Interview: Alexander Armstrong on his dream cruise, Classic FM and what's coming in 2025
As part of Viking’s partnership with Classic FM, we meet Classic FM presenter Alexander Armstrong
You help Classic FM fundraise for Global’s Make Some Noise charity, which raises money for smaller UK charities. Why is it close to your heart?
Global’s Make Some Noise is particularly important because it looks after community-based charities that make a massive difference.
Our brilliant major charities obviously do phenomenal work, but we can speak direct to these small organisations which sometimes have only a handful of people working for them and see directly what they do for their communities.
So between the communities and us, there are these lovely small institutions.
It’s a much more direct form of action for us, and so satisfying to put lifeblood into these crucial local-level charities.
You and the presenter Aled Jones were recently filmed hunting for clues on Viking Neptune, and listeners who donated to Make Some Noise were in with a chance of winning a Viking ocean voyage to Scandinavia. Which cruise is top of your wish list?
It would have to be the Norwegian fjords. I’ve been to Norway, but to flit along its coastline and see them from the sea would just be staggering. I would love that.
How did you find presenting Classic FM Live with Viking at the Royal Albert Hall in October?
The music was phenomenal. I’m particularly excited for listeners to hear the former official royal harpist Alis Huws and the Brazilian violinist Nathan Amaral – a Classic FM rising star – who performed Vaughan Williams’ ‘The Lark Ascending.’
But the thing that makes the hair stand up on my arms is having our audience, our listeners, there – sometimes coming to a classical music concert for the first time.
It’s such a spectacle, it blows everyone’s socks off. You can feel it in the room. Everybody’s jaws are on the floor as they watch phenomenal musicians playing classical music they know and love.
Seeing a world-class orchestra on that scale belting out the music they love is a moving, visceral experience.
What does 2025 hold in store for you?
As well as my Classic FM weekday show, I’ll be promoting my new children’s tale Evenfall: The Golden Linnet when it comes out in paperback in April 2025.
At some point next year, I’ll also have to deliver book two, which is exciting.
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About Sarah Riches
After a five-year stint living in Asia, Sarah was inspired to become a travel journalist. Sarah has freelanced for Condé Nast Traveller and National Geographic Traveller and is the author of London Almanac (2010) and Culture Smart! The Essential Guide to British Customs & Culture (2024). She was also the deputy editor of Time Out Abu Dhabi, Where London and London Planner, digital editor of Wanderlust – the UK’s oldest travel magazine.
