Break Out Culture With Ed Vaizey by Country and Town House

A major survey of 10,000 black Britons has been undertaken by the Black British Voices Project in collaboration with Cambridge University, The Voice, and management company i-Cubed.  Maggie Semple, co-founder of i-Cubed, led the research team and Nels Abbbey is a writer, broadcaster and former banker who founded the Black Writer’s Guild and wrote the book ‘Think Like a White Man’. The report on the survey, which covered multiple aspects of life in Britain including culture, was published at the beginning of October and makes dismal reading for anyone interested in the arts as it exposes an overall failure to engage with black audiences.   Tune into this important and enlightening discussion as Maggie and Nels analyse the report’s findings and identify what needs to change and how. The report can be found at www.bbvp.org

In this final edition, we’re talking to two of the Britain’s most passionate advocates for singing in a choir.  Ben England and Mark Strachan collaborated during the pandemic on the Self-Isolation Choir when thousands joined online from round the world to sing.  Both were awarded British Empire Medals as a result.  Today they tell us about Choir of the Earth, which grew out of the Self-Isolation Choir, and all the Christmas festive singing you can join in with. Looking ahead to next year, we hear about the 24-hour Handel’s Messiah in St. George’s Hanover Square and the 24-hour Mozart’s Requiem at St. Gabriel’s Church in Pimlico.  Anyone is welcome to drop in and sing for a small fee to raise money to help rebuild St. George’s crumbling portico and for the Pimlico Music Foundation which encourages children from all backgrounds to sing.  Mark and Ben have gathered a raft of exceptional musicians and conductors, including John Rutter and Laurence Cummings, to join them on these two marathon events. We also hear about Game Choir, set up my Mark to encourage gamers to sing and we’re treated to a snippet of Game Choir singing ‘Sweden’ from Minecraft, arranged by St. George’s brilliant organist Richard Gowers. This will raise money for Specialeffect to help people with physical disabilities continue to play video games.   Don’t fail to tune into this fascinating discussion about the cultural significance of gaming and the glories and benefits of singing and what Mark and Ben have planned to delight us all this Christmas. 

This week we’re at the new Maddox Gallery on Mayfair’s Berkeley Street, talking to the British-American artist Russell Young about his new exhibition ‘Dreamland’, in which he dissects   the American dream and the dark side of fame.  Also with us is the renowned art critic and broadcaster Maeve Doyle, Global Artistic Director of the Maddox Gallery Group.   Russell describes how he appropriates iconic images of famous movie and music stars, many from photographer Terry O’Neill’s archive, then transforms them, using Warholian silkscreen printing techniques and his secret ingredient – diamond dust.  Reimagined images include Brigitte Bardot, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Audrey Hepburn, Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles, Mick Jagger and Kate Moss.  Russell is known as the pre-eminent interpreter of images of American film and music history and in ‘Dreamland’ he’s looking at themes of seduction, desire, beauty and tragedy under the gloss and glitter of famous icons.   It's a fascinating discussion about how America has changed, Russell’s own life and influences (he was born in the north of England) and how the very fame people seek is often their downfall.   Russell Young: Dreamland at The Maddox Gallery, Berkeley Street till 7th February

This week we’re at Gainsborough's House in Sudbury, Suffolk. We’re always delighted to discover a true gem away from London and this most certainly is one. Housed in the home where the great 18th century portrait and landscape painter artist Thomas Gainsborough grew up, this is now Suffolk’s largest art gallery and a global study centre for Gainsborough’s work. The house has recently opened its new wing with three new superb and spacious exhibition spaces.  We’re talking to Rebecca Salter, the President of the Royal Academy (and the first ever woman to hold the role) about her exhibition of beautiful Japanese-inspired works on show there.   We’re also talking to Tim Clayton, the award-winning historian and broadcaster, who has curated a second exhibition on Gainsborough’s contemporary, James Gillray, ‘father of the political cartoon’. Tim is also Gillray’s biographer and has lots of fascinating insights into Gillray’s life and work. The historic house itself is beautifully restored to give an insight into how Gainsborough lived.    There’s a beautiful garden, complete with ancient mulberry tree (given Sudbury is the home of silk), a print workshop, a café and a very good shop.  Plus, there’s a top floor studio to the new wing with panoramic views over the garden and Sudbury. With this meticulously curated collection of Gillray’s prints and Rebecca’s beautiful,  meditative, calming paintings on show, it’s truly worth a visit. In View:  Rebecca Salter until 10th March James Gillray: Characters in Charicature until  10th March 

