Saturday Review

By BBC Radio 4Society & Culture

Saturday Review episodes

August 01, 2015 Three Days in the Country, Richard Long, Iris, Last Sparks of Sundown, A Hand Reached Down to Guide Me
Patrick Marber has re-imagined Turgenev's A Month In The Country as Three Days In The Country for The National Theatre - does his version do justice to a classic of Russian theatre?
There is a retrospective of the work of Richard Long at the Arnolfini Gallery in his hometown of Bristol which includes new works created from the environment.
93 year old stylist Iris Apfel is the subject of a fashion documentary by Robert Maysles.
Pulitzer Prize nominated author David Gates' collection of short stories "A Hand Reached Down To Guide Me" is his first for 15 years. Is it worth the wait?
British indi comedy film The Last Sparks of Sundown was made for £46,000; was it money well spent?
42 min
July 25, 2015 Mack and Mabel, Inside Out, Life in Squares, An Account of the Great Auk, Alice Anderson
There's a revival of Mack + Mabel, starring Michael Ball at the Festival Theatre in Chichester. By the team behind Hello Dolly, it's a tale of the silent movie era as it began to fall apart. A flop on Broadway in 1974, how does the new production fare?
Inside Out is the latest Pixar film. Set inside the head of an 11 year old girl some reviewer have praised it as the best children's film ever; will our reviewers agree?
Life in Squares on BBC2, is a drama about the glamorous, bohemian world of the Bloomsbury Set and their complicated intertwining love lives and careers.
Jessie Greengrass's debut work is a collection of short stories "An Account of the Decline of Great Auk, According to One Who Saw It". Is it a promising start?
The Wellcome Collection in London has an exhibition by Alice Anderson - winding copper wire around everyday objects; does this process imbue them with a different significance?
42 min
July 18, 2015 Volpone, The Wonders, Go Set a Watchman, Marc Quinn, Britain's Forgotten Slave Owners
The RSC's latest production is a contemporary setting of Ben Johnson's 17th century comedy play Volpone.
Italian film The Wonders, is a film which won the Jury Prize at this year's Cannes Festival. It's about a family of beekeepers struggling to survive.
Harper Lee is not a prolific author. Her first 'new' work in more than half a century is Go Set a Watchman. Can it possibly match the success of To Kill A Mockingbird (40 million sold)
Marc Quinn's exhibition The Toxic Sublime at White Cube Bermondsey includes hanging works and enormous outsize sculptures of seashells ,
The BBC TV programme Britain's Forgotten Slave Owners looks at how widespread ownership of slaves was before the 1833 act to abolish it.
42 min
July 11, 2015 Dear White People, Citizen, Invisible, The Outcast, Soundscapes
American comedy film Dear White People takes a look at race relations on a US campus - between the black and white students and within each group
Claudia Rankine's book Citizen deals with her own experience of everyday racism as well as the way white society deals with blackness
Invisible is a new work by Oscar-winning playwright Rebecca Lenkiewicz at London's Bush Theatre. It's about the effect that removing legal aid will have on the justice system - how well can she breathe life into such a potentially dry subject?
Sadie Jones' has adapted her own prize-winning novel The Outcast into a 2 part drama for BBC1 - does it make prize-worthy TV?
Soundscapes is a new exhibition at London's National Gallery - combining specially commissioned compositions with art works from the collection. is this a good or a ridiculous notion?
42 min
July 04, 2015 Amy, Apple Music, The Book of Aron, As Is, Cornell at the Royal Academy
Amy is Asif Kapadia's documentary telling the story of the short life of the talented singer Amy Winehouse.
We look at the launch of Apple Music - is it an exciting brand new way to explore what's out there or just another option in an already over-serviced market?
Jim Shepard's novel The Book of Aron is about a young boy in wartime Poland occupied by the Nazis. Does it manage to say something new about a familiar subject?
There's a revival in London of the first AIDS play: As Is. It premiered in New York in 1985 and won a TONY. What does it say about the situation today?
The Joseph Cornell retrospective at London's Royal Academy allows visitors to view collages rarely seen in the UK.
43 min
July 01, 2015 Educating Rita, Barbara Hepworth, Everyone's Going to Die, Book of Numbers, Not Safe for Work
Lenny Henry's career as an actor continues with Willy Russell's Educating Rita at Chichester's Minerva Theatre
The first Barbara Hepworth retrospective exhibition in London for half a century has opened at Tate Britain. Does it do her career justice? Everyone's Going To Die is a small scale British dark comedy film about hitmen, relationships and reincarnation
The author Joshua Cohen's latest novel is Book of Numbers about a writer called Joshua Cohen (not him) writing a biography of an internet genius called Joshua Cohen (also not him). Confused? Let us help you to make some sense.
