Sky Arts’ ...Talks Music Show Debuts Monday

A ROOM, TWO CHAIRS, a musician and instrument, an audience drawn from the ranks of earnest young musicians and producers, and a host with a ridiculous track record in music TV. Malcolm Gerrie, all-time music telly hall-of-famer having produced irreverent ’80s trailblazer The Tube, ’90s Britpop showcase The White Room and more, is the man asking the questions on Sky Arts 1 HD’s …Talks Music, TV’s latest attempt to dive deep into the minds of legendary musos. Debuting at 9pm next Monday, November 11, subject/victim #1 is Fleetwood Mac maestro Lindsey Buckingham (pictured above), and MOJO’s preview “screener” promised a revealing programme where Buckingham’s still-febrile intensity comes through loud and clear.

“Nile Rodgers reveals the advantages of having heroin-addicted parents.”

Over an hour prog that fair skips by, Buckingham gets the axe out for The Chain, Big Love and other classics. Although, just like anyone who’s ever sat with an artist in an “intimate environment” while they wail on their thing, Gerrie’s not quite sure what to do with himself, and settles for grinning awkwardly while slapping his thigh in time. Something to look at for later episodes, perhaps.

Directed by Jeff Wurtz, whose Emmy-winning series Inside The Actors Studio all but defined this “Masterclass” format, …Talks Music’s mix of chat-show confessional with music-fan probing is nicely balanced, and really comes into its own on December 2’s programme, when Chic’s Nile Rodgers takes apart Le Freak, reveals the advantages of having heroin-addicted parents (Thelonious Monk comes to visit, for one) and chokes himself and his audience up as he recalls the day in 1996 he found his bass-playing Chic spar Bernard Edwards dead in a Tokyo hotel room.

Ray Davies, Boy George, Graham Nash, Jeff Beck, Blondie and Earth Wind & Fire join Malcolm for future episodes. For more information.