We talk to the young American archivist and writer who stumbled across hitherto unused material from Edward VIII’s personal archives and autobiographical notes, including his scribbled opinions about Wallis Simpson.   Jane Marguerite Tippett’s  new book about, ‘Once a King: The Lost Memoir of Edward VIII’ has been published to much acclaim, for being beautifully written, immaculately researched and for drawing timely parallels between the situations of Edward and Wallis and Harry and Meghan. She’s also ruffled the feathers of more established biographers of Edward VIII for being the first to recognise that pencil notes in the Charles Murphy Archives at Boston University and in the Royal Archives had not been mined before.  Coming across it changed the direction of the book she set out to write and she says the newly discovered material speaks for itself, presenting Edward VIII in a new light.  Listen in to find out how.

‘Women in Revolt!’ is an important and exciting new exhibition featuring work by over 100 feminist artists created between 1970 and 1990. Alongside work by well-known artists is work rarely seen before, by women who have been marginalised or left outside the artistic narrative. With us to tell us all about the exhibition are Linsey Young, Curator of British Contemporary Art at Tate Britain since 2016, and British artist and curator, Marlene Smith, a key figure in the British Black Arts movement.   We discover what drove Linsey to mount this exhibition and why it’s been arranged in chronological order, beginning with the first National Women’s Liberation Conference in Oxford and the Miss World Protests and ending during the Thatcher administration. This is a furiously vibrant, joyful, exciting and explosive exhibition that shows how women artists changed the face of British culture, paving the way for a new generation. Not to be missed! ‘Women in Revolt! Art and Activism in the UK 1970-1990’ at Tate Britain until April 2024

We’re at The Coach and Horses in Soho with actor Robert Bathurst, much loved for his roles as David Marsden in Cold Feet, and Mark Taylor in Joking Apart, and with theatre producer Trish Wadley.  Robert is reprising his title role in Keith Waterhouse’s Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell and tells us what fun it is to perform in the very venue where the late Jeffrey Bernard spent much of his later years propping up the bar. Trish Wadley has long championed immersive theatre, staging the Tennessee Williams hotel plays in three different rooms in a Holborn hotel before transferring them to the Langham Hilton.  She’s the first producer ever to stage a play inside London’s Natural History Museum and persuaded them to build a 350-seat venue for a play about Charles Darwin.  She also staged Insignificance, about an imaginary meeting between Marilyn Monroe and Albert Einstein in a Fifth Avenue hotel - in a Fifth Avenue hotel room.  Ever inventive, her company Trish Wadley Productions has just produced a lean, mean, fast and furious version of Othello with Iago’s complex and conniving character played by three actors on the stage at the same time. Trish and Robert enthuse about how liberating and interesting it is for audiences and performers alike to be outside the restrictions of conventional theatre.  And if Robert’s stories are anything to go by, playing Jeffrey Bernard in The Coach and Horses has its fair shares of excitements and hazards too. Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell plays at the Coach and Horses until 21st November http://www.defibrillatortheatre.com https://trishwadleyproductions.com

