This Cultural Life Folgen

Lyricist Bernie Taupin is one half of one of the most successful songwriting partnerships of all time. For more than 50 years, he has written the lyrics for Elton John’s songs including Tiny Dancer, Candle In The Wind, Rocket Man, Your Song and hundreds more. Having first met in 1967, after they both answered an advert in the NME placed by a record company seeking new musical talent, Elton John and Bernie Taupin have sold more than 300 million albums globally. Born in Lincolnshire, Bernie Taupin has lived in States since the mid 1970s and became an American citizen in 1990. With the publication of a memoir called Scattershot, he made a rare visit to the UK to look back at his life in lyrics.For This Cultural Life, Bernie Taupin discusses his childhood fascination with narrative poetry and storytelling. Hearing the songs of 1950s American country singer Marty Robbins, which told stories of cowboys and outlaws, was a life changing experience for Taupin. He recalls the impact of seeing the Sam Peckinpah western movie The Wild Bunch in 1969, a film renowned for its violent portrayal of 19th century cowboy life, and how it influenced the themes explored in the lyrics of the third Elton John album, Tumbleweed Connection, in 1970. Bernie Taupin also explores the impact of literature on his lyric writing and how flawed protagonists in novels by W. Somerset Maugham and Graham Greene in particular helped inspire the characters and stories in his own songs. He tells John Wilson about the duo's unusual songwriting process in which he sends Elton John completed lyrics, who then composes the songs around the words, a method that they have used throughout their long partnership. Producer: Edwina Pitman

Born George Mpanga, George the Poet is a British spoken-word artist and podcast host. Having started out as a rapper, he made his name as a spoken-word performance poet after leaving Cambridge University. His debut collection Search Party was published in 2015. The same year he was nominated for the Brits Critics Choice Award and the BBC Sound Of 2015 poll. He was also offered an MBE but declined the honour. He launched a genre-defying podcast in 2019, which won a host of prizes including the Peabody Award, a prestigious American prize for broadcasting, becoming the first podcast from outside the States to win it. Have You Heard George’s podcast, as it’s called, interweaves stories of his own upbringing with detailed explorations of contemporary social and political issues. George talks to John Wilson about some of his most formative cultural influences including the grammar school that taught him the essay-writing skills he still puts to use when making his podcast. He reveals how Tupac Shakur’s 1998 song Changes ignited his interest in hip hop, and discusses the impact of rap and grime on his own verse. He also remembers how his local community radio station gave him his first break and encouraged the development as a performer.Producer: Edwina Pitman

One of the world’s most successful living choreographers, Sir Matthew Bourne shook up classical ballet in the mid 1990s with his ground-breaking company Adventures In Motion Pictures, later renamed New Adventures. His breakthrough production, a radical new version The Nutcracker, was followed by a production of Swan Lake where he replaced the traditional female swans with a male ensemble. After initial controversy in the press, it became a massive critical and commercial hit. Since then he’s continued to popularise classical dance with a succession of innovative productions, often drawing inspiration from movies or literature. He’s had hits with the Red Shoes, Edward Scissorhands, Dorian Gray and Lord Of the Flies, and has won Olivier and Tony Awards. Matthew Bourne was knighted in 2016 for services to dance. In This Cultural Life he talks about how his love of classic films musicals started with seeing The Sound of Music as a young boy, and falling in love with Julie Andrews. He recalls his teenage years as one of London’s top autograph hunters meeting the likes of Gene Kelly, Charlie Chaplin and his hero Fred Astaire. He also explains how he was a relative latecomer to ballet and only saw his first ballet - a Sadler's Wells production of Swan Lake - at the age of 18. Matthew Bourne also chooses Powell and Pressburger’s 1948 film The Red Shoes as one of his formative influences.Producer: Edwina Pitman