Saturday Review

By BBC Radio 4Society & Culture

Saturday Review episodes

February 10, 2018 Collateral, Loveless, Gundog, Catapult, T-Shirt: Cult-Culture-Subversion
David Hare's first episodic television drama Collateral is a BBC and Netflix co production starring Carey Mulligan, John Simm, and Billie Piper. Set in contemporary London it explores the challenges posed by mass migration as a result of war, poverty and persecution. Hare references ground breaking television such as Cathy Come Home, The Boys From The Blackstuff and A Very British Coup as inspiration: will Collateral prove as innovative and as game changing?
Winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes and Best Film at the London Film Festival, Andrey Zvyagintsev's Loveless tells the story of a divorcing couple whose 12 year old son goes missing after an argument. Drawing parallels with Ingmar Bergman's Scenes From a Marriage, Loveless is a probing look at the state of modern Russian society.
Gundog marks the Royal Court debut of writer Simon Longman and is directed by Vicky Featherstone, recently named the most influential person working in British theatre by The Stage newspaper. Gundog is set on a remote farm where sisters Becky and Anna are holding it together after the death of their mother when a stranger enters their midst.
Emily Fridlund's debut novel History of Wolves was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2017. Born in Minnesota, her new collection of short stories Catapult is a wry look at the trials and tribulations of American family life.
T-shirt: Cult - Culture - Subversion at the Fashion and Textile Museum in London explores the T-shirt in the 20th Century, charting the history, culture and subversion of the most affordable and popular item of clothing on the planet. From men's underclothes to symbol of rock and roll rebellion, through punk and politics to luxury fashion item, T-shirts broadcast who we are and who we want to be.
48 min
February 03, 2018 Journey's End, Julius Caesar, Julian Barnes, Charles I at the Royal Academy, Trauma on ITV
Journey's End opened as a play in 1928. Set in the trenches of the First World War, there's a new film version which will hold a different resonance for modern viewers as for those theatre-goers 90 years ago . The horrors of war never really change, how do artists successfully interpret it anew?
The latest production at London's Bridge Theatre is of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. There have been a lot of recent productions -what do our reviewer think makes this one special?
Julian Barnes new novel -The Only Story - is about an affair between a young man and an older woman in 1960's Home Counties suburbia; an affair whose effects are reflected upon over the years.
An exhibition of works from the collection of Charles I which were sold off and dispersed by Oliver Cromwell have now been gathered together for the first time in centuries, at the Royal Academy in London
A new ITV drama - Trauma - starring Adrian Lester and John Simm begins on ITV. A trauma surgeon must face the reality of a bereaved father
Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Christopher Frayling, Bridget Minamore and Bidisha. The producer is Oliver Jones.
48 min
January 27, 2018 Peter Carey, Gursky, Last Flag Flying, John, Altered Carbon
Peter Carey's novel A Long Way From Home tells the story of a husband and wife taking part in a round-Australia endurance race in the 1950s.
The Hayward Gallery in London reopens after a multi-million pound refit with an exhibition of work by the photographer Andreas Gursky. Giant photographs on brutalist walls.
Richard Linklater's film Last Flag Flying is about three Vietnam veterans who come together to bury a son who has died in the conflict in Iraq. It stars Laurence Fishburne, Brian Cranston and Steve Carell.
John is the name of a new play by Annie Baker at The Dorfman at London's National Theatre. Nearly three and a half hours long it's set in a B+B in Gettysburg Pennsylvania.
Altered Carbon is a dystopian sci-fi series starting on Netflix. Is it possible to look to the future without mining the tropes of Bladerunner?
Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Katie Puckrik, Liz Jobey and Ekow Eshun. The producer is Oliver Jones.
53 min
January 20, 2018 Coco, Tim Pears, All's Well That Ends Well, Hauser and Wirth Somerset, The Bastard of Istanbul
Disney Pixar's latest release is their first with an all-Latin cast. Coco explores the Mexican tradition of The Day of The Dead and a young boy's coming to terms with his heritage
The new novel from Tim Pears is the second in his proposed trilogy. The Wanderers is the story of two young people in pre-WW1 England and the horses that are part of their lives
All's Well That Ends Well has opened at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at London's Globe Theatre
Hauser and Wirth Somerset has opened a new exhibition "The Land We Live In- The Land We Left Behind" that deals with attitudes to the countryside
BBC Radio 4 has dramatised Elif Shafak's novel The Bastard of Istanbul as part of the Reading Europe season of programnmes
Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Tom Holland, Stephanie Merritt and Kathryn Hughes. The producer is Oliver Jones.
49 min
January 13, 2018 Rita, Sue and Bob Too; 3 Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri; Lily Tuck; History In The Making; Britannia
The controversy surrounding London's Royal Court Theatre's staging of Andrea Dunbar's semi-autobiographical play Rita Sue and Bob Too led to it being postponed and then rapidly reinstated. Written in 1982 when she was 19, can it now be seen as a period piece?
3 Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri is a darkly comic film starring Frances McDormand, written produced and directed by Martin McDonagh
Lily Tuck is a winner of The National Book Award in the USA. Her latest novel Sisters imagines a woman trying to deal with her relationship with her husband's first wife.
History In The Making at Alan Cristea Gallery in London is an exhibition of works which make reference to, or appropriate, historical art as part of their working practice, Britannia is a new TV series set in 43AD, "following the Roman army as they return to crush the Celtic heart of Britannia". It's on Sky Atlantic
Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Miranda Carter, Maria Delgado and Lawrence Norfolk. The producer is Oliver Jones.
47 min
January 07, 2018 Digital arts: Crown Heights, The Boat, Google Cultural Institute, The Miniaturists
A digital edition of Saturday Review presented by Antonia Quirke.
Crown Heights is a new on-demand film based on an episode of NPR's This American Life, telling the true story of Trinidadian teenager Colin Warner's twenty year wrongful incarceration.
The Miniaturists takes a long-running short play night and turns it into a podcast with five new short plays from up and coming British playwrights.
The reviewers explore the world's greatest and strangest museums, galleries and monuments with Google Cultural Institute.
The story of a refugee's journey across the sea is rendered in an interactive graphic novel format in Nam Le & Matt Huynh's The Boat.
Antonia's guests are Inua Ellams, Andy Riley and Errollyn Wallen. The producer is Caitlin Benedict.
42 min
December 30, 2017 Listeners and reviewers choose the best of the arts from 2017 from across the genres
Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Kerry Shale, Tiffany Jenkins and Shahidha Bari as well as listeners around the country who choose the best of the arts from 2017 from across the genres.
FILM
Dunkirk
Bladerunner 2049
78/52
Manchester by the Sea
La-La Land
Get Out
Elle
Frantz
Land of Mine
Wonder Woman
Atomic Blonde
THEATRE
Boudica at the Globe
Barbershop Chronicles
Follies at the National Theatre
Hamlet at the Pinter Theatre
The Best Thing
Finding Joy
Gloria at Hampstead Theatre
Network at the National Theatre
Flight Pattern at the Royal Opera House
The Ferryman at Royal Court
The End of Hope at Orange Tree Theatre
Consent at the National Theatre
Girl From The North Country at the Old Vic
Angels in America at the National Theatre
The Last Testament of Lillian Bilocca at Hull Truck
BOOK
The Book of Dust by Philip Pullman
4321 by Paul Auster
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
To Kill the President by Sam Bourne
Stranger in Their Own Land by Arlie Hochschild
Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Homegoing Yaa Gyasi
Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor
ART
Blade Nayan Kulkarni
Jasper Johns at the Royal Academy of Arts
Howard Hodgkin: Paintng India at the Hepworth Gallery
Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power at Tate Modern
JW Anderson: Disobedient Bodies at the Hepworth Gallery
Revolutionary Russia at the Royal Academy
Kathe Kollwitz at Icon Gallery
Frank Quitely at Kelvingrove Museum Glasgow
Michelangelo and Sebastiano at the National Gallery
Hokusai at the Victoria and Albert Museum
TELEVISION
The Handmaid's Tale
Schitt's Creek
GLOW
Detectorists
The Leftovers
Mindhunter
Ken Burn's The Vietnam War
Wormwood
The Good Fight
Alias Grace
Back
The producer is Hilary Dunn.
51 min
December 23, 2017 Hamilton musical, Irish film Sanctuary, Louise Erdrich novel, BBC TV Christmas specials
The much-anticipated musical Hamilton has opened in London. It tells the story of Alexander Hamilton; one of the Founding Fathers of The United States with intentionally colour-conscious casting of non-white actors as the Founding Fathers. It has been a phenomenon on Broadway and across the US; how will it play with British audiences?
Irish film Sanctuary has a cast made up almost exclusively of actors with learning difficulties. It lightly tells the story of a trip to the cinema where the best laid plans go awry. And even though it includes hugging and learning, does it tread the difficult line avoiding sentimentality or patronising the cast and the issues raised?
In Louise Erdrich's newest novel Future Home Of The Living God, evolution is running backwards and all around the central character society is crumbling. She's a 26 year old fighting for her life in an oppressive post-cataclysm America, pregnant (maybe by an angel)
And we review 3 of the BBC's TV Christmas specials: Father Brown, Upstart Crow and Not Going Out - what is the attraction of these yearly yuletide delights?
Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Sarah Churchwell, Dreda Say Mitchell and David Benedict. The producer is Oliver Jones.
47 min
December 16, 2017 Crooked House, League of Gentlemen, Twilight Zone, From Life, The Odyssey
Crooked House: there's an all-star film adaptation of one of Agatha Christie's own favourite novels. Its being shown on Channel 5 before being released in the cinema; does that bode well or ill?
The League of Gentlemen began at The Edinburgh Fringe, transferred to radio then to TV, to a stage show and then to film. They're returning to BBC TV for 3 pre-Christmas specials, reviving favourite characters from the many iterations.
Cult American TV programme Twilight Zone has been adapted for the stage in a new production at London's Almeida Theatre. How does Rod Serling's classic sci-fi series work when its not 'on the box'?
From Life at The Royal Academy in London is an exhibition exploring how artists have made art from life.
There's a new translation of Homer's Odyssey by Emily Wilson; the first into English by a woman. Does this give us a radically new perspective on the classical work?
Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Helen Lewis, Sophie Hannah and Rosie Goldsmith. the producer is Oliver Jones.
56 min
December 09, 2017 Menashe, Parliament Square, Carmen Maria Machado, Winnie The Pooh, Marvelous Mrs Maisel
Menashe is a new film set in the Hasidic Jewish community in New York with almost the dialogue in Yiddish. It's a story about a hapless father trying to bond with his son and also conform to religious expectations
Parliament Square is the 2017 Bruntwood Prize winning play at London's Bush Theatre about a woman on a mission
Her Body and Other Parties is a collection of short stories by American author Carmen Maria Machado
The story of the creative minds behind Winnie The Pooh - AA Milne and EH Shepard - are the subject of a new exhibition at London's Victoria and Albert Museum
Marvelous Mrs Maisel is a TV drama series about a New York Jewish housewife in the 1950s who decided to become a stand-up comedian
Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Lionel Shriver, Bridget Kendall and Michael Arditti. The producer is Oliver Jones.
49 min