Ian McKellen on Fresh Air!

I had a major treat last night! While making myself an evening meal I turned on the radio to find Ian McKellen (whose voice and delivery I love so very much I can listen to him slowly reading an arbitrarily long list of random numbers) being interviewed by Dave Davies on NPR’s Fresh Air. It was of course delightful, and some of the best radio I’ve enjoyed in a while (and I listen to a ton of good radio every day, between having either NPR or BBC Radio 4 on most of the time) since it was the medium at its simple best – a splendid conversation with an interesting, thoughtful, well-spoken person.

They also played and discussed a number of clips from his work, recent (I’ve been hugely excited to see Mr. Holmes, just released) and less recent (less well known delights such as Gods and Monsters -you should see it if you have not- and popular material like the first Hobbit film), and spoke at length about his private and public life and the intersection between the two, for example how his coming out as gay in 1988 positively affected his acting, and why…. There’s so much in that 35 minutes! There’s a link to the NPR piece here, with the audio. While there is a transcript, I strongly urge you to not read it and listen. His voice, and his manner of speaking, which almost always bring happy tears to my eyes, (I don’t know why… Besides the obvious elegance and abundant humanity, perhaps because there is so much of England, and the North West, in there – aspects of home for me?), are an essential component of the piece.

-cvj