Break Out Culture With Ed Vaizey by Country and Town House

This December marks the centenary of the artist Lucian Freud’s birth. To celebrate, the National Gallery has gathered around 60 of his works, spanning seven decades, from all over the world to mount New Perspectives, an important exhibition that encompasses the best of his work from the early 1940s till his death in 2011.  The show is a magnificent tour-de-force and on this week’s podcast, we’re delighted to be in conversation with curator Dr. Daniel Herrmann about what New Perspectives reveals about Freud’s art and character, so often overshadowed by our preconceptions.

We’re also thrilled to be talking to the artist and photographer, David Dawson, Freud’s long-term friend, confidant, and assistant.  From 6th October, Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert in Bury Street St. James is exhibiting some of Freud’s rarely seen drawings, etchings, and metal etching plates, alongside some of David’s never-before-seen photographs, many of them taken in the days leading up to and immediately after Freud’s death.  The photographs present an intimate, gentle, and affectionate portrait of the artist and David talks movingly of Freud’s last days and his tender relationship with his mother as well as his friendship with other major artists and the subjects of his paintings.  Thanks to Daniel and David, we gain a real insight into Lucian Freud’s personality as well as his paintings and working methods. Between them, Daniel and David provide an invaluable introduction to these two exhibitions that are not to be missed.

Autumn is the time for literary festivals, including the mighty 10-day Cheltenham Literature Festival, London’s South Bank, the small but beautifully formed Cliveden and many more including Bridport, Petworth, Stratford, Henley, Harrogate, North Cornwall, Braemar and more. But this week we’re going to war-torn Ukraine to feature the Lviv Book Forum, in collaboration with Hay Festival, which runs in a bomb shelter between 6th and 9th October. We talk to the courageous and undaunted Programme Director, Sofiya Chelyak, and to the human rights KC, Philippe Sands, celebrated author of East West Street, The Ratline and a new book The Last Colony. Philippe will be attending the extraordinary festival alongside Henry Marsh, Misha Glenny, Margaret Atwood, Yuval Noah Harari, Elif Shafak and Margaret MacMillan.

It’s actually the 29th edition of the Lviv Book Forum, Ukraine’s biggest literary festival, but given the war it’s had to be shrunk and with Hay’s support, it’s defiantly going ahead with just 40 writers. As its digital partner for the first time, Hay will broadcast the conversations free in English, Ukrainian, and Spanish. Sofiya describes the festival as running ‘in defiance of the evil that seeks to squash their freedom,’ and so we applaud and admire its efforts to keep these vital conversations alive and deepen our understanding of this little-known, vast and complex country.

This week we discover why in July, The Horniman,  a small museum in Forest Hill, South London, won the hugely coveted  Art Fund Museum of the Year Award. We talk to Dr. Nick Merriman, who’s been Chief Executive and Director of Content there since 2018.  Nick’s a widely published expert on museum studies and was director of the Manchester Museum since 2006, increasing visitor numbers to 450,000 a year.  He’s also been Chair of the International Council of Museums UK and Chair of the University Museums Group, amongst many other illustrious appointments.

We find out what attracted him to this small but perfectly formed gem of a museum with its beautiful, extensive gardens overlooking London.  He tells us about the museum’s history, dating back to 1890 and founded by tea merchant Frederick Horniman, originally in his private home.  In 1901 it reopened as a purpose-built museum with its signature tower, that still houses the museum today.  The collections are gloriously quirky, comprising an aquarium, a mini farm, a butterfly house and around 350,000 objects including a big range of stuffed animals, musical instruments and numerous anthropological artefacts and curios.   For any of our listeners who’ve not yet been, there is something here for everyone – gorgeous garden walks, loads of imaginative, interactive fun for kids and enough fascinating exhibits to keep adults fascinated for hours.  We love it.

Break Out Culture is back, and we kick off the autumn season by talking about one of the most important issues of our time – creativity, or the lack of it, in our education system.  Tristram Hunt has been director of the Victoria and Albert Museum since 2017 and is a historian, broadcaster and journalist with several books under his belt, as well as having served as a Labour MP and Shadow Secretary of State for Education.  He’s now a mission to ensure that the V & A champions design and creativity for everyone, believing that creative and design skills amongst children and young people are drastically diminishing.  With his roles in education and politics as well as at the V&A, no-one’s better placed to lead this important national debate. So, tune in to learn about how the V & A is redressing the balance.  There’s a a specially commissioned film ‘Creativity: It’s What Makes Us’and three new sites, Young V&A, opening in Bethnal Green next year, V&A East Storehouse and V&A East Museum.   Plus he tells us about the forthcoming exhibitions from Hallyu! The Korean Wave to Chanel, set to be next year’s blockbuster.

This is our last podcast before our summer break, so we’ve selected some of our favourite conversations of the last year.  

ART: We celebrate Patrick Hughes’s birthday, talk to Tracey Emin about battling cancer and to gallerist James Burch about drinking with Francis Bacon.  

BOOKS: Rose Tremain tells us about her novel ‘Lily’, Barbara Taylor Bradford explains how she found inspiration to write the prequel to ‘A Woman of Substance’, Ben Okri inspires to see trees in a totally new light, we discuss culture wars with Bernardine Evaristo and lyricist Don Black, while talking at Jewish Book Week, makes us laugh. 

THEATRE: We talk to playwright David Hare about ‘Straight Line Crazy’ and the death of the avant garde, actor Nathaniel Parker about playing Henry VIII in Hilary Mantel’s ‘The Mirror and the Light’, Nick Allott from Cameron Mackintosh regales us with hilarious theatrical anecdotes and Creative Director of the Young Vic, Kwame Kwei-Armah, praises playwright James Graham.  

