Paul Chahidi
Michael Berkeley's guest is the stage and screen actor Paul Chahidi, whose musical passions include Beethoven, Vaughan Williams, Persian folk music and Sondheim.
Paul Chahidi is an actor whose versatility shines through in prize-winning performances from Shakespeare to satire. He delighted West End and Broadway audiences as Maria in Twelfth Night and won acclaim from filmgoers as the hapless Nikolai Bulganin in The Death of Stalin. On TV, he’s played a well-meaning vicar in the BAFTA-winning This Country, an archangel in Good Omens, and he’s currently a spook in the BBC thriller The Night Manager.
Such shape-shifting came early: Paul was born Ghiv Khatib-Chahidi in Iran before moving as a child to the Oxford countryside. He studied Arabic and Persian at university with an eye to becoming a foreign correspondent, before the lure of Shakespeare and Sondheim won him over.
His choices include music from Iran, as well as Vaughan Williams, Chopin, Beethoven and Palestrina.
Presenter Michael Berkeley
Producer Katy Hickman
On radio
Broadcast
- Sun 25 Jan 202612:00BBC Radio 3
Podcast
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Private Passions
Guests from all walks of life discuss their musical passions.
