The Thick of It, Cerys Matthews, Lucy Liu in Elementary

With Kirsty Lang

The plot lines from the BBC political comedy The Thick of It - school breakfast club closures, texting in cabinet meetings and the launch of a community bank - have been an uncannily accurate reflection of recent announcements from our real-life politicians. Kirsty Lang talks to Sean Gray and Ian Martin, both writers on The Thick of It, and wonders if they have been gazing into a crystal ball or have a mole in Westminster.

Singer Cerys Matthews gives the verdict on a new Country Music album which celebrates the women who were pioneers in a field previously dominated by men. Matthews, who has lived in Nashville, assesses the influence of artists such as Kitty Wells, Dolly Parton and Tammy Wynette.

The adventures of Sherlock Holmes are set to hit our screens again, this time in the US-produced series Elementary. It comes hot on the heels of Guy Ritchie's films and the BBC TV series Sherlock. Boyd Hilton discusses this latest version, starring Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes and Lucy Liu as his sidekick Dr. Watson.

New Yorker cartoonist Chris Ware discusses his non-linear graphic novel, Building Stories. It comes in the form of a big box containing 14 separate strands of narrative, in different shapes and sizes, which when pieced together in a random order build a picture of a New York Brownstone building and the psychological landscape of its inhabitants.

Producer Claire Bartleet.