Private Passions

"Private Passions" is a weekly music discussion programme which has been running for over 10 years on BBC Radio 3, presented by the composer Michael Berkeley. The one-hour show is broadcast almost every Sunday in the UK, and is available on demand through the BBC website.

Every week Berkeley interviews a notable guest about their life and musical interests and plays a selection of their favourite pieces. The emphasis is on classical music but also embraces jazz, world music and popular song.

The show's guests range from celebrities to musicians, academics and physicians. The "life and works" aspect of the interview is generally secondary to the discussion about musical passions, and Berkeley often aims to explore a guest's unexpected musical interests, such as the classical music passions of John Peel.

In December 1997, one of Berkeley's guests was 112-year-old Viennese percussionist, "Manfred Sturmer", who told anecdotes about Brahms, Clara Schumann, Richard Strauss, Arnold Schoenberg and others so realistically that some listeners did not realise that the whole thing was a hoax perpetrated by Berkeley and John Sessions. As a tie-in to "Comic Relief", other Sessions creations have appeared on Berkeley's show, such as Argentinian opera impresario and cocaine smuggler "Pilar Woffington" and dissolute and politically incorrect conductor "Sir Jimmy Disperin". [ [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3724/is_199903/ai_n8840015 Alive, alive, O! | Spectator, The | Find Articles at BNET.com ] ]

"Private Passions" may be regarded as the Radio 3 equivalent of "Desert Island Discs" on BBC Radio 4.

A book about the first ten years of the programme, written by Berkeley, was published in 2005. [Michael Berkeley - "Private Passions" (Faber and Faber, 2005) ISBN 978-0571-22884-3 ]

The 600th edition of the programme was marked on 23 March 2008 with guest Vanessa Redgrave. [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/privatepassions/pip/va4r6/ BBC Private Passions: Vanessa Redgrave] ]

The programme's theme tune is Michael Berkeley's "The Wakeful Poet" (from "Music from Chaucer") performed by the Beaux-Arts Brass Quintet. [BBQ: BBQ 003 T10]

2008 guest list

"‡ denotes repeated broadcast"

January

*Mark Ravenhill, playwright‡
*Christopher Nupen, filmmaker
*Katie Melua, pop singer
*Bryan Appleyard, journalist

February

*Martin Rowson, cartoonist
*Sandi Toksvig, comedienne
*Vernon Bogdanor, historian
*Maureen Lipman, actress

March

*Frank Tallis, clinical psychologist and crime novelist
*Edward Gillespie, Cheltenham racecourse manager
*Ian McKeever, artist
*Vanessa Redgrave, actress (600th edition of the programme)
*Paul Old, dancer

April

*Edward Fox, actor
*Simon Baron-Cohen, psychologist
*PJ Harvey, musician
*Colin Low, chairman RNIB

May

*Brian Foster, physicist
*Colin Salmon, actor
*Terry Burns, economist

June

*Maria Chevska, artist
*Philip Stott, biogeographer
*Robert Fisk, journalist
*Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury
*Matt Frei, journalist

July

*Jeanette Winterson, authoress‡
*Derren Brown, magician‡
*Margaret Hodge, politician

August

*Bryan Appleyard, critic‡
*Ffion Hague, political wife
*Kiran Desai, authoress‡
*Richard Fortey, palaeontologist
*Barry Fantoni, satirist‡

eptember

*Judy Collins, folk singer
*Alex Ross, music critic
*Dominic West, actor
*Jennifer Worth, authoress

October

*John Burnside, poet

2007 guest list

"Includes repeated broadcasts"

*Dr Miriam Stoppard, physician
*Charlie Higson, actor and author
*Colin Wilson, author
*Henry Goodman, actor
*James May, TV presenter
*Stephen Venables, mountaineer
*Diana Quick, actress
*Alex Jennings, actor
*William Dalrymple, historian
*Audra McDonald, soprano
*Annalena McAfee, writer and journalist
*Clemency Burton-Hill, violinist and actress
*Victoria Hislop, novelist
*David Rintoul, actor
*Martin Rowson, political cartoonist
*Vernon Bogdanor, professor of government at Oxford University
*Kenneth Cranham, actor
*Mark Ravenhill, playwright
*James Lovelock, scientist
*Liz Calder, publisher
*David Yallop, writer
*Gyles Brandreth, humourist
*David Harsent, poet
*Lenny Henry, comedian
*Linda Colley, historian
*Scott Stroman, jazz trombonist
*Joanna David, actress
*Colm Toibin, writer
*Felicity Kendal, actress
*Joan Bakewell,TV presenter
*Simon Heffer, journalist
*Alexander Armstrong, actor and comedian
*Michele Hanson, journalist
*Professor Robin Wilson, mathematician
*Kiran Desai, novelist
*Barry Fantoni, cartoonist
*Tim Hely Hutchinson, publisher
*Peter Nichols, playwright
*Jeanette Winterson, novelist
*Sir John Enderby, physicist
*Joyce Carol Oates, novelist
*Peter Hennessy, historian
*William Crozier, artist
*Chris Higgins, academic
*Charlie Haden, bassist
*Claire Bloom, actress
*Derren Brown, magician
*Lenny Henry, comedian

References

External links

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/privatepassions/ "Private Passions" website]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/mainframe.shtml?http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radio3_promo.shtml BBC Radio player]