We’re talking to William Boyd, unquestionably one of our greatest living novelists. He’s also a screenwriter, television writer, playwright and director, who has won multiple accolades and awards along the way, including a BAFTA Television Award for Best Drama Serial of Any Human Heart.  Following The Romantic, his latest ‘whole life’ novel, a new book The Mirror and the Road comprises a series of in-depth conversations between William and the acclaimed interviewer Alistair Owen, which covers William’s entire career as a writer.  We talk to William about that life, in which he’s moved effortlessly between the solitary novelist’s study and Hollywood.  We ask him about his favourite writers and films, whether he prefers writing novels to screenplays and try to discover just how he’s produced such a prodigious output, including 22 works of fiction, 20 produced screenplays, three stage plays and five radio plays. For all fans of William Boyd, this is unmissable listening. The Mirror and the Road: Conversations with William Boyd, edited by Alistair Owen, is published by Penguin  

The prodigious, award-winning novelist talks to us candidly about her life as a novelist since she first published ‘After You’d Gone’ 23 years ago.  She tells us how she started writing, her inspiration for ‘Hamnet’ and her most recent published novel ‘The Marriage Portrait’.  She describes what it was like to watch ‘Hamnet’ at the RSC and The Garrick, where Lolita Chakrabarti’s adaptation of the novel is now playing and breaking the theatre’s box office records.  She also talks about how she’s been shaped by suffering from viral encephalitis as a child and her 17 near brushes with death recounted in her autobiography ‘I am, I am, I am’.  It’s a fascinating insight into the mind and working practices of one of our most popular novelists. Hamnet is running at The Garrick Theatre until 17th February 2004.

We talk with two renowned playwrights about their new plays – both on for a short run and neither of them to be missed.    Roger McGough, the much-loved author, Mersey poet and presenter of BBC Radio Four’s ‘Poetry Please’, has adapted Molière’s ‘The Hypochondriac’ for The Crucible in Sheffield. It’s already opened to rave reviews, with Edward Hogg starring as Argan. Jonathan Maitland, journalist and broadcaster turned playwright, has written ‘The Interview’, a play about Princess Diana’s interview with Martin Bashir, which opens on 27th October at The Park in London for a short run. Roger McGough tells us how he came to adapt Molière’s 17th century classic and transform it into a comic delight for contemporary audiences. He also looks back at his time with The Scaffold, his fellow Mersey Poets, Brian Patten and the late Adrian Henri (‘The Mersey Sound’ has sold over a million copies) and regales us with tales of working on the script of ‘Yellow Submarine’.   Jonathan Maitland, who shared an office with Martin Bashir at ITV for six years, tells us why now why is such a good time to examine Princess Diana’s legacy afresh and look again at our very polarised, if not frenzied, reactions to Martin Bashir and the way the now notorious interview, watched by over 23 million in the UK alone, came about.  ‘The Hypochondriac’ at The Crucible, Sheffield:  until 21st October ‘The Interview’ at The Park: 27th October till 5th November With thanks to Lomi for supporting us over the last six episodes.  You can advantage of their  offer to get £50 off a Lomi by going to uk.lomi.com and using promo code breakout at the checkout.

This week we’re talking to two artists inspired by the nature.    Emily Young, hailed as Britain’s greatest living female stone sculptor, specialises in using materials from abandoned quarries and Francis Hamel is known for his portraiture and landscape paintings.  Emily lives and works mostly in an isolated part of Tuscany, where she free carves in reclaimed uncut natural stone, often found in abandoned quarries. She evokes beautiful ancient figures from an unknown mythology.   Her main objective is to explore the relationship of humankind and the planet through her interaction with stone.  Her 25 new works in stone are being exhibited at Richard Green on Bond Street, in association with Willoughby Gerrish Ltd.    Francis has lived and worked for over 25 years at Rousham, one of England’s most prized historic house and gardens. He explains how the garden at Rousham became the starting point for his exhibition when he was seeing it afresh during lockdown.  From there he went on to paint some of Britain’s best-known gardens including Sissinghurst, Great Dixter, Sezincote, and Stourhead, as well as some private ones designed by renowned gardeners like Sarah Raven, Arthur Parkinson and Tom Stuart-Smith. His exhibition of garden paintings launches at his Oxfordshire home of Rousham before moving to John Martin on London’s Albemarle Street.   Together they talk about how they work, what inspires them and what they set out to achieve. It’s a fascinating conversation about the artistic process and highlights their similar and different approaches to stone and to paint. Emily Young: Pareidolia in Stone from 25th October to 10th November Richard Green https://www.richardgreen.com Francis Hamel: Thirty Gardens from 12th to 27th October John Martin https://www.jmlondon.com   This episode is brought to you with the kind support of support of Lomi, makers of ‘smart waste appliances’ that transform food waste into plant food.  Go to Lomi’s website at uk.lomi.com and use promo code breakout at the checkout for a £50 discount.

