Show Notes
Hanna Flint and Chris Power join Tom Sutcliffe to review: The new stage musical adaptation of Irvine Welsh's novel Trainspotting, featuring famous songs from the 1996 Danny Boyle film as well as new compositions to bring Renton, Begbie, Sick Boy and Spud to life. On the Sea, a film by novelist and director Helen Walsh about a mussel fisherman in northern Wales and the romance that he kindles with a new itinerant worker called Daniel. Cool Machine, the final part of Colson Whitehead's Harlem trilogy, which began with Harlem Shuffle and was followed by Crook Manifesto, and continues the adventures of Ray Carney, furniture store owner who lives a double life as a part-time criminal fence. Tom also talks to novelist Kate Mosse about the news that Anthropic has created a $1.5 billion fund to settle a class action lawsuit brought by authors whose copyrighted works were scraped in order to train the company's AI chatbot Claude. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Tim Bano
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Reviewers Alexander Larman and Bidisha consider two films: Fatherland, directed by Pawel Pawlikowski, starring Sandra Huller, it tells the story of novelist Thomas Mann's tour of war-ravaged Germany in 1949. And Korean family drama Possible Love, directed by Lee Chang-dong, which delicately and incisively explores the tensions of power and wealth in two couples from different strata of society. Also... the return of Martin Guerre, the musical. From the team behind Les Misérables and Miss Saigon, it debuted in 1996, and over the following three decades it has had many rewrites and reimaginings. Now it's back for a very short run. And with a much shorter duration. Have they found the formula to make it a critical and popular success this time around? Today the shortlist was announced for the UK City of Culture 2029. Four places are now in the running and the £10 million prize. They are Blackpool, Milton Keynes, Sheffield and Wrexham. These four locations were recommended by the UK City of Culture expert advisory panel, chaired by Sir Phil Redmond who tells us more about the shortlist and what it means to win the title. Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Director Sofia Coppola on completing her mother Eleanor’s documentary about the making of Sofia’s feature Marie Antoinette, following her death. The film goes behind the scenes of the lavish 2006 biopic starring Kirsten Dunst - in spectacular locations such as Versailles - and is in cinemas around the UK from this Friday. Can prescribing culture - such as choirs, art classes and poetry workshops - improve young people's mental health? As the Southbank Centre in London launches Ombri, a new referral platform prescribing access to arts for young people, we're joined by the centre's Artistic Director, Mark Ball, and by GP and broadcaster Margaret McCartney, to discuss the practicalities of prescribing culture, how to ensure young people from disadvantaged communities are reached, and how the success of a scheme such as this can be measured. Pulitzer Prize-winning Argentinian-American writer Hernan Diaz has mined history as inspiration for his previous novels, but in his latest, Ply, he looks to a dystopian future, and a city, resembling a decaying New York, in which his central character, a "pincher" steals electricity from the grid to power a underground music scene, but risks the wrath of the authorities, He tells us about moving into the realm of speculative fiction and about how he was inspired by everything from ancient Greek philosophy to 21st century particle accelerators. Presenter: Kirsty Wark Producer: Mark Crossan
As A A Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh, one of the most loved bears in children's literature reaches 100, Jane Riordan, author of the new Pooh books, and Hollie Piff, EH Shepard archivist at the University of Surrey discuss the appeal of the 'bear of very little brain'. Poet and writer Luke Kennard on his Booker Prize 2026 shortlisted novel, Black Bag. Following thee announcement of the death of Douglas Dunn, poet Don Paterson pays tribute to the man he describes as 'the finest Scottish poet of the post-war period'. Renoir and Love is the new show at the National Gallery in London. Catherine Ostler, author of The Renoir Girls: A Hidden History of Art, War & Betrayal, has been to see it and explains why this artist who came to the fore in the 19th century has so much to say to a 21st century audience. Presenter Kate Molleson Producer: Ekene Akalawu
Academy Award-winning director Taika Waititi on his screen adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's novel Klara and the Sun, in which 'artificial friends' have been created to provide companionship for lonely teenagers in a near-future dystopian world. Theatre critic Susannah Clapp discusses Caryl Churchill's 15 minute play Triumph and what these short performances can do for the theatre experience. Of the 123 people who have won the Nobel Prize in Literature, 14 of them have been published by the small American publishing house New Directions. Its Vice President and Senior Editor Declan Spring shares the secret of their success. Tony award-winning actor Jonathan Groff is starring in a new production of As You Like it at the RSC in Stratford. He tells Samira about immersing himself in Shakespeare for the frist time. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Andrea Kidd
Critic David Benedict and journalist Muriel Zagha discuss Kristin Scott Thomas in Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, adapted by award winning playwright Conor McPherson. They also discuss survival thriller Whalefall, in which a diver is swallowed by a whale. Plus they'll be giving their verdict on Elif Shafak's novel In One Brief Moment All Eternity, which tells the story of Madame Bovary author Gustave Flaubert through fictional and real women. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Claire Bartleet