This Cultural Life

George Saunders 28.05.2026 43λ

The Booker Prize winning American author George Saunders talks to John Wilson about his cultural influences. He made his name as a writer of satirical or absurdist short stories which often explore contemporary consumerist society, always underpinned with a strong sense of human compassion and empathy. In 2017, his first full length novel Lincoln In The Bardo - about Presidential grief amid a cacophony of spiritual voices - won the Booker Prize and became a global bestseller. His latest novel Vigil once again explores death and the afterlife. George Saunders teaches creative writing at Syracuse University, New York, and is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in American literature.Producer: Edwina Pitman

Felicity Lott 21.05.2026 41λ

The soprano Dame Felicity Lott talks to John Wilson about her distinguished career and cultural influences. One of Britain's best-loved sopranos, her breakthrough role was as a last minute stand-in for Pamina in The Magic Flute in 1975. Over the next four decades, she built an international career, performing at opera houses and concert halls around the world, singing works by composers including Richard Strauss, Schubert and Mozart. At home, she was seen frequently on television, sang regularly at the BBC Proms and was made a Dame in 1996. She was also the recipient of the Légion d’Honneur, France’s highest cultural award. Dame Felicity sadly died on 15 May 2026, shortly after this programme was first broadcast.Producer: Edwina PitmanMusic and archive used:Ruhe sanft from Zaide, W A Mozart, sung by Felicity Lott Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer, courtesy of Felicity Lott The Last Night of the Proms, 1996, Ah! que j'aime les militaires from La grande-duchesse de Gérolstein, J Offenbach, sung by Felicity Lott Overture to The Magic Flute, W A Mozart An Die Musik, F Schubert, piano: Graham Johnston, sung by Felicity Lott Licht und Liebe, F Schubert, piano: Graham Johnson, sung by Anthony Rolfe Johnson and Felicity Lott Vier letzte Lieder: Im Abendrot, R Strauss, sung by Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Closing scene from Capriccio, R Strauss Act 1 from Der Rosenkavalier, sung by Anne Sofie von Otter and Felicity Lott Act III from Der Rosenkavalier, sung by Anne Sofie von Otter, Barbara Bonney and Felicity Lott Vier letzte Lieder: Beim Schlafengehen, R Strauss, sung by Felicity Lott

Michael Frayn 14.05.2026 42λ

Over a seven-decade career, Michael Frayn has been acclaimed as a novelist, playwright, journalist, translator & memoirist. From his comedies – including the stage farce Noises Off, and a screenplay for Clockwise starring John Cleese, and the novels Headlong and Skios – to the complex political, historical and scientific themes of his stage plays Democracy and Copenhagen, he has been prolific in a diverse array of genres and subjects. He is also renowned for his stage adaptations of the works of Russian writers including Anton Chekhov. At 92, Michael Frayn advised on a recent revival of Copenhagen for the Hampstead Theatre. Producer: Edwina PitmanArchive used:Extract from To A Skylark, Percy Bysshe Shelley, read by Timothy West, BBC Radio 4, 27 April 1998 Extract from Spies, Michael Frayn, read by Martin Jarvis, BBC Radio 4, 29 April 2002 Clip from Wild Honey, Michael Frayn/Anton Chekov, BBC Radio 4, 20 January 1989 Extract from Scoop, Evelyn Waugh, read by Robert Hardy, BBC Radio 4, 3 April 1998 Clip from Noises Off, Peter Bogdanovich, 1992 Clip from Clockwise, Christopher Morahan, 1986 Clip from Copenhagen, Howard Davies, 2002

Lubaina Himid 07.05.2026 43λ

Turner Prize-winning Artist Lubaina Himid talks to John Wilson about her formative influences. She made her name in the mid-1980s as a pioneering member of the British black arts movement, organising exhibitions to champion the work of fellow women artists. Having trained as a theatre designer, her paintings and installation pieces often have a strong narrative aspect, telling stories of race, history and identity. In 2017, at the age of 63, she became the oldest artist to win the Turner Prize, as well as the first black woman to do so. The following year, she was made a CBE for services to art. In 2026, Lubaina Himid will represent Britain at the international arts festival, the Venice Biennale.Producer: Edwina Pitman

