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Tue 9 December 2025 6:30, UK
If you’re like me, then you might well have an annual tradition around this time of year that necessitates watching all eight Harry Potter movies back to back, usually between Christmas Eve and New Year, while getting demonstrably fatter and marvelling at how bad the acting was in the first film (understandably given Daniel Radcliffe was 11) and how good he was by the end of it all.
So good, in fact, that you can’t imagine anyone else being the boy wizard, which will make the success of the forthcoming HBO series an interesting one to gauge. Radcliffe is Potter, simple as that, and it will take some serious on-screen magic to change opinion. Since he finished those eight films, which will surely, rather like Star Wars, go on to be watched for decades to come, he has carved out an impressive career blending theatre with some brave film choices.
You only have to see a film like 2010’s Swiss Army Man (flatulent corpse used for transport) or 2019’s Guns Akimbo (man has pistols grafted to his hands) to know Radcliffe obviously takes some delight in doing the unexpected and that’s also reflected in his musical preferences, which take in the godfathers of punk, a famously irascible 1960s legend and a pair of early 2000s warring indie lads.
Speaking to radio station KCRW about his favourite tracks, Radcliffe highlighted the Sex Pistols as one of the most important band in history, albeit slightly hyperbolically, picking their song ‘EMI’ and saying: “In my opinion, and I can and will get flack for this I’m sure, but in my opinion they are as important as The Beatles in terms of what they did for British music”.
He added, “I feel like the Sex Pistols are often seen as more important for what they stood for and what they brought on than for the actual music, but the actual music is really, really good too.”
Just for the avoidance of doubt here, the Sex Pistols are categorically not as important as the Beatles in terms of what they did for British music, so we can dismiss that straight off the bat, but they were definitely culturally vital, and a huge amount of great music that followed them wouldn’t exist without John Lydon and co. It’s his opinion, so that’s fine, but it’s just not one based on fact.
Elsewhere in Radcliffe’s “eff the system” selection, he chose the famously grumpy Lou Reed’s ‘Walk on the Wild Side’, saying: “I’ve rediscovered it lately and it’s just an amazing song. It’s definitely one, if I could only listen to five songs the rest of my life, it would definitely be one of them.”
He also picked Pete Doherty and Carl Barat’s The Libertines and ‘Time for Heroes’ from their 2002 album Up the Bracket. Radcliffe explained: “They were the Sex Pistols of my generation, I think in some ways. They are a much more lyrical band, they’re a much more romantic band than the Sex Pistols, but they do have the same kind of chaotic, anarchic energy.”
Next up, he went with alt-rock legends The Pixies and ‘Broken Face’ from their self-titled EP, again released in 2002. He said: “What’s great about doing it (looking up meaning of Pixies lyrics) is you look it up and you’re like “I still don’t really know what’s going on, but I don’t mind.”
Finally, the actor landed on American singer Perfume Genius with ‘Hood’ from Put Your Back N 2 it, saying: “Always very beautiful… a lot of his songs deal with longing – I think or maybe not, I’m probably putting words into his mouth – it’s a very hard thing to sing about without it sounding whiny.”
Daniel Radcliffe’s five favourite songs:Lou Reed – ‘Walk On the Wild Side’Sex Pistols – ‘EMI’The Libertines – ‘Time For Heroes’Pixies – ‘Broken Face’Perfume Genius – ‘Hood’
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