BBC Radio 4 LW

Foreign Bodies

Documentaries

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Factual: History

Mark Lawson examines how mystery novels reflect a country's history and political system.

Foreign Bodies: Omnibus

Foreign Bodies: Omnibus: Episode 2: Wexford, Dalgliesh, Montalbano, Carvalho, Rogas and DCI Jane Tennison

Episode 2

Episode 2: Wexford, Dalgliesh, Montalbano, Carvalho, Rogas and DCI Jane Tennison

Omnibus

Wexford, Dalgliesh, Montalbano, Carvalho, Rogas and DCI Jane Tennison

BBC Radio 4 - Foreign Bodies, Omnibus, Wexford, Dalgliesh, Montalbano, Carvalho, Rogas and DCI Jane Tennison

The mafia in Italy, UK policing and Spanish politics are investigated by Mark Lawson.

Mark Lawson looks at how Sciascia and Camilleri depict the mafia in Italy, UK policing from PD James and Ruth Rendell to Lynda La Plante, and Montalban's view of Spanish politics.

Mark Lawson continues his series about the way crime fiction has depicted modern European history - looking at the shifts in UK society charted by PD James and Ruth Rendell - from rural racism and road rage to fears about changes in the Church of England. Their male inspectors Dalgliesh and Wexford were followed by DCI Jane Tennison in Lynda La Plante's Prime Suspect - a TV series which mirrored real police employment practices and which spawned female leads from Val McDermid's Carol Jordan to The Killing's Sarah Lund. 

The surrealist influenced novels of Montalban and his Barcelona gourmet PI Pepe Carvalho are discussed by Antonio Hill and Jason Webster. They explore the impact of setting novels in the Catholic country of Spain where post Franco, the transition to democracy and the role of the monarchy provide a rich contemporary history. 

In Italy an engagement with modern politics involves grappling with the influence of the Mafia - a plotline which you find in the novels of both Andrea Camilleri and his predecessor Leonardo Sciascia. Mark Lawson travels to Rome to meet the creator of the Sicilian Inspector Montalbano. 

Producer: Robyn Read.

BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

Radio 4

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Mark Lawson presents a history of modern Europe through literary detectives

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Foreign Bodies

Omnibus

Episode 2: Wexford, Dalgliesh, Montalbano, Carvalho, Rogas and DCI Jane Tennison

Genres

Formats

Brand

Series

BBC Radio 4 LW

About BBC Radio 4