On making The Left Behind: 'We've plugged into the mains'

THE LEFT BEHIND The director of Killed By My Debt introduces his new BBC drama about a hate crime

The director of Killed By My Debt introduces his new BBC drama about a hate crime

The Left Behind is a television drama marinated in real-world research. It tells the story of a young man unable to break free from his bullshit job, zero-hour existence, thrown out of his family home when the council decide that as a single man with no dependents he isn’t a housing priority. He is seduced by a far-right, anti-migrant explanation for his plight and eventually drawn into a sickening hate crime.

'A product not only of his era but also of his travels': Ian Page on Mozart's cosmopolitan education

'A PRODUCT NOT ONLY OF HIS ERA BUT ALSO OF HIS TRAVELS' Ian Page of The Mozartists on Mozart's cosmopolitan education

The Mozartists' main man on how an early life moving around Europe shaped a genius

When Mozart was an established composer living in Vienna during the final years of his short life, a young student seemingly came to him to seek his advice. The would-be young composer said that he was planning to write a symphony, and asked Mozart what advice he could give to him. Mozart replied that a symphony was a complex undertaking, and suggested that the youngster should first write a few keyboard sonatas and string quartets before undertaking an orchestral work. The student, however, was indignant.

Roger Wright on Oliver Knussen: ‘his challenge to us all to remain curious lives on’

ROGER WRIGHT ON OLIVER KNUSSEN Inspiring composer, conductor and mentor remembered

Inspiring composer, conductor and mentor remembered by Snape Maltings CEO

The composition course founded more than 25 years ago at Snape by composers Oliver Knussen and Colin Matthews is in full swing. The scene is the Britten Studio at Snape Maltings on the Suffolk coast. Like Colin, Olly's connections to Aldeburgh and Snape are deep and long lasting, including his Artistic Directorship of the Festival.

First Person: Conductor Maxime Pascal on Stockhausen at the Southbank Centre

FIRST PERSON: MAXIME PASCAL On conducting Stockhausen at the Southbank Centre

The man in control of a cosmic opera tonight on its visionary German composer

Stockhausen stands alongside Monteverdi and Beethoven as a composer who exploded the understanding of his art. Stockhausen deeply changed the relationship between space, time and music; there’s a human, intimate dimension to his composition, and he predicted the future.

First Person: Ellen McDougall on finding the commonality in the American classic 'Our Town'

The director explains what drew her to the season-opener this summer at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park

I’ve wanted to direct Thornton Wilder’s Our Town for a long time.

The play is beautifully written and its form feels not only ahead of its time (it was written in 1938), but also extremely powerful for a contemporary audience in an open air theatre.

First Person: Liam Byrne on bringing Versailles to the City's 'Culture Mile'

FIRST PERSON: LIAM BYRNE On bringing Versailles to the Barbican's Sound Unbound festival

The viola da gamba player on pleasures at the Barbican's free Sound Unbound festival

When you dedicate your life to studying and performing on a musical instrument that essentially went extinct at the end of the 18th century, nostalgia plays a certain unavoidable role in your daily routine.

First Person: Sam Lee on singing with endangered nightingales

FIRST PERSON Sam Lee on singing with endangered nightingales

The folk singer on streaming for Extinction Rebellion and the Absolute Bird series

Every spring for the last five years, we have gathered around a camp fire in hidden locations in a wood in Sussex, to join the nightingales and to “re-wild” ancient folk ballads. We walk in silence through the forest at night, with no torches, reawakening our aural senses. These meditative pilgrimages give people permission to be in a state of communion with nature, to be silent to hear the birds. Singing with the birds is powerfully life-affirming: every year, someone writes to me afterwards to say how they are going to change their life, get divorced, or move jobs…

For Folk's Sake: 'I owe my very existence to Morris dancing'

'I OWE MY VERY EXISTENCE TO MORRIS DANCING' Richard Macer on his new film

Richard Macer, who has made documentaries about Vogue and dyslexia, introduces his latest

Halfway through filming For Folk’s Sake, a documentary for BBC Four about Morris dancing, I received a package in the post that would dramatically change the course of the programme. It was from my mother. Inside were a number of yellowing newspaper articles from the 1920s and 1930s and some dog-eared black and white photos.

Trevor Nunn: 'I'm amazed by Harley Granville Barker's prescience and extraordinary modernity'

TREVOR NUNN 'I'm amazed by Granville Barker's prescience and extraordinary modernity'

The veteran director introduces the London premiere of the English dramatist's heretofore unknown play, 'Agnes Colander'

So here we are with another edition of IQ, and the subject this week is theatre. Question one: which actor originated several leading roles in the plays of George Bernard Shaw, including Marchbanks in Candida, Dubedat in The Doctor's Dilemma, and Jack Tanner in Man and Superman? Answer: Harley Granville Barker. Question two: which writer originated the use of the Royal Court Theatre in Sloane Square as a home for new plays and rediscovered classics?

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