Jamie Parker on Private Passions with Michael Berkeley 24th January 2021

Jamie Parker shot to fame as one of Alan Bennett’s original History Boys – he was the one who played the piano. In this week’s Private Passions he tells Michael Berkeley about the vital role music plays in his life.

A decade after The History Boys Jamie took the title role in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the marathon West End and Broadway show which won nine Olivier Awards, including Best Actor for Jamie. In between, he has sung in Sondheim, Gilbert and Sullivan and the Sinatra tribute Prom, and appeared in films such as 1917 and Valkyrie. And he has starred at Shakespeare’s Globe – memorably as the recorder-playing Prince Hal.

Jamie shares with Michael his lifelong passion for the clarinet – he chooses Finzi’s Clarinet Concerto, which he has played himself, as well as music by Gershwin and by Louis Armstrong with inspiring clarinet parts.

Two of Jamie’s favourite pieces of music come from films he loved as a child – Henry Mancini’s score for Blake Edwards’ The Great Race and the music for Watership Down by the neglected composer Angela Morley. Jamie shares her remarkable story: born a man, she transitioned in 1972 and was a largely self-taught musician. She wrote extensively for film, television and radio, including the theme tune for Hancock’s Half Hour, and she won three Emmys and was twice nominated for an Oscar.

And Jamie reveals how, in his long quest to play it, he instilled an enduring love of Rhapsody in Blue in his childhood dog.

Producer: Jane Greenwood

A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 3