Interview

‘We need to start the road to rejoin’: Gina Miller on Brexit, farmers and her ambitious plans for Epsom

9 September 2023 9:00 am

Gina Miller on Brexit, farmers and her ambitious plans for Epsom

The return of the implausibly more-ish Borgen

28 May 2022 9:00 am

Borgen star Sidse Babett Knudsen talks to Jasper Rees about why, after a break of ten years, the implausibly more-ish series is returning for a fourth season

Keith Allen discusses Pinter, Max Bygraves and the sensitivities of contemporary audiences

26 March 2022 9:00 am

Lloyd Evans talks to Keith Allen about Max Bygraves, how he fell into acting and the sensitivities of contemporary audiences

Remembering David Storey, giant of postwar English culture

12 June 2021 9:00 am

Jasper Rees remembers David Storey, giant of postwar English culture and wry teller of tales, whose newly published memoir is perhaps his most remarkable work

I was Oprah Winfrey’s hero

20 March 2021 9:00 am

Gstaad Some of you may have noticed that I have not commented at all about the ongoing soap opera and…

Spiky, sticky, silly: interviewing Van Morrison

29 August 2020 9:00 am

Q: ‘How would you define transcendence?’ A: ‘Well, how would you define it?’ I interviewed Van Morrison last year. (I’m…

'Cocaine addiction is time-consuming': the rise and fall of Kevin Rowland and Dexys

8 August 2020 9:00 am

Michael Hann talks to Kevin Rowland about Dexys, insecurity and the cocaine years

Dion, one of the last living links to the earliest days of rock ’n’ roll

30 May 2020 9:00 am

He toured with Little Richard, sang with Van Morrison, inspired the Beatles and Paul Simon. Graeme Thomson talks to Dion, one of the last living links to the early days of street-corner rock ’n’ roll

All the world’s a stage: Luwam Teklizgi (Rita) and Toby Jones (Peter) in BBC2’s forthcoming Don’t Forget the Driver

Toby Jones on the allure of the everyman – and the glamour of coach-driving

16 March 2019 9:00 am

Toby Jones shuffles into the café in Clapham where we are meeting. He’s wearing a duffle coat and a hat…

Writers of some of the best-loved programmes in British television history: Ian La Frenais and Dick Clement

Dick Clement on Porridge, Kirk Douglas and having seven projects on the go

5 January 2019 9:00 am

Given their track record, you might think that Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais would be spared the struggles that…

True stories: Gary Kemp in 1971

Gary Kemp on pop, Pre-Raphaelites, politics and playing Pinter

15 December 2018 9:00 am

The first thing Gary Kemp bought when Spandau Ballet started making money was a chair. He’s very proud of that…

A major modernist hiding in plain sight: composer Ennio Morricone at 91

‘Darmstadt taught me how to compose’: Ennio Morricone interviewed

27 October 2018 9:00 am

Ennio Morricone’s staff wish it to be known that he does not write soundtracks. ‘Maestro Morricone writes “Film Music” NOT…

Reluctant sex object: Brett Anderson, lead singer of Suede, in 1993

Brett Anderson on fame, fear and being 50

29 September 2018 9:00 am

‘I always think they’re not lusting after me,’ Brett Anderson says of the middle-aged fans who still turn up to…

‘I’m unusually disaster-prone’

The man who’s spent 40 years trying (and failing) to become a pop star

8 September 2018 9:00 am

‘I could still be a pop star,’ says Lawrence, sitting on a footstool in his council flat, high up in…

Life is a cabaret: Barry Humphries and Meow Meow

Barry Humphries on Trump, transgender ‘rat-baggery’ and causing maximum offence

21 July 2018 9:00 am

‘I’m an amateur,’ Barry Humphries tells me. The Australian polymath uses the word in its older sense of ‘enthusiast’ rather…

Zora Neale Hurston was buried in an unmarked grave, having worked as a maid, lonely and largely forgotten

The story of the last living survivor of the Atlantic slave trade is a high adventure

16 June 2018 9:00 am

Zora Neale Hurston, the African-American novelist-ethnographer, was a luminary of the New Negro Movement, later renamed by American scholars the…

Roger Allam as John Christie in David Hare’s The Moderate Soprano

A champion actor and fully paid-up member of the human race: Roger Allam interviewed

26 May 2018 9:00 am

A most excellent fellow, Roger Allam. On the stage he brings dignity to all he does, in the noblest traditions…

Big hitter: Pete Waterman

Pete Waterman on hits, HS2 and gay clubbing

16 December 2017 9:00 am

One of the members of the government’s HS2 Growth Taskforce is remembering the first time he went to a gay…

Monkey business: Jane Goodall

An exceptional new film about Jane Goodall unearths a remarkable love story

2 December 2017 9:00 am

There are times when our national passion for cutting people down to size is a little tiring. I left Brett…

Prodigiously gifted but spiky: Nico Muhly

Composer Nico Muhly on drugs, cults and James MacMillan

25 November 2017 9:00 am

There’s a scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Marnie in which Tippi Hedren is emptying a safe while a cleaning lady silently…

Scabrous and sarcastic: singer-songwriter Randy Newman

His dark materials

5 August 2017 9:00 am

Randy Newman is already struggling to keep up with himself. His dazzling new album, Dark Matter, was written before the…

Scabrous and sarcastic: singer-songwriter Randy Newman

His dark materials

3 August 2017 1:00 pm

Randy Newman is already struggling to keep up with himself. His dazzling new album, Dark Matter, was written before the…

John Bishop interview: ‘My dream was to be Steven Gerrard, but he got there first’

28 June 2014 9:00 am

Stand-up comedian John Bishop tells Matthew Stadlen about the depression that triggered his career

The yes-no-maybe world of Harrison Birtwistle

31 May 2014 9:00 am

For better or worse, we live in the age of the talking composer. Some talk well, some badly, a few…

I always defended Michael Gove. Then I met him

15 March 2014 9:00 am

Michael Gove inspires irrational hatred among my fellow children’s authors. After interviewing him, I can finally see why