麻豆约拍

For almost a decade, Alastair Campbell was Tony Blair鈥檚 right-hand man, first as Press Secretary and then as Downing Street Director of Communications. He was at the heart of power through the Good Friday Agreement, the 9/11 attacks and the Iraq War, which involved him in the greatest controversy. These days he鈥檚 a writer and mental health campaigner, and he鈥檚 recently published a very frank book, 鈥淟iving Better: How I learned to survive depression鈥�.

In conversation with Michael Berkeley, Alastair Campbell talks about how music helps him manage depression, and reveals his lifelong passion for the bagpipes. His father, who was from the Hebrides, played, and he and his brother Donald learned as boys. Donald was diagnosed with schizophrenia when Alastair was only nineteen: 鈥渁 defining event in my life鈥�. Donald left Alastair his bagpipes when he died, too young; and he also left recordings of himself playing 鈥� one of which we hear in the programme. Alastair himself played the pipes as a busker in the South of France as a student, where he discovered a lifelong musical passion for the songs of Jacques Brel.

Other music choices include Mozart, Schubert, and Verdi鈥檚 famous drinking song from La Traviata. Alcohol has played a major role in Campbell鈥檚 life, and he talks about being drawn to the 鈥渄rinking cultures鈥� of both piping and politics. In fact, he says, it is not alcohol but politics 鈥� and his need to be needed by people in power 鈥� which is his real 鈥渄emon鈥�. He discusses too his inability to retire, his hatred of domesticity, particularly shopping with his partner Fiona, and why the satirical series 鈥淭he Thick of It鈥� is in some ways very close to the bone.

A Loftus Media production from 麻豆约拍 Radio 3
Produced by Elizabeth Burke