Private Passions – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Technical and general information from the podcast's RSS feed.

Private Passions

BBC Radio 3

Music

Society & Culture

Frequency: 1 episode/10d. Total Eps: 513

Guests from all walks of life discuss their musical passions and talk about the influence music has had on their lives.

Site

RSS

Spotify

Apple

Data updated on 19/10/2026

Recent rankings

Latest chart positions across Apple Podcasts and Spotify rankings.

Apple Podcasts

🇬🇧 Great Britain - Music
24/10/2026
#42
🇬🇧 Great Britain - Music
23/10/2026
#42
🇬🇧 Great Britain - Music
22/10/2026
#26
🇬🇧 Great Britain - Music
21/10/2026
#19
🇬🇧 Great Britain - Music
20/10/2026
#16
🇬🇧 Great Britain - Music
19/10/2026
#16
🇬🇧 Great Britain - Music
18/10/2026
#23
🇬🇧 Great Britain - Music
17/10/2026
#23
🇬🇧 Great Britain - Music
16/10/2026
#28
🇬🇧 Great Britain - Music
15/10/2026
#18

Spotify

🇬🇧 Great Britain - music
08/11/2025
#49
↘
🇬🇧 Great Britain - music
07/11/2025
#46
↘
🇬🇧 Great Britain - music
06/11/2025
#43
→
🇬🇧 Great Britain - music
05/11/2025
#43
↘
🇬🇧 Great Britain - music
04/11/2025
#40
→
🇬🇧 Great Britain - music
03/11/2025
#40
↗
🇬🇧 Great Britain - music
02/11/2025
#43
↗
🇬🇧 Great Britain - music
01/11/2025
#46
↗
🇬🇧 Great Britain - music
31/10/2025
#48
↗

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Links found in episode descriptions and other podcasts that share them.

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/r3pp/all
22 shares
http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/r3pp/all.
10 shares
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1KkkxvD0G1w4l294QCrQZbh/information-and-support-cancer
2 shares

http://gowers.wordpress.com
2 shares
http://gowers.wordpress.com.
1 share

RSS feed quality and score

Technical evaluation of the podcast's RSS feed quality and structure.

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RSS feed quality

To improve

Score global : 38%

Publication history

Monthly episode publishing history over the past years.

Year

Latest published episodes

Recent episodes with titles, durations, and descriptions.

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Elif Shafak, novelist

Sunday, October 18, 2026 • Duration 51:33

Elif Shafak is a best-selling writer who is as happy telling a story from the point of view of a fig tree or a water droplet as a fellow human being.

She began writing in her native Turkish and now writes in English, and her 13 novels have been translated into dozens of languages. Her books cross continents and centuries. Her novel There Are Rivers in the Sky moves from ancient Mesopotamia to 21st-century London, and she loves uncovering forgotten histories and giving voices to the silenced.

In her most recent book, In One Brief Moment All Eternity, she tells the story of the great French writer Gustave Flaubert, author of Madame Bovary, from the perspective of the women, both real and imagined, who influenced him.

Elif is also a passionate campaigner for books and freedom of expression, and is the President of the Royal Society of Literature.

Her musical passions include Rachmaninov, Chopin and Hildegard of Bingen.

Presenter Michael Berkeley Producer Clare Walker

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Courtney Pine, saxophonist

Monday, October 12, 2026 • Duration 46:20

As part of the BBC's collaboration with The Music is Black, the V&A East Museum exhibition celebrating Black British music and musicians, Michael Berkeley talks to the saxophonist and composer Courtney Pine, whose work is recognised at the exhibition.

Courtney Pine released his first album 40 years ago, and it became the first British jazz album to enter the UK Top 40, competing at the time with the likes of Madonna, Paul Simon and the Pet Shop Boys. In the decades since, he has become one of the most influential figures in British jazz. As a performer, his musical passions are wide-ranging, embracing acoustic jazz and electronics as well as the Jamaican sounds he heard when he was growing up. He has also been a tireless musical ambassador through broadcasting and education and has earned both an OBE and a CBE for his services to music. He learned piano and clarinet at school, where he established musical roots in the classical tradition. His music choices include Bach, Ravel, Stravinsky, and Florence Price.

Presented by Michael Berkeley. Produced by Graham Rogers.

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Francis Fukuyama, political scientist

Sunday, October 4, 2026 • Duration 52:29

The American political scientist Francis Fukuyama loves big ideas, and his 1992 book The End of History and the Last Man was an international best-seller.

It argued that – after the collapse of the Soviet Union - Western liberal democracy was the best system of governance. It wasn’t perfect and hadn’t achieved everything, but it was the most humanly satisfying model.

He also stated that “the end of history will be a very sad time” – predicting that safe, prosperous "last men" would grow bored and restless. Eventually this would fuel a rage against the establishment that would invite populism.

Francis’s most recent book is a memoir called In the Realm of the Last Man, in which he reflects on his political evolution over five decades, and also writes about some of his favourite music. His choices for Private Passions include works by Bach, Handel, Mozart and Carl Orff.

