‘I try to offset that sense of boring normality by playing bass in a punk rock band with Robert Peston and Ed Balls’: John Wilson’s consuming passions

In a corduroy blazer, jeans and argyle-patterned socks with loafers, John Wilson is the archetypal Centrist Dad — which is, fittingly, the name of the cover band in which he plays the bass in his free time. During the week, he’s on BBC Radio 4 presenting This Cultural Life, interviewing everyone from Paul McCartney to Sir Salman Rushdie. On the weekend, he rocks out to Icona Pop and Charli XCX’s ‘I Love it’, with ITV News's political editor Robert Peston on vocals and the former Labour shadow chancellor Ed Balls on drums.

‘I am a dad, I work at the BBC, I make arts programs, and I try to offset that sense of boring normality by playing bass in a punk rock band,’ says John, before sighing deeply and adding ‘I find the name embarrassing.’ I propose that it’s not the name alone that is embarrassing. For example, one may look at Ed Balls and not immediately think: drummer. ‘That's because Ed Balls is not a drummer. Ed Balls has a go at anything and commits fully,’ John confirms. All the proceeds from the band's gigs go to charity. They recently played at Dingwalls in Camden and raised £10,000 for Great Ormond Street Hospital. ‘Half the Cabinets were in the audience. It was kind of quite weird. Ed Miliband dancing at the back, and the Foreign Secretary [Yvette Cooper] — she is always there right in the front. It's quite strange. I don't know why. She seems to be a fan.’

We are speaking in the Green Room at the National Gallery, where John is preparing to present a new monthly in-conversation series called Picture This. We were meant to be in the staff canteen, but the sparsely populated room made John feel self-conscious, as though people may have listened in. Ironic, given he has made a career out of people listening in, although usually he isn’t talking about himself.

John was born in London in 1965 on Millionaires row, which is now Billionaires row, in Hampstead — ’that road which is just now just ludicrous, ostentatious, bad taste mansions’. His family lived in Enfield and one of those houses was then the maternity wing of the North Middlesex Hospital.

Broadcasting runs in the family: John's father is the former Arsenal goalkeeper and sports presenter Bob Wilson. John grew up just outside of London, near Potter’s Bar, but had a farming family on his father’s side, and consequently spent a lot of summers in Lincolnshire, working on their farm. His duties included mucking out chicken coops (‘Disgusting. I can still smell it’), and working in the grain silo, plagued by gigantic rats which it was his job to exterminate (‘I still sometimes have nightmares about that’).

It was after flunking his A-Levels (apart from English) that John got his first job as a young hack for a North London outfit while repeating his final year of school. He worked for titles such the Islington, Haringey and Enfield Advertiser. A degree in English and Media studies at the University of Southampton followed, after which he became a reporter on the Camden New Journal and then a presenter on Radio 5’s The Mix. He went on to present Radio 4’s flagship arts series Front Row.

He now lives in his former stomping ground of Camden with his wife, Tessa, an interior designer, and their dog Billy, ‘a very cute Scottish Terrier’. They share four children — two from her previous relationship, one from a previous relationship of his, and one other. John has just recorded the 150th episode of This Cultural Life. The elusive, now deceased, German-British painter Frank Auerbach was his favourite interviewee. The artist was famous for not giving interviews, but aged 92 sat down with John after the broadcaster had met his son at a party, and convinced him that it would be a good idea. The most intimidating interview John has done was with David Bowie in New York in 2002. ‘I was terrified,’ he says.

‘I'm a different interviewer now from the way I've worked in the past, definitely. I say a lot less,’ he says. ‘It’s quite weird being interviewed as well, because although I ask short questions, I clearly give long answers,’ he says referring to our hour-long chat, which we have merrily run over.

Your aesthetic hero

Growing up in the suburbs in the 1970s my musical hero, and aesthetic hero, is Paul Weller. The weird thing is, nearly 50 years later, he's a friend of mine because we worked together and I edited a book of his lyrics. Paul Weller is still the best dressed man. He's just impeccable, always. I would say him or Steve McQueen.

In terms of aesthetics, I probably have to mention my wife, Tessa, because she's an interior designer. She basically makes my life look better, because the interior of my house just looks so much better because of her amazing eye. I live in a very aesthetically pleasing way because of her.

A book that inspired you

Germinal by Émile Zola was amazing, and it stuck with me, the imagery, because it's about a coal mine strike in France in the 19th century. The layers of detail of the lives and the descriptions of life underground are amazing.

The possession you’d never sell

My dad’s shirt, which he wore in the 1971 FA Cup Final, which is the day he won . He gave it to me for my 50th birthday.

The items you collect

Records. I can't go past a record shop without going in and coming out with at least one or two records that I never knew I needed.

