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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鈥檚 played a well-meaning vicar in the BAFTA-winning This Country, an archangel in Good Omens, and he鈥檚 currently a spook in the 麻豆社 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

20 days left to listen

1 hour, 26 minutes

Last on

Sun 25 Jan 2026 12:00
麻豆社 Radio 3

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Music Played

  • Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

    Io son ferito ahi lasso

    Performer: Bruce Dickey. Performer: Andrew Lawrence鈥怟ing. Performer: Erin Headley. Performer: Stephen Stubbs.
    • Accent.

  • Mahsa Vahdat

    A Promise to My Beloved

    Composer: Hafez.
    • Twinklings of Hope.
    • Kirkelig Kulturverksted.
    • 8.

  • Ralph Vaughan Williams

    Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis

    Conductor: John Barbirolli. Orchestra: Sinfonia of London.
    • Elgar/Vaughan Williams: English String Music: Barbirolli.
    • EMI.
    • 7.

  • Fr茅d茅ric Chopin

    Nocturne in C Sharp Minor

    Performer: Jan Lisiecki.
    • Chopin: Complete Nocturnes.
    • Deutsche Grammophon (DG).
    • 21.

  • Miles Davis

    So What

    Ensemble: Miles Davis. Featured Artist: John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley & Bill Evans.
    • Kind Of Blue.
    • Columbia.
    • 1.

  • Andrea da Firenze

    Per la ver'onest脿

    Ensemble: Gothic Voices. Conductor: Christopher Page.
    • A Song for Francesca: Music in Italy, 1330-1430.
    • Hyperion.
    • 2.

  • Stephen Sondheim

    Sunday - Finale (Sunday in the Park with George)

    Singer: Daniel Evans.
    • Sunday in the Park with George The 2006 London Cast Recording.
    • PS Classics.
    • 8.

  • John Dowland

    Flow, my tears

    Performer: Thomas Dunford. Singer: Iestyn Davies.
    • The Art of Melancholy Songs by John Dowland.
    • Hyperion.
    • 6.

  • Anoushiravan Rohani

    Gole Sangam

    Singer: Hayedeh.
    • Haydeh.
    • Tareneh.

  • Ludwig van Beethoven

    Symphony No. 7 in A Major (2nd mvt)

    Conductor: Daniel Barenboim. Orchestra: West鈥揈astern Divan Orchestra.
    • Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 & Triple Concerto (Live).
    • Deutsche Grammophon (DG).
    • 5.

Broadcast

  • Sun 25 Jan 2026 12:00
    麻豆社 Radio 3

Podcast

  • Private Passions

    Guests from all walks of life discuss their musical passions.