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Front Row: The Green Hornet reviewed; Chain Story continues

The Green Hornet reviewed; Chain Story continues

10/01/2011

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, The Green Hornet reviewed; Chain Story continues

Mark Lawson reviews Seth Rogen in the new superhero film The Green Hornet.

Mark Lawson reviews Seth Rogen in The Green Hornet, the latest film based on a comic-book superhero, and interviews novelist Paul Bailey.

The Green Hornet began as a radio series in America in the 1930s, following the exploits of masked vigilante crime fighter Britt Reid, his sidekick Kato and a hi-tech car called Black Beauty. Film serials, comic books and TV shows followed and now Michel Gondry directs Seth Rogen, Cameron Diaz and Christoph Waltz in a new action thriller for cinema. Larushka Ivan-Zadeh reviews. 

Paul Bailey talks about his latest novel, Chapman's Odyssey, which is narrated by a 70-year-old writer, lying in a hospital bed, tormented and comforted by voices from his own past and from his favourite books. 

Last year Bret Easton Ellis launched the Front Row Chain Story, which was then taken up by writers including Ian Rankin, Frederick Forsyth, Frances Fyfield and Stephen Fry. Tonight you can hear the story so far, including new contributions from Colm Toibin, Michelle Paver, Belinda Bauer and Booker Prize winner Howard Jacobson. Now you are invited to continue the story. Send us a sentence or two, maximum 50 words, by 31 January and we will feature a selection on air and on our website. 

The American playwright Gina Gionfriddo was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for her comedy Becky Shaw, which begins with a disastrous blind date. Gina discusses her work, ahead of the play's British premiere. 

Producer Nicki Paxman.

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