Podcast · Music

Private Passions

by BBC Radio 3 · English · Music

Guests from all walks of life discuss their musical passions and talk about the influence music has had on their lives.

New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 53 min
Latest: 12 Oct 2026
Language: English

Latest episode

12 Oct 2026 · 46 minNew

Courtney Pine, saxophonist

As part of the BBC's collaboration with The Music is Black, the V&A East Museum exhibition celebrating Black British music and musicians, Michael Berkeley talks to the saxophonist and composer Courtney Pine, whose work is recognised at the exhibition. Courtney Pine released his first album 40 years ago, and it became the first British jazz album to enter the UK Top 40, competing at the time with the likes of Madonna, Paul Simon and the Pet Shop Boys. In the decades since, he has become one of the most influential figures in British jazz. As a performer, his musical passions are wide-ranging,…

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Earlier episodes 29 most recent

4 Oct 2026 · 52 min
Francis Fukuyama, political scientist
The American political scientist Francis Fukuyama loves big ideas, and his 1992 book The End of History and the Last Man was an international best-seller. It argued that – after the collapse of the Soviet Union - Western liberal democracy was the best system of governance. It wasn’t perfect and hadn’t achieved everything, but it was the most humanly satisfying model. He also stated that “the end of history will be a very sad time” – predicting that safe, prosperous "last men" would grow bored and restless. Eventually this would fuel a rage against the establishment that would invite…
27 Sep 2026 · 54 min
Louisa Young, writer
Family is at the heart of the work of the writer Louisa Young. Her first book was about her grandmother, Kathleen, a sculptor who was also the widow of the Antarctic explorer Captain Scott. She’s written five books for younger readers with her daughter Isabel, under the pen-name Zizou Corder, including the best-selling Lionboy trilogy. She’s also written an acclaimed memoir, You Left Early: A True Story of Love and Alcohol, about her relationship with the composer Robert Lockhart. And her most recent book, The Golden Hours, continues much-loved The Cazalet Chronicles, the sequence of novels…
20 Sep 2026 · 51 min
Sylvester McCoy, actor
The actor Sylvester McCoy was a familiar face to millions of TV viewers when he played the Seventh Doctor in Doctor Who in the 1980s. On the big screen, he has played the eccentric wizard Radagast the Brown in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy, and on stage, he has played the Fool opposite Ian McKellen’s King Lear for the Royal Shakespeare Company. His route into acting was unconventional. He spent his teenage years preparing for the priesthood, then later honed his physical comedy skills in Ken Campbell's maverick Roadshow. His music choices include tracks by Stravinsky, Satie, Beethoven, and…
13 Sep 2026 · 58 min
Lyse Doucet, journalist
When Lyse Doucet was a child growing up in a small town in eastern Canada, she borrowed a library book called How to Become a Journalist. It clearly made an impact. She is now the BBC’s chief international correspondent and has reported from some of the world’s most challenging countries, including Afghanistan and Iran, for more than 40 years. This year she won the Women’s Prize for non-fiction for her first book, The Finest Hotel in Kabul: A People's History of Afghanistan, in which she explores the country’s recent history through the story of Kabul’s landmark Inter-Continental Hotel.…
12 Jul 2026 · 53 min
Carlos Acosta, dancer
In the world of dance, Carlos Acosta is a superstar. He grew up in a poor part of Havana, where he was the 11th child in his family, and began his training at the National Ballet School of Cuba. At the age of just 18, he became the youngest principal dancer at the English National Ballet. After gaining further international experience, he joined the Royal Ballet in 1998 and made it his home for nearly two decades, dancing almost every major classical role. He’s now Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet, where he’s fostered some unexpected collaborations, including a ballet danced to the music…
5 Jul 2026 · 54 min
Leslie Cavendish, former Beatles hairdresser
Leslie Cavendish left school at the age of 15 years, without any artistic qualifications, and decided to become a hairdresser. Within three years, his clients included Terence Stamp, Keith Moon, the Bee Gees, Jane Asher – and the Beatles. He began by cutting Paul McCartney’s hair - and soon became part of the band’s inner circle. He attended Beatles recording sessions and joined them on their Magical Mystery Tour. They even invited him to open a salon at their Apple Tailoring boutique on the Kings Road in Chelsea. Leslie's music includes Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn and Beethoven.
28 Jun 2026 · 53 min
John Nichol, writer, former RAF Navigator
