This Cultural Life
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This Cultural Life
In-depth conversations with some of the world's leading artists and creatives across theatre, visual arts, music, dance, film and more. Hosted by John Wilson.
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161 episoder
Tania Bruguera
Cuban performance and conceptual artist Tania Bruguera talks to John Wilson about her career and cultural influences. Her work explores freedom of spe...
Anish Kapoor
The artist and sculptor Sir Anish Kapoor talks to John Wilson about his career and cultural influences. Renowned for his innovative, often monumental...
Frank Cottrell-Boyce
The writer Frank Cottrell-Boyce talks to John Wilson about his cultural influences and career. He started out as a screenwriter on the television soap...
Kiefer Sutherland
John Wilson talks to the actor and musician Kiefer Sutherland. The son of Canadian actors Donald Sutherland and Shirley Douglas, he first made his ma...
Liam Young
Australian-born artist, filmmaker and speculative architect Liam Young discusses his work and cultural influences with John Wilson. Young creates imag...
Kristin Scott Thomas
Award-winning actor Kristin Scott Thomas talks to John Wilson about her career and cultural influences. After a breakthrough role in the Evelyn Waugh...
George Saunders
The Booker Prize winning American author George Saunders talks to John Wilson about his cultural influences. He made his name as a writer of satirical...
Felicity Lott
The soprano Dame Felicity Lott talks to John Wilson about her distinguished career and cultural influences. One of Britain's best-loved sopranos, her...
Michael Frayn
Over a seven-decade career, Michael Frayn has been acclaimed as a novelist, playwright, journalist, translator & memoirist. From his comedies – includ...
Lubaina Himid
Turner Prize-winning Artist Lubaina Himid talks to John Wilson about her formative influences. She made her name in the mid-1980s as a pioneering memb...
Robert Icke
Theatre director and writer Robert Icke talks to John Wilson about his formative creative influences. Described by Variety magazine as ‘the great hope...
David Szalay
Booker Prize-winning author David Szalay talks to John Wilson about his creative influences. His 2009 debut novel London and The South East, based on...
Danielle de Niese
John Wilson talks to the Australian born opera singer Danielle de Niese. A soprano renowned for her vibrant stage presence, she made her professional...
Don McCullin
Award-winning photographer Sir Don McCullin talks to John Wilson about his cultural influences and formative experiences. He started out in the late...
Julian Barnes
The novelist, essayist and critic Julian Barnes talks to John Wilson about his career and formative cultural influences. One of the most acclaimed and...
Imogen Cooper
Dame Imogen Cooper is one of Britain’s most esteemed concert pianists. Having played since the age of five, she was mentored by the great Austrian bor...
Jonathan Pryce
Award-winning actor Sir Jonathan Pryce talks to John Wilson about his cultural influences and career. He made his name with the 1975 Trevor Griffiths...
Katie Mitchell
Theatre and opera director Katie Mitchell talks to John Wilson about her career and formative influences. She is renowned for her experimental storyte...
Annie Leibovitz
American photographer Annie Leibovitz talks to John Wilson about her career and cultural influences. For over 50 years she has captured rock stars, ac...
Guillermo del Toro
Oscar-winning Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro talks to John Wilson about his cultural influences. From his 1992 debut Cronos to his recent big bu...
Ricky Gervais
Comedian and writer Ricky Gervais talks to John Wilson about his formative creative influences and inspirations. Ricky Gervais made his name as the co...
Jennifer Lawrence
Jennifer Lawrence's breakthrough role in the 2010 drama Winter’s Bone secured her first Academy Award nomination when she was just 20, and she won the...
Rufus Wainwright
Rufus Wainwright is a singer-songwriter and composer renowned for his distinctive voice and the theatricality of his performances. Born into a family...
Mark Ronson
Having spent his early years in London, Mark Ronson grew up in Manhattan, began working as a DJ as a teenager and quickly made a name for himself on t...
Rose Tremain
Dame Rose Tremain is one of Britain’s most prolific and popular writers, having written 17 novels and five collections of short stories over the last...
Thomas Adès
One of the most revered and prolific British classical musicians, Thomas Adès made his name with his 1995 opera Powder Her Face, written when he was j...
Jonathan Anderson
Jonathan Anderson was appointed as creative director of the French fashion house Dior in March 2025, becoming one of the world’s most influential desi...
Jackie Kay
Jackie Kay is one of the best known and most popular Scottish literary figures. A poet and novelist, she served as Makar - the name for Scotland’s poe...
Kerry James Marshall
American artist Kerry James Marshall is one of the world’s most important living painters. Marshall has been making his large-scale, vividly colourful...
Alicia Vikander
Swedish-born Alicia Vikander won global acclaim in 2015 for playing Vera Britten in Testament Of Youth, and a humanoid robot in the thriller Ex-Machin...
Alison Balsom
Classical trumpeter Alison Balsom talks to John Wilson about the most significant influences and experiences that have inspired her career. Having rec...
Eric Idle
Comedian, writer, musician and actor Eric Idle talks to John Wilson about his creative influences. A founding member of the Monty Python comedy troupe...
Anselm Kiefer
Anselm Kiefer is one of the world’s greatest living artists. Born in Germany at the end of the Second World War, much of his work in paintings, sculpt...
Katherine Rundell
Children’s writer and academic Katherine Rundell is the multi-million selling author of adventure stories including Rooftoppers, The Wolf Wilder and T...
Steve Reich
Composer Steve Reich is one of the most influential musicians of modern times. In the 1960s he helped rewrite the rules of composition, using analogue...
Jenny Saville
Painter Jenny Saville, renowned for her large-scale portraits of fleshy, naked women, made her name soon after leaving art school when her graduation...
Alan Menken
Composer Alan Menken is the winner of more Academy Awards in competitive categories than any other living person. He’s best known for his scores for t...
Gillian Anderson
Gillian Anderson’s breakthrough television role in the sci-fi series The X Files made her a global star in 1993, and she played cool-headed Agent Dana...
Pete Townshend
Pete Townshend is the songwriter, guitarist and co-founder of The Who. The band first stormed the pop charts sixty years ago, with teenage anthems inc...
James Rhodes
Pianist James Rhodes was a relative latecomer to a professional music, and was 30 when he performed his first concert. In 2010 he became the first cor...