We talk to Sir John Leighton, Director-General of the National Galleries of Scotland, about Edinburgh’s superb new Scottish Galleries at the National, which will open on September 30th after £38.62 million worth of investment. The ten, light-filled rooms, offering majestic views over Edinburgh, will showcase 130 works of historic Scottish art by artists ranging from the Glasgow Boys, William McTaggart and Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Anne Redpath to lesser-known artists like Phoebe Anna Traquair.  Sir John describes how many of these major beautiful works of art have been given new life by being moved out of a dingy, uninspiring basement into these contemporary galleries. We have a fascinating conversation about what it means to be a Scottish artist and how the new hang will redefine Scottish art and underline the importance of Scottish painters’ contribution to British art overall. Today’s episode is brought to you thanks to our sponsor, Lomi, the compact, countertop ‘smart waste’ appliance that can process food waste into plant food.  Go to uk.lomi.com to receive a discount of £50 by entering the code breakout at the check-out. 

We talk to Sarah Sands, the journalist and former editor of The Evening Standard and BBC Radio Four’s Today programme. She’s just released her new book ‘The Hedgehog Diaries, A Story of Faith Hope and Bristle’.   The humble hedgehog turns out to be a symbol of the doughty survivor in politics and in battle – particularly in Ukraine’s war with Russia.  It’s also the symbol of NATO.  Not just that, but numerous famous people from Rory Stewart to Samuel Beckett, have understood the significance and spiritual appeal of the hedgehog as an intriguing, Tolkein-like, mystical little figure.  The hedgehog gave Sarah great emotional comfort as she faced the death of her father and then afterwards her beloved brother, the cabaret artist Kit Hesketh-Harvey and her ex-husband Julian Sands, who died on a remote mountainside. This is a charming book, full of wisdom, anecdotes and stories about this ancient, small but surprising creature which has inspired Sarah to take on a conservation project her brother Kit started before he died.   Today’s episode is brought to you thanks to our sponsor, Lomi, the compact, countertop ‘smart waste’ appliance that can process food waste into plant food.  Go to uk.lomi.com to receive a discount of £50 by entering the code breakout at the check-out. 

As he steps down after serving two full terms as Chair of the V&A, Nicholas Coleridge looks back on ten years of prodigious expansion under his watch and looks ahead to tell us all about the hugely anticipated Chanel show which opens on 16th September.  He recounts how V&A Dundee is bringing new life to the city and explains how the transformation of the former Museum of Childhood into Young V&A has given thousands of young people and children an exciting new destination in East London.  We hear about securing David Bowie’s priceless archive, what to expect from V&A East and the vast reserve collection that will be on display to all in the stunning new V&A Storehouse.   This is Nicholas at his most knowledgeable and amusing as he regales us not just with a fascinating outline of the V&A’s glittering success but also with a delightful sprinkling of personal anecdotes and  stories.

