John Wilson explores the intimate moments of creative inspiration that have been experienced by some of our best known artists.

Composer and multi-instrumentalist Erland Cooper returns to his childhood home in Stromness, Orkney, to remember how he fell in love with reel-to-reel tape, using Tascam recorders to create sound textures from the music he first began creating.

Isata Kanneh-Mason was the eldest of seven siblings who all played classical music in their family home in Nottingham. Isata recalls her earliest musical memories of learning the piano at her grandparents’ home in the Caribbean, and later becoming entranced by Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto every night when she went to bed. “I was lifted out of myself into another world,” Isata says.

Leeds-born poet Caroline Bird read a James Tait poem at the age of 13 and immediately realised that she needed to write. Years later, as an award winning author, Caroline explains how every successful poem demands an epiphany.

Testament is a hip hop artist, playwright and poet. Obsessed with the poetry of William Blake as a child, his life changed when he saw American singer-songwriter Gil Scott-Heron play live in Manchester, a gig that was a spiritual experience for the teenager.

Produced by John Wilson
Executive Producer: David Prest

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4 Show less