Robert Icke 30.04.2026 42λ

Theatre director and writer Robert Icke talks to John Wilson about his formative creative influences. Described by Variety magazine as ‘the great hope of British theatre’ and with his radical new versions of classic plays, Icke has built a reputation for revelatory productions. Born in Stockton on Tees in 1986, he made his name in 2015 with an epic new version of the Greek tragedy Oresteia, which he had adapted himself. It won several awards and, at 29, Icke became the youngest ever recipient of the Best Director award at the Olivier Awards. More acclaim followed for his 2017 production of Hamlet, starring Andrew Scott, his adaptation of the Arthur Schnitzler play The Doctor, and his new version of Oedipus which transferred to Broadway in 2025. His latest West End production is Romeo and Juliet, starring Sadie Sink of Stranger Things fame. Producer: Edwina Pitman

David Szalay 23.04.2026 43λ

Booker Prize-winning author David Szalay talks to John Wilson about his creative influences. His 2009 debut novel London and The South East, based on his experience of working in telesales, won the Betty Trask Award. The author of six books, his work often defies easy classification: his 2016 novel All That Man Is comprises nine standalone short stories which share the overarching theme of masculinity. His 2018 novel Turbulence follows 12 loosely-linked characters on a dozen flights around the world. In 2025 he won the Booker with Flesh, a rags to riches story told across several decades.Producer: Edwina PitmanArchive used: Extract from T S Eliot, Preludes 1, read by Jeremy Irons, BBC Radio 4, 25 December 2021 Extract from T S Eliot, The Waste Land, read by Jeremy Irons, BBC Radio 4, 2 January 2022 Clip from trailer of Downhill Racer, Michael Ritchie, 1969 Clip from trailer of Taxi Driver, Martin Scorsese, 1976 Extract from David Szalay, Flesh, read by David Szalay Clip from Barry Lyndon, Stanley Kubrick, 1975 Clip from 2025 Booker Prize ceremony

Danielle de Niese 16.04.2026 43λ

John Wilson talks to the Australian born opera singer Danielle de Niese. A soprano renowned for her vibrant stage presence, she made her professional operatic debut with the Los Angeles Opera at the age of 15 and, and four years later she became one of the youngest singers to perform at Metropolitan Opera in New York. Her international breakthrough came in 2005 at the Glyndebourne Festival, where her performance as Cleopatra in Handel’s Giulio Cesare established her as a major operatic star. Since then she has sung leading roles at opera houses around the world, specialising particularly in Baroque repertoire, and has recorded six studio albums of music by composers including Handel and Mozart. She is the recipient of the 2026 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera.Producer: Edwina Pitman

Don McCullin 09.04.2026 43λ

Award-winning photographer Sir Don McCullin talks to John Wilson about his cultural influences and formative experiences. He started out in the late 1950s documenting the working-class lives in the north London neighbourhood in which he had grown up. Employed by the Observer newspaper, and later the Sunday Times, McCullin photographs captured scenes of struggle, despair and violence. Travelling to the front lines of conflict zones in Cyprus, Beirut, Vietnam, Cambodia, Biafra, Northern Ireland and elsewhere, McCullin earned a hard-won reputation as one of the greatest war photographers of all time. In recent years he has focused his lens on the beauty of the natural world, particularly the landscape around his home in Somerset. His work is held in permanent collections around the world including the Tate, the National Portrait Gallery and the V&A. He was knighted in 2017 for services to photography. Producer: Edwina Pitman

Julian Barnes 19.02.2026 43λ

The novelist, essayist and critic Julian Barnes talks to John Wilson about his career and formative cultural influences. One of the most acclaimed and distinctive British writers of his generation, his early novels, including Metroland, A History Of The World In 10 and a Half Chapters, and Flaubert’s Parrot, established his reputation for blending fiction, factual biography and philosophical reflection. Julian Barnes won the Booker Prize in 2011 for The Sense Of An Ending, and the same year won the prestigious David Cohen Prize for Literature, awarded for a body of work. A famous Francophile, he was given the title of Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters, one of France’s highest cultural honours in 2004. He has said that his latest book, Departure(s) will be his final novel.Producer: Edwina Pitman

