This week's guest is Tim Montgomerie, editor of Conservativehome.com . Tim has become a regular media pundit for programmes including Radio 4's Today, The Week in Westminster, The World at One, PM, The World Tonight, Any Questions?, BBC1's Daily Politics and Ten'o'clock News, and Newsnight. He's also written for The Spectator and a number of national newspapers including The Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph and The Independent.

What’s the latest download on your Ipod?

Chants from Taizé and also Moby’s Extreme Ways (because it’s the theme music of The Bourne Ultimatum – a great movie to end a great series of films).

Audio books on my iPod: Currently on the go are John Keegan’s Intelligence In War and Philip Gourevitch’s We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families.  Everything happening in Darfur today encouraged me to revisit Gourevitch's book.

What was the last thing you saw at the theatre?

I saw The Taming of The Shrew in Washington three weeks ago.  Before that it was Frost Nixon in New York, in July.  Michael Sheen was great as Frost but Frank Langella’s Nixon stole the show.

Tate Britain or Tate Modern?

Tate Britain.  Partly because I love the restaurant there.  I’d recommend trying the chips covered in dripping.

I enjoyed the Turner exhibition that was hosted by the Smithsonian while I was in DC for Thanksgiving.  I was delighted that it was receiving many more visitors than the concurrent exhibition of Edward Hopper paintings.

What are you reading at the moment?

Mike Gerson’s Heroic Conservatism was my last book. I’ve nearly finished John Bolton’s Surrender Is Not An Option. Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Life is next. I’m saving a biography of James Stewart for Christmas. I’ll try and watch It’s A Wonderful Life, The Shop Around the Corner, Mr Smith Goes To Washington and The Philadelphia Story DVDs then too.  The America portrayed in those movies caused me to fall in love with the USA.

Which cultural figure from the past or present would you most like to meet or have met?

Can I choose more than one person?  If yes, it would be The Inklings group of writers who met between the 1930s and 1960s in Oxford.  I have read so much C S Lewis and Tolkien over the years.  It would have been inspiring to have been a fly on the wall as they drank, ate and debated with others in Oxford’s Eagle and Child pub.

Which cultural figure from the past or present do you think is the most over-rated?

Anyone who has won The Turner Prize.

The X-Factor or Strictly Come Dancing?

My mum loves all of these programmes but I have never watched either.  Does that make me the equivalent of one of those High Court judges who doesn't know the name of pop groups?  But... I must admit to being an Elvis Presley fan and recorded the recent World’s Greatest Elvis from that Saturday night slot.

You’re asked by a paper to review either The Magic Flute or We Will Rock You. Which do you choose?

The Magic Flute although I always think of David Hare’s Absence of War when I listen to it.

Have you ever walked out of a play, film, concert or other production?

Have you ever walked out of a play, film, concert or other production?
Yes, in the late 80s.  Caryl Churchill’s Serious Money was playing at the Northcott Theatre in Exeter.  I went with my dad.  I hated the play’s politics.  My dad hated the bad language.  We left for a curry at the interval.