Take a bow, Mr Berkeley
30 years of Private Passions
I’ve been enjoying today’s 30th-anniversary celebration of Private Passions, with clips from Michael Berkeley’s wonderful interview programme dotted through the Radio 3 day.
Great stories I don’t remember hearing first time round included how music by Bela Bartok captured David Hockney’s imagination during night-time drives around the roads of Los Angeles, and the incident in which Dudley Moore managed to make a fool of himself when meeting his hero Erroll Garner.
Berkeley’s is an amazing achievement. Since the programme began in April 1995 he’s sat down with hundreds of guests and never missed an edition.
For more background on both him and Private Passions, there’s this lovely interview that my Radio Times colleague Jane Hill has done with Berkeley in the latest issue of the magazine.
The comparison is always made between Desert Island Discs and Private Passions. It’s very interesting to read Berkeley’s answer as to how they differ.
https://www.radiotimes.com/audio/radio/michael-berkeley-private-passions-radio-3-interview/