Imogen Cooper 12.02.2026 43λ

Dame Imogen Cooper is one of Britain’s most esteemed concert pianists. Having played since the age of five, she was mentored by the great Austrian born pianist Alfred Brendel before making her name internationally with interpretations of works by Schumann, Schubert and Mozart. She is renowned as a reflective, poetic sensitive performer in the concert hall and recording studio. She was made a CBE in 2007, became the first pianist to be awarded the Queen’s Medal for Music in 2020 and, the following year, became Dame Imogen. She recently announced that, at the end of the year long international tour, she would be retiring from live performance in early 2027.Producer: Edwina PitmanArchive used: Face The Music, BBC2, 12 November 1975 Schubert, Allegretto in C minor D915 played by Imogen Cooper at the Wigmore Hall on 18 January 2026

Jonathan Pryce 05.02.2026 43λ

Award-winning actor Sir Jonathan Pryce talks to John Wilson about his cultural influences and career. He made his name with the 1975 Trevor Griffiths play Comedians, his role as a stand-up comic winning him a Tony Award after it moved to Broadway. He won an Olivier Award for a landmark production of Hamlet in 1980, and another Tony for his role as The Engineer in Miss Saigon. His huge and diverse list of film credits include Terry Gilliam’s 1985 dystopian drama Brazil, the musical Evita alongside Madonna and, an Oscar nominated performance as Pope Francis in The Two Popes. And he’s been increasingly prolific in the age of television streaming with acclaim for his roles in Game Of Thrones, The Crown, Taboo, Slow Horses and Wolf Hall. He was knighted for services to drama in 2021.Producer: Edwina PitmanArchive used: Listen With Mother, BBC Home Service, 7 February, 1950 Is Your Honeymoon Really Necessary?, Whitehall Theatre, BBC1, 1940s Protests on Broadway, 6 April 1991 Comedians by Trevor Griffiths, 2nd House, BBC2, 15 March 1975 Jonathan Pryce in Hamlet, The Southbank Show, ITV, 1988 Brazil, Terry Gilliam, 1985

Katie Mitchell 29.01.2026 43λ

Theatre and opera director Katie Mitchell talks to John Wilson about her career and formative influences. She is renowned for her experimental storytelling on stage, her feminist perspective, and for contemporary reframing of classic plays, she has directed more than 100 productions over more than 30 years. She has worked at the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Opera House and the National Theatre, where - as associate director - she staged bold new versions of work by a wide range of writers including Aeschylus, Virginia Woolf, Chekhov and Sarah Kane. For many theatre goers, she is one of Britain’s most important and innovative living directors.Producer: Edwina Pitman

Annie Leibovitz 22.01.2026 43λ

American photographer Annie Leibovitz talks to John Wilson about her career and cultural influences. For over 50 years she has captured rock stars, actors and politicians in the pages of Rolling Stone magazine, Vanity Fair and in museums & galleries around the world. She is renowned for elaborately designed shoots, sometimes involving multiple celebrity sitters, and creating images that have a cinematic or painterly quality. Her best known photographs include John Lennon just hours before he was murdered, a naked and heavily pregnant Demi Moore – and Queen Elizabeth the second in the state rooms of Buckingham Palace.Producer: Edwina PitmanArchive used: The Rolling Stones at the LA Forum, 1975, BBC Radio 1 Report on the shooting of John Lennon: NBC News, 8 December 1980 Report on the Vigil for John Lennon in Central Park New York: WABC-TV, Channel 7 Eyewitness News, 14 December 1980 Annie Leibovitz photographs Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace: 2 clips from Monarchy: The Royal Family at Work: The State Visit; co-produced by BBC & RDF Media, 26 November 2007, BBC1

Guillermo del Toro 15.01.2026 43λ

Oscar-winning Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro talks to John Wilson about his cultural influences. From his 1992 debut Cronos to his recent big budget spectacular retelling of Frankenstein, del Toro’s 12 feature films mix fantasy, horror and Gothic romance to create modern fairy tales about innocence, brutality and redemption. His movies have won eight Academy Awards including three for Pan’s Labyrinth in 2006, and four Oscars for The Shape Of Water in 2017, plus seven BAFTAs and three Golden Globes.Producer: Edwina PitmanArchive used: Clip from Pan's Labyrinth, Guillermo del Toro, 2006 Clip from Frankenstein, Guillermo del Toro, 2025 Clip from Frankenstein, James Whale, 1931 Clip from I Confess, Alfred Hitchcock, 1953

