On Start the Week Andrew Marr talks to the writer Margaret Atwood and the actor Harriet Walter about updating Shakespeare's The Tempest. Revenge is served cold in a men's prison for the former, while the latter reveals how she takes on the great Shakespearean roles in the setting of a women's prison. While Shakespeare was being performed in sixteenth century England, the artist Caravaggio was revolutionising painting on the Continent. The curator Letizia Treves explains how his intense naturalism and dramatic lighting influenced his contemporaries. Whilst little detail is known about Shakespeare's life, Caravaggio's colourful behaviour is writ large: the writer Richard Holmes reflects on the role of the biographer and asks whether a controversial reputation overshadows the art.
Producer: Katy Hickman. Show less