LONDON.- This August, Oxbridge Art Historian, polymath and playwright Dr Laura-Jane Foley launched a brand-new history of art podcast My Favourite Work of Art. Over the course of 12 episodes Foley invites some of Britain’s best-known personalities including John Bercow, Bel Mooney, Geoffrey Munn, Brooks Newmark and Gillies Mackinnon to discuss their favourite work of art. From Picasso to Rossetti and Warhol to Goya, the podcast reveals the inspirational, intriguing and surprising stories about how these artists have impacted their lives.

A Desert Island Discs for art lovers, My Favourite Work of Art Podcast is the perfect podcast for anyone interested in how art shapes our society, culture and individual lives. Drawing on the private passions of 12 very different people from public life, Foley’s podcast reveals art as the great equalizer, showing how, when stood in front of a work of art, everyone’s response is important, young or old, expert or novice.

Ranging from Brooks Newmark’s recollections on how his mother’s status as a Warhol muse exposed him to dinner parties with Andy Warhol and the Studio 54 set, to Gillies MacKinnon’s discussion on how his filmmaking career experienced a renaissance in the wake of visiting Goya’s black paintings, each episode explores an artwork’s unique significance to a guest. Over 12 original episodes, the series includes interviews with:

· John Bercow, the Speaker of the House of Commons. Taking part in a rare interview, he pairs two artworks, a 17th century oil painting, which embodies political honour, with a contemporary light sculpture, ‘A New Dawn’, an artwork celebrating the 150-year campaign of women’s voting rights. Bercow notes the sculpture’s positioning in the House of Commons is purposefully unavoidable, and anyone who enters must stare change straight in the face.

· Brooks Newmark, former Conservative MP, discusses his mother’s role as Andy Warhol’s muse, and how aged just 15, this experience exposed him to the high octane, glamorous world of the Studio 54 set, including Fred Hughes, Roy Lichtenstein and Henry Moore as well as Warhol himself.

· Geoffrey Munn, presenter on BBC Antiques Roadshow, shares his thirty-year quest to track down a one-of-a-kind watch designed by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. This detective story culminates in the incredible discovery of Rossetti’s unique sketches.

· Gillies Mackinnon, BAFTA nominated filmmaker, on how his career renaissance came about after visiting Goya’s black paintings, altering the vision and conception of his films.

· Bel Mooney, one of Britain’s most successful journalists and author of over 25 books, reflects on how in her solitary childhood and tempestuous homelife she found comfort and inspiration in her regular visits to The Virgin and Child in Glory by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo in the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.

My Favourite Work of Art is available to download from Apple Podcasts at www.acast.com/myfavouriteworkofart

Dr Laura-Jane Foley is one of the UK’s leading art historians. A regular commentator for TV and Radio, Laura-Jane has an MA (hons) from Cambridge University, an MSt from Oxford University and a PhD from Kingston University.

A Polymath, Laura-Jane is also a British playwright. Her play An Evening with Lucian Freud is based on Foley’s own experience of meeting and inspiring the artist Lucian Freud. After refusing to sit for Freud, she was inspired to write the play to readdress the power balance between the artist and artist’s muse. The play starred Cressida Bonas and Maureen Lipman and was staged at the Leicester Square Theatre in 2015.

A former tutor in History of Art in the Institute of Continuing Education at Cambridge University, her research spans modern and contemporary art, Lucian Freud, ekphrasis and the Grand Tour. She has curated several projects, most recently The Shakespeareans, which showed famous actors who have played Shakespearean characters, including Joss Ackland, Jonathan Pryce, Greg Wise, Emma Fielding, Zoë Wanamaker and Christopher Biggins.

She also trained as a librettist at the Royal Opera House and worked with composers Stephen Barlow, Dimitri Scarlato, Tom Armstrong and Luis Soldado. After training at RADA and the HTV West drama workshop, Laura-Jane contributed to a range of television and radio programmes, ranging from art and politics to reality TV. Credits include Things Not To Say (BBC3), Channel 4 News (Channel 4), The Politics Show (BBC1) Greatest TV Moments (Channel 5), The Great Culture Quiz (Sky Arts), Faking It (Channel 4), The Breakfast Show (BBC Radio Oxford), University Challenge (BBC2), Watch Over Me (KidsTaskforce), Perfect Woman (Olympus Production) and a film on the artist Mary Fedden.

A former Cambridge choral scholar, Laura-Jane still sings and performs regularly with The Bach Choir in London. She has sung on several CDs including the film soundtrack for Disney's Prince Caspian. Her new album A Fond Heart- Love Songs and Lullabies is out in November 2018.