On our last podcast of the summer, we’re talking to Pippa Shirley, Director of Waddeson Manor and to Lorraine Lecourtois, Head of Public Exhibitions at Wakehurst, about two of Britain’s most beautiful outdoor spaces, both showcasing some wonderful art.  Waddesdon Manor is the Renaissance-style chateau built in Buckinghamshire by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild in 1874, with extensive Victorian-style gardens, a parterre and a Rococo-style aviary and woodland. The two major artists exhibiting there are the British artist Catherine Goodman, who also co-founded the Royal Drawing School with King Charles III, and the celebrated Portuguese artist, Joanna Vasconcelos.   Joanna has installed a 12-metre-high sculptural pavilion called ‘Wedding Cake’ next to the 19th century dairy, clad entirely in colourful ceramic tiles.  Joanna describes this beautiful architectural folly and sculpture, her most ambitious commission to date, as ‘a temple to love’. It’s fully immersive and you can walk around it – and even get married in it.  Meanwhile, Catherine Goodman is showing her paintings inspired by the beautiful olive trees in the Rothschild estate in Corfu and by Ovid’s ‘Metmorphoses’. The wild botanic garden of Wakehurst, which is part of Kew, has over 500 acres in Sussex of diverse landscape and is home to the Millennium Seed Bank.  There’s the epic ‘Planet Wakehurst’, the UK’s largest art installation, by Catherine Nelson and a new exhibition ‘Rooted’, showing Chila Kumari Burman’s largest neon work to date (ten metres high) and works by Joseph Hillier, Little Lost Robot and Geraldine Pilgrim. There’s also an audio work from Hidden Orchestra and Tim Southern that promises to bathe people in calming sounds.  We’ll be back in September. Have a great summer.

 ‘Dear Earth’ is the show at the Hayward Gallery on London’s south Bank that represents a coming together of 15 global artists who are responding to the crisis our planet is facing.   We talk to Rachel Thomas, the chief curator and two of the artists exhibiting there, Ackroyd & Harvey.  Ackroyd & Harvey have contributed a series of portraits of environmental activists made from seedling grass. Rachel tells us about the other exhibits there, including the moving and enchanting film ‘The Future: Sixes and Sevens’ by Cornelia Parker, depicting small children talking about their fears and hopes.  Other works include photographs and film of the devastated Kichwa Territory in Peru by Richard Mosse, John Gerrard’s ‘Surrender’, a digital installation of a flag which heralds visitors into the show, Jenny Kendler’s large scale sculpture of birds’ eyes – many of the birds are in danger of extinction or already extinct -  and the five-metre-high ‘Living Pyramid’ at the show’s heart by 93-year-old Agnes Denes. We also hear about the Hayward’s beautiful roof garden created by Grounded Ecotherapy, set up to help recovering addicts, alcoholics and people with mental health problems.  The garden was commissioned 11 years ago and now contains 250 species of wild indigenous plant – more than any other roof terrace in the world.  It's a devastating but beautiful exhibition, conceived to convey hope, start conversations and explore solutions via the artists’ lens.

We’re chatting about the Royal Shakespeare Company’s summer programme with Erica Whyman, who was Acting Artistic Director of the RSC till June, the director of the smash hit play ‘Hamnet’ and the Lead Judge of the specially commissioned 37 plays.  We also talk to Tanya Katyal, playing Rani, in the new production at the Swan of Tanika Gupta’s ‘The Empress’.   We also hear about the new production of ‘As You Like It’ starring Geraldine James as Rosalind along with a cast of older actors – mostly over 70.  Erica also tells us about working with Lolita Chakrabarti to adapt Maggie O’Farrell’s novel ‘Hamnet’, which transfers to the Garrick Theatre in the West End in the autumn. The RSC has celebrated 400 years since the publication of Shakespeare’s First Folio by commissioning 37 new plays from all over the UK.  The competition was open to all and Erica, as the Lead Judge, tells us about the winning entries – some came from writers as young as six. We also hear about the RSC’s valuable work with schools across the UK.

