Private Passions

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Louise Penny Nov 23, 2025

Show notes

The Canadian crime fiction writer Louise Penny has sold more than 18 million books around the world – and she was a late starter: she was 45 when her first book appeared, after working for two decades as a broadcaster and journalist.

Success as a fiction writer came quickly: her first novel Still Life won numerous awards, and introduced Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, who works in rural Quebec. Louise has just published her 20th book featuring Gamache: in The Black Wolf, he’s taking on a powerful conspiracy attempting to make Canada the 51st state in a fight over natural resources.

Louise's music includes works by Beethoven, Michael Nyman, Bach and Neil Young.

Presenter Michael Berkeley Producer Clare Walker

Lea Ypi Nov 16, 2025

Show notes

Lea Ypi, a professor of political theory at the London School of Economics, grew up in Albania under communism, when it was the last Stalinist outpost in Europe.

She was 10 years old when the Berlin Wall fell, and a year later she saw the collapse of communism in Albania. Statues of Stalin and Enver Hoxha, the country’s leader for 40 years, were toppled. Democratic elections followed - but so did civil unrest.

Lea wrote about these turbulent years in her book Free, which won prizes and widespread acclaim: 'essential - just as much for Britons as Albanians' according to one critic.

She has delved further into her family history, looking into the past of her grandmother, in her book Indignity.

Lea's musical choices include Beethoven, Wagner, Dizdari and Bach.

Hugh Bonneville Nov 09, 2025

Show notes

Hugh Bonneville is one of the most familiar faces on British TV and film. You might know him as the Earl of Grantham from Downton Abbey, or the long-suffering Mr Brown in the Paddington films, or the baffled Ian Fletcher in the London Olympics sitcom Twenty Twelve and its BBC-centred sequel W1A.

Hugh was captivated by acting from an early age, staging his own plays at home and even making the tickets to sell to his family.

More recently he’s has branched out into writing, with a memoir Playing Under the Piano and a children’s book Rory Sparkes and the Elephant in the Room, which is inspired by some of the events of his childhood.

Hugh's selection of music includes works by Beethoven, Strauss, Elgar and Faure.

Presenter: Michael Berkeley Producer: Clare Walker

Annabel Croft Nov 02, 2025

Show notes

Annabel Croft first picked up a tennis racquet at the age of nine. Within six years, she’d become the youngest British player to compete in the Wimbledon main draw for almost a century. At the age of 17, she won the junior championships at both Wimbledon and the Australian Open, and at 18 she was the British number one. Then – aged 21 – she retired from tennis and moved into broadcasting. She was soon back at the world’s major tennis tournaments, this time as a commentator and reporter. In 2023 her competitive spirit found a new outlet: she took part in Strictly Come Dancing on BBC One and came fourth. Her musical choices include works by Pachelbel, Handel, John Rutter and Prokofiev.

Presenter Michael Berkeley Producer Clare Walker

The Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer Oct 26, 2025

Show notes

The Right Honourable Sir Keir Starmer is the seventh Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Prior to his political career, he was a barrister and served as Director of Public Prosecutions. He was elected as a Member of Parliament in 2015 and became Labour leader in 2020.

A former Guildhall School of Music scholar, Sir Keir Starmer is a flautist but also played piano, recorder, and violin in his youth.

He shares his love of music including works by Beethoven, Mozart, Shostakovich and Brahms.

Presenter: Michael Berkeley Producer: Clare Walker

Hollie McNish Oct 19, 2025

Show notes

Hollie McNish has been writing poems about – as she puts it – ‘anything and everything’ since she was seven years old. Her work now reaches audiences of millions, through her books, performances and short videos, making her one of the UK’s most widely shared poets.

In 2017 she won the Ted Hughes Award for her book Nobody Told Me, a collection of poetry and diary entries that she kept from the moment she discovered she was pregnant until her daughter was three. She has published six other collections, including her most recent, Virgin, which explores how one six letter word holds such power.

Her choices include music by Telemann, Joseph Bologne Chevalier de Saint-George, Nina Simone and Tchaikovsky.

Presenter Michael Berkeley Producer Clare Walker

Shobana Jeyasingh Oct 05, 2025

Show notes

The pioneering choreographer Shobana Jeyasingh has produced more than 60 original works, many of them created for outdoor or unusual settings.

She was born in India and came to England in her late teens to study English literature at Sussex University. She had learned classical Indian dance as a child and in her early twenties, she drew on that passion, touring first as a dancer and then founding her own dance company in 1989 to develop her own work.

Since then, she has collaborated with scientists, film-makers and numerous composers including Errollyn Wallen, Kevin Volans and Michael Nyman.

Her most recent work is inspired by The Tempest, and views Shakespeare’s story through the eyes of Caliban, the so-called ‘monstrous’ slave.

Shobana's music includes Mozart, Messiaen, Arvo Part and Purcell.

Richard Armitage Sep 28, 2025

Show notes

The actor Richard Armitage refuses to be pigeon-holed. He first made a national impact as the mill owner John Thornton in the BBC adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South. Audiences around the world know him as Thorin Oakenshield in The Hobbit trilogy, directed by Peter Jackson. He’s played a serial killer in Hannibal, a spy in Spooks, and has starred in four Harlan Coben thrillers on Netflix.

He’s also written thrillers: the most recent is The Cut, which examines childhood trauma and the dangers of buried secrets - and also draws on his own musical experiences, because the main character, like Richard, plays the cello.

His choices include works by Arvo Part, Mahler, Rameau, and Gluck.

Presenter Michael Berkeley Producer Clare Walker

Deborah Prentice Sep 21, 2025

Show notes

Deborah Prentice became the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge in 2023.

She’s the first American to take on the role, and she’s leading the university at a challenging time for higher education in the UK, with questions about funding, freedom of expression, student protest, striking academics and even vice-chancellors’ pay never far from the headlines.

Before Cambridge, she was Provost at Princeton University, and a professor of psychology, where she focused on the social norms that govern human behaviour and the impact of unwritten rules and conventions. And before that, her first degree at Stanford was in Biology and Music.

Deborah's music choices include Beethoven, Bach, Mussorgsky and Ravel.

Mark Kermode Sep 14, 2025

Show notes

Mark Kermode began reviewing films 40 years ago, and has established himself as one of our most foremost critics, both in print and on air. He co-presents Screenshot on Radio 4 and the podcast Kermode and Mayo’s Take, with his long-term collaborator Simon Mayo. He’s said he goes to every screening hoping it will be the next Citizen Kane – but he’s also renowned for his energetic rants against the films he finds most disappointing. Music is another lifelong love – and for nearly 30 years he’s played double bass in The Dodge Brothers, a skiffle band who have also performed live soundtracks for silent movies. And film music is the subject of his most recent book, Mark Kermode’s Surround Sound, examining the complex relationship between what we hear and what we see. Mark's music includes Mica Levi, Strauss and Jelly Roll Morton.

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