Robert Powell on Private Passions with Michael Berkeley 26th March 2023

Robert Powell is one of our best-known actors, with a career that began in the late sixties and exploded into almost instant fame; since then, there have been some fifty films, including “The Thirty-Nine Steps” and “The Italian Job”, numerous theatre roles, and television appearances which have included six years on Holby City. For many people, though, he will always be Gustav Mahler thanks to Ken Russell’s 1973 biopic; for some, he became a memorable representation of Jesus Christ, thanks to his starring role in Zeffirelli’s six-hour epic.

Robert Powell begins by choosing Mahler’s famous Adagietto from the Fifth Symphony. He listened to Mahler non-stop when rehearsing for the role, but was still surprised by some of the eccentric things Ken Russell asked him to do: he will never forget floating for hours in a freezing lake. He talks about the impact of early fame, conjuring up the excitement of the King’s Road in the “swinging sixties”, and meeting his wife, Babs, who danced with Pan’s People. And he tells the story of how, when he was playing Jesus, he delivered the Sermon on the Mount and “something really extraordinary happened”. These days he is a devoted grandfather, making up for the time he couldn’t spend with his family when he was away filming. Other music choices include Stravinsky, Bach, Janacek, and his hero Bob Dylan.

A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 3
Produced by Elizabeth Burke