Private Passions

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.

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

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.

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

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.