This Cultural Life

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 the animated Disney films including The Little Mermaid, Pocahontas, Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast. His first big hit was the musical Little Shop Of Horrors - one of several he created with lyricist Howard Ashman, his longtime writing partner. Other stage musicals include Sister Act, The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, and Hercules, which recently opened in London's West End. Alan Menken also wrote the scores for Disney films Mirror Mirror, Enchanted and Tangled. As well as eight Academy Awards, he has also won eleven Grammys, seven Golden Globes, two Emmys and a Tony Award.Alan talks to John Wilson about his childhood in New York and the expectations of his parents that he would follow family tradition and become a dentist like his father. A musical talent from a young age, he recalls how seeing Walt Disney’s Fantasia was the start of thinking about the marriage of music with story and images. Despite initial ambitions to be a singer-songwriter, enrolling in a workshop in New York for musical theatre composers, lyricists, and librettists led by composer Lehmann Engel taught him how to write for the stage. It is also through Engel that he met lyricist and director Howard Ashman with whom he went on to write many of the hit scores credited as the driving force behind the Disney Renaissance of the 1980s and 1990s. Tragically, Howard Ashman was diagnosed with HIV in 1988 and died at the age of 40 in 1991.Producer: Edwina Pitman

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 Scully for nearly a decade. She also starred in period dramas, including an acclaimed film adaptation of Edith Wharton’s novel The House Of Mirth and, on television, in Bleak House, Great Expectations and War and Peace. Her theatre credits include A Doll’s House, A Streetcar Named Desire and All About Eve, all of which saw her nominated for Olivier Awards. Gillian Anderson has won Golden Globe and Emmy Awards for the X Files, and also for The Crown in which she played Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. More recently, she found a new generation of fans for role as a sex therapist in the series Sex Education. Her latest film is The Salt Path, adapted from the bestselling memoir by Raynor Wynn.Gillian Anderson tells John Wilson how, after being born in Chicago, she moved with her parents to Crouch End, London, when she was five, and then to Michigan at the age of 11. After what she describes as ‘rebellious' teenage years, she studied at Chicago’s DePaul University with drama teacher Ric Murphy, whom she cites as a major influence on her early acting ambitions. After a series of minor stage roles in New York, she auditioned for The X Files and the role of Agent Scully changed her life. She also chooses the actor Meryl Streep as a major inspiration after seeing her with Robert Redford in the 1985 romantic drama film Out Of Africa. Gillian also reveals how the work of the Serbian-born conceptual performance artist Marina Abramović has also been an influential cultural figure for her.Producer: Edwina Pitman

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 including I Can’t Explain, Substitute and My Generation. Broader songwriting ambitions led him to create the rock opera Tommy in 1969, and the concept album Quadrophenia four years later. Both projects were adapted as films, and Quadrophenia has now been staged as a ballet by Sadlers Wells. Throughout the seventies, The Who were regarded as the biggest and loudest live act in the world. They played at Woodstock, at Live Aid, Live 8 and the 2012 Olympic closing ceremony. Despite the deaths of drummer Keith Moon and bassist John Entwhistle, Townshend and singer Roger Daltrey continue to perform as The Who. Pete Townshend talks to John Wilson about the influence of his parents, who were both musicians. His father, the saxophonist Cliff Townshend, played in the popular dance band The Squadronaires, but it was his mother Betty, a singer, who was most supportive of Pete's early musical talent. Seeing Bill Haley and The Comets at Edgware Road Odeon in 1956 was another formative moment that introduced the teenage Townshend to the possibilities of a rock 'n' roll performance. Pete also reveals how his art school tutor Roy Ascot, who was head of the Ground Course at Ealing Art School, shaped his his approach to his band that was to become The Who. He also recounts how reading Labyrinths, a book of short stories by Jorge Luis Borges on the first US Who tour in 1967 opened his imagination and helped him expand his musical storytelling. Producer: Edwina Pitman

