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Telegraph
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Clive Myrie: ‘There were few Black people when I joined the BBC, but I never doubted myself'
How do famous names spend their precious downtime? In our weekly My Saturday column, celebrities reveal their weekend virtues and vices. This week: Clive Myrie 6.30am I wake up on Saturday the same time I wake up on most other days. I'll get the main headlines and the sport from the Today programme but, with the state of the world at the moment, my wife Catherine isn't into listening to doom, so we flick over to Radio 3. Then I look at the headlines on my phone, but it could well be that I know more about the main story of the day than what I'm reading anyway. I'm an old bloke, so it's very much legacy media. I'm not looking for news on X or Instagram because I worry I might be reading anything. 8am I'm not one of these people who springs out of bed. I need time to adjust to my new state of being, as it were. Then, as it's the weekend, I go out and buy a hard-copy newspaper. 8.30am Breakfast is cereal for me and maybe croissants for Catherine. Then I start catching up on my emails and correspondence. It takes three hours or so. Seriously. But Saturday is the only time I have to respond to these. It has become a bit of a routine. 12pm I head out to the shops again. If we're not planning to go out for dinner that evening then I will buy ingredients for cooking. Plus, flowers for the house and some wine – usually white, like a Picpoul, a Sancerre or a Vouvray. Catherine tells me what food to buy, so I'm just the grocery guy. She is good at cooking stews or a nice flaky, white fish. In summer, maybe a halloumi salad. But I might buy something rogue too: something suitably Seventies, like a sherry trifle. I also visit a couple of vinyl-record stores. I listen to tons of music through Spotify but if I buy music, it's got to be vinyl. And the focus is always on jazz. I like classic hard bop and stuff from the Blue Note label. And more modern stuff like Ezra Collective, Steve Williamson, Omar [Lye-Fook], Tomorrow's Warriors and Nubya Garcia. 1pm Catherine and I will often go to an art exhibition and have lunch at the gallery. We like modernist art and post-War, mainly painting. At the beginning of the year I make a list of exhibitions I want to see, but I often end up missing them because I'm working in some godforsaken hell-hole somewhere. The last exhibition we saw was Tirzah Garwood, the wife of Eric Ravilious, at Dulwich Picture Gallery. There's also a great exhibition I want to see at October Gallery [in Bloomsbury] of a Guyanese artist called Aubrey Williams. We're lucky to own a few bits and pieces of his. 4pm During the afternoon I listen to Gilles Peterson's radio show on BBC Radio 6 Music. He plays jazz, soul, funk, broken beat, rap. I love most jazz genres but, if push came to shove, I'd choose stalwarts such as Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and John Coltrane. My latest radio programme [on BBC Sounds and starting on BBC Radio 2 at midnight on July 5] is called Clive Myrie's Kings of Jazz. It's all about the titans in the genre, such as Ray Charles, Nat King Cole and Louis Armstrong. If I was a contestant on Mastermind [rather than the presenter], maybe jazz would be my specialist subject. 5pm I will also tune into the football scores during the afternoon, scanning for my beloved Man City. I don't listen continuously to match commentary because I'm convinced if I do I'll jinx the score, so I dip in and out. I've supported Man City since before the money came – [I've been] through thick and thin with that bloody club; I'm not one of these fly-by-nights. I do try to see them when they play a London club, but I don't get up to the Etihad Stadium as much as I'd like to. If they lose, for the rest of the Saturday I'm in a bad mood. All the players are amazing but I have a soft spot for Phil Foden. 'The Stockport Iniesta' we call him. I've never met him, sadly. I grew up in Bolton. Lancashire is a wonderful spot but my mum and dad both moved to the Midlands after they got divorced, to be near my sisters, so I don't have that much of a connection to Lancashire anymore – apart from being Pro Chancellor at Bolton University. I used to think 'boys from Bolton don't work at the BBC '. I joined the BBC when there were very few Black people, and very few people who sounded like me. You've got to have a sense of self. You've got to understand what you're capable of and what you can contribute, and realise that, a lot of the time, you're as good as anybody else. The fact that you might not be the member of the latest club doesn't mean anything: it's the work that you're doing. And if you can do the work as well as anybody else, that's what matters. If you're not from the right milieu, then you start to doubt yourself. But I didn't doubt myself. Impostor syndrome I don't have. 6pm Mum and dad might get a phone call. My mum's 90 this year, my dad's just turned 96. I call them on Sundays as well because I know they'll be in and not out partying and painting Derbyshire red. 7pm If we've decided to stay in, Catherine will do the cooking. We'll switch from Radio 6 Music to Radio 3, as they would usually have an opera on. But if we go out, we might go to the opera or the cinema. When it comes to films, I'm no superhero fan. Nothing from Marvel, thank you very much. I love Wes Anderson, and any heavy-duty drama: a proper movie that's going to make you think. We often go to The Screen on the Green in Islington. Being on TV so much, I often get asked to do selfies – 9.99 times out of 10, people approach you because they like what you do, and I appreciate that. Because of the travel shows I make, people tell me they went to a certain place because I went there. Some people have tried to stay in the same hotel rooms I've stayed in, which is a bit weird. 10.30pm If Man City have won, I'll watch Match of the Day, but not if they've lost. Then straight to bed. I don't tend to read in bed except to catch up on a long-running news story. I don't actually read that much fiction. I prefer biographies and history books. I tend to sleep pretty soundly.
