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Front Row: Philippa Gregory on The Borgias, Kid Acne, and Ealing comedies

Philippa Gregory on The Borgias, Kid Acne, and Ealing comedies

28/07/2011

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, Philippa Gregory on The Borgias, Kid Acne, and Ealing comedies

Philippa Gregory reviews The Borgias, urban artist Kid Acne, and Ealing comedies.

With Mark Lawson. Author Philippa Gregory reviews TV series The Borgias, urban artist Kid Acne on his new exhibition, Jeff Park on new crime fiction, and Ealing comedies at 60.

Best-selling writer Philippa Gregory, author of The Other Bolyn Girl, reviews The Borgias, a new TV series set in 15th century Italy charting the rise of the scheming and infamous Borgia family. Jeremy Irons stars as the family patriarch Rodrigo Borgia who bribes and muscles his way into becoming Pope. 

Kid Acne, former graffiti artist, fanzine creator, and now urban artist, has opened his first solo exhibition in his home town of Sheffield, with murals, illustrations and sculpture from throughout his career. Mark met Kid Acne at the Millennium Gallery in Sheffield to discuss his work, his name, and how his art career all started with Rolf Harris

Jeff Park selects new crime fiction from authors including Nicci French and Thomas Enger

It's been 60 years since Alec Guinness played the shy and retiring bank employee who engineered a plot to commit the perfect gold robbery in The Lavender Hill Mob. To celebrate the anniversary, the film is being digitally restored and back in cinemas, along with other classic Ealing comedies including the 1949 film Whisky Galore. Both films feature ordinary people plotting crimes to outwit the system. But have these films really stood the test of time? Ealing expert Professor Jeffrey Richards and new recruit Natalie Haynes discuss.

Producer Ella-mai Robey.

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