May 30, 2026 · 6 min · 4 segments
The journalist and broadcaster Katie Razzall is the BBC’s culture and media editor - and co-host of The Media Show. She was formerly Newsnight’s UK editor and correspondent for Channel 4 News - but…
Katie RazzallGuest
[instrumental music] The piece of music I've inherited is Petite Fleur by Sidney Bechet.
When I was a teenager, it's embarrassing to look back on really, but I was obsessed with the idea that I would've been in the French Resistance if I'd been born in the war, uh, and that I needed to speak French perfectly, which I obviously don't even now.
And I tried to look sophisticated by reading books by Camus and Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, and I think it all started with Sidney Bechet and this track, and it was passed on to me by my wonderful mum.
And she passed it on because when she was a young teenager, she went on an exchange to Paris from Preston.
She would describe it to us, Preston, gray and dull and post-war, and her family didn't really have much money at all, and Paris just completely blew her mind.
I went to Westminster School where we were forced, I say, we, we did have to go to abbey.
I mean, as a child, I was in the church choir, so I do still love choral music.
My voice is on Muse's The 2nd Law: Unsustainable, and they said they were looking for somebody with a newsy voice to read this bit from The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, I think is what it is.
And then, uh, we got invited to the gig that they were doing to promote this album, you know, many months later when I'd kind of forgotten about it, and we're sitting at The O2, and this was the most disappointing thing.
They'd said, "Look, we've made a video, but we made it in LA, so we've got somebody else.
We've got an actress to be in the video." So in a way it was great 'cause I'm totally anonymous while also basking in the only time I am ever going to light up a stadium.
And this is a track that reminds me of the best of times and the worst of times.
What'd you wanna go and ask for? A few days into our honeymoon when we were asleep in our cabana in Sri Lanka on the beach, the tsunami hit, and we were all absolutely terrified, of course, but we also didn't know what had happened.
[instrumental music] The piece of music I've inherited is Petite Fleur by Sidney Bechet.
When I was a teenager, it's embarrassing to look back on really, but I was obsessed with the idea that I would've been in the French Resistance if I'd been born in the war, uh, and that I needed to speak French perfectly, which I obviously don't even now.
And I tried to look sophisticated by reading books by Camus and Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, and I think it all started with Sidney Bechet and this track, and it was passed on to me by my wonderful mum.
And she passed it on because when she was a young teenager, she went on an exchange to Paris from Preston.
She would describe it to us, Preston, gray and dull and post-war, and her family didn't really have much money at all, and Paris just completely blew her mind.
I went to Westminster School where we were forced, I say, we, we did have to go to abbey.
I mean, as a child, I was in the church choir, so I do still love choral music.
My voice is on Muse's The 2nd Law: Unsustainable, and they said they were looking for somebody with a newsy voice to read this bit from The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, I think is what it is.
And then, uh, we got invited to the gig that they were doing to promote this album, you know, many months later when I'd kind of forgotten about it, and we're sitting at The O2, and this was the most disappointing thing.
They'd said, "Look, we've made a video, but we made it in LA, so we've got somebody else.
We've got an actress to be in the video." So in a way it was great 'cause I'm totally anonymous while also basking in the only time I am ever going to light up a stadium.
And this is a track that reminds me of the best of times and the worst of times.
What'd you wanna go and ask for? A few days into our honeymoon when we were asleep in our cabana in Sri Lanka on the beach, the tsunami hit, and we were all absolutely terrified, of course, but we also didn't know what had happened.
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Surviving the Sri Lanka Tsunami
Katie recalls surviving Sri Lanka's 2004 tsunami
Voice on a Muse Track
She reveals lending vocals to Muse track
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