Thirty-five years ago, during the Gulf War, the face of the RAF navigator John Nichol appeared on news bulletins around the world. His Tornado jet had been shot down over Iraq, and he was captured, tortured and paraded on Iraqi television. Together with the pilot John Peters, he wrote about these experiences in their best-selling book Tornado Down. Since then, he's written many more books about military history, on topics ranging from the Spitfire to the Unknown Warrior. His most recent book, Blitz, focuses on the effects of German bombing, not just on London, but in Glasgow, Cardiff,…
21 Jun 2026 · 54 min
Ruth Ozeki, writer
Ruth Ozeki won the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2022 with her novel The Book of Form and Emptiness. The judges called it a ’complete joy to read.’ She’s also a film-maker and a Zen Buddhist priest, and her books draw on her Japanese-American heritage. They also convey her deep concern for our environment, taking on topics such as industrial agriculture, ocean pollution and mass consumerism. Her most recent book, The Typing Lady and Other Fictions, is her first collection of short stories – and the Typing Lady of the title has more than a little in common with Ruth herself. Ruth Ozeki's music…
14 Jun 2026 · 58 min
Jeremy Vine, broadcaster
Jeremy Vine is one of the most familiar voices and faces in British broadcasting. He's presented his Radio 2 lunchtime show since 2003, and its mixture of music and news reaches 6 million listeners every week. Their personal stories and opinions are a vital part of the programme. Jeremy also presents a weekday show on Channel 5, and since joining the BBC almost 40 years ago, he's been our correspondent in Africa and appeared on everything from Newsnight to Strictly Come Dancing. He also writes crime fiction, drawing on his work behind the microphone. His books Murder on Line One and most…
7 Jun 2026 · 54 min
Sofka Zinovieff, writer
Like many writers, Sofka Zinovieff draws on her own history in her books – and her family tree offers plenty of inspiration. Her paternal grandmother was born into Russian high society, fled to England after the 1917 revolution and became a Communist. Sofka wrote her biography. Her maternal grandmother married the eccentric aristocrat Robert Heber-Percy, and for a time shared a house with his lover, the artist and composer Lord Berners. Sofka has also charted her story. Her father Peter was a composer and co-founder of Britain's first synthesiser manufacturer, making instruments used by the…
31 May 2026 · 55 min
Simon Barnes, journalist
The writer Simon Barnes has two very public passions - sport and the natural world. He wrote about both for The Times for 30 years, covering seven Olympic Games and six World Cup finals, while also delivering columns on short-eared owls, mountain hares and “the organ-pipe contact call of lions." His books include reflections on the meaning and the soul of sport, and numerous titles about birds, including the best-selling How to Be a Bad Birdwatcher, in which he says: ‘Birdwatching is a state of being, not an activity. It is not a matter of organic trainspotting. It is about life and it is…
24 May 2026 · 54 min
Margaret Busby, publisher and editor
Margaret Busby is a publisher and editor who's helped change our literary landscape. She's been lauded by the writer Zadie Smith as the cheerleader, instigator, organiser, defender and celebrator of black arts, something she's done for nearly 60 years. She started young - she was just 23 years old when she co-founded the publishers Allison and Busby with Clive Allison in 1967. Free from the usual industry rules and with little money or experience, they began with five shilling poetry paperbacks and went on to champion new work as well as established writers from all backgrounds. Margaret's…
17 May 2026 · 56 min
Michael Wood, historian
The historian Michael Wood has shared his enthusiasms and expertise with television viewers and readers around the world for almost five decades. He’s brought us complex individuals such as Alexander the Great, pivotal conflicts such as the Trojan War, and national histories, including the Story of India, the Story of China and a people’s history of Britain. And here on Radio 3, he’s one of the distinguished historians joining Gillian Moore for Key Changes, a year-long series charting one thousand years of musical history, on air on Saturdays and on BBC Sounds. Michael's musical choices…
3 May 2026 · 54 min
James Aldred, cameraman and writer
James Aldred is an Emmy award-winning documentary wildlife cameraman and filmmaker who has collaborated with David Attenborough on projects such Planet Earth, The Life of Mammals and Our Planet. He often finds himself suspended from ropes or on platforms high up in the rainforest canopy, capturing shots of rarely-seen animals and birds, including orangutans, gibbons and eagles. He recalled some of his treetop adventures - and the many dangers he’s faced - in his first book, The Man Who Climbs Trees. His second, Goshawk Summer, detailed his experience of filming a family of goshawks in the…
26 Apr 2026 · 52 min
Professor Dame Ijeoma Uchegbu, chemist
