Sarah's guest this week is the journalist, broadcaster and author, John Humphrys.
When guests arrive in the yellow studio, my first question after greeting them is usually along the lines of “Have you travelled far?” Author Douglas Kennedy wins the prize for having travelled the furthest (he flew in from America), but my latest guest arrived in a state of advanced fatigue, despite having come just a few yards from a nearby studio in Broadcasting House. He’s John Humphrys, and he had a darn good excuse to be tired after getting up at 3.30am to do his regular stint presenting Radio 4’s Today programme. John came straight round to meet me at 9am, and I felt a flicker of anxiety as to whether his patience might be at a low ebb – would I be the next victim of the “Rottweiler of Radio 4”? I needn’t have worried. John made my job very easy by regaling me with interesting and amusing stories about his love of music – the pride he feels for his cellist son Christopher, his wonder and awe at the music of Beethoven, and his willingness to expand his musical boundaries. He did admit to having a mental block with atonal music, and as he described his frustration I was able to empathise by considering my own bewilderment with John’s area of expertise: politics! He also opened up about his deeply emotional response to classical music (we learn which piece of music was the first to make him cry), which might make people see him in a more balanced light – not just a great professional but a rounded human being.