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 core classical pianist to be signed to the world’s biggest rock music label, Warner Brothers. He has recorded nine albums, including his most recent one, Mania, which features work by Bach, Chopin Brahms and other composers. He has also presented television documentaries about classical music and written five books, including his international bestselling memoir, Instrumental. But James Rhodes’ adult life story is also one involving mental illness, addiction and suicidal despair in the wake of violent sexual abuse over several years as a small child.Talking to John Wilson, James remembers how hearing a recording of Bach’s Chaconne from his Partita no. 2 transcribed for piano, was a life-changing experience, offering a sense of hope and wonder at a time when he was suffering terrible abuse. He also chooses his secondary school piano teacher Colin Stone as a major inspiration, although his early musical ambitions were thwarted at the age of 18. After some years working in the City, then suffering breakdowns and periods in psychiatric institutions, he returned to music after a decade away from he piano. He also credits a chance meeting with his future manager as a moment that led to him becoming an internationally acclaimed concert pianist.Producer: Edwina PitmanDetails of organisations offering information and support with mental health and self-harm, and for victims of child sexual abuse, are available at: www.bbc.co.uk/actionline

Since the late 1980s, Colombian artist Doris Salcedo has made work in response to conflict and political violence, drawing on the testimonies of victims to create metaphorical sculptures and installations about trauma, loss and survival. She is now recognised as one of the most important living artists, with work shown in museums and galleries around the world, including in the turbine hall of Tate Modern in 2007. Doris Salcedo is the 2025 recipient of the Whitechapel Gallery’s prestigious Art Icon award, in recognition of her ‘profound contribution to the artistic landscape’. She talks to John Wilson about the first time she saw Goya's painting The Third of May 1808, also known as The Executions of the Third of May. The painting depicts the brutal aftermath of the Dos de Mayo Uprising in Madrid, during the Peninsular War, in which Spanish civilians were executed by French soldiers. Salcedo recalls how this painting showed her what a work of art could accomplish. It was seeing this painting that inspired her artistic purpose of trying to reveal the true cost of war in her work. Salcedo also explains how the poetry of Paul Celan, the French-Romanian poet and Holocaust survivor has been a significant influence on her and her art , and how the testimonies of the Colombian victims of violence have defined her work.Producer: Edwina PitmanArchive used: Paul Celan, Psalm, read by Robert Rietty

Cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason was born in Nottingham in 1999 into a big musical family. He and his six siblings all grew up learning classical instruments, and appeared on Britain’s Got Talent in 2015. Sheku first made his mark as a solo performer the following year when he won the BBC Young Musician Of The Year competition. In 2018 a global audience of over a billion watched him perform live at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Since then he has received two classical Brit awards, An MBE for services to music, and performed at the Proms every year since 2017. His book The Power Of Music charts his creative journey, whilst his new album - his fifth release - includes recording of works by Shostakovich and Britten. Sheku talks to John Wilson about the early influence of his paternal grandfather, a classical music lover who encouraged an appreciation of chamber music, including Schubert's Trout Quintet. Sheku also discusses his cellist heroes Jacqueline du Pré and Mstislav Rostropovich and explains how the music of reggae superstar Bob Marley has been an inspiration throughout his life.Producer: Edwina Pitman