An exhibition that has really impressed you

I saw the Gerhard Richter exhibition at the Louis Vuitton Foundation recently in Paris, which was just amazing. I love Richter, he has such a range of work, and it's almost like whatever he turned his hand to, he was a master of. His paintings were astonishing. As are the subject matter, for example: the post-war German experience, the sense of freedom he conveys. I’d love to interview Gerhard, but he's now too old and doesn't speak very good English. I met him once, actually. That was quite a thrill. But he doesn’t do interviews.

A hotel you could go back and back to

I go back and back to Paris all the time, and I'd love to go back to the hotel there, called Château Voltaire, which is quite new. It's too expensive for me to stay there again (I managed to get a deal last time) but they had beautiful rooms, very comfortable beds, amazing breakfast and the staff were just fantastic.

Your favourite painting

I don't have a favourite painting, but there's one that I always come back to here — because we're in the National Gallery, and the format of this interview series I'm doing [Picture This] is that the guest picks a painting. So, I would probably go for not one of the big ones, as much as I love those, but actually there's this painting which I always stop in front of. It's quite small, it's John Singer Sargent, and it's called Wineglasses, and I'd like it because it's the sort of painting that I could hang on my wall at home, and it would look good. It's just sunlight coming through, it looks like it's in France, there are two wine glasses and a table, and it looks so inviting. It’s beautiful.

The music that you work to

Because my job is interviewing people, primarily, I can't work to music when I'm doing that. When I listen to music, I am really engaged with music. I listen to a lot of music but I would say anything by Víkingur Ólafsson, the Icelandic classical pianist, is my favourite. He's just got the most incredible poetic touch, and he plays with such grace and beauty and fluidity. It’s absolutely mesmerising.

The last thing of note you bought for yourself

Quite recently I bought myself a new bass guitar. A Fender Precision. I was in a band when I was at university, and we were kind of quite serious. We thought we were going to make it. My claim to fame is that we supported My Bloody Valentine on Valentine's night in 1988. We never made it, and 40 years later I started playing in the most silly comedy band of all time [Centrist Dad], and I did have a bass, because I've always had a bass, but I bought myself a nice new one.

What happened was, I was at a dinner party, and Robert Peston was there. I sort of knew him a bit. His neighbour had invited us around for dinner, and he had a guitar. I picked up his guitar, and he said: ‘Do you play?’ And I said: ‘No, I play bass.’ He said: ‘We will have to have a jam sometime,’ to which Robert replied: ‘Well, if you need a singer, I'll sing.’ I was thinking, this is a terrible idea, so I said: ‘Well, yeah, the problem is, it's always impossible to find a drummer,’ to which Robert replied: ‘Well, Ed can play.’ I said: ‘Who's Ed?’ and he said: ‘Ed Balls!’ It turned out, when we had the first rehearsal session, that Ed Balls couldn't play drums, but that didn't stop him. We started off doing things like the Buzzcocks, The Clash and the Sex Pistols, but actually now most of our repertoire is Chappel Roan, Taylor Swift and Charli XCX.

The last podcast you listened to

It would have been The Rest is Politics this morning, listening to Alistair and Rory talking about the madness of Donald Trump and how he's gonna dig himself out of the hole that he has dug for all of us to live in.

I know This Cultural Life is a podcast, but I don't listen to a lot of podcasts because I find a lot of them so self indulgent and rambling and boring. I work in radio and our program is tightly edited, and I just think the art of editing has been lost with podcasts, because very often they start recording, they start talking… and they ramble on for an hour and a half.

The person that would play you in a film of your life

Steve McQueen, because he's already got the clothes.

What you’d take with you to a desert island

Desert boots for a desert island and a flare gun, so that I can be rescued — I don’t want to be on a desert island.

The thing that gets you up in the morning

My dog, Billie. In the morning she can be very loud, because we have a garden and we have foxes, which of course drives her mad. She's Billie the girl, because there's lots of cool Billies: Billie Eilish, Billie Piper, Billie Whitelaw, Billie Holiday.

The most memorable meal you’ve ever had

I went to Iran three times, and there was a meal I had in Isfahan, which I always think about, because it was just the most incredible food. I had this one meal near the main square, which is called the Naqsh-e Jahan Square, and has the Great Mosque. It was magical. That was one of the most amazing meals, which makes me very sad to think about, because I loved Iran, loved the people — absolutely hideous, brutal government, obviously — but the people were the most welcoming, hospitable people I think I've ever met, which makes what's happening at the moment with the follies of the idiotic Donald Trump so heartbreaking.

The best present you’ve ever received

My children. The gift of fatherhood.

For how to buy tickets or other information on the National Gallery's new in conversation series, Picture This, hosted by John Wilson, visit their website. Events run until June 26, 2026.