Professor Dame Ijeoma Uchegbu has dedicated her career to studying nanoparticles, finding ways to carry medicines to parts of the body that are notoriously hard to reach, such as the back of the eye and the brain, while causing fewer side-effects. She’s Professor of Pharmaceutical Nanoscience at University College London, President of Wolfson College Cambridge and was appointed a DBE in the King’s New Years Honours List last year. She’s also written a book called Chain Reaction: the Wondrous Chemistry of Everyday Life, in which she blends explanations of the science that surrounds us with…
19 Apr 2026 · 51 min
Dietmar Mueller-Elmau, entrepreneur
Dietmar Mueller-Elmau is the owner of Schloss Elmau, a resort hotel in the Bavarian Alps, 60 miles from Munich. It was set up in 1916 by his grandfather, the philosopher and writer Johannes Müller. He wanted people to take “a holiday from the ego” and to enjoy classical concerts. Over the decades, it hosted performances by the likes of Benjamin Britten, Yehudi Menuhin and Alfred Brendel. Dietmar continues that tradition, with musicians such as Yuja Wang and the Kanneh-Masons, along with jazz concerts, events with writers and philosophers, and the G7 leaders conference – twice. Dietmar's…
12 Apr 2026 · 53 min
Rachel Eliza Griffiths, poet and novelist
The American writer Rachel Eliza Griffiths creates poetry that resonates with music: she writes about her mother cleaning the house while ‘Pavarotti trembled across the terse sunlight of every room.’ As well as poetry, she’s written a novel, and her most recent book is a memoir called The Flower Bearers. It deals with loss, including the sudden death of her closest friend. She received the news on what should have been the happiest of days – her marriage to the writer Salman Rushdie. And less than a year later, she found herself beside his hospital bed after the knife attack which nearly…
5 Apr 2026 · 53 min
Francis Spufford, writer
Francis Spufford is an award-winning writer who loves to inhabit different worlds and vividly bring them to life: Golden Hill, which won the Costa First Novel Award, takes place in Manhattan in 1746, Light Perpetual begins in a Woolworths in South London in 1944 and Francis’s latest novel ‘Nonesuch’ is a historical fantasy set during the Blitz. But it wasn’t until he was 52 that Francis felt confident enough to write works of fiction, before that his books covered a wide variety of topics from polar expeditions to the economic optimism of post-Stalin Russia to an exploration of the role…
22 Mar 2026 · 52 min
Sir Ian Blatchford, Science Museum director
Sir Ian Blatchford has been the Director of the Science Museum in London for more than 15 years – the longest serving director in its history. He also oversees the National Railway Museum in York, the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford, the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester, Locomotion in County Durham, and the Science and Innovation Park in Wiltshire - all enjoyed by more than four million visitors last year. He was the first in his family to go to university and his early career was in banking, but his passion was for culture. He combined the two as Finance Director at…
15 Mar 2026 · 51 min
George Saunders, writer
The American writer George Saunders won the 2017 Booker Prize with his first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo. It’s a moving exploration of the grief of President Lincoln as he mourns his 11-year-old son Willie – and it’s voiced by the weird and wonderful spirits trapped in the cemetery. George was 58 when the novel was published. In the decades before that, he won renown and awards as a master of the short story. He’s also won legions of followers for his close analysis of the form. Most recently he’s published a second novel, Vigil, in which spirits return – this time to the deathbed of an oil…
8 Mar 2026 · 51 min
Penny Woolcock, film director
The writer and film-maker Penny Woolcock can’t be pigeonholed: she’s worked as a director at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and made a film about warring drug gangs on the streets of Birmingham. A passion for storytelling has driven her career, along with a rebellious streak, perhaps because she’s something of an outsider and never went to university or film school. She often uses non-professional actors in her work, including a staging of Bach’s St Matthew Passion with people who had experienced homelessness. And after completing her movie about rival gangs in Birmingham, she found…
1 Mar 2026 · 55 min
Peter Hamlyn, neurosurgeon
Peter Hamlyn is the founder and president of the Brain and Spine Foundation, after working as a neurosurgeon for 40 years. He is perhaps best-known for saving the life of the boxer Michael Watson, who suffered a severe brain injury during a title fight in 1991 and was in a coma for 40 days. Peter performed seven brain operations and became a pioneer in the field of sports medicine, campaigning for better care for athletes. He is now fascinated by how Artificial Intelligence might transform the diagnosis and care of neurological patients. Peter's music includes Hildegard of Bingen, Berlioz,…