HISTORY: Andrew Roberts tells us about George III and A.N. Wilson explains how our Trafalgar Square Christmas tree was a gift from the King of Norway during World War II. 

MUSIC and DANCE: We talk to ballet-dancer Marcelino Sambé about playing Romeo in Kevin McMillan’s ballet, to choreographer Matthew Bourne about his stellar career, to soprano Anush Hovvanisyan about all the Armenians at the Royal Opera House and playing Violetta in Richard Eyre’s ‘Traviata’ and finally Dylan Jones, polymath and long-standing editor of GQ, tells us what David Bowie was really like.

Enjoy the summer.

Ed and Charlotte will be back on Sunday September 11th September.

This week our guest is Jake Fiennes, Ralph’s younger brother and Joseph’s twin, but doing a very different job from his famous siblings as the Director of Conservation at Holkham Hall in north Norfolk.  At the Earl of Leicester’s ancestral 25,000 acre estate, Jake is causing a stir with his radical approach to helping nature recover from intensive farming and letting the hedges he loves run wild. The persuasive new voice on the conservation scene, Jake tells us about his new book, Land Healer: How Farming Can Save Britain’s Countryside, published the day before we talked to him.  He did ask his brother Ralph to do the audio version but ended up doing it himself, a tremendous feat for someone so dyslexic.

Increasingly Jake’s being sought out by organisations and individuals alike, from the Prince of Wales to DEFRA, for his radical solutions and his optimistic, upbeat approach. He says he has the best job in the world and with strong opinions on everything from hedge ‘porn’ (all explained in Chapter One of his book) to butterflies, swearing and having famous siblings, he transports us to the heart of Norfolk and gives us a fascinating and entertaining account of what needs to be done if we are to restore the countryside we all yearn for.

This summer marks the 90th season of this beautiful theatre in the heart of the park’s Inner Circle. Regents Park is the oldest, professional, permanent outdoor theatre in Britain, and we celebrate by talking to Chief Executive and Artistic Director, Timothy Sheader, about the theatre’s history and its delightfully varied 2022 summer programme, including Legally Blonde, which ended its run this weekend, 101 Dalmatians, just opened, and Antigone, opening in September.

101 Dalmatians is a newly commissioned musical with music and lyrics by Douglas Hodge and book by Johnny McKnight, based on Dodie Smith’s classic story and adapted for stage by Zinnie Harris. We’re also chatting to Kate Fleetwood, a Tony and Olivier Award Nominee who stars in the Amazon Prime series The Wheel of Time.  Kate tells us about playing the ultimate villainess Cruella de Vil and the impact of being able to see the audience on her performance.  We have a fun, summery, upbeat chat about  the dalmatian puppets and the secrets of staging a really good musical in which every song is earned.

With the RCA’s Vice Chancellor Dr. Paul Thompson and Chair of the Governing Body Sir Peter Bazalgette

This week we’re talking about the RCA’s brand new £135 million Battersea campus.  In a fascinating conversation with Dr. Paul Thompson and Sir Peter Bazalgette, they tell us how the new facilities can give future creative leaders the tools to learn to solve some of the most pressing global issues, from climate crisis and ageing populations to mobility, urbanism, inclusivity and ensuring AI remains a force for good. As Paul Thompson says, ‘We’re trying to introduce some core fundamentals of science into the RCA art petri dish.’ The new development comprises a large scale hangar, robotics centre and an intelligent mobility design centre as well as sculpture and contemporary art practice studios.

RCA alumni include some of the world’s most innovative designers from Jony Ive to James Dyson and Thomas Heatherwick, alongside artists including David Hockney, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Bridget Riley and Tracey Emin.  Listen in to hear how the RCA is in a better position than ever on the global stage to produce the creative leaders our world needs.

This week we talk to John Morton, the writer famous for classic TV hits like WIA, Twenty Twelve and People Like Us.  He’s been brave enough to take on our favourite show, the much-loved French series Call My Agent and create and direct the British version, Ten Per Cent.

He talks to us about why agents are so fascinating and the complicated business of writing tightly scripted comedy. With eight episodes available to view on Amazon Prime, John tells us about the lead cast members, how and why he made the main characters so different to suit a British audience.  We explore the gaping differences between British and French culture:  Are we simply much less glamorous? Or, unlike the French, are we just unable to say what we really mean?

The critics were uncertain and divided to start with but became lured in and are looking forward to Series Two – if it happens. We very much hope so, and John talks openly about the challenges of taking on such a project.  Stars playing cameos of themselves include Dominic West, Helena Bonham Carter, Kelly Macdonald and David Harewood.

This week we’re talking about the Chalke Valley History Festival, the biggest festival in the world devoted entirely to history, which runs from 20th to the 26th of June at its beautiful Wiltshire home near Salisbury.   On the podcast with us is the festival director, Jane Pleydell-Bouverie and two historians who’ll be talking there, Christopher de Bellaigue and Tracy Borman.

Christopher tells us about his book The Lion House, The Coming of a King, which has received rave reviews and depicts the great Ottoman ruler, Suleyman the Magnificent, and his rise to becoming the most feared and powerful man of the 16th Century.  Tracy talks about her book, Crown and Sceptre:  A New History of the British Monarchy from William the Conqueror to Elizabeth II, which explores the institution as far back as 1066 and gives us her views on the future of the monarchy. Jane gives us the rundown on all the exciting events happening at the festival this year from The Duchess of Cornwall’s Reading Room, where Philippa Gregory and Alison Weir are rediscovering women in history to Bill Browder on his book Freezing Order: A True Story of Russian Money-Laundering, State-Sponsored Murder and Surviving Vladimir Putin’s Wrath.