In the second part of Charlie’s chat with his best and oldest friend, The Fast Show co-creator Paul Whitehouse, the friends talk about music snobbery, Match of the Day, John Lydon, going to the opera in a shorts and T-shirt, lockdown locks – and DJ Mike Smash also makes an appearance.

The podcast features an extract of ‘Torna a Surriento’ by Ernesto de Curtis, performed by Luciano Pavarotti and the Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentina. We also heard a clip of ‘Off Side’ by Barry Stoller, better known as the Match of the Day theme, followed by part of Mozart’s Violin Concerto No.5, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra & Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, available on the London Symphony Orchestra’s own label, LSO Live: https://lsolive.lso.co.uk/. Paul chose an extract of Louis Farrakhan’s live performance of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, and the final extract was from ‘Going to Sleep’ from Richard Strauss’ Four Last Songs, performed by Jessye Norman and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.

The Charlie Higson and Friends podcasts were originally broadcast as a series on Scala Radio in April 2021. Scala Radio is a classical music and entertainment station broadcasting across the UK on DAB digital radio, smart speaker, SKY TV channel 0216, the Scala Radio app and online at scalaradio.co.uk