This Cultural Life

• David Hare

  The premiere of David Hare’s play Plenty at the National Theatre in 1978 marked him out as one of the UK’s most skilled and socially conscious playwrights. Plenty transferred to Broadway, Hare adapted it into a film starring Meryl Streep, and in the following years he became known as a writer for whom the political and the personal are deeply entwined. Often referred to as Britain’s pre-eminent ‘state of the nation playwright’, his plays in the 1980s examined a wide range of social and political issues, including the Church of England in Racing Demon, the judiciary in Murmuring Judges and party politics in The Absence of War. He tackled international geopolitics in Via Dolorosa - about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - and the invasion of Iraq with Stuff Happens and the Vertical Hour. Equally skilled as a screenwriter, his film screenplays for The Hours and The Reader saw him twice nominated for Academy Awards. David Hare was knighted in 1998 for ‘services to theatre’. He talks to John Wilson about how his lower-middle class background and family life in Bexhill-on-Sea stimulated his imagination. He pays tribute to some of the most formative people in his life: his Cambridge university tutor, the Welsh writer and academic Raymond Williams, whose maxim that ‘culture is ordinary’ had a profound effect on his life as a writer; the actress Kate Nelligan, who starred in several of Hare's plays, including Plenty; and his wife Nicole Farhi who, he says, transformed his idea of himself and who inadvertently helped inspire one of his best loved plays, Skylight. Producer: Edwina Pitman

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• Cynthia Erivo

  Born and raised in south London, Cynthia Erivo made her name with musical theatre in London, starring in shows including The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg and Sister Act. In 2015 she became a Broadway star and won Tony, Emmy and Grammy awards for her role in The Color Purple, the musical adaptation of the Alice Walker novel which had transferred from London. Her screen acting credits include the title role in Harriet, about the 19th century abolitionist and campaigner Harriet Tubman, a film which earned her two Academy Award nominations, including for Best Actress. Oscar nominated again for her lead role in the musical film Wicked, she became the first black British woman to receive multiple Academy award nominations for acting. An acclaimed singer, she performed a solo show of songs made famous by female artists including Aretha Franklin, Etta James and Barbra Streisand at the 2022 BBC Proms. Cynthia Erivo tells John Wilson about the influence of her Nigerian born mother, who raised her as a single mum. She remembers two mentors who encouraged her to perform at at young age; school music teacher Helen Rycroft, and Rae McKen who ran a local drama club. Cynthia recalls winning a place at the prestigious drama school RADA, and returning to become Vice President of the institution last year. She talks about the emotional pressures she underwent on playing Celie in The Color Purple, a story of abuse and survival, and how the themes of prejudice and acceptance explored in the musical Wicked, resonated so strongly with her. Cynthia also chooses the 2015 Alexander McQueen exhibition Savage Beauty at the V&A as a inspiring creative moment, and discusses her love of glamorous fashion. Producer: Edwina Pitman

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• Marin Alsop

  American conductor Marin Alsop was the first woman to lead major orchestras in the UK, South America and in the United States, becoming principal conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in 2007. Nominated for Grammy Awards five times, in 2013 she became the first ever woman to lead the Last Night Of The Proms, and is now regarded as one of the greatest conductors in the world. She talks to John Wilson about her professional musician parents who nurtured her love of music and supported her career choice from the age of 9 when she first revealed she wanted to be a conductor. Marin also talks about Leonard Bernstein, the great American composer and conductor, who inspired her ambitions and later became a mentor to her. She also chooses Carl Jung's work The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, and explains how his theories have helped her in leading orchestras around the world.Producer: Edwina PitmanMusic and archive used: Serenade in C major for String Orchestra, Op. 48; Valse, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, New York City Ballet Orchestra, 1986 Irish Spring commercial: "Clean as a Whistle" 1980 Leonard Bernstein, Young People's Concerts: "What is Classical Music?", CBS Television, 24 January 1959 Omnibus: Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story, BBC2, 10 May 1985 Archive of Leonard Bernstein and Marin Alsop at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, 1987 Leonard Bernstein, Young People's Concerts: "What Does Music Mean?", CBS Television, 18 January 1958 Archive of OrchKids concert, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Woman's Hour, BBC Radio 4, 26 July, 2005 Rhapsody in Blue, George Gershwin, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Marin Alsop Last Night of the Proms, BBC1, 7 September 2013 Symphony No. 2 in C Minor, "Resurrection", Gustav Mahler, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Marin Alsop

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• Robert Harris

  Having worked as a BBC television journalist, and as political editor for the Observer newspaper, Robert Harris published his debut novel Fatherland in 1992. A counterfactual story set in the 1960s that imagines Nazi Germany had won the Second World War, the book was a global bestseller. Since then Robert Harris has written 15 novels, mainly historical fiction which ranges from the ancient Roman politics of Pompeii and his Cicero trilogy, to the Restoration era manhunt of Act Of Oblivion, and Papal thriller Conclave. His most recent novel Precipice is about the romantic relationship between prime minister Herbert Asquith young socialite Venetia Stanley during the First World War. Robert Harris tells John Wilson about how reading The Origins of the Second World War by the historian A. J. P. Taylor, as a teenager ignited his interest in looking at history from perspectives that challenge the accepted narratives. Later, reading both the fiction and non-fiction of George Orwell inspired him to attempt to make writing about politics into an art form, as Orwell had done in works including 1984.Producer: Edwina PitmanArchive used: Did Hitler Cause The War?, BBC1, 9 July 1961 The Hitler Diaries, Newsnight, BBC2, 8 July 1985 Reading from Fatherland, Robert Harris Reading from 1984, George Orwell, BBC Radio 4, 2 January 1984 Reading from The Ghost, Robert Harris

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• James Ivory

  James Ivory formed the filmmaking company Merchant Ivory with producer Ismail Merchant and the writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala in 1961. The company went on to produce over 40 films and became synonymous with a particular sumptuous movie genre in the 80s and 90s, often adapted from literary classics. Merchant Ivory won awards and acclaim for A Room With A View, Howard’s End, The Remains Of The Day and many more. In 2018, at the age of 89, James Ivory became the oldest ever winner of an Academy Award. Having been nominated three times previously for best director, he won the best adapted screenplay Oscar for the coming-of-age drama Call Me By Your Name. Now 96 years old, James Ivory recalls his upbringing in Oregon, the son of a timber merchant. He says that seeing Gone With the Wind soon after the film had first been released in 1939 was a formative moment in his love of cinema. Having initially studied architecture, he enrolled at the University of California to study cinema and began making short films. It was during a trip to India that he first became fascinated with the country and was introduced to the great Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray, who was a hugely influential figure. James Ivory also talks about the unique relationship he had with Ismail Merchant and Ruth Jhabvala whom he describes as his "life's partners".Producer: Edwina Pitman

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