Private Passions - Alistair McGowan

Michael Berkeley welcomes the versatile actor, impressionist and comedian Alistair McGowan, who is best-known for his work with Jan Ravens and Ronni Ancona on 'The Big Impression' (BBC TV), impersonating over 100 well-known personalities ranging from David Beckham and Gary Lineker to Prince Charles and Tony Blair. He also appears in TV dramas such as the adaptation of Dickens' 'Bleak House', has presented 'Have I Got News for You', has appeared on stage in musicals such as 'The Mikado', 'Cabaret' (in which he played Emcee in the recent West End production) and 'They're Playing Our Song', and made his directing debut with Noel Coward's classic comedy 'Semi-Monde' at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. His love of music dates back to his childhood, when he listened to his mother playing the piano, and his choices for 'Private Passions' include piano works by Chopin, Rachmaninov, Marcel Zidani, and Erik Satie, whose quirky music is a particular favourite. He also includes an extract from Rimsky-Korsakov's 'Scheherezade', another piece he loved from an early age; Solveig's Song from Grieg's incidental music to 'Peer Gynt', sung by Charlotte Page, the Waltz No.2 from Shostakovich's second Jazz Suite, which he used as entry music for a recent one-man stage show, and a poignant number from 'Cabaret', sung by Sheila Hancock and Geoffrey Hutchings.