Saturday Review

By BBC Radio 4Society & Culture

Saturday Review episodes

August 24, 2019 Almodovar's Pain and Glory, Robert Icke's The Doctor, Brassic, Peter Pomerantsev
Pedro Almodovar's new film Pain and Glory has been hailed as his most personal to date
The Doctor at London's Almeida Theatre is Robert Icke's latest production. Freely adapted from Arthur Schnitzler's Professor Bernhardi, it's a play about ethics, morals and the repercussions of decisions both personal and professional. And how does what we say we are affect other people's perceptions of us?
Peter Pomerantsev's "This is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality" is a book exploring the wreckage of liberal democracy and a search for the signs of its revival.
Brassic is a new TV series on Sky, co-created by This Is England’s Joe Gilgun and Bafta-winning writer Danny Brocklehurst. It's about a group of working-class friends in Lancashire finding ways to win at life
Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Adam Mars Jones, Dorian Lynskey and Kit Davis. The producer is Oliver Jones
Podcast Extra recommendations
Adam: Winter Journey by Roderick Williams and Fosse Verdon on BBCTV
Kit: Stay Free podcast and There There by Tommy Orange
Dorian: Succession Series 2 and This Had Oscar Buzz podcast
Tom: Mrs Palfrey at The Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor
51 min
August 17, 2019 Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Actually, Dora Maurer, Tea Obreht
Quentin Tarantino's 9th offering to the world (he's said he'll only do 10, then retire from directing) is Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, part fable, part historical love letter to LA in the 60s. It deals with the point when The Manson Family drove a stake through the heart of the 1960s peace and love movement.
Actually is a play by Annie Ziegler at London's Trafalgar Studios, dealing with the aftermath of an accusation of rape on a college campus
Dora Maurer was born in Hungary in 1936 and has a retrospective exhibition at Tate Modern, looking at more than 70 years of diverse creativity
Tea Obreht won a slew of the most prestigious literary prizes for her previous (debut) novel. Her latest, just published, is Inland, a story about pioneers in America and the camel corps
Andrew Davies is well known for his highly-acclaimed TV adaptations of classic literary works. He has just made Sanditon for ITV, based on the barely-begun work Jane Austen was writing when she died. He has said that he said all her material in the first half of the first episode, but the series runs to 8 episodes; how Austen-esque can it be?
Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Stephanie Merritt, Ryan Gilbey ad Karen Krizanovich. The producer is Oliver Jones
Podcast Extra recommendations:
Karen: Dearly Departed podcast
Ryan: The work of Horace Ove
Stephanie: Pericles at London's Globe Theatre
Tom: Tom Holland's Dominion and Peter Sedgley's Colour Cycle 3
51 min
August 12, 2019 At the Edinburgh Festivals, including The Secret River and the Pet Shop Boys Musical, Musik
We're at the Edinburgh Festivals, including the Pet Shop Boys/Jonathan Harvey musical starring Frances Barber: Musik. Also the stage adaptation of Kate Grenville's best-selling novel about the collision between settlers and Indigenous Australians, The Secret River. As well as the Bridget Riley retrospective at The National Gallery of Scotland and Blinded By The Light - the film of Safraz Mansoor's story about growing up in Luton and his love for the music of Bruce Springsteen.
Also we find out what wonders members of our audience have come across.
