’ and her most recent published novel ‘The Marriage Portrait’. She describes what it was like to watch ‘Hamnet’ at the RSC and The Garrick, where Lolita Chakrabarti’s adaptation of the novel is now playing and breaking the theatre’s box office records. She also talks about how she’s bee...
Oct 20, 2023•30 min•Season 2Ep. 130
We talk with two renowned playwrights about their new plays – both on for a short run and neither of them to be missed. Roger McGough, the much-loved author, Mersey poet and presenter of BBC Radio Four’s ‘Poetry Please’, has adapted Molière’s ‘The Hypochondriac’ for The Crucible in Sheffield. It’s already opened to rave reviews, with Edward Hogg starring as Argan. Jonathan Maitland, journalist and broadcaster turned playwright, has written ‘The Interview’, a play about Princess Diana’s interview...
Oct 13, 2023•25 min•Season 2Ep. 129
This week we’re talking to two artists inspired by the nature. Emily Young, hailed as Britain’s greatest living female stone sculptor, specialises in using materials from abandoned quarries and Francis Hamel is known for his portraiture and landscape paintings. Emily lives and works mostly in an isolated part of Tuscany, where she free carves in reclaimed uncut natural stone, often found in abandoned quarries. She evokes beautiful ancient figures from an unknown mythology. Her main objective is ...
Oct 06, 2023•23 min•Season 2Ep. 103
Acclaimed pianists, Charles Owen and Moscow-born Katya Apekisheva, started the London Piano Festival at Kings Place in 2016 as a way of bringing together pianists from around the world. Pianists tend to practice and play in isolation so it can be a lonely profession and this is a much-loved opportunity for them to come together and share their passion for their instrument and its music. Between 5th and 8th October this year’s festival is celebrating the 150th birth of Rachmaninov and the centena...
Sep 29, 2023•30 min
We talk to Sir John Leighton, Director-General of the National Galleries of Scotland, about Edinburgh’s superb new Scottish Galleries at the National, which will open on September 30th after £38.62 million worth of investment. The ten, light-filled rooms, offering majestic views over Edinburgh, will showcase 130 works of historic Scottish art by artists ranging from the Glasgow Boys, William McTaggart and Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Anne Redpath to lesser-known artists like Phoebe Anna Traquai...
Sep 22, 2023•27 min•Season 2Ep. 126
We talk to Sarah Sands, the journalist and former editor of The Evening Standard and BBC Radio Four’s Today programme. She’s just released her new book ‘ The Hedgehog Diaries, A Story of Faith Hope and Bristle’. The humble hedgehog turns out to be a symbol of the doughty survivor in politics and in battle – particularly in Ukraine’s war with Russia. It’s also the symbol of NATO. Not just that, but numerous famous people from Rory Stewart to Samuel Beckett, have understood the significance and sp...
Sep 15, 2023•27 min•Season 2Ep. 125
As he steps down after serving two full terms as Chair of the V&A, Nicholas Coleridge looks back on ten years of prodigious expansion under his watch and looks ahead to tell us all about the hugely anticipated Chanel show which opens on 16th September. He recounts how V&A Dundee is bringing new life to the city and explains how the transformation of the former Museum of Childhood into Young V&A has given thousands of young people and children an exciting new destination in East Londo...
Sep 08, 2023•37 min•Season 2Ep. 124
On our last podcast of the summer, we’re talking to Pippa Shirley, Director of Waddeson Manor and to Lorraine Lecourtois, Head of Public Exhibitions at Wakehurst, about two of Britain’s most beautiful outdoor spaces, both showcasing some wonderful art. Waddesdon Manor is the Renaissance-style chateau built in Buckinghamshire by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild in 1874, with extensive Victorian-style gardens, a parterre and a Rococo-style aviary and woodland. The two major artists exhibiting there a...
Jul 14, 2023•30 min•Season 2Ep. 123
‘ Dear Earth’ is the show at the Hayward Gallery on London’s south Bank that represents a coming together of 15 global artists who are responding to the crisis our planet is facing. We talk to Rachel Thomas , the chief curator and two of the artists exhibiting there, Ackroyd & Harvey. Ackroyd & Harvey have contributed a series of portraits of environmental activists made from seedling grass. Rachel tells us about the other exhibits there, including the moving and enchanting film ‘The Fut...
Jul 07, 2023•26 min•Season 2Ep. 122
We’re chatting about the Royal Shakespeare Company ’s summer programme with Erica Whyman , who was Acting Artistic Director of the RSC till June, the director of the smash hit play ‘ Hamnet ’ and the Lead Judge of the specially commissioned 37 plays . We also talk to Tanya Katyal , playing Rani, in the new production at the Swan of Tanika Gupta ’s ‘The Empress’ . We also hear about the new production of ‘As You Like It’ starring Geraldine James as Rosalind along with a cast of older actors – mos...
Jun 30, 2023•27 min•Season 2Ep. 121
We pick out the best of the summer’s festivals, including Byline Festival , Charleston’s Festival of the Garden , Cheltenham Music Festival , Henley Festival and The Idler Festival. Jo Bausor, who’s been at the helm of Henley Festival for over a decade, tells us about the impressive line-up at Britain’s only boutique black tie festival. Acts performing include Boney M , Nile Rodgers & Chic , Rag n’Bone Man and Westlife . There’s a fabulous line-up of comedians too, like Jo Brand , Marcus Bri...
