So, this is radio drama studio. Hello, im john wilson. Welcome to this cultural life, a radio four podcast in which i ask leading creative figures about the influences and inspirations that have fired their artistic imagination. My guest in this episode is sir kenneth branagh. A huge talent, a star of stage and screen for more than four decades now. Hes an actor, director, writer and film maker whose credits range from hamlet to tenet, from henry v to thor. We spoke in the very atmospheric radio drama studio of bbc broadcasting house. Ken, welcome to this cultural life. Thank you. A show about cultural inspiration, cultural influences. What is your earliest cultural memory, do you think . Something that had a big impact . I think, early doors, i can remember Winston Churchills funeral, i think it was 1965, seeing it on the television and just being told about the great man. The World Cup Final of 1966, where the nation stopped, and in our own household, my brother had a sort of flirtat
isaid, well, ok, thanks, danny . well, i ll do this. where will the autocue be? he said, oh, there won t be an autocue . isaid, no, no, no i don t think you follow me . no, i mean, where would i be able to look at the lines if i had some sort of brain fudge ? and i needed to keep going. he said, well, there won t be anywhere because we d see it . isaid, but, ijust want to check something, danny. so, there s a billion people watching this live, right? he said, yeah . i said, so ijust, you know, things can happen. i just don t want to let you down. and if there s a billion people watching, it would be visible if i messed up without a safety net . and he looked at me for a while, sort of slightly uncomprehendingly and then, said, you ll be all right . that s i m going to take that with me. you ll be all right. we then, a few weeks later, he got me back in and he showed me, for the first time, that opening ceremony. i was the only person in the entire side of the