CULTURE VULTURE : BARBARA DICKSON
(The Sunday Express - October 2004)
Award-winning singer, songwriter and actress Barbara, 56, loves Shakespeare's 'Macbeth', Antony Gormley's artwork and John Wayne in 'The Searchers'
What is your favourite book?
Antonia Fraser's 'Mary, Queen of Scots'. She was such a complex, fascinating character, very flawed and a complete disaster, really, yet so important. I'm also a real sucker for detail - Fraser knows what people wore, what they ate and what the weather was like - it makes you feel very connected with the past.
What is your favourite film?
'The Usual Suspects' would be my favourite of recent years. I also love John Ford's 'The Searchers'. It's a really well-drawn film, so beautifully made. It's quite dark and unpredictable, but there are some good performances by John Wayne and Ward Bond.
What is your favourite piece of music?
Joni Mitchell, James Taylor and Randy Newman are my big favourites, but just now I'm listening to 'The Unseen Stream' by Troy Donockley who worked with me on my new album. He's a Celtic classical composer who writes beautiful ambient music within the framework of folk. It's very filmic and rich and it evokes all sorts of emotions and pictures. It's life-affirming stuff.
What is your favourite play?
'Macbeth'. It's got everything: Death, destruction, magic, sex - everything that makes you feel anything. I also love anything by Willy Russell. I've been in two of his musical offerings ('Blood Brothers' and 'John, Paul, George, Ringo...And Bert' in the 70s) and his plays are so real. They've got a lot to say about the human condition but in a very entertaining way. I want some heart and soul in what I watch. If you can't talk about what you've seen in the pub afterwards, then it's not been very good.
What is your favourite work of art?
'Field For The British Isles' by Antony Gormley would have to be my favourite. It's an installation of a group of several thousand tiny hand-moulded terracotta figures in a room and you view it from the doorway. There's just something quite unnerving about these hundreds of tiny figures looking at you. People lie on the floor and peep at them round corners because they don't want to catch their gaze - it's really extraordinary.