Jun 23, 2023•24 min•Season 2Ep. 120
We’re talking about the first ever stage adaptation of Ken Loach’s and Paul Laverty’s multi-award winning 2016 film I, Daniel Blake . The production, which is touring the UK, opened at Northern Stage Newcastle to rave critical reviews and passionate audience reactions. Dave Johns , who adapted it for the stage, played Daniel in the original film, winning Best Actor at the British Independent Awards and Best Newcomer at the Empire Awards for his performance. Davey Nellist , who plays Daniel in th...
Jun 16, 2023•26 min•Season 2Ep. 119
We’re talking to Louise Minchin , Chair of the Women’s Prize for Fiction , and one of her five co-judges, the Nigerian-born, award-winning novelist Irenosen Okojie MBE. Louise is an endurance triathlete and the well-known journalist, who presented BBC Breakfast for 20 years and was one of BBC News 24’s main anchors. Now in its 28th year and started by Kate Mosse OBE, the prize aims to encourage and award the finest women writers around the world. Louise and Irenosen talk us through the six final...
Jun 09, 2023•30 min•Season 2Ep. 118
We’re talking to curator Carol Jacobi about ‘ The Rossettis ’, an exhibition of over 150 works at Tate Britain , celebrating the romance and radicalism of Dante Gabriel, Christina and Elizabeth née Siddall. It’s the first ever retrospective of Dante Gabriel Rossetti at the Tate and the largest exhibition of his work in two decades, as well as being the first retrospective of Elizabeth Siddal for 30 years. The exhibition sets out to shed light on just how ground-breaking the Rossetti family’s wor...
Jun 02, 2023•29 min•Season 2Ep. 117
We’re discovering what’s on at London’s Design Biennale which opens on the 1st June at Somerset House . Now in its fourth edition, the Biennale sets out to celebrate and showcase innovation in design that has the power to make our world a better place. Victoria Broackes , the Director, explains that this year’s title and theme, which is ‘The Global Game: Remapping Collaborations’. Victoria tells us about the 40 exhibitors coming together from around the world – including from Ukraine. We discuss...
May 26, 2023•30 min•Season 2Ep. 116
We talk to Hassan Akkad , who came to the UK as an asylum seeker from Syria and who earned a BAFTA for his BBC documentary ‘ Exodus: Our Journey to Europe’ , which used real footage from his journey from Syria. Hassan tells us about his short film, ‘Matar’ , which tells the story of a day in the life asylum-seeker Matar as he tries to survive in London without being able to work legally or have a bank account. ‘Matar’ stars Ahmed Malek , who recently starred in ‘The Swimmers’ , the feature film ...
May 19, 2023•26 min•Season 2Ep. 115
Dafydd Jones’s photographs of Oxford’s ‘bright young things’ catapulted him to fame and earnt him a global reputation for capturing the essence of a riotous world of upper-class decadence during the Thatcher era. Tina Brown was quick to scoop Dafydd up when she was editor of Tatler , and on today’s podcast he talks about his new book ‘England: The Last Hurrah’ and describes what it was like to break into a world that revolved around glamorous parties in stately homes and annual events like the O...
May 12, 2023•24 min•Season 2Ep. 114
We’re excited to tell you that this week’s guest is Ruth Wilson , the multiple-award winning British actress who’s about to star in an extraordinary theatrical event at The Young Vic on 19th May. ‘The Second Woman’ is going to incorporate one electrifying 24-hour performance, involving one scene, one woman and 100 men. Ruth plays Virginia and will be on stage for a full 24 hours as 100 different men star opposite her while she performs over and over again a scene between a man and woman in a fai...
May 07, 2023•33 min•Season 2Ep. 113
We’re talking about the burgeoning opportunities for new and established collectors of beautiful rare objects, looking forward to London Craft Week , with Guy Salter, the fair’s founder. Now in its ninth year and dubbed ‘the most luxurious craft fair in the world’, the fair spreads right across the capital, incorporating Acton and Park Royal as Creative Enterprise Zones for the first time. There will be exciting events and exhibitions celebrating the Coronation and London Craft Week will also sh...
Apr 30, 2023•28 min•Season 2Ep. 112
We talk to Geoff Marsh, one of the curators of a new exhibition about the 1973 album Aladdin Sane and to Dave Robinson, aka ‘ Robbo ’, legendary co-founder of Stiff Records . Geoff tells us how photographer, the late Brian Duffy, created the lightning flash image of David Bowie. That album cover has gone on to remain one of the world’s three most instantly recognisable images - the other two are John Pasche’s Hot Lips logo for the Rolling Stones and Hipgnosis’s cover for Dark Side of the Moon. A...
Apr 23, 2023•30 min•Season 2Ep. 111
We’re talking to curator Raina Lampkins-Fielder about ‘ Souls Grown Deep Like the Rivers’ , the ground-breaking exhibition at the Royal Academy, showcasing the collective creativity of black artists from the American South. Most of these powerful works, many made from reclaimed materials, have never been seen outside America’s so-called ‘Black Belt’ that encompasses Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, a region associated with slavery and racial oppression. This is any eye-opening exhibition repres...
Apr 16, 2023•29 min•Season 2Ep. 110
The London Original Print Fair is London’s longest running art fair and now in its 38th year. This year it runs at Somerset House from 30th March till the 2nd April and brings together over 40 top international print dealers, publishers and studios, spanning six centuries of printmaking. We talk to Helen Rosslyn , who’s been director of the Fair since 1987. She explains why prints are so much more than mere copies and therefore such popular and safe investments. With knowledge and enthusiasm, sh...
Mar 26, 2023•23 min•Season 2Ep. 109
