Radio 3's Michael Berkeley on the 30th anniversary of Private Passions – and how the format has plenty left to give

“I certainly helped to form what it is, but it began because [then Radio 3 controller] Nicholas Kenyon wanted something to replace Man of Action,” he says. “I’ve always loved talk, going right back to John Freeman’s Face to Face, and music is a wonderful way of getting people to reveal things.

“Indeed, when psychoanalyst and writer Adam Phillips was on the show, he said, ‘You do realise what you’re doing is a bit like what I do? Because I don’t ask people direct questions about their lives, I get them to tell me stories. And using music, you’re doing much the same.’ I rather got the impression he clammed up a bit after that!”

Berkeley sees a clear distinction between Private Passions and Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs. “Desert Island Discs is wonderful, but it’s a very different animal. We wouldn’t have somebody who didn’t feel passionately about classical music. The odd pop song, piece of jazz, folk music, ethnic music — all these are in the mix, but the driving force has to be a love of classical music.”

The range of guests has been wide. “I love it when people play me something I’m not familiar with. I remember Germaine Greer chose Peggy Lee’s Is That All There Is? It was absolutely devastating. And anthropologist Stephen Hugh-Jones brought in an instrument from the Amazon he had to warm up by rubbing its resinous part.”

Berkeley admits not everything is to his taste. “To be honest, there have been pieces where I’m not as interested as I might be! But it’s the guest’s list, not mine. And some of the best programmes are when people say, 'I’m not a musician, I can’t really talk about it like this.' And then they are more insightful than any musicologist, drawing analogies with painting, or literature — even brain surgery!”

What are some of his favourite memories? “Isaiah Berlin was wonderful — hearing him talk about watching the Russian Revolution from a balcony in St Petersburg was pretty amazing. More recently, Walter Murch, the sound editor on The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, talked wonderfully of how to use music in films… And we had a champion boxer, Hannah Rankin, who was also a bassoonist! Getting people you wouldn’t normally expect, sports people for example, brings in a wider audience and shows music is not the preserve of one class of person.”

By his own admission, he had a privileged childhood. His father, Lennox Berkeley, was a well-known composer, and as a child Michael sang as a chorister with Benjamin Britten and met Stravinsky, Shostakovich, and William Walton. But he says he enjoys pop — going to concerts by Neil Tennant.

He also enjoys the music of Pet Shop Boys — and reveals that when he was a student, he played keyboards in a band. “We were called the Seeds of Discord. We had guitarists, a drummer, a singer called Dave McTavish, and drove around in a Commer van. It was so thrilling to go to Brentford Town Hall or somewhere and turn a thousand wallflowers into a gyrating mass.”

Was this his rebellion against “serious” music? “My father certainly thought so as we used to rehearse under his study! Someone would ring and say, ‘I want to book the Seeds. I want them to give me Satisfaction.’ And of course, he’d never even heard of the Stones!”

Berkeley says he’ll keep on doing Private Passions while he still enjoys it: “I believe if you’re having fun making something, there’s a good chance the audience will, too.”

What does he make of criticisms levelled at Radio 3 under controller Sam Jackson? “As long as the core subject matter is being serviced — and that means the Proms, adventurous series such as the 20th Century Radicals and programmes like Composer of the Week — I’m happy for people to tinker on the sides to try to open the network to a wider audience. I went to the Barbican and saw a very big house listening to Pierre Boulez for an entire day for Radio 3. I don’t think you’d ever get that on Classic FM.”

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