Tom Sutcliffe's guests Denise Mina, Louise Welsh and Don Paterson. The producer is Oliver Jones
Audience recommendations:
Samson Young at talbot Rice Gallery, Twice Over at Greenside, Bystanders at Summerhall, Something About Simon at Assembly George Square, The Edinburgh Night Walk at The Fruitmarket Gallery , Scottish Ballet's The Crucuble
PodcastExtra recommendations:
Denise -My Favourite Murder podcast
Don - Succession
Louise - Robert McFarlane's Underland
Tom -Documentary Now. And Crocodile Fever at The Traverse. And Peter Gynt at The Festival Theatre
also Cora Bissett - What Girls Are Made Of at The Assembly Hall
51 min
August 03, 2019 There Is a Light That Never Goes Out, Animals, Colson Whitehead, Olafur Eliasson, This Way Up
There Is A Light That Never Goes Out, Scenes From The Luddite Rebellion has just opened at Manchester Royal Exchange. Combining verbatim recreations and imagined encounters, it looks at Manchester and England at the beginning of industrialisation
Animals is a new film based on the novel by Emma Jane Unsworth. Two friends messily drift along and apart and back together in Dublin
Colson Whitehead's new novel The Nickel Boys fictionalises the true story of a reform institution in Florida where cruelty, abuse and violence were the norm
Olafur Eliasson: In Real Life is at Tate Modern in London - showing 27 years of the output of the Norwegian Icelandic artist
This Way Up is a new sitcom on Channel 4 starring Aisling Bea and Sharon Horgan
Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Henry Hitchings, Patrice Lawrence and Jen Harvie. The producer is Oliver Jones
PodcastExtra recommendations:
Jen: Burgerz by Travis Alabanza Shit Theatre's Drink Rum with Expats, and Fair Fringe /Cost Of The Fringe/ Fringe of Colour
Henry: Jonathan Gibbs - The Large Door
Patrice: Anthony Joseph - Kitch and Sam Selvon- The Lonely Londoners
48 min
July 27, 2019 Bridges of Madison County, Die Tomorrow, Fosse/Verdon, Last Supper In Pompeii, David Constantine
Bridges of Madison County began life as a novel, then became a film and is now a musical. Opening at London's Menier Chocolate Factory, it stars Jenna Russell in the lead role. How does it work on the stage?
Thai film Die Tomorrow sounds like it might be a Bond movie but is a thoughtful look at death and mortality; mixing different formats: documentary, drama, interview, but never showing any death
Fosse/Verdon begins soon on BBC2. It's an American drama which tells the story of the astonishingly talented choreographer and film director Bob Fosse (played by Sam Rockwell) and his personal and creative relationship with his wife; the dancer Gwen Verdon
Last Supper In Pompeii is a new exhibition at The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. It looks at the Roman city which was buried under lava in 79AD, through the prism of food and drink
David Constantine's new collection of short stories is The Dressing-Up Box, full of darkness and unsettling worlds
Ayesha Hazarika's guests are Deborah Moggach, Bridget Minamore and Michael Arditti. The producer is Oliver Jones
Podcast Extra recommendations:
Deborah - Crossbones Graveyard in Southwark
Michael - Tim Parks' Destiny
Bridget - The Mercury Prize nominees and Barbershop Chronicles
Ayesha - Love Island
57 min
July 20, 2019 Making Noise Quietly, Night of the Iguana, The Moon, Laura Cummings, I Am Nicola
Theatre director Dominic Dromgoole has made his feature film debut with Making Noise Quietly; a triptych of stories about the effects of war.
Tennessee Williams' play Night Of The Iguana is based on his 1948 novel and has just opened in a new production at London's Noel Coward Theatre, featuring Clive Own and Lia WIlliams
An exhibition looking at mankind's relationship with The Moon begins at The Royal Maritime Museum in Greenwich
Laura Cummings' biography of her mother's peculiar upbringing; On Chapel Sands
A new ITV drama starring Vicki McClure; I Am Nicola
Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Abigail Morris, Oliver Morton and Lynn Nead. The producer is Oliver Jones
Podcast extra recommendations:
Oliver: Herman Wouk – The Winds of War AND the Duncan Rand One Act Play Festival
Lynn: The Wonder of Wimbledon on TV
Abigail: a sonnet a day by Simon de Deney AND Call My Agent
Tom: Black Monday on Amazon Prime
49 min
July 13, 2019 The Manchester International Festival: Tree, David Lynch at Home, Parliament of Ghosts, David Nicholls. Only You and much more
The Manchester International Festival is a biannual event, enveloping the city in a wide range of arts events across the genres. We'll be casting our critical net as wide as possible
Film director David Lynch has curated a series of events at the venue Home, including an exhibition of his artwork and a series of concerts
There's been controversy around the Idris ELba/ Kwame Kei Armah play Tree, but will our panel think it's any good?
An exhibition by Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama; Parliament of Ghosts at The Whitworth Gallery reclaims and repurposes everyday artefacts
David Nicholls' new novel Sweet Sorrow is a tale of adolescent/early adult yearnings framed by a Shakespeare production
British indie film Only You follows a largely-carefree couple who get together and decide to have a baby but it's not as easy as they'd hoped
And (of course) much much more from MIF
Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Sarah Crompton, Katie Popperwell and Chris Thorpe. The producer is Oliver Jones
Podcast Extra recommendations
Sarah: Marius Petipa, The Emperor's Ballet Master by Nadine Meisner
Katie: Malcolm Gladwell's Revisionist History podcast
Chris: Abomination by Divide and Dissolve
Tom: Spiderman -Into the Spider-verse
51 min
July 06, 2019 Never Look Away, The End of History at London's Royal Court, 8 Days to the Moon, Fleischman Is in Trouble, Felix Vallotton
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's first film The Lives Of Others won the best Foreign Language Oscar, his follow-up The Tourist was a critical disaster. How will his latest - Never Look Away - fare critically and at the box office?
