From The Vault: Brian Cox

Full Disclosure with James O'Brien

Global

Society & Culture

4.6 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 29 August 2025

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From a childhood in Dundee marked by loss, poverty and resilience, to becoming one of the most respected actors of his generation, Brian Cox’s life and career have been defined by an unrelenting pursuit of truth on and off stage. In this in-depth conversation with James O’Brien, the Emmy and Golden Globe winner reflects on the death of his father at eight years old, the formative influence of his mother’s struggles with mental health, and the teachers who first spotted his talent.

Cox charts his journey from the Dundee Repertory Theatre to the Royal Shakespeare Company, the West End and Hollywood, revisiting the defining roles that shaped his craft- from portraying Hannibal Lecter before Anthony Hopkins to his acclaimed turn as Logan Roy in Succession. He speaks candidly about the compromises and convictions that have steered his career, the cultural and political forces that have shaped his worldview, and his ongoing belief in the power of storytelling to confront injustice.

Thoughtful, uncompromising and rich with anecdote, this episode offers a compelling portrait of an actor whose commanding presence is matched by his fierce intellect and refusal to play by the rules.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Nothing beats a vibe holiday.
0:04.7	You and your mates, all in one place.
0:07.5	Chilling or partying in spots like Ibiza, Tenor reef and Ayanapa,
0:12.3	especially when you can save up to £300 for a group of six,
0:16.4	plus get an extra £100 off per booking with MyJet 2.
0:20.8	Book this summer now from London Luton Airport.
0:24.5	Bybe by JETU holidays.
0:26.7	After Natural Protected, subject to availability in conditions.
0:32.1	This is a Global Player Original podcast.
0:40.8	Hello and welcome to full disclosure.
0:43.3	I am still on holiday.
0:44.8	So another visit to the vault from the extraordinary archive of interviews that we've built up over the years.
0:51.9	Sometimes, I hope this doesn't sound self-congratulatory. Sometimes I look at the list. I did it on the show the other day actually. And I sort of think, blimey, that's a remarkable roster. And we continue to knock it out week after week after week. I was really looking forward to this one. And oddly, the more you look forward to it, the more conscious you are,
1:11.0	the possibility of being disappointed. Happily, I was not. We're heading into the archive to revisit
1:18.0	a conversation with the legendary Brian Cox. I know what you're thinking, which one? Because I've
1:22.6	done them both on full disclosure. But this is not the astrophysicist, although that episode is in the archive.
1:28.7	This is the actor who somewhat later in life achieved a new level of fame when he starred as Logan Roy in succession.
1:38.4	But, I mean, he had several lifetimes worth of stories and experiences to share long before he moved into that sort of
1:45.9	megastar status and we talk about as much of it as we possibly can cram into an hour during the
1:51.6	course of this powerful often quite moving conversation he has a clarity and a compassion
1:57.5	that shined through and his childhood in post-war Dundee was was pretty bleak.
2:03.2	I love the redemptive nature of theatre, the way that performing managed to free him, if you like,
	...

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