Choreographer Sir Wayne McGregor is one of the most acclaimed, innovative and influential figures in contemporary dance. His works are often the result of creative collaborations with artists, musicians, filmmakers, or with scientists to explore technological issues. In 2006 he was appointed as Resident Choreographer at the Royal Ballet. He has created more than 20 new works at Covent Garden in that time, including Chroma, set to music by Joby Talbot and The White Stripes, and Woolf Works, a full-length ballet based on the life and writings of Virginia Woolf. More recently, McGregor brought the post-apocalyptic vision of Margaret Atwood to the stage in his ballet MaddAddam, based on the writer's acclaimed trilogy of novels. He has worked as a movement director on films including Harry Potter Goblet Of Fire and Mary Queen Of Scots, collaborated with bands including Radiohead and Chemical Brothers, and choreographed the virtual concert, ABBA Voyage. In October 2025, Somerset House in London will mount a landmark exhibition dedicated to McGregor's trailblazing collaborations that have radically defined how we think about performance, movement, and the body. Having won numerous awards, including two Oliviers, Sir Wayne McGregor was knighted in 2024.Wayne McGregor talks to John Wilson about his childhood in Stockport, where he took dance classes and was inspired by John Travolta’s moves in Saturday Night Fever. He recalls the house and techno music of the late 80s when he was a student, and how the freedom of expression he felt on nightclub dance-floors informed his style of choreography. Whilst living in New York after leaving university, Wayne came across an open-air performance by the legendary American choreographer Merce Cunningham, whose company was dancing to live music conducted by the avant-garde composer John Cage. It was a chance encounter that had a profound impact on McGregor. He also discusses how science and technology has been a major thematic influence on much of his work in recent years, and how AI has been used to create new works through analysis of physical movement and artistic expression.Producer Edwina Pitman

Actor Sir Simon Russell Beale is widely acclaimed as one of the greatest actors of his generation. He has played many leading roles at National Theatre and RSC, including Hamlet, Macbeth and King Lear. He is currently starring in Titus Andronicus at the RSC. His awards include three Olivier Awards, two BAFTAs, and a Tony Award in 2022 for his leading role in The Lehman Trilogy, which had transferred from London. Simon Russell Beale was knighted in 2019 for services to drama. Simon tells John Wilson about his childhood and his visits to his family in the boarding school holidays at their home in Penang and Singapore. Trained as a chorister from an early age, he reveals how J.S. Bach's St Matthew Passion evokes the thrill of singing at his choir school. Simon very nearly embarked on a career in music before switching to drama and tells John about the significance of the Macbeth soliloquy that began a lifetime love of Shakespeare. He also reveals the central role that pubs play in the learning of his lines.Producer: Edwina Pitman

Maggie O’Farrell is the author of nine novels. Her debut, After You’d Gone, was published 25 years ago this year and won the Betty Trask Prize in 2001. Her 2010 book The Hand That First Held Mine won the Costa Novel Award; and Hamnet, her hugely acclaimed and bestselling story of the death of Shakespeare’s son, won the 2020 Women’s Prize for fiction. Maggie O’Farrell has also written a memoir; I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death. Maggie tells John Wilson about some of her creative influences including the Finnish writer Tove Jansson, whose book Moominland Midwinter she first read at the age of eight when she was ill in bed, suffering from encephalitis. The poet Michael Donaghy gave Maggie valuable writing advice when she attended his poetry workshops at City University and inspired her with his recitations of poetry from memory. Maggie also reveals how seeing a David Hockney photomontages called The Scrabble Game hugely influenced the way she constructs narrative and time-frame in her novels.Producer: Edwina Pitman

Screenwriter and playwright Abi Morgan has worked across a diverse array of themes and genres for more than 25 years. She wrote the television series The Split, a domestic drama involving divorce lawyers, and created the psychological Netflix series Eric. Her other television credits include Sex Traffic, for which she won a BAFTA for Best Drama serial in 2005, and The Hour, the television news drama which earned her an Emmy award in 2012. Her film credits include The Iron Lady, which starred Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher; historical drama Suffragette; and Shame, co-written with the director Steve McQueen. Her recent book This Is Not A Pity Memoir recounts her husband’s recovery after serious illness, and her own treatment for cancer. Abi Morgan tells John Wilson about her childhood in a theatrical family; her father was the director Gareth Morgan and her mother is the actor Pat England. She chooses the author, screenwriter and director Nora Ephron as an important influence, and particularly the film Heartburn which Ephron adapted from her semi-autobiographical divorce novel Heartburn. Abi Morgan also recalls the work of television screenwriter Kay Mellor, whose series Band Of Gold and Playing The Field also influenced her own writing. She describes how seeing an exhibition of the work of artist Cornelia Parker, including her installation Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View, inspired some of Abi’s early theatre work including her plays Splendour and The Mistress Contract. Producer Edwina Pitman