Jack Thorne's latest play The End Of History has just opened at London's Royal Court Theatre. It's the story - over three decades - of a left-leaning family who love each other and love to bicker.
8 Days To The Moon on BBC TV follows the progress of the three astronauts who went to the Moon half a century ago in Apollo 11. It uses previously unreleased audio recordings from within the lunar pod mixed with recreations of the journey.
Fleischman Is In Trouble is the debut novel by Taffy Brodesser-Akner, previously a features writer at The New York Times and GQ. It has had glowing reviews; what will our panle make of it?
An exhibition of work by Swiss-born artist Felix Vallotton at London's Royal Academy includes paintings and woodcuts in the many styles he adopted during his career. The show's subtitle is "Painter of Disquiet"
Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Rebecca Stott, Robert Hanks and Susan Jeffreys. The producer is Oliver Jones
Podcast extra recommendations:
Rebecca - Shame On me by Tessa McWatt
Robert - Ngaio Marsh (and you can see Susan as a model on a Ngaio Marsh cover here https://tinyurl.com/y2jmths4 )
Susan - Jodrell Bank Blue Dot Festival and The Night Sky 2019
Tom - Jack Reacher books and BBC World Service's 13 Minutes To The Moon
53 min
June 29, 2019 Support The Girls, The Hunt at The Almeida, Cut and Paste in Edinburgh, Grossman's Stalingrad
American indie film Support The Girls is set in a sports bar in America where the manager's day just keeps getting worse
The Hunt stared life as a multi award winning Danish film. Its been adapted for the stage at The Almeida Theatre in London
Cut and Paste; 400 Years of Collage in Edinburgh explores the sticky multi-shaped world of collage
Vasily Grossman's novel Stalingrad was his successor to Life and Fate. The first translation into English is eagerly awaited.
Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Viv Groskop, Briony Hanson and Cahal Dallat. The producers are Oliver Jones and Hilary Dunn
podcast extra recommendations:
Cahal: the poet Chen Chen
Viv: Mud and Stars by Sarah Wheeler and Game of Thrones
Briony: pose and Paris Is Burning
Tom: What/If on Netflix
53 min
June 22, 2019 Bitter Wheat, Toy Story 4, Keith Haring, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, Beecham House
Toy Story 4 hits the cinema screens. Featuring the voices of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Keanu Reeves, and Annie Potts - as the kick-ass heroine Bo Peep - what does the Toy Story franchise have to offer the new generation of toy loving kids?
John Malkovich returns to the stage after a 33 year absence to star in David Mamet's Bitter Wheat about a depraved Hollywood mogul . The play's protagonist Barney Fein is described "as a bloated monster – a studio head, who like his predecessor, the minotaur, devours the young he has lured into his cave."
Keith Haring at Tate Liverpool is the first major exhibition in the UK of American artist Keith Haring (1958-1990). Keith Haring brings together more than 85 works exploring a broad range of the artist's practice including large-scale drawings and paintings, most of which have never been seen in the UK.
TS Eliot prize winning author Ocean Vuong is the American-Vietnamese writer of Night Sky with Exit Wounds. His debut novel "On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous" continues to explore his family's experience as immigrants and shows how his life story - as much as theirs - is shaped by the devastating legacy of the Vietnam war.
ITV’s new period drama Beecham House, set in India at the cusp of the 19th century tells the story of John Beecham, played by Tom Bateman, who arrives in India in 1795 as a former employee of the East India Company. Co-created, written and directed by Gurinder Chadha whose past credits include Bend It Like Beckham, Bride and Prejudice, and Viceroy’s House.
Ayesha Hazarika's guests are Stella Duffy, Alex Clark and Kevin Jackson
Podcast recommendations:
Kevin: Jack Reacher stories
Stella: Wild Rumpus art company
Alex: Novels set in one day
Ayesha: The Handmaid's Tale on TV
49 min