Ricky Gervais 08.01.2026 43λ

Comedian and writer Ricky Gervais talks to John Wilson about his formative creative influences and inspirations. Ricky Gervais made his name as the co-creator and star of The Office, the mock documentary series which became a landmark in British television comedy, and was shown all round the world. Further success followed with the comedy drama series Extras, Life’s Too Short and Afterlife, and awards including two Emmys, four Golden Globes and seven BAFTAs. Ricky Gervais has written and performed numerous solo stand-up shows around the world, the latest of which, Mortality, was filmed for Netflix and has just earned him a tenth Golden Globe nomination.Gervais tells John Wilson about his early comic influences including Laurel and Hardy, Fawlty Towers and Derek and Clive, the foul-mouthed drunken alter egos created by comedy duo Peter Cook and Dudley Moore on three, largely improvised, spoken-word albums recorded in the 1970s. He also talks about his own approach to writing comedy and the huge inspiration that the 1984 mock rock documentary This Is Spinal Tap was on the creation of The Office.Producer: Edwina PitmanArchive used: Laurel and Hardy theme, Dance of the Cuckoos The Office, Series 1, Downsize, BBC2, 2001 Fawlty Towers, Series 1, A Touch of Class, BBC2, 1975 Golden Globes, opening monologue, 2020 This Is Spinal Tap, Rob Reiner, 1984

Jennifer Lawrence 13.11.2025 42λ

Jennifer Lawrence's breakthrough role in the 2010 drama Winter’s Bone secured her first Academy Award nomination when she was just 20, and she won the Best Actress category two years later for Silver Linings Playbook. Since then, she has become one of the most prolific, critically acclaimed and highest paid actors in Hollywood as the star of The Hunger Games series and three X-Men movies. Other leading roles include American Hustle, Joy and, most recently, the psychological drama Die My Love.Jennifer talks to John Wilson about her childhood on her parents' farm in Kentucky. After being scouted by a modelling agency, she left school as a teenager and moved to New York to start working as a model and actor. She recalls how the film Taxi Driver, starring a young Jodie Foster, made a big impression on her as an aspiring actress and how Jodie Foster later became a role model when she directed Jennifer on the set of The Beaver. She also counts Gena Rowlands' performance in A Woman Under The Influence, written and directed by John Cassavetes, as an important inspiration, as well as working with directors David O Russell and Lynne Ramsay. Producer: Edwina PitmanArchive and film clips used:Uncle Buck, John Hughes, 1989 No Hard Feelings, Gene Stupnitsky, 2023 Taxi Driver, Martin Scorsese, 1976 Winter's Bone, Debra Granik, 2010 The Hunger Games, Gary Ross, 2012 American Hustle, David O Russell, 2013 Veep, Armando Iannucci, 2012 A Woman Under The Influence, John Cassavetes, 1974 Die My Love, Lynne Ramsay, 2025

Rufus Wainwright 06.11.2025 43λ

Rufus Wainwright is a singer-songwriter and composer renowned for his distinctive voice and the theatricality of his performances. Born into a family of folk musicians, his mother was Kate McGarrigle and his father is the songwriter Loudon Wainwright III. Since his debut in 1998, his 11 studio albums have been characterised by their candid autobiographical themes, with songs about addiction, sexuality and fraught family dynamics. He has also worked as a classical composer, with his operas Prima Donna and Hadrian, and a choral piece called Dream Requiem. As a performer he has created musical tributes to Judy Garland, Shakespeare’s Sonnets, the songs of Kurt Weill, and most recently has staged symphonic versions of his much-loved Want albums.Rufus Wainwright tells John Wilson about his earliest musical experiences, singing with his mother and aunties in Montreal, Canada where he spent his early years. He chooses The Wizard Of Oz as one of his formative creative influences and explains why the film’s star, Judy Garland, became such an important musical role model for him. Rufus reveals how hearing Verdi’s Requiem at the age of 13 led to a lifelong love of opera and an aspiration to write classical compositions. He also recalls the impact that seeing La Dolce Vita, director Federico Fellini’s masterpiece about wealth and decadence in 1960s Rome, had on him as a teenager. Producer: Edwina Pitman

