logo
episode-header-image
May 2021
28m 22s

David Weil on Solos, Novelist Brit Benne...

Bbc Radio 4
About this episode

David Weil is the showrunner for Hunters, a TV series which imagined the work of Nazi hunters in 1970s New York . The large cast included Al Pacino in his first ever TV lead role. When Covid closed down largescale productions, David Weil turned his hand to a much more intimate sort of show. Solos is a new 7-part fantasy series which is essentially monologues from the likes of Helen Mirren, Anne Hathaway and Morgan Freeman.

Brit Bennett is the first shortlisted nominee for The Women’s Prize for Fiction to join us. Her book, The Vanishing Half, follows identical twins who, after running away from home at 16, adopt different racial identities. Brit discusses how her mother’s upbringing inspired the story, and why she wanted to write about colourism.

As BBC Four launches its Great British Photography Challenge, photographer Maryam Wahid offers some handy hints to help you get the best possible shot with your mobile phone camera.

Composer, singer and choral conductor Bob Chilcott discusses the government's guidance issued on the 18th May which says that amateur choirs can only rehearse indoors in groups of a maximum of six, which led to many of the 42,000 choirs across the country having to change rehearsal and performance schedules planned after restrictions on public performances were lifted on 17th May.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Jerome Weatherald

Up next
Today
Review Show: I Swear film and The Poems of Seamus Heaney
Alexander Larman and Susannah Clapp join Tom to discuss I Swear, a film which tells the life story of John Davidson MBE who was diagnosed with Tourette's age 15.They also talk about Thomas Pynchon's new novel Shadow Ticket.Booker shortlisted novelist Tibor Fischer assesses the Hu ... Show More
42m 11s
Yesterday
Tamsin Greig on her role in Sally Wainwright's Riot Women
Actor Tamsin Greig discusses her role in Sally Wainwright's latest drama series, Riot Women, in which a group of middle-aged women in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, form a band of anarchist rock musicians. Booker Prize-shortlisted author Susan Choi tells us about her sprawling hi ... Show More
42m 38s
Oct 7
Marina Abramović on her dream creation - Balkan Erotic Epic
Artist Marina Abramović on the world premiere of her largest-scale performance artwork - Balkan Erotic Epic - at Aviva Studios in Manchester. BBC Culture reporter Noor Nanji on the Riyadh Comedy Festival which has divided the comedy world.Poets Max Wallis and Dr Anna Percy on poe ... Show More
42m 11s
Recommended Episodes
Jun 2022
David Harewood, actor and presenter
David Harewood is a British actor and presenter who found global fame playing the CIA director David Estes in the acclaimed TV drama series Homeland. He was the first black actor to play Othello at the National theatre in 1997 and took the role of Martin Luther King in the Olivie ... Show More
34m 52s
Nov 2019
The Gangster The Cop The Devil, Touching the Void, Romesh Gunesekera, Gold Digger, George IV : Art and Spectacle
The Gangster The Cop The Devil is an award-winning Korean action thriller about an unlikely alliance between a maverick police detective and a ruthless mobster who have to work together to catch a serial killer Touching the Void began life as a book by Joe Simpson, about a climbi ... Show More
50m 49s
Jan 2022
Preet Chandi/'Polar Preet'; 'Collector culture'; Playwright, Nell Leyshon; Drones & night street safety; Novelist, Nikki May;
British Army officer and physiotherapist Preet Chandi has made history as the first woman of colour to complete a solo expedition in Antarctica. 'Polar Preet' trekked 700 miles in 40 days, facing temperatures of -50C, poor visibility and fatigue along the way. She used skis, and ... Show More
57m 38s
Feb 2014
Martin Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker; Lesley Sharp; Only Lovers Left Alive
With John Wilson.The legendary film-making duo of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger were commemorated today with the unveiling of an English Heritage blue plaque. The plaque was unveiled by Thelma Schoonmaker, film-editor and Powell's widow, and by film-director Martin Scorse ... Show More
28m 25s
Jan 2021
David Olusoga, historian and broadcaster
David Olusoga is a historian, writer and broadcaster who has presented a range of programmes including the BBC’s A House Through Time and Civilisations. He is currently professor of public history at Manchester University.Born in Lagos, the second child to a Nigerian father and a ... Show More
35m 1s
Jul 2022
Rita Tushingham, actor
Rita Tushingham first won international acclaim as a teenager, playing Jo in the film A Taste of Honey. Her performance in this 1961 kitchen sink drama earned her a BAFTA, a Golden Globe and the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival. She starting shooting the film on her ... Show More
35m 7s
Jun 2020
Helen McCrory, actress
Helen McCrory shares the eight tracks, book and luxury she would want to take with her if cast away to a desert island. Helen McCrory OBE is one of the most versatile and critically acclaimed actresses working today. On screen she has played Anna Karenina, Cherie Blair (twice), H ... Show More
38m 57s
Feb 2023
Lesley Manville, actor
Lesley Manville made her debut on the West End stage as a teenager in 1972, and since then has taken on a wide range of roles on stage and screen, including an Oscar-nominated performance in the film Phantom Thread. She was born in Brighton and first enjoyed performing as a singe ... Show More
36m 54s
Jan 2024
John Pilger, KM Peyton, Paula Murphy, Michael Blakemore
Matthew Bannister onJohn Pilger, the campaigning journalist who made award winning films about human rights abuses and was an outspoken critic of British and US foreign policy.K.M. Peyton, the author of many “pony” books for children and adolescents, including the “Flambards” tri ... Show More
27m 48s