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Last broadcast on Mon, 13 Jul 2009, 21:15 on BBC Radio 3.
Synopsis
Matthew Sweet and critic Emilie Bickerton review Lars von Trier's latest film, Antichrist, starring Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg. It has stirred up controversy because of its explicit depiction of sex and sexual violence.
Harvey Klehr, the co-author of Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America, believes his new book - which has sparked controversy in the USA - provides the most complete account yet of Soviet espionage in the states during the 1930s and 40s. It offers the last word on many leading figures of the time who were under suspicion including J Robert Oppenheimer and Ernest Hemingway. Author Don Guttenplan joins the discussion to question some of the findings.
Screenwriter Peter Bowker discusses his latest television drama, Desperate Romantics, which chronicles the adventures of three men who created one of Britain's most important art movements: the self-styled 'Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood'.
They were the social commentators of their time, who strongly believed that writing could bring about real change, but George Bernard Shaw and JB Priestley seem to have fallen out of fashion in recent times. Matthew asks Roy Hattersley and Michael Billington whether such casual neglect is warranted and who, if pushed, they would choose to champion as the more vital writer.
And in the first of a series of conversations about great artists with particular blind spots in their abilities, dance critic Deborah Craine explains how Margot Fonteyn's difficulties with the showiest step in ballet - 32 fourette turns - would have kept her out of the ballet corps today.
Antichrist
Critic Emilie Bickerton reviews Lars von Trier's latest offering, Antichrist, which has stirred up controversy due to its explicit depiction of sex and sexual violence.
Antichrist is released in cinemas from Friday 24 July, certificate 18
Spies
Harvey Klehr, the co-author of Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America, believes his new book - which has sparked controversy in the USA - provides the most complete account yet of Soviet espionage in the states during the 1940s and ‘30s. Author Don Guttenplan joins the discussion to question some of the findings.
Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America by John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr and Alexander Vassiliev is published by Yale University Press
Desperate Romantics
The screenwriter Peter Bowker discusses his latest television drama, Desperate Romantics, which chronicles the adventures of three men who created one of Britain's most important art movements: the self-styled Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
Desperate Romantics is showing in six parts on BBC Two from 21 July at 9pm
George Bernard Shaw and J. B. Priestley
Roy Hattersley and Michael Billington on the neglect in modern times of the writings of George Bernard Shaw and J. B. Priestley.
George Bernard Shaw's The Apple Cart opens on Tuesday 14 July at the Theatre Royal in Bath.
J.B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls opens at the Novello Theatre in London in September, and Time and the Conways is at the National Theatre in London.
Artistic Flaws
In the first in a series of conversations about artists’ flaws, dance critic Deborah Craine describes Margot Fonteyn's difficulties with the showiest step in ballet - 32 fourette turns.
Broadcast
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Mon 13 Jul 200921:15
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