Channel 4's Not Safe For Work is a comedy about the staff of a government department which has been moved from London out to the regions as part of a money-saving exercise.
42 min
June 20, 2015 Mr Holmes, The Household Spirit, Fighting History, The Brink, The Mother... With the Hat
Ian McKellan takes on the legendary role of Detective Sherlock Holmes in Mr Holmes, alongside a stellar cast including Laura Linney, Frances de La Tour and Roger Allam. A cantankerous 93 year old who has retired to the Sussex countryside with only his housekeeper and her ten year old son for company, Holmes becomes obsessed with his last unsolved case. How will McKellan's elderly Holmes appeal to cinema audiences so familiar with one of British literature's most iconic characters?
The Mother...With The Hat by Stephen Adly Guirgis opens at London's National Theatre and tells the story of Jackie, out of jail and staying clean thanks to his sponsor. He might even have found a job. And of course there's Veronica, who he's loved since 8th grade. Nothing could come between them - except a hat. The Mother...With The Hat received six Tony nominations on Broadway - how will it appeal to British audiences?
The Household Spirit is the follow up novel from American writer Todd Wodicka. Like his debut "All Shall be Well; And All Shall Be Well:And All Manner Things Shall Be Well," this book uses dark humour to provide insight into the human condition.
Another dark comedy in a new HBO tv series "The Brink," that focuses on a geopolitical crisis and its effect on three disparate and desperate men: Walter Larson (Tim Robbins), the U.S. Secretary of State; Alex Talbott (Jack Black), a Foreign Service officer stationed in Islamabad; and Zeke "Z-Pak" Tilson (Pablo Schreiber), a Navy fighter pilot with a side business dealing prescription drugs.
And Fighting History at Tate Britain in London explores 250 years of British history painting including work by artists as various as Winifred Knights and Stanley Spencer, and Rita Donagh and Jeremey Deller.
Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Tiffany Jenkins, Kevin Jackson and Jamila Gavin. The producer is Hilary Dunn.
42 min
June 13, 2015 London Road, Louis de Bernieres, The Tribe, The Red Lion Carsten Holler
London Road is a film of the groundbreaking musical play. Directed by Rufus Norris, it tells the story of a community in Ipswich recovering from a series of gruesome murders.
Louis de Bernieres' latest novel The Dust That Falls From Clouds looks at the lives of those 'left behind' by the First World War
Channel 4's The Tribe is applying the techniques usually used in programmes such as 24 Hours in A+E to a tribe in rural Ethiopia - lots of cameras, lots of microphones and unique access to a largely hitherto unknown community.
Patrick Marber's play The Red Lion deals with non-league football, corruption and compromised integrity.
A retrospective exhibition of the work of Belgian artist Carsten Holler has opened at The Hayward Gallery in London. His work is characterised by playful interactivity - will it impress or delight our reviewers?
Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Abigail Morris, Emma Jane Unsworth and Kerry Shale. The producer is Oliver Jones.
42 min
June 06, 2015 Oresteia, Listen Up Philip, Milan Kundera, Stonemouth, Duane Hanson
A brand new interpretation of the classical story The Oresteia begins a Greek Season at London's Almeida Theatre. How well does it bring an ancient story up-to-date?
Czech writer Milan Kundera has just published his first novel for 12 years The Festival of Insignificance
Iain Banks' 2012 novel Stonemouth about a young man returning - under a shadow - to his Scottish hometown has been dramatised for BBC1
London's Serpentine Gallery has 2 portraiture exhibitions opening - Duane Hanson and Lynette Yiadom Boakye.
The film Listen Up Philip follows the life and relationships of an obnoxious young author who seeks life advice from a similarly obnoxious older writer
Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Linda Grant, John Mullan and Frances Stonor Saunders. The producer is Oliver Jones.
42 min
May 30, 2015 Temple, Man Up, Humans, Sense8, Ryan Gattis, Grayson Perry
Temple is a new play at London's Donmar Warehouse. It imagines what happened behind the scenes when the Occupy Movement took over the steps of St Paul's Cathedral in 2011.
Simon Pegg stars in Man Up - an unconventional rom-com about a blind date that goes hilariously wrong.
We review 2 new TV Sci-fi dramas: Humans on Channel 4 and Sense8 on Netflix - can they compete with the bigger budgets of film?
Ryan Gattis' novel: All Involved is a fictionalised account of the 1992 LA riots which followed the acquittal of policemen for beating African-American Rodney King. 17 separate voices from gang members to firefighters tell their stories
Ceramicist Grayson Perry has a retrospective at Turner Contemporary in Margate, it's a selection from more than 30 years of his work
Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Lisa Appignanesi, Gabriel Gbadamosi and Michael Arditti. The producer is Oliver Jones.
42 min