Telegraph
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Radio 3 might be ‘dumbing down', but annoyingly it's working
Earlier this month, the BBC's veteran war correspondent Lyse Doucet said that she has been 'turning away from the news and listening to Radio 3 instead of Radio 4'. Doucet's reason was that the news has been so unremittingly depressing of late; Radio 3 was a sanctuary. She is far from alone – last week's Rajar figures showed that Radio 3 is on the up, with 2.15m tuning in, the station's best for many years. To add to the sense of achievement, almost every other BBC station had lost listeners in the same period. And before Radio 3 controller Sam Jackson could finish his first celebratory glass of fizz, someone was pouring him another, as Radio 3 won Station of the Year at the prestigious Audio and Radio Industry Awards (Arias). It is a vindication of sorts for Jackson, who has been fighting accusations of 'dumbing down' since he arrived two years ago. His predecessors would sympathise, going right back to George Barnes when he kicked off the Third Programme in 1946 and, two years later, was fighting accusations of 'vulgarisation' from EM Forster. The crime? Playing 'light' music concerts, including Bizet, Strauss and Mozart). Radio 3's gift and curse is that it emerged (or perhaps descended) from the Third Programme, which was set up to be strenuously high-minded, mixing classical music with poetry, philosophy and debate. Its mission wasn't simply to educate, inform and entertain, but to expand, refine and civilise. There are many Radio 3 listeners who still believe this is the station's mission – no wonder they bristle at the loss of Free Thinking and Drama on 3, at the perceived 'therapisation' of classical music, or at the existence of Jools Holland (the boogie-woogiefication of classical music). Those purists would suggest that Radio 3's recent resurgence isn't despite any 'dumbing down', but because of it – further evidence that it is slumping inexorably towards Classic FM territory. Is this fair? In response to the heartening Rajar figures, Radio 3's press release trumpeted their more highbrow content, from the Pierre Boulez centenary celebrations to 25 for 25: Sounds of a Century, 25 new commissions from contemporary composers. We don't know if it is this specific programming that is bringing the listeners in – specific figures were not provided – but it is encouraging to see the station take pride in its more challenging offerings. EM Forster may not agree, but when it comes to the music it's hard to make a strong case that Radio 3 has dumbed down. Classical Live, Radio 3 in Concert and Composer of the Week still offer a variety that the commercial stations wouldn't dare, while jazz, new music and opera are ring-fenced by dedicated programming. A push for 'diversity' (female composers!) has only broadened the station's offering. There is no doubt that in recent times the station has fallen into the trap of trying to attract listeners who like their classical music to be 'calm, soothing and mindful', and often accompanied by birdsong and lapping waves, but this is hopefully something that will be redressed by the launch of new 'mindful' digital station Radio 3 Unwind. However, it is in the spaces in between the music where Radio 3 has undoubtedly grown more populist, and this is something unlikely to be reversed. Listeners long ago got used to the audience interactivity that was once the preserve of Radio 5 Live, but it is the presenters who seem to stir up the most passion. The likes of Tom McKinney, Katie Derham, Jess Gillam and Linton Stephens lean more into being informally enthusiastic than tweedily knowledgeable, while the inclusion of Holland and newsreader Clive Myrie suggest a safety-first approach. 'Don't be scared! We love classical music and we're not going to be stuffy about it!' As someone who is a far-cry from being a classical music buff, I am a good test case – and I have found the station to be more approachable and accessible of late. That will likely send shudders down the spines of the purists. While Jackson did not begin the jettisoning of spoken word programming, it does seem he is keen to finish the job and create a purely classical music station. Some decisions are financial – on Radio 4's Feedback he said that budget cuts forced him to choose between live classical music and drama – but there is the sense of brand-building here too. Not Classic FM, but the anti-Classic FM. A classical music station with highbrow aspirations, but, crucially, a classical music station. If you want wider culture, off you go to Radio 4. It's understandable, but it's a pity – and I eye the superb Sunday Feature nervously. Yet, if the listener numbers are rising, then it can only be that Radio 3 is successfully bringing classical music to new audiences, dumbed down or not.