Presenter Michael Berkeley Producer Clare Walker

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Louisa Young, writer

Sunday, September 27, 2026 • Duration 54:25

Family is at the heart of the work of the writer Louisa Young. Her first book was about her grandmother, Kathleen, a sculptor who was also the widow of the Antarctic explorer Captain Scott.

She’s written five books for younger readers with her daughter Isabel, under the pen-name Zizou Corder, including the best-selling Lionboy trilogy.

She’s also written an acclaimed memoir, You Left Early: A True Story of Love and Alcohol, about her relationship with the composer Robert Lockhart.

And her most recent book, The Golden Hours, continues much-loved The Cazalet Chronicles, the sequence of novels written by her aunt Elizabeth Jane Howard.

Louisa's music includes works by Chopin, Franck and Puccini.

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Sylvester McCoy, actor

Sunday, September 20, 2026 • Duration 50:40

The actor Sylvester McCoy was a familiar face to millions of TV viewers when he played the Seventh Doctor in Doctor Who in the 1980s. On the big screen, he has played the eccentric wizard Radagast the Brown in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy, and on stage, he has played the Fool opposite Ian McKellen’s King Lear for the Royal Shakespeare Company.

His route into acting was unconventional. He spent his teenage years preparing for the priesthood, then later honed his physical comedy skills in Ken Campbell's maverick Roadshow. His music choices include tracks by Stravinsky, Satie, Beethoven, and Britten's Shakespearean opera A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Presenter Michael Berkeley.

Producer Graham Rogers

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Lyse Doucet, journalist

Sunday, September 13, 2026 • Duration 57:51

When Lyse Doucet was a child growing up in a small town in eastern Canada, she borrowed a library book called How to Become a Journalist. It clearly made an impact. She is now the BBC’s chief international correspondent and has reported from some of the world’s most challenging countries, including Afghanistan and Iran, for more than 40 years.

This year she won the Women’s Prize for non-fiction for her first book, The Finest Hotel in Kabul: A People's History of Afghanistan, in which she explores the country’s recent history through the story of Kabul’s landmark Inter-Continental Hotel.

Lyse's choices include music by Elgar, Sibelius, Bach and Einaudi.

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Carlos Acosta, dancer

Sunday, July 12, 2026 • Duration 52:53

In the world of dance, Carlos Acosta is a superstar. He grew up in a poor part of Havana, where he was the 11th child in his family, and began his training at the National Ballet School of Cuba.

At the age of just 18, he became the youngest principal dancer at the English National Ballet. After gaining further international experience, he joined the Royal Ballet in 1998 and made it his home for nearly two decades, dancing almost every major classical role.

He’s now Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet, where he’s fostered some unexpected collaborations, including a ballet danced to the music of local heavy rock legends Black Sabbath as well as productions of classics such as Swan Lake and the Nutcracker. And this summer, he returns to the stage of the Royal Ballet in London with a programme called Myths and Modern Masters.

Carlos' music choices include works by Prokofiev, Khachaturian, Massenet and Ennio Morricone.

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Leslie Cavendish, former Beatles hairdresser

Sunday, July 5, 2026 • Duration 53:32

Leslie Cavendish left school at the age of 15 years, without any artistic qualifications, and decided to become a hairdresser. Within three years, his clients included Terence Stamp, Keith Moon, the Bee Gees, Jane Asher – and the Beatles.

He began by cutting Paul McCartney’s hair - and soon became part of the band’s inner circle. He attended Beatles recording sessions and joined them on their Magical Mystery Tour. They even invited him to open a salon at their Apple Tailoring boutique on the Kings Road in Chelsea.

Leslie's music includes Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn and Beethoven.

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John Nichol, writer, former RAF Navigator

Sunday, June 28, 2026 • Duration 53:15

Thirty-five years ago, during the Gulf War, the face of the RAF navigator John Nichol appeared on news bulletins around the world. His Tornado jet had been shot down over Iraq, and he was captured, tortured and paraded on Iraqi television.

Together with the pilot John Peters, he wrote about these experiences in their best-selling book Tornado Down. Since then, he's written many more books about military history, on topics ranging from the Spitfire to the Unknown Warrior. His most recent book, Blitz, focuses on the effects of German bombing, not just on London, but in Glasgow, Cardiff, Manchester and his native north east.

John's music includes Chopin, Aaron Copland, Arthur Sullivan and Elgar.

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Ruth Ozeki, writer

Sunday, June 21, 2026 • Duration 53:39

Ruth Ozeki won the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2022 with her novel The Book of Form and Emptiness. The judges called it a ’complete joy to read.’ She’s also a film-maker and a Zen Buddhist priest, and her books draw on her Japanese-American heritage. They also convey her deep concern for our environment, taking on topics such as industrial agriculture, ocean pollution and mass consumerism. Her most recent book, The Typing Lady and Other Fictions, is her first collection of short stories – and the Typing Lady of the title has more than a little in common with Ruth herself. Ruth Ozeki's music includes Albeniz, Praetorius, Prokofiev and Benny Goodman.

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Private Passions – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Private Passions – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

BBC3

Other2

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

BBC3

Other2

Apple Podcasts

Spotify