This Cultural Life: Neil Tennant
BBC Radio 4

John Wilson’s beguiling sit-down (16 April) with the Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant (inset) – who, together with his musical partner Chris Lowe, features as half of the most successful pop duo in UK history – began in 1950s Newcastle. There were “not that many books” in the family home, the subject allowed, but like many a post-war teenager, he became fixated on homegrown popular music, combined with his elder sister to purchase Beatles records as they came out and was once driven by his sales representative father to watch the fans queuing up outside Newcastle City Hall in advance of a live performance.