Charlie’s joined by fellow The Fast Show star, the comedian and actress Arabella Weir. She tells Charlie about classical music snobbery, going to an opera when she was 8 years old, becoming a ‘benchmark’ or a ‘ledge’, hanging out with Meryl Streep and more.

This episode of Charlie Higson and Friends featured a clip of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1, performed by Alexandra Dariescu and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, followed by Schubert’s Piano Sonata No.21, played by Llyr Williams. Both extracts are taken from albums released on Signum Records, and are available to buy at signumrecords.com. A little later we heard a bit of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.21, starring Yeol Eum Son and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. That’s available on Onyx records – find out more at onyxclassics.com

The Charlie Higson and Friends podcasts were originally broadcast as a series on Scala Radio in April 2021. Scala Radio is a classical music and entertainment station broadcasting across the UK on DAB digital radio, smart speaker, SKY TV channel 0216, the Scala Radio app and online at scalaradio.co.uk