Happy New Year to all out listeners. To celebrate the end of 2016, we've asked some of our regular contributors to pick a cultural high points from the year that saw so many low points in world affairs.

Featuring:

- Denis Staunton on Glenda Jackson's performance as King Lear

- Lara Marlowe on a battlefield production of Frank McGuinness's Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme

- Derek Scally on Markings, the late UN secretary general Dag Hammarskjöld's book of personal reflections.

We hope you enjoy it. We'll return with our regular analysis next week.