We pick out the best of the summer’s festivals, including Byline  Festival, Charleston’s Festival of the Garden, Cheltenham Music Festival, Henley Festival and The Idler Festival. Jo Bausor, who’s been at the helm of Henley Festival for over a decade, tells us about the impressive line-up at Britain’s only boutique black tie festival. Acts performing include Boney M, Nile Rodgers & Chic, Rag n’Bone Man and Westlife.  There’s a fabulous line-up of comedians too, like Jo Brand, Marcus Brigstocke, Jack Dee and Adam Kay.  Expect floating stages, fine riverside dining and fireworks and much more besides. Political journalist, Otto English, tells us about the Byline Festival in collaboration with Dartington Trust. Taking place at Dartington Hall in Devon, the festival aims to change the world with its big, challenging ideas and is guaranteed to spark controversy and robust debate.   Speakers include Lord Victor Adebowale, Dawn Butler MP, Bonnie Greer, Rosie Holt, George Monbiot and Peter Oborne. Finally, Harry Hoblyn, head gardener gives us the lowdown on the Festival of the Garden at Charleston, rural retreat of the Bloomsbury set and famously home to Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell.  Celebrating communities who care about plants and the land, the festival will include butterfly walks and garden tours.  Speakers include Isabel Bannerman, Edmund de Waal, Jake Fiennes and the Antiguan-American novelist, Jamaica Kincaid. Byline Festival, 14th to 16th July, Dartington Hall, Totnes, Devon Charleston Festival of the Garden, 13th to 16th July, Charleston, East Sussex Cheltenham Music Festival:  8th to 15th July, around Cheltenham Henley Festival:  5th to 9th July, around Henley The Idler Festival : 7th to 9th July, Fenton House, Hampstead, London

We’re talking about the first ever stage adaptation of Ken Loach’s and Paul Laverty’s multi-award winning 2016  film  I, Daniel Blake. The production, which is touring the UK, opened at Northern Stage Newcastle to rave critical reviews and passionate audience reactions.   Dave Johns, who adapted it for the stage, played Daniel in the original film, winning Best Actor at the British Independent Awards and Best Newcomer at the Empire Awards for his performance. Davey Nellist, who plays Daniel in this new stage version, is best known for his roles as Mike Stamford in Sherlock with Benedict Cumberbatch and more recently in the TV series Stonehouse with Matthew McFadden.   Dave and Davey tell us how the play is deliberately being hailed as non-fiction and a very real story about poverty and homelessness in Newcastle today.  The city had one foodbank in 2016 but now has seven. Dave also tells us how he landed the part in the movie, having been a comedian and formerly a bricklayer. I, Daniel Blake tours  till mid-November to Birmingham, Manchester, Exeter, Liverpool, Durham, Leeds, Oxford, Edinburgh, Stratford, Northampton, Coventry and Guildford, before returning to Northern Stage in September. For dates and full details see here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

We’re talking to Louise Minchin, Chair of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, and one of her five co-judges, the Nigerian-born, award-winning novelist Irenosen Okojie MBE. Louise is an endurance triathlete and the well-known journalist, who presented BBC Breakfast for 20 years and was one of BBC News 24’s main anchors.  Now in its 28th year and started by Kate Mosse OBE, the prize aims to encourage and award the finest women writers around the world. Louise and Irenosen talk us through the six finalists who stand to win the coveted prize of £30,000.   Their enthusiasm for the shortlisted books makes this a fun, lively and highly enjoyable listen.   The shortlisted books are: ‘Fire Rush’ by Jacqueline Crooks, a state-of-the nation portrait of black womanhood ‘Trespasses’ by Louise Kennedy, set during the Belfast Troubles ‘Demond Copperhead’ by Barbara Kingsolver, David Copperfield reimagined for today  ‘Black Butterflies’ by Priscilla Morris Priscilla Morris, set against the siege of Sarajevo ‘Hamnet’ by Maggie O’Farrell, the story of Shakespeare’s son  ‘Pod’ by Laline Paull, about a dolphin saving her pod The winner will be announced on Wednesday 14th June Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram