27/05/2009

Synopsis

Arts news and reviews.

Colour Chart, a new exhibition at Tate Liverpool, explores the impact of commercially-produced colour on the art of the last sixty years. The art critic Tom Lubbock joins Mark Lawson to review how colour illuminated the work of a post-war generation of artists.

Mark meets the American comedy performer Sandra Bernhard, best known for her biting critiques of celebrities and politics, her friendship with Madonna and playing a lesbian in the sitcom Roseanne. She discusses her stand-up show, Without You I'm Nothing, and where she draws the line when looking for laughs.

In 2007, the writer Sarah Hall won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for her Cumbrian-based novel, The Carhullan Army. Her latest novel focuses on the same landscape but this time through the eyes of a painter who finds himself literally captivated by the Cumbrian rocks.

The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro has won the third Man Booker International Prize. Novelist Jane Smiley, a member of the judging panel, reveals the reasons for choosing Munro from a shortlist of fourteen renowned writers.

In 1989, the teenager John Davidson featured in a BBC documentary about Tourette syndrome, which showed him dealing with his involuntary violent body movements and outbursts of swearing. Twenty years on, a follow-up documentary revisits John as an adult, as well as fellow Tourette sufferer Greg Storey. TV critic Chris Dunkley discusses whether television's portrayal of strong subjects has changed in the past two decades.

Broadcast

1. Wed 27 May 2009
   19:15
   BBC Radio 4