Mark Ronson 30.10.2025 42λ

Having spent his early years in London, Mark Ronson grew up in Manhattan, began working as a DJ as a teenager and quickly made a name for himself on the New York club scene of the 1990s. He moved into music production and, in 2006, co-wrote and co-produced the Amy Winehouse album Back To Black. The record won five Grammys and Mark Ronson himself scooped the Producer of the Year Award. Since then, he has released five solo albums and worked with some of the most successful names in pop including Lady Gaga, Dua Lipa, Queens Of The Stone Age and Paul McCartney. The winner of ten Grammys and two Brits, he added an Academy Award to his list of accolades in 2018 as co-writer of the song Shallow from the film A Star Is Born. He was also Oscar nominated for his work as executive producer, composer and songwriter for the soundtrack to the Barbie movie. More recently he has written a book called Night People, a memoir about his time as a DJ in 90s New York. Mark Ronson tells John Wilson about the influence of his music-loving parents, who often threw parties at their north London home when he was a child. He talks about the influence of his stepfather Mick Jones, songwriter, guitarist and producer of the 80s rock band Foreigner, who allowed Mark to experiment with equipment in his home studio in New York and encouraged his early interest in production. He remembers how hearing the 1992 track They Reminisce Over You by Pete Rock and CL Smooth led him to pursue a career as a club DJ and become renowned for the diverse range of music he played in clubs - from soul and hip-hop to classic rock - an eclectic approach which later informed his work as a producer. Mark Ronson also recalls first meeting Amy Winehouse and how they wrote and recorded the songs for her Back To Black album. Producer: Edwina Pitman

Rose Tremain 23.10.2025 43λ

Dame Rose Tremain is one of Britain’s most prolific and popular writers, having written 17 novels and five collections of short stories over the last 50 years. She was one of only six women on Granta magazine's inaugural 1982 list of the best young British novelists, alongside Martin Amis, Ian McEwan, Salman Rushdie and others. Her fifth novel Restoration was nominated for the Booker Prize in 1989, she won the Whitbread Prize for Music And Silence in 1999, and was awarded the 2008 Orange Prize - the precursor to the Women’s Prize for Fiction - for her novel The Road Home. Having already been made a CBE in 2007, she became Dame Rose Tremain in 2020 for services to writing. Her most recent work is a short story called The Toy Car.Rose Tremain tells John Wilson how her father, a largely unsuccessful playwright called Keith Thomson, inspired her childhood interest in storytelling, although he never encouraged her to write. She recalls how she first started writing fiction to help her cope with loneliness in a household where there was little parental affection. Rose recalls how it was a teacher at her boarding school who first recognised her ability and encouraged her to apply for an Oxbridge university place, only to be dissuaded by her mother, who sent her to a finishing school in France instead. She credits the novelist Angus Wilson, one of her English Literature tutors at the University Of East Anglia, for giving her the confidence to write her first novel. She also chooses The Diary Of Samuel Pepys as a major inspiration on her 1989 Booker-shortlisted novel Restoration, which was later turned into a Hollywood film starring Robert Downey Jnr. and Meg Ryan.Producer: Edwina Pitman

Thomas Adès 16.10.2025 43λ

One of the most revered and prolific British classical musicians, Thomas Adès made his name with his 1995 opera Powder Her Face, written when he was just 24 years old. His orchestral composition Asyla was nominated for the Mercury Prize for album of the year in 1999. Recordings of his opera The Tempest and, more recently, his score for the ballet The Dante Project have both won Grammy Awards. His ten symphonic works, three operas and numerous chamber pieces are performed all round the world. In 2024 Adès was presented with the Royal Philharmonic Society's prestigious Gold Medal, previous recipients of which include Stravinsky, Brahms and Elgar.Thomas Adès talks to John Wilson about the influence of his family, including his art historian mother who is an expert in surrealism. Through her he was introduced to the surrealist artists, the films of Luis Buñuel and met the painter Francis Bacon. His grandmother introduced him to the work of T.S. Eliot as read by Sir Alec Guinness on a cassette recording, and it was some of these poems that he was to eventually set to music for his first ever composition. Adès also recalls getting to the semi-finals of the BBC’s Young Musician of the Year in 1990, a watershed moment for him as it prompted him to pursue music as a composer rather than a pianist. He also cites going regularly to the English National Opera as a formative influence and talks about writing his own operas including Powder Her Face about the Duchess of Argyll, and The Exterminating Angel, based on the film by Luis Buñuel.Producer: Edwina Pitman