Times
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
I spent three weeks with the new Radio 3 — and I'm smitten
My guess is Radio 3 bosses returned to work on Tuesday feeling rested but invigorated ahead of announcing the 2025 Proms programme. The station had a successful month. Its most popular presenter, Petroc Trelawny, made a seamless transition from Breakfast to the In Tune drivetime slot. The sunny Tom McKinney took over the day's start. Then the BBC heard that Radio 3 Unwind, the station's classical chillout offshoot, has been given the go-ahead by the media regulator Ofcom. Alongside these schedule changes there has been some strong holiday programming: a day-long celebration of 30 years of Private Passions, the composer-presenter Michael Berkeley's revealing interview show in which well-known guests (including King Charles in 2018) share the classical music that inspired them. Fascinating interview excerpts
The Herald Scotland
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Drama and excitement as guest conductor takes up the baton at BBC SSO
City Halls, Glasgow Keith Bruce four stars The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra marketed this live broadcast performance on the box office potential of Spanish pianist Javier Perianes playing Mozart's perennially-popular concerto No 17, and there was nothing wrong with that part of the programme, even if did seem a little strange that the soloist was relying on a score for a work he must have played many times. But for many in the hall, and listening on Radio 3, the real interest lay in the works on either side of the Mozart and in the conductor on the podium. Anja Bihlmaier is Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic in Manchester and earlier in the day the announcement of the BBC Proms programme had included the news that she will premiere a new electric guitar concerto by Mark Simpson with Scotland's Sean Shibe on July 22 in the Royal Albert Hall. The work that filled the second half of this concert was also fairly new, the 2016 'symphonic suite' created by Manfred Honeck and Tomas Ille from Richard Strauss's opera Elektra. If the composer himself had crafted such an orchestral concert piece it would surely have sounded much along these lines, incorporating all the most compelling music in the score, culminating in an instrumental performance of the final scene. Read more Keith Bruce Bihlmaier gloried in the huge forces under her baton but was equally attentive to the moments that featured just front desk strings and wind soloists – much of the delight in this half hour of music came from her precision control of the dynamics. The orchestral Elektra may lack the sense of humour in Strauss's tone poems, but in all other respects can sit alongside them as a repertoire piece. The conductor began the concert with another new/old work celebrating females from dramatic tragedy. Melanie Bonis was taught by Cesar Franck and her Trois femmes de legende: Salome; Ophelia; The Dream of Cleopatra share elements of their orchestration with Ravel and Debussy. Composed in the first decade of the 20th century, they were only assembled as a suite a decade ago, which the RSNO and Thomas Sondergard played last Spring. If not quite as epic as the Strauss, it is also assured regular performances by the range of orchestral colour it contains, with terrific opportunities for the wind soloists – and Bihlmaier found all the drama in the lyrically-expressed fate of the Egyptian queen.
Times
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
The best Proms to book for summer 2025
Your cultural summer begins here. The BBC Proms has announced its season of concerts: 86 performances, with stars ranging from Simon Rattle to Alison Balsom, Klaus Makela to Yunchan Lim. The season begins on July 18 at the Royal Albert Hall, but there are 14 concerts taking place outside London this year, including in Bradford (this year's UK City of Culture), Bristol and Gateshead. This is the first year in which Radio 3 controller Sam Jackson takes direct control of running the festival. If he is seen as a crowdpleaser, there is still plenty of chewy fare in the lineup, including seminal works by anniversary composers Berio and Boulez. Shostakovich and Ravel anniversaries are also being marked with generous helpings of works — don't
