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Last broadcast on Mon, 22 Nov 2010, 21:30 on BBC Radio 4 (see all broadcasts).
Synopsis
Andrew Marr takes a satirical look at the world in Start the Week. The satirist PJ O'Rourke makes a plea to the American public, Not To Vote, in his latest angry critique of liberal politics, while the writer and comedian Armando Iannucci explores the latest chapter in the life of his Machiavellian spin doctor, Malcolm Tucker. Mikhail Bulgakov's absurdist tale of how a stray mongrel becomes human is brought to the stage by Simon McBurney. And the classicist Mary Beard delves beneath the volcanic ash to uncover everyday life in the Roman town of Pompeii.
Producer: Katy Hickman.
P J O'ROURKE
"We pay with our freedoms to relieve ourselves of our responsibilities, and this is how others get their power over us." The right-wing American satirist P J O’Rourke argues that his generation of baby-boomers have ruined democracy and consequently have got the politics they deserve. He believes the only solution is a massive scaling back of politics and, more importantly, of politicians. In his funny, but angry, polemic, Don’t Vote!, he calls for the scrapping of Obama’s healthcare reforms, a promise never to bail out the banks again and a plea to be left alone.
Don’t Vote! It Just Encourages the Bastards is published by Grove Press.
ARMANDO IANNUCCI
Armando Iannucci mercilessly satirised New Labour in his television series The Thick of It, which took a broad swipe against the venality and vanity of politicians, journalists and civil servants. The star of the show was the profane and Machiavellian spin doctor Malcolm Tucker. In his latest venture he has mislaid a dossier containing incriminating emails, ‘how to leak information’ guides and revealing diary entries. Armando Iannucci talks about what the future holds for his master of spin in the current climate of coalition politics.
The Thick of It: The Missing DoSAC Files is published by Faber and Faber.
SIMON McBURNEY
Mikhail Bulgakov’s satiric novel A Dog’s Heart was banned by the Russian authorities in 1926 and not published in his home country for 60 years, long after the author’s death. Bulgakov’s story of Sharik, a stray dog who becomes human after a Frankenstein-like organ transplant, highlighted the dark side of the Soviet state. The theatre director Simon McBurney has helped turn this novel into a modern opera, and he explains how the work’s satirical edge still bites.
A Dog’s Heart is on at the English National Opera.
MARY BEARD
Pompeii is famous for its destruction by the volcano Vesuvius in AD79; its citizens caught forever, cowering from the ash. In her forthcoming television documentary, the classicist Mary Beard argues that the way people lived in Pompeii was just as interesting as the way they died. She dispels the myths that have grown up about life in Pompeii, celebrating its fast food outlets, disease-ridden baths, one-way traffic system and political graffiti.
Pompeii: Life and Death in a Roman Town will be broadcast on BBC2 in mid-December.
Broadcasts
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Mon 22 Nov 201009:00
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Mon 22 Nov 201021:30
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