Matthew Stadlen


Matthew Benedict Stadlen is an English radio and television presenter, producer and writer.
He has been a weekend presenter on LBC since October 2016 and also stands in for other presenters on the station during the week. He previously presented the BBC interview series Five Minutes With... and the BBC documentary series "On the Road with..." His interviews and documentaries have appeared throughout the BBC television network. He also wrote comment pieces and had an interview column with The Daily Telegraph, "The Matthew Stadlen Interview".
Stadlen has hosted 200 live events around the UK. He has interviewed Sir Michael Caine, John Cleese, Dame Darcey Bussell, Carlos Acosta, Rory Bremner, Omid Djalili, Juliet Stevenson, Sir Vince Cable and others on stage.

Background

Stadlen is the grandson of Austrian Jews, the concert pianist Peter Stadlen and Hedi Stadlen, the activist and musicologist, both born in Vienna. Matthew was born to Sir Nicholas Stadlen, a High Court judge and Frances Stadlen in London.
He attended St Paul's School, and later graduated from Clare College, Cambridge, with a first-class honours degree in Classics.
He has said that he gets his ginger hair from his Jewish great, great uncle, Onkl Friedl. He considers himself half Jewish and has spoken out against anti-Semitism many times. He is the great, great, great nephew of Johann Strauss II.

Career

Stadlen worked as a journalist on The Bulletin in Brussels and co-wrote The Politics Companion, before joining the BBC in September 2004.
He worked as a producer on the BBC One show This Week and output edited some of the programmes, and also worked on Newsnight.
Stadlen presented and produced Five Minutes With... from 2008, interviewing over 220 public figures, including Elle Macpherson, Stephen Fry, Richard Dawkins, Martin Amis, Peter Hitchens, Serena Williams and Ricky Gervais. He made 29 documentaries for the BBC News Channel series On The Road With.... Subjects included Nigel Kennedy, Tracey Emin, Nicola Benedetti, Rabbi Dr Harvey Belovski, Stuart Broad, Eton Head Master Tony Little, Bryn Terfel and Elle Macpherson.
Stadlen has interviewed for The Spectator and extensively for the Radio Times, and has worked as a consultant on the ITV political programme, Peston on Sunday. He also had an interview column with The Daily Telegraph, "The Matthew Stadlen Interview", for which he interviewed famous figures including John Cleese, Sir David Attenborough and Dawn French.
Stadlen has been a birdwatcher since early childhood and is passionate about the natural world. He is the author of , a book that encourages people to open their eyes and ears to the everyday beauty of the bird life on their doorstep and beyond. It is published by Papadakis and illustrated with his own photographs from home and abroad.