22 Feb 2026 · 50 min
Asif Khan, architect
Asif Khan is a world-renowned architect and designer whose work inspired a recent headline – ‘is there anything Asif Khan can’t transform?’. His current projects include the re-invention of the former Smithfield meat market into the new London Museum, working with Stanton Williams and Julian Harrap Architects, and the extensive renewal of the Barbican Centre. Further afield, in Kazakhstan, he’s turned a vast former Soviet cinema into a new cultural centre. He opened his own studio in 2007, and has designed exhibitions, temporary pavilions and installations around the world. He views…
15 Feb 2026 · 56 min
Philippa Gregory
Philippa Gregory has been called the ‘Queen of Historical Fiction’. The English royal court has inspired many of her best-selling titles, and she’s written sixteen novels about the Plantagenets and Tudors. One of them – The Other Boleyn Girl – became a BBC TV drama and a Hollywood movie starring Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman. This success probably surprised her A level teachers: she says she found history ‘insanely boring’ at school, but her passion was fired at university. She’s also written non-fiction, notably seeking the stories of what she calls ‘normal women’ over 900 years.…
8 Feb 2026 · 48 min
Richard Stokes
Richard Stokes has been passionate about song since he was a teenager – although, as he readily admits, he’s not a great singer. Instead, he’s become one of the world’s leading authorities on German art songs – or lieder – and has also co-written books on English, French and Spanish songs. His work as a translator includes the complete Bach cantatas and the complete songs of Hugo Wolf, as well as operas by Wagner and Berg. He also collaborated with the pianist Alfred Brendel on translations of his poetry. Since 2006 he’s coached young singers at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where…
1 Feb 2026 · 55 min
Sandra Knapp
The botanist Dr Sandra Knapp is a senior researcher at the Natural History Museum - but that title doesn’t convey the sheer adventure of her work. She’s a kind of Indiana Jones of the plant world, travelling to remote regions of Central and Southern America and beyond. Her speciality is the Solanum genus, which includes potatoes, tomatoes and aubergines – and she has found and named more than a hundred new varieties. The rainforests, where she has worked for more than 40 years, are a long way from the dry rural deserts of New Mexico, where she was born. Her music choices include works by…
25 Jan 2026 · 54 min
Paul Chahidi
Paul Chahidi is an actor whose versatility shines through in prize-winning performances from Shakespeare to satire. He delighted West End and Broadway audiences as Maria in Twelfth Night and won acclaim from filmgoers as the hapless Nikolai Bulganin in The Death of Stalin. On TV, he’s played a well-meaning vicar in the BAFTA-winning This Country, an archangel in Good Omens, and he’s currently a spook in the BBC thriller The Night Manager. Such shape-shifting came early: Paul was born Ghiv Khatib-Chahidi in Iran before moving as a child to the Oxford countryside. He studied Arabic and Persian…
18 Jan 2026 · 48 min
Peter Purves
Michael Berkeley's guest is actor and TV presenter Peter Purves. Purves has been involved in two of TV’s longest-running and best-loved institutions - he was one of the earliest companions to travel in the TARDIS with Doctor Who (1965-66), and for ten and a half years from 1967 to 1978, alongside John Noakes, Valerie Singleton and Leslie Judd, he presented Blue Peter – entertaining the nation’s children with demonstrations in everything from competitive swimming to scaling the Fourth Road Bridge. A dog lover, he has also presented TV coverage of dog show Crufts for many years. Purves's…
11 Jan 2026 · 51 min
Vanessa Williams
Vanessa Williams is musical theatre royalty. She’s worked with Stephen Sondheim on Broadway and is currently commanding the London stage as the fearsome fashion editor Miranda Priestly in the musical The Devil Wears Prada. She’s also topped the American pop charts, starred in Hollywood movies with the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, and played key roles in prize winning TV series including Ugly Betty. And before all that she was crowned Miss America 1984 - the first Black American to take the title – although she was later forced to relinquish it in controversial circumstances. Her choices…

About Private Passions

Guests from all walks of life discuss their musical passions and talk about the influence music has had on their lives.

Private Passions is a English music podcast from BBC Radio 3. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.

Publisher: BBC Radio 3
Language: English
Category: Music
New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 53 min
Latest episode: 12 Oct 2026
Feed: RSS — paste into any podcast app
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id653514061
Rights: (C) BBC 2026

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